Chapter 16 - Revenge of the Autumn People - Thirty Seconds

                                     Chapter 16 – Thirty Seconds

Alice’s vision didn’t last long. Only thirty seconds from the beginning to the very end. As I’ve mentioned in previous remarks, Alice was both a witch and a Seer. She had always been able to see (and hear, smell, etc.) different types of magic. The ability had seemed natural to her, even though she didn’t always find her experiences pleasant. She had been able to do this from an early age, and at the age of four, she was astonished to find out that most other people weren’t like her and many were unaware that magic even existed.

But the act of Seeing, or having visions of the future, was a newly acquired talent and this was her second glimpse beyond the veil of the present. It was Dorthy that first noticed that there was something wrong with Alice. The little woman attempted to catch Alice as she lost control of her legs. Dorthy, small in stature, only managed to body-check Alice out of the way minutes before the intruders burst through our front door. I managed to catch her head before she smacked it on the hardwood floor. Annie, sensing trouble, immediately started growling and moved protectively between Alice and doorway.

Naydene came into the living room through the dining area. Peck flew in a second later and landed on the back of my couch.

Alice moaned. Her vision was a combination of events that compressed both the past, present and future. Although she had never before laid eyes on the Twins, she saw them as they were drinking in the Pair O’ Dice club and then heard them singing Hank Williams songs. She saw one of them flick open a switch blade knife and then the other kick in the front door of our Old Victorian home. She saw one of them stab Petey in the stomach repeatedly. She heard Peck banter with the Twins, she heard Dana scream and furniture being demolished, she saw Annie charge one of the Twins who was pointing a gun at me. Then she saw one of the Twins fire a gun at Annie. She told me later that she had seen one of the intruders fly backwards out of the same front door they had entered and then she heard Dorthy’s voice telling her to “sit up”. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. The vision was over in a mere thirty seconds. Alice was groggy for several minutes. Then, suddenly Alice screamed, “Doc, Vampires! They’re going to kick in the front door!”  I helped her and then Dorthy up off the hardwood floor. I felt a slight tickle at the base of my neck.

                                                                  *      *      *

The Twins approached my old two-story home. The white with blue trim house seemed serene and quiet a few blocks away. Then, a large shadow moved on the roof.  As they were in sight of the front porch Lukus grabbed Lucian by the sleeve of his expensive sport coat. He had a worried look on his face.

“Did you just see that?” He said in a hushed voice.

“Did I see what? Lucian replied, rather annoyed at the distraction.

“There was a monkey over on the roof of that motel next to the big white house…but it had horns.”

“How drunk are you anyway? I can’t to this alone so if you’re not up to the task tell me now.”

“No, I swear I saw it. It is on the house now. It didn’t jump or climb over. It just blinked and suddenly it was on the other roof. I’m not that inebriated. It was sitting on the first roof as plain as day and then it vanished. Just winked out of sight and appeared on the other roof. This neighborhood is haunted!”

Lucian stopped and regarded his brother. “First, monkeys aren’t native to Colorado, and the carnival isn’t traveling with any either. Second, monkeys don’t have horns, and finally, they don’t just appear and disappear. Got it?”

“Yeah, but…” Lukus said in a dejected manner.

“But nothing. I need you to focus right now.” Lucian urged.

Just then a man came shuffling down oak street from the direction of the Old Baily house. He was clutching a letter close to his dirty green bathrobe which had become unbelted. Ralph Greene looked as if he was sleepwalking. He was moving in the direction of Jerry Paloma’s house across the street and to the north of mine.

Ralph shuffled right in front of the Twins violating Lucian’s body space and sense of self-importance. Lucian shoved Ralph, almost knocking him off his feet.

“Watch it!” Lucian said with a rehearsed evil edge to his voice. He blustered like a practiced bully for a minute or so.

Then, something seemed to change in Ralph Greene’s demeanor. He straightened his back and turned towards the two. Now, his face was different. It was contorted a bit. Now, Ralph looked angry at being interrupted. Like a soldier that had been stopped from completing an important mission. Suddenly, the spirit of Arnie Foster, who had been possessing Ralph’s body, shoved Lucian back. It was not in any mood to be pushed or otherwise interfered with.

“Who the hell are you buddy?” Arnie demanded as he threw off his bathrobe and rotated Ralph’s shoulders and neck which made nasty popping sounds. Arnie, now in control of Ralph’s body, raised his hands in a relaxed manner that looked like a person that had been in quite a few fights. “You wanta go pretty boy?” Ralph’s normally placid face looked rabid. His upper lip was curled viciously. He sprayed spittle as he yelled at Lucian.

