The Glowing

Dustin Feyder

Intro:

Chapter 1

Intro

The house between two towns

2013, summer

Austen has not been home in twenty years. He and his siblings took a road trip when he was fourteen, and he never went back. Austen traveled cross country, backpacking most of the way. His journey started in Troy Minnesota, walked to Wound Knee South Dakota, Chimney Rock Nebraska was next, Rocky Springs Colorado. After that that his sisters and brother stopped following him, things were mostly a blur after that. Austen remembers staying in Flags Michigan, and St. Croix Wisconsin. That is where had gone to college. Austen blames his mother for everything, she wanted to travel, she wanted to chase boys and uproot her family to satisfy her needs. maybe, in the end, it was what it was, and couldn't be anything else.

The trip home he took by bus. Austin is a writer by trade. In his twenty, still in school, his first book hit store shelves. Three more have come since. He isn't world famous by any means but is at least recognizable in and around whatever community he happens to drift to.

So, what would drive a man who has gone so far to separate himself from everyone he knew to come back? An Illness in the family, what else could it have been? Austin's father is in the hospital. He has been slipping in and out of conciseness for about a week. Jim, Austin's father, seems to be having trouble remembering things even when he is awake.

Austen has already been to see his father, the hospital he is in is in the city of Paul, the next town over. When Austen tried taking to Jim, Jim knew the voice, but couldn't recall who it belonged to. Jim couldn't remember the year, who is president. Jim was under the impression it was 1960, Nixon was in office, and the Battles are coming to town. Almost nothing of the man Austen knew as his father still reamend. The doctors seem to think Jim may recover given time. But if he doesn't, Austen has to be at hand to take over Jim's estate.

As they approach the broader between Paul and Troy, Austen starts whispering the names of the streets to himself "11 and Chicago. That is the soda bar. 11 and Lake, Cup grocery, 11 and Garfield, Urban Fashion is three blocks north of here." His eyes widen as he sees a burned down gas station at the next stop "11 and 36 Good Mom's bakery. That means..." the next block up will be 11 and 38th his father's house.

The plain had been for Austen to go straight to his uncle's house then in search of Phil, the only friend he had never lost contact with, but instead, Austen pulls the rope to request a stop. He picks up his backpack and runs down the street to look upon the home he had been born in. The house where he spent every Friday and Saturday of his life and every summer. The house between two cities. 3762 11th avenue south.

Austen's parents were never together, his mother was 14 when he was born, his father 18. Jim was leaving for the Army when he was born, and Austen was 4 years old before he met his father. Jim and Tori, Austen's mother, had one thing in common. Neither one could hold down a relationship. Both had been married five times, and both are single today.

But this house, the house on the corner of 11 and 38th, even after the revolving door of adults in his life, this place was always here. From the outside, this house looks no different than any other home on the block, chain fence, stepping stones leading to the front door, four-season patio, two and a half stories. Brown and green paint on the overhang, stucco siding, two trees in the front yard and bushes on both sides of the main door, a wooden gate separates the house from the garage.

Memories flood Austen's mind. Mostly good one, friends first and for most, Randi, Robb, Phil, then family, Joe, Ben, Sarra. But then something else starts to creep into his thought, memories of something else, something threatening.

Austen grips his chest and walks backward several steps, his eyes turn up to the second story window. It is stain glass, has the visage of a sun and moon crossing over. A shadow passes behind the glass, this is something that simply cannot happen. Austen knows where in the house that window is. The stain glass window is a façade there is a plywood sheet behind it, on the other side of that is the attic crawl space. The window itself is the same size as the passage. No one could possibly 'stand' behind, it is less than two feet high after all. Still, something does, something lurks in the darkness of the old home. a primal fear fills Austen's heart and soul. his feet start to move without the need for his mind to control them. Austen knows that is coming, even if he doesn't understand the how or the why.

The shadow turns it's body looking down. A candle like flicker of light shimmers through the glass. Austen remembers, the 'Thing' he saw in his father's house as a child, the thing that has followed him for a lifetime. Austen never gave it a name. He has seen it, fought it, his friends have seen it as well. Maybe everyone in town has, but no one will ever talk about the creature. The beast with glowing eyes, it is still here, it still remembers him, still haunts his thoughts and dreams. The thing from his childhood, it has slept for so long, Austen coming her has shaken it from its rest. The nightmare begins anew.

Austen continuing to walks backward tripping over the curb as he moves away from the house, his eyes fixated on the window. Once he has regained his footing Austen runs down the street looking for another bus stop. anywhere is better than here at the moment.

Chapter 1

A Room with no Doors

1993, spring

1993 Austen is 13, it is Friday, Austen knows well what that means. His father will be showing up around 5 pm, and he will be heading down to his house. Austen runs up the steps of the apartment on Aquila street to his unit, 3ed floor number 8. Randi wasn't in gym class today. That is something concerning.

During the school year, Austen stays with his mother and grandmother, as well as his sister, she just turned 6. Tori, his mother, is 26, grandma 48. Grandma is home, she is sitting in the dining room, a 1000 piece puzzle resting on the table before her. Grandma loves puzzles, this one is a specialized graphics puzzle, it is coated in a luminescent paint and is shaped like a lizard. like she has done with many puzzles before it, she plans on gluing the bits together and hanging it up as a poster once she is done

Austen brakes his stride into the house for only a moment to stop by the dining room to offer grandma a kiss, then it is off to the kitchen. Austen needs to know where Randi is. Randi was going to fallow Austen to his dad's house or a barbeque today.

Austen was never good with numbers, nor was organization a strong suit. He has always seen himself as a mad artist in the making. But Austen has shown some level of competence working with tools and mechanics. Clearly a skill he got from his father. Austen has set up the phone so that if he wants to talk to Randi he just needs to hold down the '#' and then press '6' not that it is even required he call, Randi lives in #8 on the second floor, their rooms are on top each other as well so Austen can yell down to Randi through the heater.

But nevertheless, a phone call works better if Randi isn't in her bedroom. Yes, Randi is a girl. But neither Austen or anyone in their group of friends knew it. Randi's father, Doug, wanted Randi to be a boy. To this end Randi dresses and acts like a boy, short hair, spiked up, a room filled with action movie paraphernalia, nothing about Randi say 'girl' in any way. Randi is just as tough and fit as in of the boys around her. She is even the third best staff fighter out of the lot of them, Robb being the best, Joe and Austen still arguing over second, the 80's was the last rough and tumble generation. Every kid, or at least all the ones Austen knew practiced boxing and wrestling, they all knew how to bow fight, and juggle knives, and learning military field dressing was also high on everyone agenda. After all what else are kids going to do in the summer?

The phone is picked up quickly, the voice on the other side is Doug "Brown residence."

Austen speaks fast "Mr. Brown, where is Randi?"

Doug is a too the point type "Out." The phone is hung-up without Doug hearing another word.

Austen keeps trying to talk "Randi and I are going to a barbeque..." the phone squeals the hang-up tone letting Austen know that Doug is no longer there. "I guess Randi isn't going to make it."

After hanging up the phone Austen walks back to his bedroom, he trades out his school books in his backpack for a change of clothes, his NES, and a box of colored pencils. Next step is to head downstairs and what for dad.

Austen leaves through the back door. There is a pool out back with a fence wrapped around it and a padlock. The pool is off limits from September-April. Robb is sitting on the back step waiting for his mom to come home. He has broken a branch off a tree somewhere and is whittling it down into the shape of a spear. The bark is peeled away, and he is using a file on his multitool to shave one side down smoothly.

Rob has deep-set eyes and red skin, he has dark hair and is the tallest of Austen's friends, Robb has been doing weight training for almost a year already. To spite being Native American Robb has a fascination with African American culture and style. Robb, Randi, and Austen are three people that should never have been friends if not for one thing. There is only one movie store within walking distance of Aquila street and all three of them a year or two ago started meeting there to trade games with each other.

"Brother!" Robb drops his spear to walk over to Austen offering a hug and handshake. Austen hugs back uneasily "yo, have you played 'River City' yet?"

Austen shakes his head, "no man, still playing 'Double Dragon', Randi gave you 'Final Fantasy' didn't he?"

"Yeah," Robb nods

"how are you doing in it?" Austen asks

"Wishing he gave me the Strat guide to go with it." Robb shakes his head with an uneasy grin

"what is your team?" Austen ask

"Fighter, Fighter, Thief, Monk," Robb explains

Austen looks confused "Dude. White Mage. How are you keeping healed up?"

"potions brother, there cheap as shit in the town where you get the boat."

Austen shrugs "I never thought to buy potions. I ran Monk, Red Mage, Black Mage, White Mage."

As the two kids talk a gray Ford Ranger pulls into the parking lot, it has a custom bumper, a steel cage that Jim's brother Tom had welded onto the beast of a truck after an accident last summer. Rob notices and points to it to let Austen know his father is here. "One more thing, how do you get shit done with the monk? His damage is pretty north of lame."

Austen nods I understanding "Take off all his gear, the monk fights at his best in the nude, man to man, hand to hand. Beowulf style." Austen goes to meet his father as he is pulling up.

Rob yells over one more thing "I just got a new walkie. On Monday I want you to fallow me up top, try a thing or two." Austen nods and waves.

Austen gets in the truck with his dad. Jim is a hairy man, a scruffy beard, and a mullet. Jim is just coming from work so is still dressed in his pinstriped shirt and blue pants. Jim is a boiler technician, at the moment he is working for the privet school 'Our Lady of Grace' Jim is not a God-fearing man. He is an engineer; an unorthodox percent of engineers are godless heathens. Austen would come to respect that in him, but not for many years still.

On the drive to the house between two towns Jim takes a right turn to follow the side street, he wants to drive around the lakes, make the trip take longer. The truck is a comfortable place for him. Jim has something on his mind.

"where is Randi?" Jim starts with small talk.

"Out, apparently." Austen shrugs.

"well, that is less than specific." Jim thinks aloud. "Austen, Do you remember Big Wally?"

