Darkness Approaches

I will never forgive myself if I miss this chance again; tonight I WILL see my mother. Darkness enveloped Kayla’s body like a heavy cloak. The old wooden stairs groaned and complained with each step she took. Her foot slipped on the damp cedar and Kayla stumbled. Her hand flew to catch herself on the cellar wall, she listened carefully for footsteps above. All clear. An icy chill formed tiny goose bumps on her arms and the musty air hung thick in her nostrils. Kayla wanted to turn and run but she pushed on.

“Ouch!” Colliding head first into the low hung ceiling she bit her lip hard to stop a string of obscenities from tumbling out. She rubbed her throbbing head finding a bump beginning to grow already and Kayla grimaced at the shot of pain.

Something scurried out from under the staircase and into the darkness.

I am not afraid.

Reaching for the light switch her hand swept through sticky cobwebs that clung to her fingers.

I am not afraid.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Kayla felt a tingle of excitement run up her spine. Tonight is the night.

She wanted to be invisible. Anything can happen.

She crouched low; slithering her way to the outer cellar door peeking through the dirty glass window near the top. Catching a glint of moonlight from the steel handlebars of her cousin Manny’s motorbike between the branches where it hid she smiled. Kayla had convinced him to store it at her house while he went out west to find work; somehow she had known it would come in handy one day.

Inching the door open, she crawled out onto the concrete steps and lay hidden quietly waiting, watching for any sign of movement. Kayla felt rough concrete on her arms. She scanned the bushes carefully as the cool breeze picked up and began making the small branches flutter and wave gracefully. Her nostrils caught a hint of barbeque wafting in from the neighbor’s backyard. Her tummy began to rumble in excitement. She had forgotten to grab a quick bite of supper before rushing out to her stakeout but she wasn’t about to turn back in now.

Kayla shivered fighting to keep warm in the light t-shirt she had decided to throw on. In all her excitement, she remembered her camera and knapsack but had left her sweater hanging across the back of her desk chair. Although it had been an unusually warm September this year, it was beginning to get chilly at night. Kayla rubbed her arms vigorously. Suddenly she saw a shadow move in the far corner of the yard. She held her breath and focused on that spot, silently willing her eyes to adjust so she could see in the darkness. When she thought she could stand it no longer, Kayla finally saw a figure emerge from behind the wall of bushes walking quickly towards the driveway. She sunk lower as the figure came into full view. She could barely make out the shape of a shadowy figure emerging from the bush as the porch light cast a dim view over the backyard. Kayla waited silently as the figure moved closer. Finally able to see the woman’s face, Kayla instantly recognized her mother from the old photographs Dad kept on the wall after she had disappeared.

Her mother slipped into the old Volvo that sat humbly in the driveway, completely unaware Kayla was watching her. Licking her lips in anticipation, she waited.

No one will believe you. Wisdom reminded her. You’ll need some proof.

Kayla reached back in the house for the small digital camera she had placed neatly on the shelf by the door and stashed it in the small knapsack that lay at her feet.

After slipping in the vehicle, Mom adjusted the mirrors slightly and turned the key; the engine roared to life. The old car started up relatively easily, sitting for a few seconds chugging before making a guttural purring noise as it idled on the new asphalt.

Here we go. She slipped the knapsack over her shoulders while darting across the lawn to the large eucalyptus bush and grabbed one of the motorbike handles poking out, pulling it free. Swinging one leg over the machine she steadied and paused peeking through the branches. She didn’t want the engine and headlights bringing any attention to her, so she waited until her mother’s car had pulled out of the driveway before she started it up. Keeping a safe distance, Kayla followed the Volvo as it snaked its way through the maze of subdivisions in their neighborhood.

After what seemed like forever with the chilly air racing down her back, they finally came to a part of town that seemed quite run down and deserted. The eerie sensation that she had been there before crept under Kayla’s skin. Why would mom come to this God-forsaken place? She wondered.

As she drove through patchy fog which had begun to form, Kayla gaped at the broken scene that faded in and out of view. The streets were covered with garbage, rats and human feces. It seemed like a ghost town except for the odd beggar on the street corner looking dejected at his empty tray. Large buildings loomed in the darkness and threatened to crumble on those who would dare to walk beneath them.

