The Lark Taps Twice

Chapter 5: A Bathroom, Of Sorts

Miriam's body felt as though it might explode by the time she spotted a small store with a car out front. A blackened crater divotted the adjacent parking lot, and black soot coated the closest wall to the damage. Plywood covered half of the large front window, and some of the ornate brickwork of the façade had crumbled to the sidewalk.

"You all stay here, and stay out of sight. I will be right back, hopefully with dry pants and directions to the museum. With luck, I will have information about the state of the town and the possibility of a safe place to sleep. Bye!"

When only the lark lifted his head to give her a sleepy nod before relaxing back into slumber, Miriam used the switch on the door to lock the vehicle quietly before closing the door with snail speed. A peek through the window revealed no movement of the occupants, so Miriam glanced both ways down the deserted street and dashed across the pavement to the shop.

Before entering, she pulled the wishstone from her pocket. "I wish to find all the information I need and a working bathroom with a full roll of TP," she murmured. No sense leaving something so important to chance.

The bunch of jingle bells dangling from the inside handle of the door announced her entrance with a cheerful chaos of chimes, in stark contrast to the shopkeeper who glared at her from behind the counter. Despite its height and width, the surface barely reached the man's hips, which were certainly wider than the counter. His dirty coveralls and wrinkled black and red plaid shirt fit loosely, and his long dark beard and hair hung in thick hanks, and soot streaked the skin of his hands and arms.

"What do you want?" As he growled the words, the man bent slightly and planted his palms on the counter with a bang. Her aching bladder was the only reason Miriam didn't turn and run, and as it was, she wasn't positive her underwear remained dry.

"Um, excuse me, sir," she murmured. "Do you have a restroom I can use? I promise to buy something after I use it, but I am in desperate need." Then she held her breath and clenched her legs together.

Bushy brows dropped to create pools of darkness where the man's eyes had been, and his upper lip twitched. Already wondering if she could make it to a cluster of azalea bushes she had spotted a block back, Miriam moved backward a step and pressed her back to the door.

A deep grumbling sigh, and then, "Be careful, and don't linger. The roof is damaged back there, and you never know what might creep in once full dark settles in. Last aisle, turn left, and it's the door at the end on the right." The giant waved a hand in the indicated direction, and Miriam rushed toward the promised place of relief, shouting her gratitude over her shoulder as she ran.

Pressure released, Miriam pondered what the shopkeeper said about the state of the bathroom while she washed her hands. Black dust coated many surfaces in the tiny space, and the mirror above the sink sported a thick crack down the center of the glass. The pink glow of sunset peeked in from a large hole in the corner, an entire section of roof missing, ragged edges attesting to the violence of its removal.

Yet even her surroundings couldn't distract her from the mention of threatening things crawling into the bathroom via that hole. Was he referring to bugs, like spiders, or perhaps a rabid squirrel? Surely nothing large or truly dangerous would enter a gap on a building's roof by accident, so why the ominous warning?

Realizing she was lingering, as had been forbidden, she grabbed a paper towel from a roll mounted on the wall to dry her hands and headed back the way she came, taking care to close the door completely behind her just in case. At the counter, the shopkeeper gave her a small approving smile that faded into displeasure.

"I can tell you are an intelligent young woman. So why on God's green earth would you come here? Come to think of it, how did you get here? Most people forgot this place existed once the curse appeared. You're the first stranger I've seen in a month." His eyes narrowed as they scanned her body up and down, then met her own startled gaze with piercing intensity as he leaned forward. "Or are you one of them, scouting out anything yet to be completely destroyed? Well? Declare yourself!"

"I - I - I ... I don't know what you are talking about," she stammered. Moment of truth, Miri; do I tell him the real reason I am here and risk getting tossed out as a quack without any information, or tell a lie and hope he doesn't think that makes me one of "them", whoever they are. The pain hiding in the man's fierce expression made up her mind. "The truth is that this whole trip was spur-of-the-moment; I only decided I was coming last night, late after someone mentioned the museum here, and I have been driving all day. What happened?"

The shopkeeper studied her without speaking for three breaths. She thought he wasn't going to answer and opened her mouth to bid him goodbye, but he stopped her with a sudden smile.

"Is your car outside?" he asked eagerly.

"Yeeess...," she answered, resisting the urge to correct him about her Jeep. Time enough for that later.

"Great! Let me lock up, and you can drive me home. I'll tell you anything you want to know on the way. Sound good?" He held out a hand twice the size of her own and waved it between them twice before it went still.

What if he is actually one of the bad guys, the ones who caused all the damage to the building, and the store is just a trap for gullible visitors, and he means to put me in a casserole to eat once we arrive at his home? Even if I tried to get away, he could catch me in a step or two. I may as well see this through. And she grasped his pinky and ring fingers and shook them.

"My Jeep is just across the street, and I hope you like animals!"

She dashed out the door before the confusion cleared from his face and crossed the still deserted street in the glow of twilight. She pushed the key into the lock and was poised to yank open the door when an indistinct shadow approaching on the sidewalk caught her attention.

The beast paced toward her like a panther hunting an oblivious goat, but it did not possess any distinct feline traits. In fact, she was hard-pressed to make out anything specific about it, other than the general impression of an animal moving with practiced deliberation, and the specific impression that the creature was contemplating where to start devouring her.

In her burst of panic, Miriam twisted the key the wrong way, relocking the door, and when she tried again, her trembling fingers hooked in the keyring and sent keys and ring flying; they struck the pavement in the center of the road with a loud clunk almost drowned out by the pounding of her heart.

The malicious shadow reached the Jeep's front bumper and crouched out of sight, and Miriam faced the worst decision of her life. If she ran to get the keys, the animal would pounce, and her mysterious journey would be at an abrupt end, and if she waited, the beast would creep around (or under) the vehicle in seconds, and the end would be the same. How do I choose the lesser of the two evils, when both evils are the same?

A tendril of shadow, like a wisp of black smoke, wafted up from the other side of the hood, zigzagging as it rose and dissipated, the frequency of the pattern increasing with each repeat, like the twitching of a cat's tail just before it leaps.

No more time.

She spun and raced for the keys.

The shadow panther threw itself after her, only one long stride behind, ribbons of darkness surging ahead to grab her-

The world went black.