Austen thinks a moment "He was at yours and Debbie's wedding, Tall guy, had a ponytail."

Jim nods "he was in the service with me, I have told you that I think. We went to middle school together. Wally and I had been friends since we were both ten..."

Austen turns looking at his father, that statement was past tense, 'did Wally get hurt?' Is the first thing to come to mind for Austen. But he waits, his father will tell him. He is sure of it.

"down by where we went camping last year, there is a town called Carlton. The whole place went up around a sandpaper mill. Wally just bought a house down there. I got a call from Bob Evens. Wally had an accident."

Now is the right time to ask "is Wally hurt?"

Jim laughs to hide a cry "Wally is dead, took a walk off the side of the bluff. I have to go up there next Friday. Bob and I are mounting a plank in Wally's honor." One of Jim's hands rubs down his beard whipping his face. He mumbles to himself a moment "then five became three." He speaks up again "Austen, stay close to the friends you have right now. The friends you make today will be the ones you are with for the rest of your life."

Austen nods knowing what Jim is about to say "the three honors." He reaches up pulling on his neckless, a chain with three rings on it.

Jim nods "Good boy." He pats his son on the head "Three honors: Honor your work, the worth of a man is found in his works, there is honor to be had in all things done honorably. Honor your Friends, for when the chips are down, they will bleed alongside you. Honor your Family, when you fall it will be them that finish your final works."

The rest of the drive is done in silence. There is little more that needs to be stated at this time. When the father and son arrive at home, they enter in the back way. Beyond the tall red stained wooden gate rest a rock garden, a small fountain in the shape of a boy holding overhead a urn, there are stepping stones that lead to a white woven archway with a rose bush growing around it, and an elevated landing where a grill and three chairs are set up, the back door just behind that.

As Austen gets out of the truck, Jim calls out "I am going to swing by the butchery, want me to grab anything for you?"

Austen thinks for a moment as he walks across the rock garden "turkey sticks." Jim throws a thumb's up as he pulls out of the driveway.

Walking in through the back door the first thing that comes into view is two stairwells, one going up the other down. At the top of the steps going up is a refrigerator and a door, past the door is the kitchen and pantry. From the top of the steps if one would continue on straight, they would come to the den.

Turning right at the top would lead to a five-way crossroads; straight and right leads to the craft room, this is where Jim's partner (they never married) Ruth set up her piano and sewing table, as well as the dolls and garments she forges, straight and left would you find the master bedchamber, the door is closed, it is always closed, Austen has a superstation forbidding him to touch that door, hard right is the bathroom, hard left is a door with the Fader family crest on it, that door leads up to the second floor, the library, the most valuable room in the house as far as Jim is concerned the guest room is also upstairs and the sitting room.

Downstairs; is Austen's room, the tool room, laundry, under the steps is the storage closet, Jim has his army chest down there, his fatigues and combat knife as well dress saber, but not his service revolver, that he has hidden under the floorboards in the guest room, Austen doesn't know why Jim did that. In the center of these rooms is the tv room.

There are two body mirrors downstairs, one is on the storage room door, the other in Austin's room. He has always found the mirrors unsettling. The one outside the storage room is long and thin with a redwood backing, two angel moldings sit atop it looking down with a threatening gaze in Austin's opinion. Austin makes a point of never looking in this mirror. The other has no backing, it is wide as it is long there is a one-and-a-half-foot gap over the mirror where there is a carving of a Viking ship mounted. The mirror stands across from Austin's bed.

Maybe it is not just the mirror on the storage room door that scares Austin, perhaps it is every mirror, any reflective surface really. Why? Mirrors reflect the world, but the reflection is imperfect, sometimes mirrors bend light, sometimes they ripple, and in the reflection, the world itself flexes slightly, everything backward, even upside down under the right conditions. Maybe they are a hunting thing because they mock us and we can't laugh back. Austin also swears, when at his dad's house, the mirrors fall out of sync sometimes, the reflection a half step behind him.

Austin greats Ruth, he knows her being home is rare, she is a doctor of chemical medicine and a GP for the local hospital. She is the smartest person in the town by a considerable margin, even featured in Who's Who magazine for her work in chemistry. Ruth works 14 hours a day every day of the week.

Austin offers Ruth a kiss and explains "Dad is going to the butchery, we are going to barbeque tonight."

Ruth is a small woman, she as flashing tan hair and cute dark spots on her skin. She has thick glasses and a tremendous voice. Ruth was a singer in the 70's Austin understands, a regular renaissance man. "I know Austin." She smiles brightly. "what are you planning on doing." She points out the overstuffed bag he is holding.

"Well, I don't know where Randi is so... I think I will call Phil."

"I don't work until noon tomorrow; did you want to go with me to the county library after breakfast?" Ruth asks as she is sitting at her sewing table drawing up another design for a new doll.

"Maybe." Austin thinks "ask me after food."

Ruth nods "I will come to get you when your dad gets back.

Austen waves then goes downstairs. Phil is the newest member of Austin's group but is by far, and away the one Austin is the most conferrable talking to, Phil just has a charisma about him that makes people love him. Austin would spend more time with Phil if he could, but there is a problem. There was a shooting at a school in some nearby town last fall and Marcy, Phil's mother, thinks that Austin looks just like one of the shooters. So, for Phil and Austin to talk the two of them needed to come up with a code by which they could contact each-other.

The first and most natural step in getting ahold of each other is 'the phone tag.' Austin calls Phil, he counts to two, then hangs up. They have it timed out that this is half a ring on Phil's side. If Phil is home alone, he will call back immediately. If his mom is home he will call with the same half ring, this is a signal to Austin that Phil will not be free to talk until after 9 pm. Austin makes the call, he then lays on his bed to wait for the callback.

Austin rolls onto his side he reaches down to open his backpack. His gaze catches the mirror. Under the bed, in the reflection something is hiding, it has a semi-human body, dark blue skin, thin bone arms, long carved fingers, where its mouth should be there are two crossed hands holding its mouth shut, where eyes should be two cupped hands concealing its face, its arms are stretched out reaching for the bag just as Austin is.

Austin gasp and jumps out of bed. He picks up the lamp from his nightstand to shine it under his bed to see if what he saw in the reflection is actually there. What if it is? Indeed, Austin had not considered that part.

The light illuminates a blanket slide under the bed nothing more. Austin slowly stands, he places the lamp back on the table and closes his eyes waiting for his heart rate to slow back down to an acceptable level. Austin picks up his backpack thinking he should wait outside for his father. He turns to the bedroom door, the door is missing... A solid wall where the door was. This can't be. This sort of thing cannot happen. Reality is static. It doesn't bend. There is a door! He just can't see it.

Austin is aware of the idea that he has suffered hallucinations in the past. Five or so years ago he was in a snowball fight outside the school and someone wanted to play dirty. Austin was struck on the side of the head by a large rock hidden in an ice ball. The type of hallucination started experiencing after that Ruth refers to as 'Perceived Parasitosis' something in his brain got 'shook loose' and sometimes a single is fired telling him he is being touched or held.

This is nothing like that. Austin closes his eyes, he starts counting waiting for the feeling of dread to pass. Austin is struck from the side, he is forced to turn to look into the mirror. His eyes snap open. A monster towers before him. It is too large to even stand upright in the room. It has eight torso's stacked one on top of the other only five of which have useable arms, the rest are acting like legs, it has eight hip bones, each with a set of legs attached in an inverted way, so the legs growing out of it are cocked backwards like insect legs, hands are growing out of its neck as if to strangle itself, its eyes and mouth are covered by more hands growing out of the back of its head.

Austin is paralyzed, the monster steps out of the mirror as if it was an open door. Four arms grab Austin, two around the chest, two around the waist. The monster hoists him in the air to bring the child up to eye level. Austin brings his arms up instinctually grabbing onto the support beams on the ceiling. The hands covering the beast eyes slowly peel back showing off the things hallow skull and the candle glow burning in the depths of its eyes. Then the hands start to pull away from its mouth showing off a burning furnace glowing in its chest.

Austen tries to scream, the heat rising from the monster steals the breath from Austin's lunges. Slowly the beast starts to move closer drawing Austin into its chest.

The door is opened from the other side, Ruth step in, Austin falls from the ceiling landing on his knees struggling to breathe. The monster has retreated, Austin can see it hiding in the mirror. The frightening thing has disappeared under the bed, then slinked seemingly through the stone floor to some place that is not a part of this reality.

Austin brings a hand up squeezing his chest, eyes bloodshot, sweating. That wasn't a hallucination, it couldn't be. Did Ruth see it? She is looking at him just as confused as if she saw nothing but him falling. What does that mean? Austin doesn't ask. Ruth has saved his life for the second time, and chances are she has no idea he was ever in danger.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

2013 summer

Nerves are shaken, the bedrock or reality eroding away, a lifetime of nightmare conspire to invoke crippling anxiety. Austen runs down the street to the bus stop, past the burned down store. Briskly he follows the curb to distances himself from the object of his fear nearly at a jug he strides backward to keep an eye on the house as if his unbackable gaze could hold back the flow of otherworldly horrors.

Vision blurs, Austin's blood pressure spikes, body fluids with adrenalin. Austen attention a laser focus. Over a block away and all he can see is the house in the approaching distance. The sound of a car horn becomes a whisper as he stumbles off the curb. The bus stops, his line of sight broken, the driver waves Austin in. Austin pores a fist full of coin into the deposit box and taps the booth waiting for his bus pass to print.

Austin doesn't know what bus he boarded. It really doesn't matter, so long as he is facing west. Austin walks to the back of the bus, his head down, one hand has pushed his glasses out of the way so the man can squeeze his eyes. He takes an autogenic breath, he has turned his focus inward to command his heart to slow and vision to clear.

A voice coming from the seat across from him is the only thing that draws him back to this world. "You know, once upon a time, I knew this white nigger. He was a crazy motherfucker. At 10 years old punched a giant so hard, the thing broke like glass." The voice is a lousy resupination of a white man pretending to be a black man.

