Chapter 47
She thought it odd no part of herself was trying to stop her. Then again, why should it? An end to her life would help everyone, including herself. She was sick of all the struggle and pain of her existence.
Sharon squeezed the trigger tighter.
“You touched one of them,” Creo guessed, “didn’t you?”
Her hand began shaking. The gun felt so heavy.
He clapped his hands and a flash of light blinded her—
—and she heard a loud bang. Her left ear immediately began ringing. A shot to the head should take the ear out completely though. It should take consciousness and life away as well.
She looked at the gun. Smoke climbed out the barrel. She dropped it and felt the side of her head. No hole there. No blood gushing. What happened? Before the gun went off, she must have wavered in her commitment. That was a relief. Wasn’t it?
Yes. It was.
Sure it was.
She began shaking all over. What had she almost done? Why had she believed she wasn’t worthy of life? She didn’t understand now what seemed obvious seconds ago.
“Will you get in here?” Creo shouted over the persevering ringing in her right ear.
She looked behind her just in time to see Joe thrust his wife’s head into the ground for the last time.
Mary lay dead. He stood up. He looked content for just a moment, and then began running down the road as though he were a football player sprinting through opposing team members, lurching from side to side, lunging forward, but he was the only player out there. He disappeared behind several bushes and oak trees.
“They won’t bother us again,” Creo said out the door. “But some of the other campers might. Now let’s get moving.”
Sharon slowly stood up, feeling a little dazed, probably from the disturbed emotions that had flowed through her the last minute.
“Quickly move! Something feels wrong.”
She climbed into the front passenger seat, almost twisting her ankle on the screwdriver resting on the floor, and closed the door.
Creo had the heater on, but it was blowing out cold air. The engine hadn’t warmed up yet. She realized how cold she was and saw they were all shivering, except for Adriana and Cindy.
Laif was in the back, without the jacket over his head. It was nice to see his face again, despite pain wrinkling it. He was pressing his right hand against his left side where he had been shot.
She breathed easier knowing he was alive. This time—unlike the tragedy with her sister—Sharon’s words did make a difference.
Before she could speak, he smiled and said, “Thanks for the heads-up.”
She wondered how she could have thought he was a bad person. She still wasn’t sure about Creo, but Laif was good. Lies must have seeped into her when she had touched the Brewsters’ dark clouds. She hated lies.
Creo was traveling fast along the dirt road, making each bump bounce everyone in their seats. The headlights illuminated droplets of rain, the slick road, trunks of trees on both sides and branches above. But it did more than just illuminate. It cast hundreds shadows, dancing and frolicking all around them. The taillights flickered black ghosts diving and drifting on the road behind.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that something still stalked them, hidden in the night.
She reached back and touched Cindy’s forehead. It was hot. The girl’s eyes were fixed on the back of Creo’s seat, unaware. Adriana began stirring, moaning a little. Sharon climbed back beside Laif so she could help comfort Adriana. The girl was leaning against the door and her arms were slowly moving. Her painted skin was cool. Sharon pulled off her jacket and draped it around the girl.
Adriana mumbled something.
“What did she say?” Sharon asked.
Laif replied, “I couldn’t understand.”
“Why is it so cold in here, Creo?”
He fiddled with the heat adjustment, but it didn’t bring in any warm air. “The car usually warms up by now, at least a little.” Creo pushed the air conditioning button on and off. “The air isn’t on. The heater must be taking it’s time.”
“But it’s so cold.” She went back to the front.
The night sky seemed to rub against the light of the headlamps, dimming the road ahead. After a minute more of driving in silence, it appeared as though soot were raining down, causing everything to become rich darkness.
“What are we driving through? What is this?”
“Something’s wrong.” Creo pushed the gas pedal, but the car only choked and lunged ahead in spurts.
Adriana opened her eyes and straightened herself. In a dry voice, she said, “Where am I?”
Laif put his good arm around her shoulders to steady her. Despite appearing tired, she smiled up at him. When her eyes lowered and caught sight of Cindy, she cried in a tormented voice, “She’s part of it.”
Cindy woke from her daze.
The headlights only illuminated ten feet ahead of them now, slowing progress, but it really didn’t matter because the car had stalled, and Creo was trying to restart it as they coasted slowly along the dirt road.
Watching the windows, Laif’s eyes were haunted. “Something’s around us.”