“Um, Lucian. He’s loosening up to take a swing at you. And whatever else he might be, he isn’t drunk like we are.” Lukus observed.

Lucian opened his coat, letting his opponent see he was armed and dangerous.

“Oh, dear me! A gun. Gee, I’ve never seen one of those before. “Are you that much of a coward? Why don’t you give that ‘piece’ to your girlfriend and then you and I will settle this the ‘old school’ way.” Arnie was psychically radiating anger. It was contagious.

“Girlfriend!” Lukus screamed. “I’m his brother.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Arnie said with Ralph’s voice. I thought with the long hair and matching outfits that you might be on a date, going to the prom or something.” Then he hit Lucian on the temple. He really clocked him. It was a solid blow. Unfortunately, Ralph’s hands were not conditioned for fighting. They were mostly used to filling out office forms. Arnie, who was in control of Ralph’s body, managed to ignore the pain for the moment. The same could not be said for Lucian.

“Son-of-a-bitch” Lucian screamed as he grabbed his bleeding ear and drew his gun.

“Um, I feel it necessary at this point to remind you that if you discharge your weapon, which would be understandable at this point, you will attract unwanted attention. Perhaps even unwanted attention from the Dusk Thorne Sheriff’s Department. If the Boss sends Bell into town to bail us out of jail, it could be ugly.” Lukus blurted. “Focus, stay on mission.” He reminded his brother.

“Point taken.” Said Lucian. He gestured obscenely at the body of Ralph Greene which had already lapsed back into a near comatose state. Ralph’s body, still possessed by Arnie Foster, shuffled off towards Jerry Paloma’s house, swollen hand holding a letter.

                                                        *      *      *

The home invasion incident lasted slightly longer than thirty seconds, but not much. We had a heads-up from Alice, but when they came to the house there was no stealth involved whatsoever. They literally stomped up the stairs, sending Annie into a frenzy of barking. This didn’t detour them one bit. They kicked open my front door. It exploded with a splintering crack. One of them was already bleeding from the ear. I still don’t know what that was about.

The Twins rushed into the house. They froze for dramatic effect brandishing their weapons. Both reeked of alcohol and adrenaline.

I didn’t summon “The Change” this time. It just happened as I moved to confront them, and I never noticed. It was nearly instantaneous, painless and completed from the top of my shaggy ears to the bottom of my ripped out sneakers. I saw Dorthy’s eyes widen and I tried to ask her what was wrong. I couldn’t speak. I looked at my hands. They were the hands of a retired college professor a second ago. Now they were furry clawed weapons.

The Twins looked at each other in momentary surprise, then they hissed at me baring their fangs. Peck flew off the couch and landed on my shoulder. I snarled, showing them my fangs, my killing teeth. They got a close up look at what the dental profile of a Homo Lycan looked like.

“Sorry boys, his are bigger.” Peck quipped.”

It wasn’t just my teeth. Indeed, I was bigger. A good three inches bigger. This sort of thing just doesn’t happen during “The Change”. What the hell was going on with my transformation?

The intruder’s eyes grew wide when they saw the bird.

Peck flew up to a China cabinet. “I see you remember me. Dorthy, these are the guys that drugged my food seventeen years ago and “bird-napped” me.  They sold me to that bastard Frank.” Peck squawked accusingly.

The intruder with the gun reached Alice’s arm. Annie lunged and bit him. He pulled the trigger of the semiautomatic multiple times. Two shots just missed Annie and the bullets landed in the hardwood floor in front of her. Alice pulled Annie back towards Dorthy and the coffee table. Naydene had just entered the living room with a ball bat. She swung it vigorously but rather blindly, cracking the coffee table and demolishing a leg of the China cabinet. She nearly crippled Alice, who quickly gave her more room. When the shooting began again, she ducked and rolled back into the next room. Now the intruder with the gun was firing wild. I had to stop him.

But the guy with the knife made a wild swipe at me. I shoved him across the room. My whole body was bigger now I noticed. How had I changed from a size medium to jumbo? I wondered. I was bigger and stronger but slower. The assailant with the switchbalde ducked around me the next time I swung at him and went for Petey. Billy must have known Petey was in the basement and told him there was trouble. But Petey was also moving rather slowly. He seemed to be lugging something.