The voice rings of familiarity. Austin turns to look. A man is sitting in the seat across from his, the man is dressed in a white chef coat and black slacks, he has on a rimless cap and leather boots bloused around his legs, he has a wild looking mustache, uncombed, untrimmed for some time, his skin lightly red. It takes a few moments for Austin's mind to age the face up, but he comes to remember "Rob. Or is it Corry, I recall you asking me to use both at some point."

Rob thoughts his arms out nearly lunching the book he was holding in the air "It is you, Brother! Come here and give me so love." Austin calms quickly in the presences of a friendly face. "Back from the fucking dead, it looks like. Where have you been... for like ever?"

Austin slides over to sit with his friend "everywhere. Sea to shining sea. Most recently New Finland." Austin thinks hard, his eyes rolling side to side as it dawns on him that if Rob is here the rest of his friends might still be around too. "Joe and Randi. Are they still in town?"

Rob has become a fast-talking wisecracker, he speaks with dramatic hand movements, waving a gesturing as he talks, unlike Austin who keeps his arms tight to his body defensively as he engages "Randi left town right after you bro. Joe, he bought your uncles house."

"you still in the apartment on Aquila?"

"Flag and Cedar." Rob swiftly explains.

A memory strikes as Austin recalls the geography of his hometown "The original post office is at that interception; the switch station was part of the same structure. That place was our hang out for a whole summer after Randi showed us the spot."

"that's right, I bought that shit. $30,000 cash money. You remember that?" Rob playfully punches Austin.

"I think I remember a good deal of things. Problem is I seem to be having trouble what was real from what we made up." Austin looks away from rob a moment adjusting his glasses "Rob, do you recall the Monday after I told you my Dad's friend Wally died?"

Rob tips his head up for a moment trying to remember "Was that the day we knocked down the door to the maintenance room and jacked the roof keys."

Austin nods along laughing, he points with a giggle, his spirit momentarily revitalized "and not a single key worked so you went back down and grabbed an icepick and hammer than we hammered the lock of the thing..."

The two pick up at the end of each other's stories "how the hell did they even get a chain lock on the other side of the door? Did they have a pixy slide under the door, lock it then crawl back in?"

Austin looks to the book Rob is holding, it is his book, his first one 'Espyhxia.' "What is that you have there," Austin asks as if he didn't already know.

Rob holds up the book rolling it from side to side as if he didn't remember he was holding it "Well, you know. I was running a background check on myself a week or two ago, wanted to know if my name has come up in any court I didn't know about. Shit should have guessed when we were in 5th grade I would be doing time by sixteen, and I came on something, my name was in a book that was being looked at by the Film Actors Guild. Turns out someone was telling my life story and forgot to ask me if it was cool by me. So, I called up Author House Publishing told them to mail me a copy before I start busting knees. Turns out it was you." Rob points at the cover "you mind?" Rob hands Austin the book.

Austin smiles and pulls out a pin from his caller, he knows what Rob wants "Yeah, I got this." He opens to the inner cover page and signs and dates the book for his childhood friend. "what are you doing these days?"

"Got married in September, trying to knock up my girl, I work at the butcher's shop your old man likes. You, ever stop running?"

Austin looks up as he is writing a letter to Rob on the back page "1998 settled down for a time in St. Croix Wisconsin, finished High school with a 3.5gpa, 2000 I was awarded my Associates of philosophy. Doing mostly day labor in the meantime. Sounds like you may have been in prison around then, What did you do?"

"lots of shit. What I got caught doing was stupid, I was at a bar and an off the clock cop should up with his dog, dog freaked and mulled my ass. The white coats found chemical burns on my clothes, told the judge I was cooking skunk. Next thing I know I was downtown."

"you were in a bar drinking at sixteen?"

Rob nods "bro, you knew I was drinking back when we were together, you and I jacked a case together, we split it down the middle..."

"that was the only time I ever drank." Austin goes on.

Rob slaps Austin "I am going to get you so hammered."

"Bad idea, medicated, GAD." Austin explains "where is Ben? you two were tight."

"you really haven't talked to anyone in ten years. Ben went to Phoenix, became a 'Greaser.' Where are you off to know?" Rob ask as Austin hands him back his book.

"Texas and Louisiana. I am going to stay with Phil so long as I am in town. Anyway, did I get all the details right?" he asks about his book

"No." Rob smiles and points "I gotta transfer lines. Swing on into the stomping ground if you got time." Rob pulls the request stop cord. He gets off the bus and waves as Austin vanishes, the bus taking a right turn onto a side street to get around the nearby construction.

Austin thinks to himself 'Randi is gone, Ben left, so much has changed.' Austin looks out the window as he tries to remember the area as it was. 'the greenway, it was a footpath that ran along the railroad, connected the two towns. None of us ever tried walking the distance. The hardware store on Wizeta street was as far as any of us ever walked. Then there was the nature center, we would cut across that to avoid Lake Victoria when coming home from school in the fall.' The rhythm of the bus shacking becomes hypnotic as the ride goes on.

Chapter 3

1993 fall

In sixth grade, Austin's favorite class might have been P.E., not because he licked sports but because almost everyone he knew had P.E. fifth period. The exceptions being: Joe and his brother Ben who both had it the first period and Sarra who had it eighth.

His teacher is John Sheldon, the man looked like a German bodybuilder, six feet tall, blond hair, blue eyes, a fantastic suntan year-round. Sheldon expected everyone to show up for his class dressed in the school colors; orange top and black bottoms. Everyone was also supposed to wear shoes that were all leather, black, water-resistant and oil proof. The school gave out catalogs where all of these things could be ordered. Phil, once asked he John had some sort of stalk in the company that sold this stuff. Chances are he did.

Sheldon counts heads as people step into class, as the class lines up for roll call Sheldon shouts "I have 28 names on my roll call list and I only see 13 heads, where is the rest of my class?" no one speaks up. Sheldon looks up and down the class speaking names aloud as he marks them off of his list "Bohoch, Bobby. Shunk, Jake. Shunk, Mandy. Holms, Kathern. Langshun, Kirk. Walker, Phillip. Brown, Randi. Fader, Austin. Cremax, Robert. Binx, Zackary. Hons, Kenneth. Fly, Preston. Rosenbush, Nathanial."

As rollcall is going on Rob, Randi, Phil, and Austin have huddled up. Rob looks around the gym "ya'll know, every class looks like this today. Like, half the school is out sick or something." The group, all nods in understanding, "are Katy and Mandi the only girls left in our class?"

Randi looks to Rob "No, I don't think so."

John calls out after taking down the names "I don't feel like trying today. Let's play 911." More than a hand full of the kid cheer. 911 is just about everyone's most beloved games in Sheldon's class. In large the rules are the same as dodgeball; two teams, a diving line, five balls on the field, you are hit you are out, catch an opponent's throw they are out. So, what has changed? Team captions may cross the dividing line in an attempt to grape an 'out' team member and tag them back in. Is the game fair? Not remotely. But everyone seems to like it nevertheless.

"Bohotch, Cermax. You are team Captains. everyone else lines up!" Sheldon orders.

Bobby Bohatch is the kid everyone thinks they want to be. Always has the trendiest clothes, he has stunning hair, a winning smile, and his dad is a cop. The problem is Bobby also prone to violent mood swings, he sometimes yells inconsolably. Most of the kids in school love Bobby, not one of Austin's friends are amongst them.

Sheldon pulls a coin from his pocket. He lets Rob and Bobby inspect the coin to make sure it is real. "Bobby, call it. You win you get first pick." Sheldon throws the coin

Bobby calls out "Tails"

Sheldon grabs the coin from the air and slaps it down on the back of his hand before reeling the toss. "Tails," Sheldon explains

Rob stomps and complains "Dammit."

Sheldon points at Rob "Watch it." Sheldon looks to Bobby "you get first pick."

Robb counts out the number of people in the class and works out the pecking order "wait, that means he also gets the last pick, and there is an odd number of kids here right now." Sheldon nods having worked out the same thing.

Bobby points out "Jake."

Sheldon waves Jake over to Bobby's side. Jake has been Bobby's wingman all year, he is a stringy looking kid with a rattail haircut, he had freckles and sunken in eyes. It is common knowledge in the school that Jake and Mandie's mother is in prison for drug trafficking. Jake is a special needs kid, not that he ever shares that with anyone, Jake has a brain disease called Tourette syndrome. At least that is the roomer.

Sheldon waves Rob to take is pick. Rob points at Austin waving him over.

Bobby points to Mandie. Mandie is a husky girl, she is large and robust compared to any girl, she is even big next to half the boys in the class. Mandie and Bobby got to know each other due to a behavioral disorder. Mandie has spent more than a hand full of days with Bobby's dad do to disorderly conduct.

Rob whispers with Austin "Phil or Randi next?"

Austin points "Phil, Bobby will not pick Randi, Phil he may." Rob waves Phil over

Phil is the only mulatto in town as far as Austin knows. Phil is heavy, but not much bigger than Austin. Phil has a reputation as an attention hog. During the Razzberry festival last summer he cut a one-gallon ice-cream bucket into the shape of a knight's helmet and jumps onto a float dressed in a girls tank top with 'American Made' spray-painted on his back. Yes, Phil is strange, but the type of 'strange' Austin likes.

Bobby waves for Nathen next. Austin doesn't know much about Nathen outside of the Nathen, and Austin's dad's friend Bob Evens are somehow related.

Rob waves for Randi.

Bobby picks Preston next.

Rob Picks Kirk at Phil's recommendation. Kirk is sick a lot, very few know how sick. Kirk was born with Parkinson's Disease and autistic spectrum disorder. No one expected Kirk to live this long. That being what it is Kirk tries to hide in the back of the room and not get involved. He would much rather sit and play with is electronic toys then risk getting pummeled by kids three times his size. That may be why Kirk often tries to hide behind Phil in games like this.

Bobby picks Kenny next.

