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Friday, January 23, 2015

Chapter 11 Part 3

Skye screamed so loud that the dogs, who had been sitting patiently beside their bowls as Savannah maneuvered a big scoop in their dog food bag began to bark furiously and race out of the room. Their breakfast had been forgotten at the thought of protecting Skye. Kona being larger than Angel took the stairs in large strides, 3 at a time and beat the shorter legged dog to the bottom of the ladder and stared up at the hole and growled. Skye screamed so loud that Cyrus jumped and let out a small squeal himself. Skye paid no attention as she fought the urge to jump on the couch and hope the rodent would run the other way but right away she saw it scurry under the couch that she briefly thought of as her temporary refuge.

   She had always hated them, mice, rats, gerbils any of the small disease carrying monsters. She didn’t even think Gerbils carried diseases but who knew? As she fought the urge to run, she turned to Cyrus who had come up beside her so silently and he was laughing so hard that no sound came out. “Shut up…” she said breathlessly with her hands shaking and then added “or you’re grounded…again.” Her skin was pale and Cyrus’ laughter faded. He had to prepare to hold her up for fear of her passing out all over again. “Oh god…rats? Why rats?” and just like that her head started pounding again and she felt woozy.

   Cyrus held her steady and was looking in the direction that the furry creature had gone and after a small twitch of his nose (little things he wasn't even aware that he was doing yet) he had realized something that his mother wouldn't like, “It’s not a rat mom.” He said calmly and he turned to look at her.

“It is definitely not a rat.”

   24 hours before Skye spied the rat that was not a rat Gertie got off of a Greyhound bus roughly 10-12 blocks away from the Dune household. She had no idea where she was only that she was following a beat inside of her that would lead her to her mistress. The last time she had felt her, the feeling was accompanied by a vision of where Georgia was. It was brief and wavered but gave her a distinct impression of where to go and she wasn’t far.  If Gertie had thought to check that feeling again she would have noticed that she couldn’t feel Georgia anymore, but confident in the fact that she was headed in the right direction she saw no reason to double check. She had no idea that Dominic had taken her mistress away.

   Gerties hair was in a shambles and while the weather was warm she wore an over-sized sweater that was covered in moth size holes and leggings that looked as though they came from the same time period as the 70’s decor of her cottage in orange, brown and paisley. To Gertie that seemed so far away already. In her left hand was her tote bag, lightly packed because she didn’t know what to take with her and in her right was a cage covered in black cloth that housed Jack. She slowly looked right up the badly paved road and then to the left. After a brief consultation with Jack whom said nothing at this point she turned right and walked up the shoulder of the road as close to the ditch that ran along the side of it as she could so that if any cars went by that she and her parrot were safe. She stumbled once over a stone and received an outraged squawk from Jack so she minded her steps carefully after that.

   All she would have to do when she got to the residential area she was looking for would be to walk up the street until she came to the house that was in her vision hoping they didn’t all look the same. What she would do from there she didn’t know or care. All that mattered was that she fixed what was wrong…if she could…with no interference.

  Gertie felt sure that would not be the case because this time was different.

   While Gertie made her way along the road to the house, alarm was on Skye’s face now. The confusion had set in very quickly “WH…what do you mean…it’s definitely not a rat?” She didn’t try to hide the fear from her voice but to Cyrus she sounded scared enough.

“I mean…it’s not a rat.” He paused and looked into his mother’s pale face. “It’s a Squirrel mom!” he said with his arms still around her, now to stop her from bolting. “It’s just a squirrel.”

   After a moment of her brain trying to comprehend what he had just said to her, Skye relaxed a bit. “Well I don’t like those much either, but at least they’re cute and eat nuts.” She took a deep breath and side-stepped towards the ladder keeping her eyes on the couch. “It can’t stay here Cy,”

  “I know, I know.” He sighed and the tension that had been present only moments earlier had lifted and Cyrus had a smile on his face now. “Come on, let’s get some coffee into you and I’ll come back up and flush it out.” Skye didn’t need to think about that much longer than a second before she was moving full stride and had the ladder in her sights. During all of this Kona had not stopped barking and it wasn't until they saw Skye descending the ladder that she stopped. Once Skye was safely on the ground Cyrus followed her down and made sure he raised the ladder.