I heard Alice scream. I could see the knife wielding intruder from the back looking into the kitchen from the living room The albino (or whatever these fanged intruders are…were they vampires as Alice proclaimed?) was closing with Petey.

He was stabbing Petey multiple times in the stomach. I roared. It rocked my old house like thunder.

The noise caused the albino with the gun to freeze for a moment. Alice let go of Annie. She ran over and grabbed his gun hand. Annie bit the pale-skinned pistolero on the calf and wouldn’t let go of the guy for love or money. Nadyne  came out of the next room and started to work him over with the bat.  He screamed like five-year-old girl with every thud.

The other intruder came flying out of the kitchen. I found out later Petey had been holding a heavy leather bag full of old prohibition currency in front of himself while the albino had been trying to knife him.

 I thought he was being stabbed in the stomach. Instead, the knife repeatedly penetrated the bag that Petey was holding close to his center mass. He was completely unharmed but pissed off.  Petey finally hit the intruder in the head with the heavy leather ruck sack.

I grabbed the gunman by the throat (by now, a signature move for me, apparently) and heaved him back out of the front door. He landed on his back.

To my surprise, Knuckle Butt hadn’t gone home. He was in the back yard when the trouble started turning over the soil for a fall garden. Now he stood over the intruder armed with a large shovel. He put the blade of the shovel to the intruder’s throat.

“You boys with the carnival?” he said with a smile.

Chapter 15 - Revenge of the Autumn People - Unwelcomed Guests

 

                                         Chapter 15 – Unwelcome Guests

It was nearly seven o’clock. The sun descended over the foothills surrounding the little town of Dusk Thorne, Colorado. The storm had moved on and, even though it had been a brutally hot afternoon, the cooler air in the new breeze moving down the alley and up the street carried the crisp promise of autumn.

The breeze was not only cool against the skin, it was tinged with the scent of damp leaves and earth. I could smell wood smoke in the distance through the open window. Someone, several blocks away, was firing up their wood stove in anticipation of a cool September evening.

The neighborhood was silent except for the creak and slams of screen doors down the street, as children came inside for supper and the occasional pickup that motored by the Little Pine Cemetery on the way to the Hungry Hobbit for a bite to eat, or The White Point Theater to catch a weekend showing of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

I could hear voices buzzing downstairs in the basement. I woke up slowly. My ears detected furniture being shifted in a room off the Dining area. I sat up from the couch, stretched and looked outside. I saw Knuckle Butt packing his landscaping tools into the back of his old truck, presumable to go home. I touched my wounded shoulder. There was no soreness. I rose to get a mirror from the downstairs bathroom, down the hall from the kitchen.      

“It’s gone” I exclaimed twisting my head in an uncomfortable position. I held a hand mirror at various angles, then amended my initial statement. “Well, very nearly gone.” I announced as I returned to the living room and parked my rear back on the couch again. It was sore from the ride back to the house.

After that bumpy and cramped ride under a tarp, in the back of Knuckle Butt’s old pickup truck with Peck reciting bawdy limericks, I had calmed down long enough to change back into my human form. I felt my face. My beard was a bit longer and I needed to shave lest the world think I had decided to go ‘full hermit’ with my appearance.  

This was generally the case after I changed back. My nails would also need to be trimmed, and I would need a haircut again as it had started to touch my collar and grown over my ears. Alice might be willing to do it. She had done it before. Barbers get suspicious if you drop by once a week. While I wasn’t in the closet about being a werewolf, or what Alice called my “Bruno” side, I didn’t like waving it in the faces of others.

I had returned from the bathroom. Peck flew in from the kitchen and perched on my couch staring at Chester. Chester had stalked in from the basement and, in turn, was staring back at the raven. Chester’s eyes were fully dilated. His striped tail whipped back and forth.

“Doc, do something about that fuzzball. He’s giving me the creeps.” Peck implored.

“Peck, you’re being a poor houseguest.” Dorthy admonished. She rose from a leather reclining chair in the living room and gently moved to examine my shoulder.

“What did you say was gone?” Dana asked. She had come out of the room off the dining room that I had hopes of transforming into an office for writing and perhaps tutoring.

“Kyle had a nasty run in with a zombie. It bit him on the shoulder. I had been treating the wound, but it looks like it has almost completely closed.” Dorthy replied.