Rob takes Katy. Katy is a 'dits,' she has almost purple hair, and it is fanned out like a that of the girls from the movie 'Hairspray', she giggles a lot and often trips. Katy has no known relationships in the school. Rob has taken pity on her more than once and offered to invite her into their group. Katy is beautiful, but she is uninterested in making friends it seems.

That leaves Zack on Bobby's team.

Once the teams are chosen Sheldon offers one more quick pep talk. "Captain's, be smart. Know who your team is. Place your Ace's in their places. Play to your strength. Push your opponent off balance. Be smart! Be a winner!"

Phil, Randi, Rob, and Austin make a dynamic team. But they do all know one thing after their last game. Kirk is unique, Kirk has an almost superhuman ability to see small things, and the ability to extrapolate data. Given a moment to huddle up Kirk watches how Bobby oranges his team and offers a counter attack.

Kirk talks slow, he can't help it, he struggles not to shake as he is talking "Rob, you have to play the white mage. That puts you in the third rank. Austin can't throw a ball to save his life. But he can catch. So if you hide behind Austin, Austin will cover you. Austin, if you catch a ball hand it to Randi or Phil. Randi is rouge class, Hand Randi A ball and he will pick off the back row. Phil is our fighter, he will block Bobby if he tries to rush us. Katy and I are your black mages. When someone goes down one of us will jump in to protect the line."

Rob nods "we are talking 'Zulu's Bull,' Austin you and I stand center brother. Randi and Phil, you are my horns. You need to break the line. Kirk and Katy, you are the hooves, you stomp on anyone that the horns can't hit."

Phil pats Kirk on the head "what can you tell us about what Bobby is doing?"

Kirk lowers his body to look at the enemy team "Jake is the fastest kid on their team. He will play interception for Bobby. Mandi has all the power on the other hand. Bobby is making his way to the fourth rank, he is a 'Red Mage'... there is something weird going on over there." Kirk looks uneasy.

Katy rises a hand "what is this 'White Mage, Red Mage, Black mage stuff?"

Phil proclaims "I got this. Black mage is someone that always attacks from the back line. They go for long throws. A Red Mage pretends to be a Black mage but is really a fighter. He will start from the back line and act like he is going for a long throw but run up to the line and attack from the front. White mage is the reverse. The White mage will start from the front to defend a teammate then will drop back to hide behind the front line. Rogues are the last part of this lineup, they are tricky. A rouge will jump back and forth between back line and front line."

Katy looks back and forth between her teammates, "and you all know this?"

Phil, Randi, Kirk, Austin, and Rob all nod.

Katy rolls her eyes "you are all dorks."

911 can be a brutal game, it would not be hard to foresee such a game devolving into a fistfight between serval of the boys if Sheldon wasn't there to keep the peace. When the whistle blows, Randi is the first to jump into action. Randi has a grudge and takes aim at Bobby. No one could have guessed the ferocity Randi's attack. Rob's team takes an early lead. Under Kirk's guidance, Rob wins the first round.

The second round is not nearly so clean. Bobby please dirty, at the start of the round he takes a ball from Jake and runs into enemy territory. Bobby just short of punches Randi across the side of the face with the ball as a glove. Randi is knocked down to her knees, the strike having cut open an eyelid. Randi is sent to the nurse's office. The Ranks broken Rob's team is overwhelmed.

For the last round of the day, Bobby gives Mandi to Rob to keep the teams even. After a long back and forth the round comes down to Phil against Jake. Jake is smaller, faster. Phil puts up a fight, but Jake throws more quickly than Phil blocks. In hindsight, if Phil had gone for a catch instead of trying to win by elimination the day may have been his, but it isn't.

The class is let out fifteen minutes early. John does this to give the kids the change to get showered and changed after the game. The locker room is a mess, it has been since the school's drama club 'rented' the PE storage locker to store crafting stuff. So sporting gear is stacked up on-top of lockers instead of in storage.

Bobby is gloating about how he led his team to victory in today's game. In a fashion that is common for slightly older boys, Bobby walks around snapping a towel laughing. Kirk and Phil are off to one side of the lockers Kirk showing off to Phil a portable gaming system he found. Rob complains about how Randi got knocked out of class. "If Randi was here we totally had that." Rob punches a locker.

Jake and Bobby set their sights on Kirk to harass him next. Austin in an uncharacteristic act of boldness moves to intercept. Bobby pulls back the towel to slap Kirk with it, Austin sidesteps in front of Kirk and thrust an arm out to shoulder-jam Bobby. Bobby is infuriated.

"Back off Dude." Austin orders.

Bobby pulls back a hand to smack Austin, Austin thrust his arm forward again to stop the attack by Jabbing Bobby in the shoulder a second time. Jake takes notice. Tension mounts, a brawl is imminent. Jake grabs Austin by the wrist from behind and stomps on one of his knees to make Austin kneel.

Bobby is shaking with anger, Kirk and Phil back away. Something terrible is going to happen, and there is nothing the two of them can do to stop it. Bobby wraps the towel around Austin's head, he twists the sheet to start to choke out. Bobby twitches, overwhelmed by madness. No one has ever laid a hand on Bobby, and Bobby doesn't know how to deal with this. "Dude, you just killed my jolly."

Rob whispers to himself "hell no, this is not going down." Rob briskly walks over, he grabs a hockey stick from atop a locker as he walks. Rob Jabs Bobby in the back with the stick to get him to look back. Rob flips the stick around gripping it off to one side of his body like a katana. "You getting crazy! Come on punk, get crazy with me!"

The moment's distraction gives Austin the opportunity to throw an elbow ack to push Jake off of him then thrust his hands out to use Bobby for leverage to push himself up to standing. Austin's hands are up in an instant. It is time to fight.

From the offices in the locker room, Sheldon takes notice of the fight start, this fight is terrible, one of the most heated he has seen in the last three years. John jumps to his feet and yells out into the hallway "Swanson! Get in here ." John Swanson is the school counselor, he is a lanky fellow with a bowl haircut and scars hands and face that are tall tale of a man that drank more than he should have in his twenties. Swanson rush to aid Sheldon

How did Sheldon know Swanson was standing out in the hall and would hear Sheldon yell? That is unclear. The fight between the boys is mantic, it is just what you would expect. Both Bobby and Austin have some amount of training in hand to hand combat but after the first punch is thrown the two are rolling on the floor struggling for dominance. Between Jake and Rob, it is much more of a bitter fight. Jake puffs out his chest and waves Rob on shouting vulgarities, Rob stomps forward threateningly.

In a moment the two John's are running over to break up the fight, Swenson pulls Austin and Bobby apart. Jake drops his guard as he sees Sheldon approaching. Rob takes the moment of opportunity to make good on his threat, Rob spins in and brakes the stick over Jake's back.

The idea that the son of a cop was involved in a fistfight makes for complicated paperwork for the counselor. Bobby's father shows up as Austin is sitting in the councilors office. Every kid in PE is called to the office to explain the relationship between Austin and Bobby.

Clearly, Bobby's dad is not happy without he hears. There is no doubt in Austin's mind that everyone kid had the same thing to say 'Bobby threw the first punch.' Or 'Austin stepped in to protect Kirk.' And once Bobby's father meats Kirk his head drops in discussed, his head shakes and he rips up the papers he is holding. "my idiot boy picked a fight with a cripple." Austin overhears.

Austin is the last person brought into the closed office. Bobby's dad has nothing to say, no question to ask, he leaves without another word. Swanson folds his arms on the table. The two of them know each other Swanson has been monitoring Austen all year due to his anxiety disorder.

"I talked to your mother." Swanson explains "I told her you were in a fight. Do you have any idea what she said?"

"No." Austin is to the point

"She said 'Good.'" Austin is confused, what could that mean? Swanson goes on "we are just going to sweep all this under the rug. You can get back to class."

"Jake and Randi?" Austin asks.

Swanson chokes down a laugh "Jake's head is full of rocks. He is fine. Randi is still in the infirmary getting stitched up. Go ahead and head back to class. Sixth-hour bell should be ringing any second now."

Austin leaves Mr. Swanson's. There are no windows in the school's main hallway, the place is dark. At some point in time, there was an add-on to the school placing a strangely misplaced window in the hall between the math and science wings. The window has had an aluminum backing added to it and a brick wall past that.

As always Austen everts his gaze as he walks past the reflective surface. His event at his father's house has now justified his neurotic behavior. Lights flicker, the near-silent hallway growls from the sound of pipes under the floor rattling. A sound that resembles heavy berthing whispers in Austin's ear.

A voice shouting ahead shatters the quiet. "Austen!" Randi runs up from behind, and grips his shoulders jumping. "word on the bet is you just about punched Bobby's head off. I wish you had told me you were going to do that. Bobby broke a balloon filled with wee over my head a few days ago, and now I feel I owe he a punch to the dick."

Austin shakes his head "I wasn't planning that or anything, it just sort of happened...were did Bobby get a balloon filled with pee?"

"I don't know. Maybe he and his boyfriend worked on it together?"

Austin looks to Randi "I have chess class tonight. Did you want to meet me at the switch station after school?"

Randi nods. The two of them walk to their next class together. The rest of the school day passes uneventfully. Chess is the next thing of interest, chess is the only after-school activity that Austin and Kirk share. Austin tries to invite Kirk to the switch station, Kirk is unavailable. That or there is no way his mother would let him hang out with a bunch of boys in a condemned building.

The stop at the switchyard is short, Austin meets up with Rob and Randi there than the three of them make their way to the apartments on Aquila street. Randi parts ways from them, Rob slaps Austin on the back reminding him that he has plans for them.

Rob grabs his walkie-talkies. The two of them brake into the maintenance room, then it is up to the roof. Austin tries to tell Rob about the monster he had seen at his father's house. But the words just don't come to him. Rob pulls the face plate off an electrical panel then unscrews the switchboard underneath.

Austin now needs to know what Rob is doing. "what is this all about?"

Rob points up "that is a radio tower, right? Phones work off of radio. So if I plug the walkie into this panel, we should be able to hear everyone in the building talking."

