Red Discord

Chapter 9

Kassy’s hands dropped to her side, her mouth an open jar. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and from the way James dropped the newspaper in his hand (from which he bought on their way to Kassy’s house at a gas station along the way), the feeling was mutual. James’ hands shook and his heart dropped.

“By God.”

In front of them stood Kassy’s house exactly as it had been before the bombing.

“It’s exactly the same.”

No one seemed to find it odd or out of place. They all continued on with their lives as they had before, either not noticing the house or forgetting what had once happened there. The residence was treated as if it had always been there, as if it had belonged there.

Kassy took a step back. She placed her hand on her palm, her head spinning in confusion with too many thoughts racing past her. “Was there really an accident?”

“Kassy.” James placed his hand on her shoulder, gripping it firmly yet softly reassuringly. It was like a warmth that clung to you on a cold winters day. His eyes locked onto hers. “We can’t have both gone crazy. I’m sure this this happened; I know it did.”

“Then why is my fucking house back to where it was?” Her voice quivered like an earthquake. She didn’t try to hide it, more so, she embraced her fear. Her hands flew up in the air. “Why does no one notice?! James, this isn’t natural.”

“I know that!” he snapped. “You don’t think I don’t fucking know that?!”

“Then why?” She shoved James on his shoulders, sending him stumbling off backwards. “Why, James, why?”

“Because—”

A balloon animal of a dog blew down the quiet street. It was an eerie quiet neither Kassy nor James had seen coming, like it appeared out of thin air. The green balloon bobbed up and down on the lone cement road. Both Kassy and James were frozen in terror.

Kassy looked to her brother. “Where are we?”

“Home.”

Kassy stepped back with her house agap. She grabbed her arms, but they still shivered uncontrollably no matter how hard she held herself. James didn’t move either. His brain was too shocked. It was still hung up on what they had both heard to register anything else. Kassy clung to James and cried into his chest, telling him about how scared she was and how stupid she was. James didn’t move. It was like he was in a world of his own, ignorant of Kassy, ignorant of the world, all except for that house.

The door creaked open. It was slow, like how a child would try to slowly open a door without making any noise. There was something different about it, Kassy noted as she looked at it. Something was off, like all the warm, friendly light she remembered when that door opened had been sucked out by a vacuum cleaner as if it were some dust, and all that was left was darkness; such darkness like it had engulfed the house in a pit from hell, a deep, dark pit.

A chuckling laughter came. James and Kassy both jumped, all the hair on their bodies standing up. There was something dark about that laugh, something evil, and it scared them both.

“What the hell was that?” James snapped.

“I don’t know!” Kassy snapped back, obviously just as scared and confused as her brother. Then she began to shake again. She bent down, rested her butt on her legs while her toes propped her body up above the ground, and grabbed her legs, rocking herself back and forth.

James stared at his feet, his hands clenched in fists at his sides. “If... if that ‘thing’ is in there, then there’s one simple thing we have to do—we have to save the world. We have to kill it!”