   Skye put her arm around his waist and mumbled about how tall he was getting as they walked to the stairs and down to the kitchen with Kona at their heels. Only Angel didn’t leave the spot under the attic door, she sat still with her head cocked to the side as she listened.

   Up in the attic, under the couch where the squirrel hid its nose poked out of its hiding spot and twitched as it sniffed the air. It dragged itself out from underneath it with its tiny sharp claws digging into the wood and pulled itself the rest of the way out. Slowly it rounded the corner of the couch leg and looked around to see an empty room and a small squirrel sized sigh came from its lips.

   The air around it began to stir and a shimmer appeared around the squirrel, a gray smoke circled it getting larger and larger like a small and gentle tornado picking up dust as it turned. There was the small sound of cracking bones and the squirrel began to pant as it’s face shifted and changed. One eye would bulge and the other still changing of and on for a series of minutes. The tiny claws retracted back into its skin as well as the brown-grey fur and fluffy tail shrunk in on themselves. When the smoky haze had dissipated there in the midst of it stood a man 6 feet tall give or take and inch and fully naked.


Friday, January 16, 2015

Chapter 11 Part 2

   Skye finally knew the pills starting to kick in when she felt the pain in her temples start to lift and ease off a little bit. Enough to be completely unaware that she was holding her breath, she then let out a long deep sigh and felt her body relax. She laid back down in her bed surrounded by her big fluffy pillows that were much too fluffy for her and a Husky that was the size of a wolf lying down beside her and the vague recollection of the wolves in her dream came to her and was just as quickly gone again. Kona taking up the rest of the room in the bed was OK, that part she didn’t mind so much since it was empty and she missed the company but it was still his side of the bed.

  All at once she felt anxious and panicked, forgetting even so soon that Cyrus was up in the attic more than likely looking for Deacon’s Journal. The journal that she has never heard of that would answer hopefully all of their questions. She bounced out of bed and her body immediately revolted making her drop to the floor and within and instant she was dry heaving. There was nothing in her stomach except the water and pills to come up, but by some small miracle they didn’t. Skye continued to wretch anyway until the muscles in her stomach and neck were sore. There was no way to make it to the bathroom so she prayed that no bile would come up and the pills would stay down as a result of the practically empty stomach.  Hoping it had been long enough for them to dissolve into her bloodstream completely.

   Her prayer was answered and as her stomach stopped convulsing the gagging stopped as well. She could feel beads of sweat on her brow and goosebumps erupt on her arms once the spasms stopped and her blood cooled. With shaky legs she attempted to stand being sure to do so slowly. Even though her body was vibrating all over she found that once standing and fully upright it made her feel better.

   “Ok…” she said under her breath and steeled herself as she took two steps forward to the closet where her robe was hanging from the hook on the back of the door. As soon as she picked it up Kona stood up on the bed and at once gave herself her morning shake.

  “Kona! Get off the damn bed!” she yelled and her head threatened to pound once again. Kona jumped down and pranced around her masters’ feet tripping her up as Skye tried to walk out into the hall. Once she got out into the hall and around the big hairy beast of a dog, she took hold of the balcony railing and leaned over it yelling, “Kyra, let Kona out please!” her voice was like thunder inside her head but she was OK and determined that she could handle that much now. The Tylenol was working quicker and she was grateful.

   Pushing off the railing Skye pivoted to the left, doing so with confidence as she continued past the bathroom and followed the walkway around to the right of it she saw that the attic ladder was down. Sky didn’t like the attic; it was much too warm and much, much too dark up there. There were two peaked windows that brightened it up in the evening because they faced the west and got the light from the setting sun. Cyrus used to ask to live up there when he was younger and they always said no because he was too small and might fall down the ladder. Now he was 15 and surely not thinking of this now as she could hear him rummaging around.