Austin laughs "why would you even want to do that?"

Rob pulls out some wire then opens up the back of the walkie "I don't want to do it I want to see if it can be done."

Austin places a hand under his chin thinking "do phones work off of radio?"

Rob nods "they gotta', what else can they be doing?" Rob ties a piece of wire around the antenna of the walkie, then a bit of wire around the battery, without another thought he screws the wire into the ground cable of the switch box. There is no resin this should work; every part of this methodology is wrong.

Yet, somehow, something starts to happen, the walkie starts to tune itself, the lights on the roof turn on, music starts to play. The melody of an ice-cream truck resonates from the child's toy of a communications device.

Rob looks to Austin smiling sassily. Austen seems confused. Both turn their attention to the radio as a voice comes from it. A deep manly voice, grainy, growly. "I am going to kill you all!" it shouts starting to laugh "I am going to watch as you go mad, then I will kill you!" screaming starts to echoes across the roof. The music grows louder.

Rob is visibly disturbed by the sound, Rob drops the radio and turns to run back inside with only a moment's hesitation. Rob opens the door to go inside and finds his path blocked. An eight-foot-tall monster wider then the door blocks the path; head like a rabbit, teeth like a dog, the body of a bear, standing upright like a man. Some form of totem monster. The eyes slowly slide open to reveal the candle's glow in its eyes.

Austin gasp and falls over looking up at it. Rob staggers walking backward, he is shaking his head in disbelief. This thing can't exist, there is no room in this world for a chimera-like this one to manifest.

A paw swings out, claws grip the cloth of Rob's shirt and take it from his body. Rob falls over joining Austin in crawling along the floor away from the monster as it lumbers onto the rooftop with them. The beast drops onto all fours, menacingly it creeps towards the boys.

Only now does the monster notice the second boy on the roof, its eyes turn looking at Austin, as their eyes lock the bear becomes the centipede confirming in Austin's mind that they are one in the same monster.

The music box melody still plays as the centipede becomes the bear again. The oddest idea comes to Austin's mind. Do the lights only started to dim after the walkie was plugged in? Austin shouts to Rob "throw the walkie off the roof!" Austin jumps to a crouched position then runs at the monster. This goes just as one would think. Austin punches the Centipede, the beast can't seem to hold a shape, it reaches out with four arms and grabs Austin around the chest, it starts to lift him into the air, stretching itself to being over 10 feet long.

Rob unplugs the walkie and throws it off the roof and into the pool four stories down. The monster becomes ethereal dropping Austin as it seems to no longer have a grip on this world. For the moment.

Chapter 4

summer 2013

The bus comes to a stop, Austin gets off. There is construction all around him. This place where he had been born and raised is slowly changing. In another few years, everything that he had know might be gone.

The last stop on the line is Knollwood and 7th. This is the spot farthest south that he had known. Once this was the spot where 'Big K' stood, that was the biggest clothing store this side of town. 'Showtime Movies' was once on the other side of the street, that was the video store with the black room in it. He and Randi once spent some time trying to push each-other in there to see what was in the 'Black Room' in the end neither of them made it most of the time they went to 'Mr. Movies' anyway. It was closer to the apartment.

Two blocks west once was 'Gold Mine' it was the local Arcade, there were two others, but this was the one they were talking about whenever they said 'The Arcade.' Kitty-corner from 'Gold Mine' was 'Max 12' that was the theater Austin and his friends sometimes went to. The rules there were pretty relaxed. It was easy to walk in with a fast food bag, a few drinks and buy tickets to see a show they were all too young to see. 'Tomthumb' shared a parking lot with 'Max 12' that was the place in town with the best fresh fruit.

Not one of those things are around anymore. 'Taco City' is still on the other side of 7th, Austin remembers that was his mother's favorite drive through. 'Big K' is now called 'Big Sam,' 'Gold Mine' has been torn down and a place called 'The Rake' is where it once was. 'Showtime' is 'D&D Automotive,' 'Tomthumb' is now 'Trader Joe.' Hardly a landmark Austin knows is in sight from this stop.

"If this was 'Big K' then that would mean 'The Green Way' is that way." Austen turns to point east, "then Aquila Apartment's would be straight north of the school." He turns to face west "Gold Mine is that way so is 'Dreamers Games' then my Uncles house is seven blocks northeast, Texas, and 28th." Austin struggles to remember what everything once looked like.

12 square blocks, for Austen and his friends that was once all as big as the world was. Everything they knew could be found within a box created by four freeway overpasses: 394 to the north, 100 to the west, 7th to the south and 169 to the west.

This city has always had great parks. Westwood was the most prominent park, it was run by the national parks service, Shady Oak's / Oak Hills was the best, they had a public barbeque and a water park, Victoria Park, which was also called Bishop's Park, was right off the Greenway and was a beautiful place to stop and rest if you were doing some long biking, then there was Ainsworth that was the most important park.

Fourth grade was a hard year for Austin, a once beloved friend, Steven Carlson, Died in the middle of the school year, some kind of accident. No one told Austin how it happened. Not long after that Steven's family left the area. Austin took it hard, Not till he and Phil met would he start to heal. That was why Ainsworth was important.

Austin jumps on the greenway walking around the perimeter of the town, he takes in the sights. The greenway is a forested path, it follows the highways, but it is a footpath. The route was lead somewhere around the end of the 80's, Austen and his friends had loved this path. They would race along it from time to time, us it to go from park to park...

Something Austin had forgotten starts to come back to him as he walks. Once he has gone under the Aquila bridge and bypassed the elementary school, he is standing face to face with Victoria Lake. Just up the hill from there is Ainsworth, but he can't help but stop and look into the water.

A once calming place, something horrible beckons to him from the cloudy green water. Voices scream at him from the distant past, a flash of light, for a few short seconds Austen can see himself on a homemade boat out on the water, Bobby was with him, and Randy, Bobby, and Austin fall off the boat. There is a third person in the water with them, Austin can't see who it is. Randy cries out for Austin.

The flash ends. Austin is standing at the edge of the water looking in, he imagines someone in the water looking up at him. Austin races off running up the hill towards Ainsworth. 'A girl in the water.' He thinks to himself as he runs. 'who, why?' even as somethings are coming clearer the ice of the forgotten melts into the water of the unknown.

Ainsworth is a sunken park, a playground set at the base of a fissure. There is a steep hill that wraps most of the way around the park, it is at least 60 feet down from the top of the hill to the park, the incline is sharp enough that it is hard to walk up. As kids Austin and his friends joked about the idea that someone should build a stairwell from the park to the road at the top of the hill. Even to this day as Austin looks down into the pit, he thinks the same.

The past again melts into the present, saturating the cloth of years so that a dream of a memory may feel almost palpable. Austin as in aging man can see himself as a child sitting halfway down the hill. It is a sunny day, the air is warm, but there is a cold southbound wind. Spring break starts next week. There are at least fifty kids at the park. The school had approved a barbeque here at Ainsworth Park. It seems laughable that the school would want to spend money in this way, but in the 90's sometimes they did.

Austin hasn't spoken in days maybe even a month. When he got off the school bus, he walked up the hill, reached into his backpack and pulled out a sketchbook. Austin had taken an interest in drawing a comic book. His sketchbook has no heroes in it. Only nightmares brought to life with the highest detail an 8-year old's mind can muster.

This day too would have ended in that same silence if not for Phil Walker. Young and husky, dressed in an outfit that is half grunge-rocker and half clown as he has a Harlequin cap on as he slides over. Walker brings a hand down and slaps Austen pointing with the other hand. Phil shouts "Look! That is my house!" from the park is visible an apartment complex, nine buildings in a circle around each other all perfectly symmetrical.

Austin didn't understand this at the time, but that was a neighborhood called "The Courts" a halfway house owned by the Hennepin County Woman's Correctional Facility, And Phil lived there with his mother. Her name was Mercedes she was a 'Madam' (female pimp as is would be) Phil had been born in prison, Phil, of course, had no recollection of this. After all, no one talked about things like that. Another thing that no one talked about was the idea that Austen and Phil's mothers knew each other, and indeed, no one talked about how.

Old Austin walks down the hill to the spot that his younger-self sits, Austin takes a set on the slope beside young Phil. In a trance, he tips his head back and continues the conversation he and Phil had that cold afternoon. They would come back to this spot many times throughout their lives. This moment, this memory sacrosanct.

"Hay," Phil speaks "Do you know Gorge Carlin?"

Austin shakes his head "Never met him."

"he is a comedian," Phil explains "I have one of his concerts on tape if you want to check it out."

"Seven dirty words?" Austin whispers to himself "I think my dad told me about him once. He and my dad spent a weekend together in the drunk tank after a fight at some club."

Phil looks down "you play video games?"

Austin nods "I am playing 'Final Fantasy' right now."

"Which one?" Phil asks "there are six games in the series, one three of them are for sale in the states right now."

"the first one, I think." This conversation had snapped Austin out of his first deadly grip of depression. Young Austin would go home that night and struggle to find out the name of the kid that he had spoken to at the park as they had failed to interduce themselves. Austin may never understand what had happened that day, but he would remember that it was something fundamental in his life, something that would shape him for decades to come. Why that day, why those words, that conversation, why should it have been incalculably significant to him?

A murder of crows takes to the air, scattering from the park. This snaps Austen from his trance. He looks around remembering where he is and what he is doing. He looks left then right bringing a hand up folding three fingers in as if to snap as he recalibrates himself. "that is the Courts, that means Louisiana is that way. I am only a block from Phil's house."

Chapter 5

1993 fall

After the fight on the rooftop Austin falls down the steps of the apartment, Austin is hurt, he doesn't know how bad, only that he is. Rob drags him the rest of the way to the first floor and into the tool room. Rob takes a broom he saws it in half then uses a role of tap to tie up Austin's left leg.

This act is called field-dressing, in the army, this is a way to get a solder on his feet long enough to find a medic. This is not the plan in this case. The idea is only to bandage up Austin and get him home. Rob carries Austin up to his room from there. Austin is shacking and sweating. His leg swollen and purple. Neither Austin's mother nor grandmother seems to notice.