Adriana shivered whenever Cindy looked at her. “It’s inside Cindy. I saw darkness come out of her mouth.”
“What darkness?” Sharon asked.
Her voice was thin and scratchy, eyes pleading to be understood. “The stuff, the tiny fingers that crawl. Their whispers. They’re around the car.”
“What is around the car?”
“It tried to hurt me bad.”
Sharon looked at Cindy. What was Adriana talking about?
“She’s not well. She’s—” Adriana began choking.
She looked at Cindy again. An inner coldness froze Sharon more than the temperature in the car. The girl’s eyes were fixed on Adriana, a malicious smile rising on her face.
“Stop her!” Adriana screamed. “Someone … stop her!”
“Would you settle down back there?” Creo ordered. “We’re not going anywhere. The car died and won’t start. So let’s just all calm down.” From outside, black smoke-like substance began entering through the air vents, and Creo flipped the switch to re-circulate the air.
“She’s shaking,” said Laif holding Adriana. “Can’t we get some heat back here?”
Adriana cried, “She’s going to do it again, to all of us. Someone stop her.”
He looked at Cindy, and Sharon saw something click in his eyes—a new understanding. He pushed Adriana away from Cindy as he reached for the door handle, but Creo locked the doors from the front, and said, “You’ll let it in, whatever it is that’s out there.”
Laif blurted, “Cindy’s turned to darkness.”
Creo flipped around in his seat, looked closely into Cindy’s eyes, which were now wide and focused on Adriana, and said, “God damn—”
—Cindy opened her mouth and coughed, sending billows of blackness which covered Laif and Adriana, and then she turned-jerked to the front and vomited several streams of black air.
Sharon consciously tried not to breathe. The air felt cold and dry, but Cindy kept coughing and retching, and Sharon rolled down her window as a last attempt to freshen the air—
—something rushed in and then nothing—
—When she began to come to, a fresh breeze was blowing through her window. The sun was coloring the sky turquoise in the east over the hills, but the rest of the sky was still black, not the solid black like it had been, but natural dark with a spattering of stars.
Somehow, with no clouds, it was raining lightly. Sharon had no idea how much time had passed.
“Close the window!” Laif exclaimed. “The rain is on fire.”
But she just saw droplets of water falling.
Creo coughed in the seat beside her. Diamond glittering air expelled from his lungs. It illuminated a darkness around his light. As he continued coughing, the vision of darkness which surrounded him grew.
“He’s evil!” Adriana and Cindy said in unison, faces twisted in anger like twin sisters of some odd genetic happenchance. Their voices mixed perfectly in harmony to a tune of absolute beauty in Sharon’s heart. “He’s turned bad. Get him!”
Although Sharon had some recognition that the bonding of the two girls was different than before, it seemed natural, right.
Creo coughed again so that a little of the diamond-like air billowed to Adriana. Her face flickered to an expression of sadness and terror—for just moment—and quickly wrenched back to anger.
“How can it be?” said Laif, still looking at the rain falling. “Trails of fire ... it is impossible.”
“Hurt him!” Adriana and Cindy said in unison. Their voices tugged Sharon’s heart. Her life was all about helping children, and these children were calling out to her at the deepest level any child had done before. It was as though her sister and all her failures in foster care had been resurrected and joined the chorus with Adriana and Cindy. The tune reverberated in her soul that Creo was evil. He is the cloud of darkness. He is the creator of all the chaos tonight.
This change felt strangely familiar to her. Was this another trick of dust, mist, or shadow? There’s no rotten egg smell, but there is a horde of shadows.
His voice was hoarse. “We’re inside a lie. Don’t listen.” He seemed to be having trouble breathing. Maybe all those Cubans he had smoked were finally catching up to him. She felt elated, as though she had just drank three shots of whiskey, and all her muscles were tired but in a good, relaxing way.
This is no lie. This is real. She decided that if ever there was a trick, it had been going on before this.
“It cannot be.” Laif cried. “I have faced my fear. It has no power over me.” He crawled over Sharon, pushing open her door, falling into the rain. He sank down into a muddy mess, body twitching as each droplet seemed to sear his skin.
She found herself driven to pick up the screwdriver that was on the floorboard. The only way to make up for all her failures was to put this evil to rest right now.