  Skye stood at the bottom of the ladder and took what she thought was going to be a deep cleansing breath and she found that it made her more nervous about going up. “Oh screw it…” she said to herself and shook of the feeling of dread and forced herself up the ladder. Rung by rung she convinced herself that she was being silly and when she reached the top put half her body through the attic door she couldn’t see Cyrus at all but she could hear him in the right corner of the room by the far window. The light shining from his flashlight was moving drastically all across the ceiling and walls as he opened boxes, rifled through them and pushed them out of the way furiously.

  “Wow…” Skye said softly as not to startle him, “you are a man on a mission right now.”

   Cyrus could hear the roughness in her voice from the hangover she was now finally feeling relief from. He stopped briefly feeling like he should be mad at her for the way she acted when so much weirdness was going on. First her passing out and then the army of men in the house because she passed out and last of all the thing that infuriated him the most was the way his mother heard only part of the ridiculous story they had been told and let them treat him like a child. “Ya, well I have one now don’t I?” he growled, not a question but more of a statement.

“Look Cy… I don’t remember a whole lot about what happened after Maury started… pouring,” She searched for the right words. “But none of what Dominic said… sounds…real.” she shuffled towards him and although her eyes adjusted she couldn’t see anything but the shadow of his head in a corner behind some boxes that she hadn’t looked at for years. His hand flew up palm out to stop her right where she was. She stopped and flushed glad that he wasn’t looking at her or able to see her face right then.

   Embarrassed that he was so angry with her after what he had done and having to call her to go pick him up in the middle of the night from the police station. She sighed and knew his emotions when it came to his father were troubled enough and now that something was wrong with her Cyrus must have felt like he had no control. “Cy…” she started again as her anger at him petered out.

   “Look, mom…I couldn’t sleep at all last night. If I can find this journal that uncle Dom is talking about then maybe we’ll get some answers.” Skye felt the same and thought to herself that Cyrus finally sounded grown up… he sounded like his father. She felt a pull in her chest at the thought of Deacon while all of this is coming to light. Yet she still couldn’t shake that feeling that Dominic was telling her the truth even though he didn’t tell her everything. “Cy…let me help you,” she paused “please…” in the corner she saw his shoulders slump over and his head droop. Cyrus shrugged in the way of a sad pouting child as if to say ‘fine I give up, you win’.

   Skye scanned the room and it dawned on her that she had no idea where to start. She always hated the attic and even now to her left she could hear light scratching in the walls. She shook it off thinking to herself that it was her imagination playing tricks on her. “Ok, where have you looked so far?” she asked Cyrus. He leaned back from behind the neatly stacked boxes he was surrounded by to look at her.

“I haven’t been up here long and started here.” He raised his arms and gestured at the circle of boxes around him. Being up here gave her the heebie jeebies.  A thought came to her, “Before I do anything I need some light.” She turned towards Cyrus and moved quickly to where he was sitting with her hands out towards him. He momentarily looked at her like she had lost her head before he realized what it was she wanted and handed her the flashlight. “I know there’s a lamp up here.” She mumbled and moved the flashlight around the room trying not to see things in the shadows. As she scanned the room she saw the old couch that they had moved in here with, covered to protect it from dust besides the fact that it was hideously ugly. She couldn’t bear to get rid of it and now she sat thinking of the nights that she and Deacon curled up on it to watch TV and would end up with their clothes on the floor because they were young and all over each other. Even once Cyrus was born they couldn’t get enough of each other and if she thought about it…2 of their 3 children were more than likely conceived on that couch. Sadness welled up in her again even as she smiled at the memory, the pain of remembering sometimes made her want to forget but she smiled through the tightness and it loosened.


  Her smile didn’t last long as she crossed the room to the couch, she heard shuffling and in the middle of her stride she kicked something small… something furry…and she screamed.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Chapter 11 Part 1

   When Skye woke up the pounding in her head was monstrous. The pulse of her heart could be felt and heard inside her. She felt like every time she moved… in any way, breathing, blinking just being conscious over all, was when a rock slide inside of her skull shifted into motion. Every time those rocks fell, they felt like they slide down the side of her brain and slammed into her temples so hard she felt like they would come right through the bone, tissue, muscle and fall out onto the floor.  The end result would be her death before she had even opened her eyes.