“Cool! Bet you will have a wicked scar. Can I see it?” Naydene said, as she helped Dana find a place to bed down for the night. She had come out into the living room with pillows and a blanket.

“Don’t touch it.” Dorthy said sternly. “It isn’t unusual for a werewolf to heal rapidly after a transformation. But this is rather remarkable. The wound was infected with flesh eating bacteria living in your father’s mouth when he bit Kyle.”

“On second thought, I’ll help make up a cot for Miss Dana.” Peck flew over to Naydene’s shoulder.

“Care to give a bird the grand tour?” Peck seemed very curious about our old house. Or, perhaps, he was just trying to ditch Chester.

Dana, Peck and Naydene retired to Dana’s new sleeping quarters. Chester looked disappointedly at Peck leaving with two new bodyguards.

“Later cat!” Peck laughed.

Dorthy huffed and stretched. She must have fallen asleep watching over me while I napped, I reasoned. She seems a little fatigued but still moved pretty good for a woman who has survived over two centuries.

“That wound will still require my salve until it closes completely.” The old necromancer advised.

“Dorthy, did you waste Jacob Hornsby’s wish on little ole me?” I asked.

“No, apparently your metabolism was just a bit sluggish. It finally threw off the infection with a little help from folk medicine. I’m saving that wish, for now.” She smiled.

“Back at the carnival, when we were in the tent with Frank, you told me to put him down.” I began.

“He was pointing a gun at you Kyle. I know you think that you are tough customer, but even a werewolf wouldn’t survive several shots to the chest at point blank range.” She replied.

“I didn’t care. I could have snapped his neck even if he did get those shots off.” I said, I could feel some of my anger returning.

“I know. But you both would have died Kyle. I have concluded that your difficulty navigating “The Change” from human to werewolf might have something to do with your anger towards Frank.” Dorthy added.

“Even though I didn’t want to let go of his neck, I did.” I said slowly. There was an unspoken question in my eyes.

“Yes. Because I didn’t just ‘tell’ you to drop him. I ‘compelled’ you to do it. It was magic.” She said simply and quietly.

“You’ve never done anything like that before. How…is that possible now?”

“Peck was there. He is my Familiar. When he is nearby, he can both amplify and focus my powers. I don’t usually compel people to do anything, but I’m not sorry I did that. You were confused and out of control.”

“No, I’m glad you restrained me or whatever. I wasn’t aware that you were doing anything to me at the time. It seemed like I had just, somehow, changed my mind about Frank. But you changed it for me. As easily Petey channel surfs with the remote control when he is looking for entertainment.

Downstairs, in the basement, I heard Alice whispering to Petey.

                                                             *      *      *

“Gadzook’s Gravy Bowl! He’s awake. This is bad.” Alice said in hushed tones

“So what? Just go upstairs. He is probably wondering where we went.” Petey whispered back.

“Damn that Naydene. She was supposed to be a decoy, and now she is helping some visitor Doc brought home settle into a room for the night.” Alice fumed.

“She was supposed to be a decoy. What’s a decoy?” Billy asked.

“A wooden duck.” Said Petey and then snickered.

“She looks nothing like a duck. She can’t pull that off. How would that even be possible?” The little ghost was still confused.

“She was supposed to take Doc and Knuckle Butt out back to talk landscaping with them and stall until we hid the money. Then he decided to take a nap. And who knew he was going to bring home a guest.” Alice complained.

“You know full well that we weren’t supposed to go down into the tunnels.” Petey’s southern drawl had started to get on Alice’s nerves. “All we had to do was stay put until Doc and the others got back.

“There was something creepy down there. It was watching us. I heard it laughing.” Billy whispered.

“One creepy thing at a time, Billy. Doc’s going to blow a furry gasket when he finds out we have a jumbo leather bag full of bundles of cash.” Alice was starting to speak more rapidly. “Petey, find some place to hide this money.”

“Oh, I know! What about in the tunnels where we found it.” Petey snarked. “You know the ironic part of this adventure? Not only did we disobey Doc, but we also can’t even spend that money. It first needs to be sent back down to Xerxes Louisianna to be laundered. I say we put it back where we found it. It doesn’t belong to us.

“No. We aren’t going down there again without back up. Billy is right. There is something down there.

“Yeah, a Giant Head.” Billy said in a shaky voice.

“Will you forget about the Giant Head. I need you to be a lookout in the kitchen. Turn invisible and warn Petey if anyone tries to go downstairs.”