She turned to Creo and half-heartedly jabbed the screwdriver into his ribs. It must have hit bone or something because it bounced back, but it made him turn to her in his fit of coughs and expel one onto her face. She reflexively blinked and held her breath. Breathing his air was disgusting and felt violating.
She scooted away, stepped outside the SUV, and kicked Laif. “Get up and help me!” She pushed him with her foot. “We have to stop Creo. He’s hurting the girls.”
Laif’s body was convulsing in pain. How on earth was he going to help? He was a pathetic child. She remembered the gun and wished she had never thrown it away. A few shooting stars scratched across the sky from the east where the sun was trying to rise.
Laif pulled himself up, using her legs and body as support.
“Get off me.”
“I love you, Sharon.”
“What?”
“I love you. You’re an amazing woman. Your love hasn’t failed. It never did.”
Her heart fluttered. It was a warm rising feeling that drove against the elated feeling she had previously felt. It felt real. “This is hardly the time for this. We need to get rid of Creo.”
“It’s the perfect time. In the midst of darkness, truth guides us. Our hearts guide us.”
“You’re crazy.” She slapped his face. “Snap out of it. We have to deal with Creo. You hold him while I shove this screwdriver into his chest.”
“Listen to him,” Creo coughed from the driver’s seat.
Adriana and Cindy climbed behind him and pulled his red hair, holding him back from coughing out more diamond white air. They yelled, “Kill him, Sharon. Do it now.”
But Laif held her back. “You are my soul-mate.”
She shook him off her, and he easily fell to the ground, the rain beating him down. She felt relieved. He had become a burden and a nuisance in the last hour or so, and she wondered how she could have felt love for him before.
The twin girls pulled tight on Creo’s hair. They were out of the way of the white cloud, positioned safely behind Creo’s seat. They didn’t need to speak. Their eyes told the whole story of the evil he had committed: killing, beating, and molesting children in the name of goodness. He was the biggest hypocrite on earth.
How come Laif never forced this asshole to see the truth? Well she would bring some reality into his diseased bubble. She rushed at him and as she did, he ripped his head from the girls’ grasp, losing fistfuls of hair, and released a high velocity sneeze at her face. She blinked her eyes closed but had been taking a breath to prepare to thrust the screwdriver into him, and sucked in his moist, sparkling air—
—and when her eyes reopened, the car was dark again. The sun had not been rising. The rain was heavy, making much noise. No shooting stars were in the sky. The girls looked like frantic dolls trying to get hold of Creo, but too afraid to touch the gem-like air surrounding him.
The darkness that was revealed spun all around the car and Cindy’s mouth was curling with it.
It’s the lie that Creo warned us about, Sharon thought. Everyone is being manipulated by it. As she breathed it in again, she felt dizzy and felt herself going back to the fantasy of daylight at night that she had just shaken.
She knew what she must do. She jumped onto Creo’s lap and into his glittering sphere of air. Her head was right next to his and she breathed and saw that Adriana was still breathing in darkness. How were they going to save her?
Creo seemed to be breathing less and less, as though slowly being suffocated. He couldn’t possibly fight all the sooty clouds around them for much longer.
Then she saw Laif, crawling out of the heavy rain, soaked and dirty, but shinning with a light of his own. It was different than Creo’s. It came out of his body as though it and he were the same. At that moment, although she knew he was just a man, he looked angelic.
As he got closer, his light brightened. In his eyes, love spoke to her, as though it were sound, vibrating through her chest, making her feel tingly inside.
He put one arm around her. It felt like summer sun. With his other hand, he grabbed Creo’s hand and together they shone as one, too bright for her to continue with her eyes open.
She heard Cindy screaming and Adriana breathing rapidly and crying.
She didn’t know how long she sat there with her eyes closed, but when it grew dim again, she opened them and saw Cindy sitting back in her seat, eyes glazed over again.
“What happened?” Adriana asked, blinking. She looked over at Cindy. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She has withdrawn,” explained Creo. “Retreated to a place far away.”
“It’s sad,” Laif added. “But it was the only way.”
“Some truth touched her, I’m sure. She may not be lost.” Creo cleared his throat. “I’m proud of you, Laif. You’ve faced yourself.”
He put his hand on Creo’s shoulder. “Thank you, friend.”
Creo looked confused and worried at the same time.