Suddenly Kayla plunged into a wall of fog, unable to see anything at all. The taillight of her mother’s car were gone. Kayla’s heart raced as she fought through the cloud until it finally lifted enough to see a few feet at a time.

Searching the horizon in all directions, Kayla began to panic. The roads were empty, Mom was gone again, no taillights, no Volvo, gone. It was no use. Kayla slumped, she had been so close that time.

“Where am I? How do I get home?” Kayla questioned the night air.

“No one ever goes home from here little girl” the night hissed back.

Kayla spun around looking for where the voice may have come from but found only darkness, utter emptiness. The little hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up. She pushed the feelings aside, abandoning her bike momentarily on the sidewalk to search for someone she could ask for directions. She walked cautiously down the broken sidewalk, peering intently at every shadow as though each were a dangerous thug about to attack. She rounded the corner, and was relieved to find streetlights flooding the area. A little more at ease Kayla’s pace quickened to a stroll, that is until a curious sound rose on the cool breeze coming from one of the side alleys.

An incessant and desperate moaning grew louder as she approached an old abandoned building on her right. Oddly the sound of children laughing and playing intermingled the now clear moaning of a woman obviously in agonizing pain. The smell of death was all around her; it seeped into her nostrils and nearly suffocated her. She looked for the children she had clearly heard … and saw none. The place was abandoned and run down; in fact the only sign of any life at all was a dim light in one window where the moaning seemed to be coming from. Chills ran down her spine as she realized the voices of the children were very familiar to her, very familiar, and the laughing … was her own. She had been here as a child, how and when she wasn’t sure, but she knew this place. A creepy sensation filled Kayla with a sense of knowing, but she wasn’t willing to accept it, her father had told her where she grew up and this wasn’t it.

Kayla wheeled around, even more desperate now to leave this place behind, she headed back to her bike. Beside the bike an elderly man now sat hunched over on the curb, he appeared to be covered in oozing sores and he reeked of alcohol. The man reached out to grab Kayla but he just missed her leg as she swung it over the seat straddled the bike and turned the ignition. The unbearable stench of this whole place made Kayla want to vomit and she couldn’t stand it any longer; pushing the thoughts from her mind and pressing on the handlebar accelerator hard she held her breath until her lungs ached for oxygen.

Kayla rode for about half a mile until all at once it seemed the thick blanket of fog engulfed her completely, wrapping her in its white mass until she was blinded.

Suddenly a loud blaring noise pierced through the cloud and bright lights raced by Kayla as, startled, she fell back on her bike and came crashing to the ground. Kayla looked up and caught a different pair of taillights belonging to a large pickup truck swerving all over the road. Somewhere in the back of her mind a hazy realization.

Get up. You’re in the middle of an intersection.

Wisdom was right, she had to get up and get out of there. She dragged her aching limbs until they were at right angles to support her weight and pushed with every ounce of strength she could muster. She collapsed several times crashing hard into the pavement.

You have to move, NOW! Wisdom screamed.

It was then that she heard the eerie sound of the screeching tires and air brakes. Kayla spun around in time to see the front grill of a moving van hurtling towards her. The driver tried to steer the massive vehicle to the side but its wheels kicked out from underneath and launched the entire truck three feet in the air. Kayla frantically scrambled to get away. Her arms flung forward as though she would take off in flight but she remained rooted in place. Panic swelled in her chest as she crumpled under her own frail weight. She grabbed at the pavement desperately trying to pull her body to the side.

Bright lights and sound of the loud horn hurtled closer, a scream that sounded totally unlike her own came out of her throat and filled her brain with paralyzing fear.

She felt a sharp tightening wrap around her mid-section. A forceful jerk folded her in half and sent pain radiating violently from her middle out to either end of her body.

Her limbs flung like a rag doll as she rolled and tumbled hitting the curb with a thud.

Dizzy and disoriented Kayla was sure every bone in her body was broken. Am I dead?

The stars in the night sky fell to within an inch of her face and spun above her.