Hours later, Austin has been passing in and out of conciseness since the fight, only now is he mostly alert. Rob is yelling up through the air conditioner to Randy. Austin crawls over to the heating vent looking down into Randy's room. "Randy! Randy. Are you up?" Rob calls.

Randy is sitting against the wall looking down into Rob's apartment. "Here. What's up?"

Rob calls back "Randy, I saw something yesterday. Something I don't understand..." Rob's voice is shacking. "Up on the roof. Austin and I were playing and something." He can't seem to finish his thought.

Randy yells up to Austin "Hay, Austin!"

Austin is short of breath, he still can't stop sweating "I'm up here."

Randy calls "Did Rob see... It?"

Rob exclaims "It?"

Austin replies "Yeah. I saw it again, and it kicked my ass."

Randy is concerned "Are you hurt?"

Austin nods, he is tired, almost too tired to keep talking, Rob replies for Austin "he fell, his leg got all bent up."

Randy looks down to Rob "so you did see It then?"

Rob throws his hands up "What do you mean by IT?"

Austin shacks himself to stay in the conversation "Randy, get the tape."

Randy looks up "do you want me to come up to your room?"

Weekly Austin calls down "yeah."

Randy looks at Rob "the monster is real, Austin and I got It on tape a few months ago. Meet me at the elevator. We will show you. "

Rob nods, "I'm on my way up."

Randy has seen the monster in the past. It changed her, she developed a sequence of rituals she must execute to feel safe. Randi cannot walk past a partly open door, she has to close it as she passes, if she needs to pass the door from the handle side she must hide against the wall and shut the door without looking in. if the lights are off as she looks at a door she has a flashlight she must flash at the door before shutting it. It takes her three minutes to cross from her bedroom to the front door.

Rob and Randy find there way up to Austin's room about 10 minutes later. Austin meats them at the door. Austin is dragging himself around, he clearly is unwell. Randy holds up the tape. Austin nods wavering Randy on.

The three walk into the front room, Rob shuts the closet door for Randy as they pass it. Rob has seen Randy's ritual even if he doesn't understand it. Randy starts the tape. The video is of Randy and Austin performing a duet of Queen songs: Killer Queen, Princess of the Universe, Who Wants to Live Forever. The performance isn't bad, 20 years from now it would have made an excellent YouTube cover.

Much of the way through Princes of the Universe, the door to Randy's room can be seen opening Randy jumps from the couch and stops the tap. She points "there it is! Can you see it?" Rob crawls on all fours up to the tv squinting to try to see what Randy can see.

Fingers reach around the door, long jointless fingers, more wormlike then manlike, a single eye looks through the crack, large and round, like a fisheye, a foot has slipped in, not a man's foot, a narrow-covered slug-like foot.

Rob looks horrified as he is looking at the thing; clearly, he can see it just like Randy could "What is that?" he whispers

Randy explains "I call it the Long Man. Austin calls it the Glowing One."

Rob stars for a time for a time "Is it real."

Randy shrugs "real enough that the three of us can see it."

Austin joins in more than a few seconds late on the draw "it is an eldritch horror. A monster from outside space as we can understand it."

Brooke, Austin's eldest sister, now seven years old comes in the room, she explains to them "I can see it too. So can grandma, and Austin's dad."

Rob looks at the others "what do we do?"

Randy jokes "Hope to live long enough to see high school."

Austin grips himself by the eyes, he grunts as he tries to sit up, a defining sound fills the air as he falls off the couch. Austin faints.

***

Austin is tied to a bed as the defining noise stops, he can feel movement. He is mostly paralyzed. A bright light shines overhead. Austin tries to look around. The millipedal-like monster is kneeling alongside him, it grips him by the nose and mouth with one hand forcing him to keep his eyes up. Hornet-Like stinger swings in from over the monsters head stabbing Austin in the arm, Austin blacks out again.

***

Time passes, Austin has no idea how much, the light still hangs overhead, the voice's of Austin's grandmother and stepmother Ruth can be overheard nearby "Left knee is multi-fractioned, the left ankle has a hairline split. The bandaging job isn't bad, but it looks like his hamstring tie-in has been severed and is partly fused to his alkalis tie-in. We need to set the joint before we can even try to correct that. Was it you that administered first aid, Gloria?"

Austin's grandmother shakes her head, "I don't know who did that."

Ruth explains "I want to go in for one more round of x-ray's, it looks like there may be an alien object under his kneecap. Expected recovery time is 4 months."

Austin whispers to himself "Alien?" The next few days are little more than brief seconds of lucidity followed by hours of darkness.

***

It is well past sunset, there is a bag hung from a rack on the wall filled with a clear liquid, there is writing on the bag, Austin can't make it out. Brooke appears standing alongside Austin, she is holding a large silver object, a charm, two winged cats with human heads looking away from each-other a stone trapped in-between their tails. Austin knows this symbol it is the crest of Zora-Austria, an old church, maybe one of the oldest. Austin has seen this charm in one of his books.

"Grandma said to hide this," Brooke explains she sounds far away, the voice is influx like when you hear a sound from under water.

The shadows retake Austin.

***

It is raining, Grandma is standing in front of the door to the room looking out into the hallway, Austin can't see past the door, it is too foggy. Grandma whispers into the night "I can see you grate horned one. Step into the light and a child of Brigid the Hearthmother." Grandma is glowing, her hair blows in the wind looking like fire. She is dressed in a coat made of scaled steel.

Gloria reaches onto her hip and draws out a sword cast of white silver, a rounded, broad-blade, etched into the hilt is the ruin 'Tricoata' three circles drawn with a single line, and a knotted rope running up the stem of the metal. Both are pagan symbols from Sweden 4th century. Austin has a fancy for lore. Sleep clams Austin before he can ask Grandma about the sword or the holy symbol, the sounds of birds call to him, water crashes on the sand in tranquil bliss

***

Jim, Austin's dad is in the room when he wakes up, sitting in the chair alongside the bed. The sun is raising. Three carpenter nails hang from his lip, a tape measure in hand, tool belt hanging from his hip. Jim produces a 2x4 from the air, he rests it across his lap and starts to draw markings on the wood with a pencil he equally wills into existence. Jim asks his son to hand him something, Austin cant understand what he is asking for.

As Austin stars at the window over his father shoulder the sun streaks across the sky, sunrise turns to sunset in moments.

***

The overhead light flickers, Austin can feel movement, A door nearby opens, another shuts, Austin turns his head, his mother is walking down the hall alongside Ruth.

Austin's mother complains "you told me four months and he would be back to normal" Vici is tall with thick red hair, curly and bouncy, she has the build of a professional dancer and the glamor of a punk-rock heroine like could only have existed in the 80's. She is commanding, dressed in a pair of red silk slacks and a bright red blazer. Vici is young, Austin today is already older then Vici was when Austin was born.

Calm, controlled, the much shorter Ruth speaks with a detached disinterest. "Under ideal conditions. There have been setbacks, the patient has contracted a..."

Vici cuts in grabbing Ruth by the arm, Vici never gets sad or depressed, she gets mad "Austin is better than Jim or I, he is like you, he is someone special. Now I need him back at school. Make that happen before Thanksgiving."

Ruth looks down at her grabbed arm "you will remove your hand from my person now." Ruth is stoic, she can't be intimidated.

Austin tries to sit up, he tries to call his mother. A weight presses down on his chest holding him still. Austin looks up, the waxy caterpillar demon is standing over him. It brings a hand close to its face. The monster mimes the stop motion, it then points directing Austin to look down his own body to his broken leg.

The demon is in two places at once. It is holding Austin still and conducting an operation on Austin's leg simultaneously. The beast brings its scythe-like tail down cutting a thin line into Austin's black infected leg. The monster produces from the air a set of surgical tools. Peeling the skin back from Austin's femur the monster cuts around the muscle with one set of hand the brings up a pair of pliers with a second set of hands. There is a crunching and popping sound. The monster finds something, a seven-legged squid-bug, the monster pulls the otherworld parasite out of Austin's body.

Austin screams. The Glowing One stabs it's tail into Austin's arm again. Austin faints.

Chapter 6

Summer 2013

At last Austin has reached Phil Walker's apartment, he is on the second floor of a small building, the number on the door is 6. Has his hand outreaches to touch the door, a flash in his mind shows him that he has been in the building before, the number on the door was different then it read 3 last time he was here. This was Mercedes apartment. Music echoes through the door.

"...The mirror now cries, ageless mask fades to true life

To taste the immortal grace I lived the role I played

Alone in a golden cage

Life is what we make of it sometimes, sometimes,

Sometimes we just want to play

So don't take life so seriously

Play, love, have fun, leave misery be

Regrets are built in a cold dark cage..."

Austin breaths deep as he is almost shacking, he has not been here for ages it seems. A place that feels like home. Austin knocks on the door.

The door is opened, Phil is a gentle looking man, he now has glasses on and has cut the rat tail he kept throughout his youth. There is a moment of silence as they stare at each-other their minds catching up to the passage of a lifetime.

Phil takes the first move, he steps into Austin wrapping his arms around him in a hug, Austin slides his arms under Phil's to grip him by the shoulders. Austin whispers with his longtime friend "I hold in my hand a weapon, one that can crack the sky, make armies quake with fear, level mountains and make gods and kings weep. With this pin I can raise a man to divinity or I can strike him from existence..."

Phil squints as he tries to remember the rest of what Austin is referencing "The wall is getting thinner?" Phil replies "I remember that."

Phil pulls away from the embrace, gripping Austin by the arms, he offers another glance up and down "Packing light for a millionaire."

Austin looks down at his own bag "I am more like a ten-thousandaire, this is all I own." Austin elaborates "I only get to keep 5% of my earnings in paperback, 15% hardcover."

Phil waves him on walking back into the house "so all that t.v. And radio stuff? What happens to your profits?"