Billy floated up nose-to-nose with Alice. “Anyone?”

“Yes! Anyone.” There were worry wrinkles forming on her forehead.

“Even you.” Billy suppressed a smile.

“I swear, sometimes I think you are too stupid to live.” Alice glared at the little ghost.

“Hey, hurtful!” Billy said loudly.

“Shush! It is just a saying…a manner of speaking.” Alice retorted.

“Still offensive.” Billy turned his back with arms folded while floating in the air.

Don’t make me get the vacuum cleaner out.” Alice said menacingly. Billy had confided in Alice once that he was terrified of vacuum cleaner noises. Something about the frequency disrupts poltergeist thought patterns and makes them flicker like a bad light bulb.

“I’ll tell Joe you were being mean to me.” Billy smirked.

“Joe! Tarnation’s Tailgate! He’ll be home soon. I completely forgot. Alice’s face turned chalk white.

                                                  *      *      *

Meanwhile just a few blocks from Oak Street a grey 1982 Pontiac Phoenix pulled up to the curb and two blonde figures emerged.

“Front wheel drive, smooth ride. Not too shabby. I like it.” Lucian remarked.

“This isn’t the company car we came in.” Lukus made this observation while trying to steady himself in a vacant lot. Both brothers were intoxicated. Neither of them should have been behind the wheel.

“No, we stole this car, remember.” Lucian pulled a pack of More cigarettes from his jacket pocket. “You lost the keys someplace between the toilet and the back door of the bar. I had to pick the pocket of a rather odd smelling gentleman so that we didn’t have to hitchhike our way back here.

“Oh, right! He smelled like Brut aftershave. I should have just hypnotized him or bitten him and made him my servant. He could have driven us around for the rest of the night.” Lukus was now slurring his words.

Lucian gave him a sidelong glance. “How many times do we have to have this conversation? You are not…You know what? Never mind. God, you are really drunk.

It was true. They both were. A few drinks at the “Pair ‘O Dice” club had turned into a two-hour binge, complete with the Twins hogging the karaoke machine for a full hour and singing Hank Williams songs. Lukus accidentally found out that he and his brother Lucian could both do passable Hank Williams imitations one afternoon on the train listening to country western tunes on the radio while outside of Omaha headed towards Kansas.

In the bar Lucian was so drunk he started to yodel and got a standing ovation.  The harmonies were dead-on even if one or the other of them would lisp occasionally because of his fang implants.

“Those things will kill you.” Lukus pointed at the cigarettes.

“According to you, we are immortal.”

“Oh yeah. I sometimes forget. What’s with the cigs? I mean, why smoking, anyway. I always wanted to ask.” Lukus sat down on the curb. “Do you think it makes you look cool? I’ve never seen any vampire movies where they smoke, even if they are supposed to be immortal.

Lucian spent a large amount of time smoking before their act. Truth be told, he was addicted to cigarettes again. He got hooked every seventeen years and withdrew behind the Great Mist during their long period of unconsciousness.

“Cool? You know who looks cool in the movies?” Lucian challenged.

“Stallone?” Lukus replied.

“Stallone is a midget who mumbles his lines on screen.” Lucian sneered. “No, Eastwood! Clint Eastwood. When he was doing the spaghetti westerns his director was searching for a tough guy look. A gunfighter look. A look that said ‘don’t mess with me’. One day he stopped by a cigar shop and bought a pack of those little cigarillos he smokes in his films. They made his stomach sick, but the director said that the face that he made was exactly what he was looking for.” Lucian lit up the cigarette with a gold plated lighter.

“Where did you get the lighter?” Lukas asked.

“Same place I got the car keys.”

“You do look like Eastwood when you smoke those things. You’ve got the eye squint down.”

“So, what now? Lukus rubbed his own eyes.

“We go over to check out that Seer that Josiah is curious about.” Lucian announced

“Under the pretense of giving away free opening night tickets?”

“Naw. Maybe it’s the booze talking, but I see no reason to be subtle anymore,” He opened his coat and revealed a shoulder holster with a large semi-automatic luger in it. “If she is there, she is coming with us.” Lucian stated. “We’ll probably get a raise in salary for demonstrating our initiative.”

“We’ve never seen her before.” Lukus declared, as he flicked open his switch blade.

“The Boss saw her in a vision. She has bright red hair. Can’t be too many of those in this neighborhood.”

The Twins made their way to Oak Street with determined steps.