Sharon went to check on Cindy. Her heart dropped. The girl’s eyes appeared so vacant. She didn’t return Sharon’s hug.
Laif asked, “What’s the matter, Creo?”
He was bent over and rocking his body as though he had swallowed something upsetting.
Adriana touched Cindy’s arms. Cindy was autistic, not reacting at all. Sharon hoped to God this girl could come back. As far as she was concerned, the Brewsters’ diseased state was not passed on to their daughter.
Creo said, “I didn’t feel it before. How could I have missed it?”
“Missed what?” questioned Laif.
He picked up the screwdriver from the floor, doubt and ambivalence on his face as he looked at Adriana. “Adriana … she is …”
“What?”
“She will affect many lives in a positive way. Or at least one important life. I don’t know how … not by any extra-sensory gift like Cindy’s, but in normal ways … maybe teaching … maybe just helping people, maybe compassion … someone great will benefit. She is very good.”
Laif looked admiringly at the girl, and she batted her eyes at him with an embarrassed, slight smile.
“She’s too good, Laif. The scales of good and evil will tip too far to the good side. She …”
“What do you mean?” Sharon blurted from the back, hugging Adriana and Cindy tightly in her arms.
Creo looked conflicted, clutching his knees, bending over, rocking his body. “Now that the evil inside Cindy is gone, it is obvious. Before it was hidden. Like things were more balanced, but now I can see. We must—”
“Now just you stop right there,” she warned. “Cover your ears, Adriana.”
The girl plugged her ears with her fingers.
Creo’s face looked terribly pained. He held his head in his hands with the screwdriver grasped tightly in his right hand.
“This is your lie you tell yourself,” Sharon said. “You think you’re different than your parents. You’re the same. You hold onto a moral calling rather than true helping and caring for people as the primary goal. Like your superficially religious parents, you place too much importance on principals and scales to weigh the right things to do or the signs in the stars or some other bullshit. Sometimes you just have to listen to your heart. Mine tells me this girl is special.”
“Yes,” Creo said thinly. “Too special.”
“Grow up, Creo. There can never be enough goodness in this world. Don’t you see? There’s evil here inside us right now. It’s in everyone all the time, ready to stick its ugly head out.” She hugged Adriana tighter. “We have to fight it. We have to be ready for it. And no matter how good we become as a species, it will always be there.”
He bowed his head between his knees and held it there.
“She’s right,” Laif agreed. “We have to embrace whatever goodness comes along when it comes. It’s goodness that's fleeting, fragile, and scarce. Look how it had disappeared within Cindy. Look how it's forever lost in Sunny. When we find goodness we have to treasure it, nurture it, and hold onto it, not try to keep it balanced with evil. Evil will always find a way to catch up and trail goodness. It is the easier road.”
Fred, the gecko, stuck his reptilian head out from under Creo’s seat. He extended his tongue several times, testing the air, then scampered up Creo’s leg.
“Sunny loved Fred. They would hang out and watch the moonlight outside the bathroom window together.” Creo dropped the screwdriver on the floor and held Fred in his hands. “How can we be sure evil will easily catch up?”
“Look how easy it flows within us, and we’ve tried our hardest to rid ourselves of it.”
“I just don’t know anymore, Laif. It’s all confusing now.”
“You’re good. Your deeds have created that. Just let that goodness continue to flow.”
“I feel lost, my purpose torn.”
“We all feel that when we take a big step to grow. We just need to wait until we catch up with that growth. You’ll feel centered again.”
Creo sat there in the driver’s seat with Fred, crying for ten minutes, crying about things of which Sharon had no idea. Maybe things he had done or ideas in his head that he felt ashamed of now, maybe about what he almost was going to do, maybe about Sunny, maybe about parents he wished he had, maybe about losing himself—she didn’t know. She didn’t care. She just held the two precious girls in her arms, one with psychic powers and the other with a single leg but a big heart.
They stayed there parked on that road for an hour.
She and Laif discussed what they would tell the police. They decided to tell as much of the truth as the police could handle: about the child abuse and kidnapping that Mary and Joe had committed; about Joe going crazy and killing his wife; about the bearded man shooting Laif, and then having a heart attack when tripped to the ground.
The stuff about light and dark, they would keep to themselves.
They drove off with the morning sun on them, reaching across the mountains and caressing their wounds and wet clothing.