   Kona was still in the same spot on the bed that she had been when she first jumped up there with her human master. Although under normal circumstances Kona knew that Skye would usually shoo her off and onto the floor but today she felt certain by the sweet and sour smell of her that she wouldn’t be shooing her anywhere today. As if to confirm this, Skye rolled over slowly, opened one bloodshot green eye (even slower) and whimpered in pain at the hairy dog. To which Kona snuffed and did nothing more. To make things worse the light nearly blinded Skye as the sun came out from behind a cloud and the bright rays streamed in past the sheer curtains.

    Skye rolled back over and put her arms over her head just as the doorknob to her bedroom turned quickly and Savannah skipped in chipper and eager to get on with her day. Without any hesitation she jumped on the bed and buried her face in Kona’s thick fur and gave her a hug. Even though Skye’s brain was muddy she had enough time to think…

“Oh no…”

   Just as Savannah started talking a mile a minute asking questions Skye couldn’t register right now like “Mom, what’s for breakfast?” or “Mom, can I have pancakes?” and even better “Mommy get up!” while she jumped up and down on the bed and Skye’s stomach threatened her. Right before Skye could get her dry mouth to form words Kyra came into the room and crossed the distance to the bed in angry strides holding a glass of water in her left hand and 3 Tylenol in her right. Without a word she held out the glass and the pills to her mother with a sneer on her lips and Skye sneered right back at her.

   “Thank you Kyra, but I’m not in the mood.” Skye spoke quietly so that she didn’t disturb her head any more than necessary and still convey her dislike for the attitude that Kyra was giving her. She sat up slowly, took the pills and water from her oldest daughter and right away her stomach started to swim threatening to violently rebel against anything that entered it. The smile on Kyra’s lips softened and she sat gingerly on the edge of the bed. Savannah was still tossing out breakfast questions but now to Kona instead. “What do you want for breakfast Kona?” she said as she had lain on top of her. “Do you want doggy food?” she giggled.

   Savannah watched Skye take the pills and force herself to swallow them, after a moment she got up and tugged at her little sister to get her off of the bed. As she took her hand to help her down Skye suddenly remembered some of the events of the night before and fear crept back into her mind. “Kyra!” her voice urgent and yet still soft spoken “have you seen your brother yet this morning?” Kyra set her gaze and deep green eyes that matched her mother’s exactly level with hers and shook her head slowly.

 Skye was about to let out a sigh of relief when Kyra raised her hand and pointed to the ceiling. That’s when Skye knew exactly where he was and what it was he was looking for…


He was in the attic, looking for Deacons journal.

   Kyra didn’t wait to see how her mother would react, she turned to take Savannah out of the room to go downstairs for some breakfast and as much as Sav wanted Kona to come with her as she slapped her thighs and called her loudly, the Husky stayed right where she was with her eyes tentatively on Skye as she tried to fumble her way out of bed.

   The fear had come rushing back at full force now as Skye sat forward so fast that she felt the bile rise in her throat and she slowed herself down, concentrating on her breathing and getting herself under control while inside her head sloshed back and forth. It was a hard decision for her but she decided very quickly that she would take a minute to let the Tylenol kick in before she attempted to stand up and climb the ladder to the attic and find Cyrus.

   Believing what she had been told was hard enough for her but having Cyrus believe it was another story and even harder. Skye knew that this would give him something to cling to in regards to his father. Something that he never knew and a way to feel important is what Dominic did for Cyrus last night and he would hang onto that for as long as it took to understand what was happening. As far off as it felt to Skye and as surreal everything was at this very moment…she knew the voice in her head was real and even though she didn’t want to believe any of what she was told she knew that was real too but how could she know that when they hadn’t even heard the whole story?

   It was beyond knowing, it was feeling that it was real that made her believe it and apparently Cyrus felt it too.

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