"publisher keeps most of it." There is a card table set up in the main room, video game paraphernalia adorns the walls. Kirk is sitting at the table shuffling a pack of cards, he looks just like he did as a child, just with less hair on his head and now sporting a thick rugged beard. Austin throw his hands up in proclamation "Kirk!"

Kirk lifts a hand and with a cracking voice welcomes Austin "Hay."

Austin approaches the table "what are we playing?"

"Worldwalker." Kirk sets down his deck "you still play?"

Austin digs around in his backpack pulling out a deck of his own "yeah, still have the 'White Fox' deck you helped me put together. what factions are you playing?" Austin looks between Phil and Kirk

Phil sits down picking up his cards to shuffle up again "River Folk."

Kirk explains "Huntsmen."

Austin looks back and forth "White, blue, green. Not much changed there." Austin looks for a dice in his pockets "anyone have two d10?"

Phil hands over some dice "Realy? The same deck from 1990? We are quite a few additions outside of Zhànguó shídài."

Austin places his deck on the table "cut or tap?" Phil taps for him "Let's see if it still works. What is the last set called anyway?"

Kirk offers the reply "Justinian's Rule."

All three decks on the table the game can begin, Phil calls "Roll the dice."

All three roll a d20 to determine turn order

"12" Austin calls out his roll

"14" kirk reads his aloud

"17" Phil explain "I choose to play first, I draw 7 cards, you both draw 8." Worldwalker is a strategy card game, you must manage resources to call on Heros, Magic, Monsters, and Techniques to protect yourself and attack your enemies. To start each turn you untap all resources you control, then draw a card. If you have a 'Territory' in your hand you may play one each turn, you tap these to pay for other cards 'Heros,' 'spells' and 'Techniques.'

Phil sets his first territory "River." He reads the name as he set it down "Tap river, play 'Island Crab it is a 0/2" this is a monster card, you may have four monsters that share a name in play at a time. This is in opposition to a Hero which you may only have one of each name in play at a time. The first number is your attack score attack, the second defense. Each player starts with 30 health. Phil points "Kirk, go."

Kirk announces game phases as he takes his turn "untap and Upkeep. Nothing. Draw phase, I draw my 8th card. 1st main phase play woodlands, tap woodlands for green resources, play 'Explore the Land' untap my woodlands and play a second. tap my first woodlands to play 'fruitful earth' all lands that produce green now produce 2 resources of any color they could produce, tap my other woodland for 2 green and play 'Village outcast 1/1 tap to untap a land I control."

Austin looks at kirks side of the playfield "that is just disgusting, turn 1 you can tap for 6."

Kirk looks up from his cards "Austin did you know that the creators of this game molded the first edition and the core rule around Toa mythology? Each of the colors reparents a human aspect 'White is Resolve, Blue wisdom, Green strength, Red ambition and Black Desire."

Austin nods "yeah, I know."

Phil looks to Kirk in announce "is that the end of your turn?"

Kirk keeps talking having not yet picked up on what the other two had said "and each of our decks, best as I remember, represent their core belief and practice, Strength grows fast but has only one road to victory, for green to win one needs to reach the apex of their power swiftly because it doesn't have anything but power to fall back on, White plays the long game, hiding behind walls and waiting for itself to build to indomitable size. Often overtaking its opposition in a single strike. Blue is smart and wins by outsmarting others, half the cards in blue are not meant to be played in action but instead in reaction..."

Phil repeats "Kirk, is that turn?"

Kirk starts to catch up "who's turn is it?"

Austen waves at Kirk "yours."

Kirk nods "go."

Austin starts his turn. "play a meadow, tap, 'Erect the Walls' all creatures I control comes into play with a +0/+1 counter on it. Phil Go"

As the game goes on Kirk takes the early lead summoning an army of dogs and bears to lay pressure on Phil and Austin. But in short order, Austin becomes an invalided target as he puts Technique after Technique out making his army of 'shield barriers' too powerful to push aside. Phil in the meantime has raised a band of heroes with crippling effects.

Kirk draws a card, "play a woodland, that triggers 'Call the pack' check number of woodlands in play, I see 7, summon 7 2/2 wolves. Austin what do you have on your side of the field?"

Austin looks down " 'Soulmender', by the way, I gain 7 life off your wolves, she is a 1/ 9 right now because of Raise the Walls x4 and castle wall x2 'King of Lions' is a 2/10 and I have 10 0/10 shield tokens that produce a 0/10 shield any time they are assigned as a blocker because of 'King of Lions'"

Kirk nods "well that isn't happening. King of Loins is a hero card, who is he model after anyway?"

"Gorgo, the Queen of Sparta" Austin explains

Kirk turns to Phil "and you have..."

"'Dr. john Snow with 5 counters on him,"

Kirk adds on "So attacking creatures get -5/-5."

"'Justin the conqueror, 'Cleopatra the River Queen', and 'Marius the Red' also 'Library of Agora"

Kirk nods again. "Alright, I am going to tap 5 and play ?hirume-no...." Kirk is struggling to pronounce the name of the card he is playing, Phil helps him

"?hirume-no-muchi-no-kami, Amaterasu-?mikami."

"Yes." Kirk announces "I am going to add up the P/T of all creatures I control and put that many +1/+1 counters on Amaterasu then exile all my creatures. I am going to activate Amaterasu's ability to do damage equal to her power to all creatures and players divided in any way I chose, I chose..."

Phil cuts in "hang on, I am going to tap Cleopatra to gain control of target creature so long as I control Cleopatra. I gain control of Amaterasu in response to 'resolution phase.'"

Kirk lowers his head "oh, I forgot about that."

Phil chuckle "RTFC." He takes the card "I will tap Amaterasu and deal 17 dmg to you" he points to kirk "and 16 to you" he points to Austin.

kirk shakes his head "I'm out."

Phil looks to Austin, "What are you sitting at?"

Austin looks down at the percentage dice alongside his playfield "68."

Phil points at Austin with a smile "you're a go."

Austin starts his turn "Untap, Upkeep, Draw." He looks at his cards then to Phil's side of the field, Phil has made changes to his deck, but his mentality is the same. Austin can see Phil has three Rivers still untapped. That is enough for an 'Unmake' or a 'Second Thoughts' his best move would be to try to force Phil's hand, Austin is holding an 'Attack Formations' what would turn all his Shield Barriers into 11/11's, and that would be a winning move. Maybe he can bate Phil with a Hero card.

Austin looks over his cards one more time 'Catherine the Great' he doesn't have the land to activate her ability but maybe threat she posses would be enough to intimidate Phil. Austin makes his move "Catherine: Prussian Princess 3/4 tap 6 destroy all creatures in play if you tap all white create 5 1/1 mercenary tokens at the end of turn " he announces as he taps three lands, he reads the quote of the bottom of the card "A Nation without Confidences is nothing."

Phil nods.

Austin thinks 'he didn't counter, I have to make a play' Austin taps for 5 "Attack formations, creatures I control deal damage via defense."

Phil counters by tapping 3 "Second Thoughts, you choose to tap five lands, discard Attack Formations and draw a card."

Austin slaps his leg then draws a card. "I return a Meadow to my hand to play Lakeside Temple in its place." Austin could attack, but Phil's creatures are strong enough to stop the assault still, he is left with no chose but to wait. "Phil, go."

Phil starts his turn "tap 4, McAuliffe the Screaming Eagle 1/4, whenever a land becomes tapped deal 3 damage to target player." Phil reads the quote on the card "To the Panzer High Command "Nuts."

Austin shacks his head "Reread Justin's ability please."

Phil picks up the card to read it again "during your second main phase target player taps all land he or she controls."

Austin counts up the land in play. "fold." He folds his arms and looks up at the ceiling thinking "you know, for purposes of a game the future meeting the past is a cool idea, but in practicality what benefit could it serve? Justinian the Grate spent a lifetime trying to rebuild the empire squandered by Augustus Octavius and the Gracchi Brothers. What could any of them have to say to General Mcauliffe of the 101st airborne division that he would have found meaningful?"

Kirk squints as he is thinking aloud "you mean if they could find any way to communicate at all? vocabulary is an ever-changing monster, even people living in the same land would find it difficult to talk to someone 150 years older than themselves, the inflections and connotations of the vernaculars would have changed, common usage wouldn't be the same three generations later."

Phil adds to the thought "knowledge. Some people think that the Romans where ahead of there time, it would be more appropriate to say that the rest of the world had fallen behind. Some archeologist think that the Egyptians of the 1st century had created batteries and light bulbs, the Alexandrians a steam engine and telephone. This is probably an exaggeration but on the same hand art and science develop side by side, and early Greek art is extraordinarily advanced when compared to 12-century English religious art. We lost a lot of knowledge over the years. try to imagen, what if we had constructed trains in the 5th-century?"

Austin nods in agreement, his eyes turn to the radio "what are we listening to?"

Phil looks to the radio "Sabaton, I think" Phil snaps "that reminds me, I found something you lost at my mom's house, your tape player." Phil jumps up to his feet to make his way to the back rooms.

Austin talk a moment to speak to kirk as Phil is gone "Kirk, if fifth grade you and I were in Mr. Sheldon's support group together, right?"

"no..." Kirk struggles to think back "that was fourth grade, I was in Ms. Homes homeroom class, you and Phil were both in Ms. Tiess class that year halfway through the year was when you started seeing Mr. Sheldon. I think I might still have the tie-dye shirt we made in his after-school class."

Austin shakes his head "I don't remember doing tie-dye with Mr. Sheldon."

Kirk shrugs.

"I was given some medication by Sheldon, I talked to my GP recently and..." Austin looks at the radio again, the songs start to change as if someone was playing with the disc tray, for a moment the song that was playing plays backwards, then it skips back a track, then a whole new disc starts to play, it goes back to Sonata Arctica and the song 'Larger Than Life' then, at last, it flips to the song 'Old Time Rock and Roll' by Bob Seger.