Just before she blacked out Kayla saw large army boots beneath a black dress coming fast towards her.

Fourteen years…and this is it …the way my life ends.

_____________________________________________

“Take it to the back of the warehouse, and get a move on it!” Claude’s gruff voice filled the loud speaker outside the small booth he spent his long days cooped up in.

He stretched his sore knee as he pressed the buzzer opening the large gate which led to the warehouse. The years had worn on him and while he still did his job with passion and confidence, his strength had been waning of late. He knew he couldn’t let on that he was sore and tired, so he only pushed harder; there was no room in this compound for the weak and he knew that all too well. Claude had been dubbed the enforcer of the Ottawa Region MAGOG compound, and for good reason. Just last week he caught a young man in his 30s sleeping on duty in the barracks instead of guarding the weaponry hold and sent him to the pit without even blinking an eye. The pit was a dreadful place, Claude had been there several times himself, the punishment for mistakes on duty or for breaking compound rules was severe, and he still had the scars to remind him.

“Hey old man” a voice behind him pulled him from his thoughts. He felt her arms wrap warmly around his shoulders.

“Analie, you know better than to be in here! You want to get us both in trouble now?” Claude huffed. He was furious with her, had he not taught her better than that? He felt the familiar anger well up inside. He turned to look at her, planning to scold her fiercely, but then melted when he saw her face. She made her usual puppy eyes to curb his wrath and he smiled slightly; they both knew he was glad to see her. She was a ray of sunshine in his otherwise dreary day.

“Oh come on Claudifer! I just wanted come and say hi, I won’t stay long,” she teased him.

Claude had done his best to shield Ana from the horrors that can happen in this place; he would do anything to keep her from coming to the same end as his own daughter Tabitha. She had sadly committed suicide the year before Ana was inducted. He had volunteered to take Ana in; she was only in her twenties then, the same age as his little girl had been. He figured it was a sign, a second chance to do things right.

“What is he bringing to the warehouse?”

“You know I can’t tell you that” Claude scolded her, “the contents of the warehouse are not for you to know, its classified information.”

Ana looked down knowing she had stepped over the line, he didn’t like scolding her but he knew it was for her own good. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder giving it a slight squeeze to reassure her.

“So what are you cooking in that kitchen, I can smell it from here and my tummy is rumbling!” he laughed a hearty laugh that made her smile again.
“Well, you will just have to wait and see mister! I have a surprise for you.” Ana said with a twinkle in her eye and then spun on her heel letting her hair brush his face as she strode out, but not before looking back to wave goodbye as she closed the door.

Two minutes later, the door slammed again and Claude grinned. “See I knew you couldn’t wait to tell me about your new masterpiece dish!”

Turning around he immediately stopped grinning “uh, sorry sir. I uh, thought you were someone else.”

“Claude, your needed in the main building now, I will man your post.”

“Yes sir.”

Claude left the small room wondering why he had been summoned. He couldn’t remember doing anything wrong, which was normally the reason, but then the rules did change quite often… so often in fact, that it was entirely possible to break one you had no idea existed. He began to worry but pushed the fears to the back of his mind knowing it would do him no good. Whatever would happen would happen now whether he wanted it to or not, that was a lesson he had learned long ago. The whole compound was about the size of seven football fields and the main building stood directly in the middle. Since the warehouse was on the outer edge, it took Claude nearly an hour to walk there and his knee was throbbing by the time he entered the massive doors.

He stopped briefly at the front desk to report his arrival and was ushered into the great room to wait. While he waited, Claude admired the polished grandeur of the décor. Large marble statues stood in each corner and gold leaves trimmed the ceiling. The plush carpet under his feet would have felt like heaven if he were allowed to walk barefoot but his boots nearly never left his feet. He pondered what it would be like to settle into the large pillow-topped sofa with a newspaper instead of the hard, wooden chairs he was given for his quarters.

The door slammed pulling Claude from his thoughts. He spun quickly and found Roche filling the door frame. Claude stood at attention as Roche entered the room in a smoldering rage. It occurred to Claude that he had never seen his leader more grave than he seemed in that moment. Whatever he had summoned Claude for, Roche was not happy about it.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2