Barely Human

Chapter 32

hey guys. another chapter as promised, though not as fast as  i would have liked. oh well. i hope you guys still enjoy it. i know that i am. let me know what you think.

Chapter 32

I force my thoughts into its brain and feel the natural resistance. It doesn’t like being told what to do, I can tell that much. But it also can’t disobey.  The shadow retreats, gliding smoothly to the ground, before disappearing completely under the earth.

Sam approaches me from behind. “What on earth was that?”

“I told it to leave,” I say. “And it did.”

“But how?” he counters. “It was going to kill us and you just magically made it stop?”

“Pretty much.” I can’t stop staring at the spot where it vanished. For whatever reason I can’t believe that it just disappeared. And even though the creature is gone, Lillie and Jacob are still not back, which means… 

“We have to go find that thing.”

“Are you crazy?” Sam asks.

“Maybe a little bit,” I respond. “But that thing has Lillie and Jacob. I can’t just ignore that.”

“It could also be a trap.”

“It probably is.” I lower myself to the ground quickly and break out into a sprint as soon as my feet touch. Sam shouts for me to wait but I don’t break pace. Before I know it, the trees around me are nothing more than a blur and I know that there is no way now that Sam can catch up. And I don’t even know where I’m going.

I stop running and lean against a nearby tree. A few nearby leaves rustle with the wind and I immediately turn my head in that direction. A dark shadow passes through a gap in the branches, though it could just be my imagination. When Sam finally arrives, the creature is nowhere to be found.

He leans over resting his hands on his knees. “Did you really have to run so fast?” he asks between breaths.

“No but I did.”

“Great.”

We stand in silence while Sam catches his breath. He walks toward me and slides to the ground, his back against the tree trunk. “You don’t have to go chasing after danger, you know,” he says.

“I know.”

“Then why do you?”

I shrug and take a seat next to Sam. “I guess I just feel like I have to make up for my dad. Like this is all somehow my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know.”

He sighs and puts an arm around my shoulder drawing me into his side. A slight wind blows through the forest, the frozen grass waving under its pressure and if I look at just the right angle, I can see a few lonely flakes of snow. A smile crosses my face and I lean into Sam’s side. Another sigh. “You really want to go now don’t you?”

I nod.

“Then I guess we’re going.” He pulls his arm back and stands, brushing dirt off his pants and turns back to me. “Unless you’ve changed your mind?”

The snow is falling harder now and I would be so much easier to just go back inside and sit in safety. Unfortunately that’s not an option. “Not a chance.”

***

Half an hour later we are walking up the long dirt path to a remote little house just outside of Denver, Colorado. I knew that this is where the monster took Lillie and Jacob so we came right here. I also know that Sam is a little freaked out that I could mind-control the shadow into leaving us alone but there isn’t really anything I can do about that now

I take the two steps up the rickety old porch and knock on the door. Something shuffles behind the door and then it opens.

Standing before me is an old man who is probably over eighty years old. I have a hard time believing that he houses an evil science lab beneath his house but it’s the exact description that Jacob gave us before we left Washington. A random house just outside of Denver. The man looks shocked to see us.

“I-What?” the man stutters.

Sam smiles and holds out his hand to the man. “Hello, sir. My name is Sam and this is Casey,” he says gesturing to me. “We’re here to follow up on something my friend found a few weeks ago.”

The man’s face falls slack. He shakes his head, slowly at first, then with more vigor. “No!” he shouts. “No you can’t come in. I don’t want any more of you crazy government people in my house. And you can tell your boss I said so!” he slams the door- or tries to.

I stick my foot out and just in time it falls between the door and the doorjamb. The frightened man looks up at me in horror. “Look, sir, we don’t want to hurt you,” I say soothingly. “We aren’t with the government. We’re actually against them. They did this to us,” I turn so that he can see my wings, “and we want to get them back for it.”

His eyes widen and he steps back from the door. “Please come in,” he says.

I look back at Sam, who shakes his head, before walking into the house. The house is just as small on the inside as it looks on the out. The foyer is the living room and I can see the kitchen off to the right. Two closed doors lay straight ahead. The old man walks shakily through the living room and toward the back of the room. He glances over his shoulder periodically to make sure we are following, I think, and when he reaches one of the doors he pulls a key out of his pocket.

“I can’t go all the way down but this will get you kids to the locked door,” he says handing Sam the key.

“Thank you, Mr. …”

“Smith.”

“Thanks Mr. Smith,” I say.

Sam leans forward and fits the key into the lock, opening the wooden door. Shadows greet us as Sam and I make our way down the rickety stairs. The door drifts closed behind us and we are plunged into utter darkness. I reach out to my left and grab the railing to steady myself and so that I don’t trip.

“Is there a light switch anywhere?” Sam asks me from ahead.

“Maybe.” I feel up the wall for anything resembling a light switch. When my hand brushes against a chain hanging from the ceiling I almost shout for joy. I grab it and pull causing a series of lights to turn on.

The previously black stairwell is now lit, though dimly, and I can see that it is a spiral that continues to twist ever downwards. I can make out a landing a few more flights down and I wonder if that is where the mysteriously locked door is. The stairs and walls are rotting and moist. It’s a bit disgusting but I would guess that poor Mr. Smith hasn’t been down here in a while.

We continue down the stairs and soon enough reach the bottom. There are boxes upon boxes piled from floor to ceiling on all walls but one. Embedded in that wall is a lone metal door with a keypad sitting on a stand next to it. I’ll give them this- the freaky scientists are good at keeping a secret.

“Is that it?” I ask.

Sam nods. “I think so.”