Austin leans off to one side to look ground in front of the radio. A girl is kneeling, she is young, fourteen maybe fifteen, nude, she has thick black hair that rolls down her back and wraps around her breast like a shroud of velvet or cultist cloak, she has flour gray skin, her eyes are blocks of ice. This child is both beautiful and terrifying. "kirk, can you see that?"

Kirk has his head cocked, he looks at Austin hard and tries to follow his gaze "Austin?" Kirk ask "what do you see?"

Chapter 7

Fall 1993

Months have passed, Austin is back in school, he came back on a good day, Chess day. Kirk was not in class today, that was not unexpected. Phil stayed late to walk to the clubhouse with Austin.

Phil holds out his arms questioningly "so last winter you fell off your uncle's roof, now this fall you fell off the roof of your mom's house? Maybe you should stay away from rooftops."

Austin is walking with a limp, he rests a hand on Phil's shoulder to help balance himself. "maybe you are right. Rooftops are important, art and comics are full of images of rooftops. Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Cat Woman all stand on rooftops looking down at the world."

"Are you saying that you want to be Cat Woman?" Phil jokes around.

"if I wanted to be a superhero I think I would want to be Egon Spangler or Iron Man."

Phil looks over "Egon? From Ghostbusters?" Austin nods "you know Harold Ramus was also in 'Good Morning Vietnam."

"I didn't know that, no." Austin reaches over to rub his own arm "did I mention the 20-foot-tall bug that impaled me... and the squid in my leg?"

Phil looks at Austin sideways "what are you getting at?"

Austin lowers his head thinking back "for years I have had this experience. At night, usually, when I am out with my dad, there is something following me. I think it is a dream that is crossing over. Something from my nightmares that wants to be in our world. The walls are getting thinner."

Phil grips Austin by the shoulders "I have felt things like this myself." Phil reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pen "I hold in my hand a weapon, one that can break the sky, make armies quake with fear, move mountains and make kings and gods weep. With this pen, I can raise a man to divinity or strike one from existence. We are the artist, and it is with this that artist face monsters."

Austin takes the pen, he rolls it around his hand "I'm not the only one that has seen this." Austin looks up and down the street. Flag street is the next block. "we need to get to the clubhouse."

The clubhouse has been built up over the last few months, Rob has managed to work with Joe to steal electricity. They have a new T.V. And a small collection of new pirated movies. As Phil and Austin approach Joe and Rob are out front armed with bo-ken. Randy is sitting on the steps watching the show alongside Ben.

Rob holds his sword in one hand pointing it like a French swordsman, Joe grips his blade like a knight, both hands around the handle, blade centered to his chest. Rob rushes Joe, Rob moves fast and hard, it seems almost like the two of them are aiming to draw blood.

Rob swings left then right, Joe walks backward to keep out of reach. Rob turns in from overhead, Joe tips his blade sideways to slide Rob off to one side, Joe reverses momentum threatening to slash Rob across the face, Rob narrowly leans out of the way. Joe flips the blade around to break the bo over Robs back. Rob twist around to lock blades, Rob's one-handed fighting style can't deflect Joe's two-handed strike. Joe slaps the bo from Rob's hand.

Rob hops away laughing "Moose, you're a beast." Rob swoops down to pick his sword back up.

Randy stands up "I want in."

Austin limps over to the door to the train station. Joe drops his sword, he walks over to Austin. Joe grabs Austin and pulls him into a hug. "Welcome Back."

After the greeting Joe and Austin Whisper between each other, "Joe, when was the last time you saw the Glowing One?"

"sometime around September?"

"where?"

"outside my bedroom window, it was crawling on the side of the house like some sort'a... alien crab." Joe's room is on the third floor of the house facing the backyard, in the daytime joe can see Shady Oaks Park from that window, there is a short, wooded path between him and the park. Nothing could every walk by that window.

"was it in the same shape every time you saw it?"

This forces a moment of reflection. "it changes, the first time I saw it was at Uncle Jim's house, it was a man than with three-fingered hands and a straw shaped nose, then it was a disembodied head when I saw it at the park, the last time it was a Derider.

Austin is almost relieved. "then I didn't imagine it." Austin looks to his friend. In an uncharacteristic vouch of confidence, he addresses the group as a whole "I think monsters are living in our town!" his confidences starts to melt away"...I... I think we need to do something about it."

Randy is all in "then we all have seen it? The long Man?"

Rob nods "I have seen it."

Joe looks to Randy and Rob "so have I."

Ben points between himself and Phil "I don't know if we are in on the joke?"

Randy looks to Ben "there is a thing, some sort of an animal or elder thing, it walks the streets at night. Sometimes it makes people do things, sometimes it hurts them, sometimes it spirits them away into the darkness never to be seen again."

Rob elaborates "It is a totem beast, like the ghostly harbingers from Dakota legends."

Joe adds on "it is old, holy, something that is outside our world but still able to effluence it."

Phil questions "Like some kind of a Kami?"

Austin joins in "Like the Eldritch Abomination from the Dunwich Horror."

Phil plays along "what do we do about it?"

Randy takes point "we figure out the rule it follows and exploit them."

Austin nearly buckles under his own weight, nerve damage in his leg giving him a shock Joe and Phil grab Austin to help him hold himself upright. Austin points "can we go inside."

The group goes into the train station, bits and peace of the original furnishing are still there, the group has dug up a few more chairs, a bed, some blankets and cheap carpeting to liven the place up. They have a TV and radio as well as a bookcase with a hand full of nick-knacks on it. There was a storage room off to one side, but Randy had pulled down the door turning it into a blind corner in the main room. The only thing they don't have in the clubhouse is a working bathroom.

Ben falls into a chair "what are you guys talking about?"

The group fans out, everyone taking a seat somewhere around the main room. Randy is the one that responds "Monsters are real. I have seen them, and I am not the only one; Brooke, Austin, Joe, and now Rob."

Ben looks at his brother as if waiting for him to say something. Joe does "The window in my room, I wasn't the one that broke it, it was the Glowing One."

Rob cuts in "I want to fight this thing. We will go get our swords and we can pumble the thing all the way to hell."

Randy looks at Rob with an aggravated glance "if this thing is as big and bad as it looks do you think hitting it with a stick will make it go away?"

Rob points in the direction of the apartments "I have a shotgun hidden in my mom's closet, will that work?"

Joe joins back in "everything that is alive follows rules. Everything we do we do because it in some way offers us a survival advantage. We can try following the monster around, watch how it acts, maybe that will reveal something about it."

Rob is excitable, he jumps around with meaningless rage "it is tough enough to pick up a kid in one hand and open doors with its face."

Randy shakes her head "it can't open doors. I have never seen it open a door of its own accord. It can't unlock windows. It is frightened by most types of light. That is what I have seen."

Joe adds on "it doesn't seem to like groups, I see it most of the time when I am alone or with Austin. I have never seen it if there are more than four people around."

Austin leans over, lying on the table in the room. "it is a changeling. It shifts into many shapes to... I don't know what it is trying to do."

Phil looks between the speakers "well, do we all agree on lights and crowds keeping us safe? That is something to start with."

Ben is shaking his head in disbelief as the friends all seem to be joining in on this idea. "this is dumb, I think we should watch a movie then head home."

Rob looks between Phil, Randy, and Austin. "tomorrow, after the first hour meet me at the front office. We are going to let everyone in the school know that there are monsters around and we need to be on the lookout."

Ben walks over to the shelf with the movies on it "looks like we got some new stuff." Ben reads over some of the titles "Sand Lot, Challenge the Ninja, Hocus Pocus, Ninja Lady, Cat's Eyes, Lost Boys, Dracula, NIMH."

The last one catches Austin's attention "Rob, did you find a copy of Don Bluth's Secret of NIMH?"

Rob loses his train of thought as he looks over "Yeah, got it from Mr. Movies."

"I have had my mom rent that movie for me 20 times. I love the book, Brisby is just the most beautiful person in history."

Phil looks at Austin his head tipped as he thinks about the phrasing of that statement "I don't think that the mouse girl in that move counts as a historical person."

Austin looks at Phil with a watchful gaze "you know what I mean."

Randy looks up nibbling on a finger as she considers that also "can a cartoon be beautiful?" the group keeps themselves entertained by watching a hand full of movies together before slowly the group make their way home, hardly another word about what had transpired.

At least until the next school day.

In the middle of the night Randy screams, Austin awakens. Austin crawls over to the AC to look down into Randy's room. Randy falls from bed, she fumbles around looking for her flashlight. Once it is in hand Randy crawls back into one corner of her room and flips the light on. She shines the light down at herself looking at her own hands the turns the light to the door. Randy is shaking, sweating, she can't seem to catch her breath as she is glaring dead-eyed at the entrance to her room. The expiration on her face conveying the idea that her undivided attention is the only thing keeping whatever evil is hiding behind the door at a distance.

"Randy, Randy!" Austin tries yelling. Randy is experiencing auditory exclusion, she can't respond. Austin remembers something from one of the movies he was watching with his friends, he runs to the kitchen and grabs the salt shaker from the countertop and runs down the steps to rescue Randy.

Salt shaker in hand Austin ponds as the door to Randy's apartment. Randy's dad is the one to come to the door. The door is swung open with much vigor, Randy's dad stands in the doorway looking like a giant fur-covered monster, almost caveman-like covered by nothing more then a tight pair of tiger stripped shorts.

In the gap between the Door and Randy's father's body, Randy can be seen snuggled up on the couch in shock. The beasty man barks at Austin "what!" Austin's nerve fades away quickly, he drops the salt shaker on the ground and runs away.

Come morning Austin checks back in on Randy. The two step out of the apartment side by side. Austin looks to Randy as they start on there way into the school. Randy can't seem to lift her head to match his gaze. She offers only a few words "it got into my room."

"What happened" Austin ask

"I opened my eyes, and he was kneeling on top of me. I tried to run, I was unable to move. Only my eyes could move. The weight on my chest made it hard to breathe. Felt like I was in water. I don't know how long I was struggling. I could hear signing. It didn't do anything. It just sat there holding me."