Chaos Lives in Everything - 48. Chapter 48

Despite the parka and two layers of clothing that she wore, Rebecca could not keep herself from shivering. She was numb to the cold, the chill slicing into her with the serrated edge of a scalpel. She didn’t know how much of it was truly from the cold and how much of it was from the shock and fear that assaulted her body.

When she had skydived out of the helicopter she was sure she was going to die. If her heart didn’t explode out of her breast then her body would splatter on the floor of the earth from thousands of feets in the air. There were a number of scenerio over the endless flight in which she could see herself dying. And she was pissed at Candestine for kicking her out of the chopper like that!

They approached the first house of the inspector that they were exploring: It was a small two story brick house with white painted windows and a matching white painted door. Icicles hung off the window sills. Snow covered half of the windows. When Skold tried the door handle the door came open. Pulling out a flashlight and one of his Colt .45s he stepped in with Dom following him and Maeglin at the rear of the group.

The inside of the house was dark and drafty. The feeling that something wasn’t right surrounded Rebecca like a dark shroud. They passed through a small living room that had a pink armchair, a wooden entertainment center, and pictures of an older woman with salt-and pepper colored hair often times hugging a boy that Rebecca could only assume was the grandson. There were no pictures of the boy’s parents.

In the tiny kitchen the two double patio doors that led into the small back yard hung open. Snow blew through the open doors, covering the white-tiled kitchen floor along with broken pieces of glass. Someone or something had burst their way through the glass. Black liquid dripped from the few remaining shingles. Looking at the glass made another shiver run up Rebecca’s spine. She knew, just as everyone else in the group was silently aknowledging, knew what that black liquid was, and where the blood came from.

Skold gestured Rebecca, Dom, Candestine, and Maeglin to follow him back out of the kitchen into the living room, and up the set of stairs in front of the front door. The darkness inside of the house almost seemed unnatural to Rebecca, like something that was alive and malicious. She kept expecting for something to jump out from one of the doors, to attack her. Stay calm, she told herself. Just stay calm. Keep your head on your shoulders. Skold said that he and the others were not going to let anything happen to you and he’s kept his promises so far, hasn’t he?

Yeah, minus a few close calls.

Skold peeked into each of the doorways and signalled when he found nothing. To their right a doorway to the attic was open, the ladder hanging down from the ceiling. They walked past it and entered the bedroom at the end of the hallway, the bedroom that had to lead to belong to the grandmother’s room. Something had torn through the door, ripping it into nothing but splinters. In the bedroom, laying at the foot of a rumpled queen-sized bed, was a black crystalline cacoon.

“We are too late,” Maeglin said gravely. His breath lingered in the air like white smoke. “It has begun. The vision has come true.”

Candestine scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a sod. We’ve only found one cocoon. The world hasn’t fallen down around our ears yet. Who do you think it is?”

“Either .the grandma or the little boy.” Rebecca’s voice came out as a whisper. She felt as if a golf ball had caught itself in her throat on the way down.

“Shhh!” Skold hissed. He was standing very still, his head pointed up to the ceiling as if listening for something. “I heard something up in the attic.”

As if to prove his claim something scraped on the floor above their heads. Skold made his way to the ladder, gestured for everyone to be ready, and stepped into the attic. After a few tense second he peered back down at them. “There’s a little boy up here. I think it’s the ones that we saw in the pictures. Rebecca I think he’ll feel more comfortable if you come up here. You seem like the type of girl that is good with kids.”

Rebecca nodded and climbed up the ladder. The attic was the largest room in the house, spreading through the entire length and width of the house. A pair of intelligent but frightened dark blue eyes stared widely back at her from the edge of a cluster of boxes. Fortunantly not only was Rebecca a really good hacker, she could speak several languages as well. Romanian just happened to be one of them.

“Bună, numele meu este Rebecca,” she said with her best smile. “E în regulă, poți ieși. Suntem aici pentru a vă proteja de monștri.” Translation: “Hello, my name is Rebecca. It's okay, you can come out. We are here to protect you from the monsters.”

The boy slowly, cautiously crawled out from behind the boxes. It was, indeed, the boy that she had seen in the photograph. He couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old. He stood before them, shivering in his pajamas. He said, “Numele meu este Vladmir. Bunica mea mă numește Vlad. Monstrii au venit pe mine și pe bunica mea. Bunica mea mi-a spus să alerg, așa că am venit aici. Au luat-o, știu că au făcut-o. Am auzit. Am fost aici toată noaptea.” Translation: My name is Vladmir. My grandma just calls me Vlad. The monsters came me and my Grandma. My grandma told me to run so I came up here. They got her, I know they did. I heard it. I have been up here all night.

Just then the sound of a gun blasted somewhere outside in the night, followed by shouting.

“We’ve got to stay here,” Skold said to the others. “Rebecca I want you to stay here with the boy, look over him.”

“No! I told you that I’d go with you!”

“He’ll be safter with you and you’ll be safer here than where we’re going. Do you understand?”

Rebecca nodded, feeling ashamed at thinking of leaving the boy all by himself. God knew what he had seen or heard.

“Close this behind us.”

Rebecca waited until Skold. Dom, Candestine, and Maeglin had climbed all of the way down the ladder and then pulled it shut behind them.