The Whispers: A Supernatural Apocalypse Novel Page 4

  A second or two later the rain finally fell. It came down so hard and fast that it looked like a solid, shimmering wall outside. Debris tumbled along the road—sheets of siding and roofing, garbage, branches, and God knew what else. I almost expected the whole building to lift off and be taken to the wonderful Land of Oz.

  As I looked through the window at the downpour, the rain so loud I could barely think, spiderweb-thin cracks scarred the glass. Nothing had hit it, not that I’d seen, which meant the wind alone was to blame, and that was just pure insanity, I thought.

  I took a few cautious steps away and did what the others were doing, and that was just stand there and stare at the chaos like I was in a trance.

  Suddenly, the front door blew open. It hit the wall hard enough to leave a divot in the wood paneling, bounced back, and was blown open again, hinges screaming and straining to stay connected. Sheets of rain slapped the floor all the way to about twenty feet inside. The nearest tables flipped over and scraped against the hardwood. Nearby, Autumn and Stephanie ducked behind one. I rushed over to close the door before we were drowned, or a rock came through the opening and cracked one of our skulls. I grabbed the handle and threw all my weight into trying to close it. After a struggle, I finally got the damn thing shut and locked.

  “The back room! Let’s go!” Ruby shouted.

  That was when the lights went out. Not just in the bar, but on the entire block. Maybe the whole town. It was like someone had pulled the plug on the world.

  Inside, I couldn’t see farther than a few inches ahead until the lightning flashed, painting all of our horrified faces white. Autumn turned on her phone’s flashlight a second after, and that helped.

  “Come on!” Ruby said, motioning us toward the back.

  I was the last one to go, but before I started moving, an urge to turn around and look out the window took over me. I don’t know why. I think maybe I heard something or caught something out of the corner of my eye, but the more I think about that reasoning, the less I believe it. It was too dark inside to see anything, and good luck hearing your own thoughts, let alone something out in the storm.

  But something made me do it. Some unexplainable force.

  I turned at the same time the lightning lit the street, and that was when I saw the figure outside. It was standing in the road, difficult to make out through the veil of rain, but there. I am absolutely sure of that.

  Who was it, though? That was the question burning in my brain. It looked human, but there was something wrong with it, like it didn’t belong on this earth. It was tall and skinny. Its arms were so long they seemed to dangle past its knees. It either wore a grimy white outfit, or it was naked and what I was seeing was all flesh.

  This isn’t real, I told myself.

  The light died.

  For a few seconds I was frozen in the dark…until another flash brightened the outside world.

  The figure was closer now.

  I saw them myself, the man in the alley had said. In the sewers! Nightmare creatures—

  I closed my eyes. Opened them. The figure was gone, replaced by the darkness.

  Against the fear, I waited for another fork of lightning. It came, and as I stared out the window I saw…nothing.

  Losing it, Carter. That’s all. You’re tired and you’ve been drinking…

  But even I didn’t believe myself.

  “What are you doing?” Tommy shouted over the thunder and rain. “Carter, get your ass in here!”

  I couldn’t move yet, because a cold terror had invaded my body like some parasite, draining me of both energy and courage. I was scared of the idea of the things from below, yeah, but I was more scared of what was happening to my mind.

  Had I really seen the figure? Was this storm even happening?

  Something grabbed my arm and pulled me. I almost screamed.

  “Bro, you’re gonna go blind when the wind blows that glass in,” Tommy said.

  “Shit,” I mumbled. “You’re right.”

  We went to the back room together, where Autumn and Stephanie each had their cell flashlights on. Ruby was nearby, leaning over a coffee table, lighting a bunch of candles.

  This back room was also the break room. In one corner was a little kitchenette with a sink and a counter, a mini-fridge, a microwave, and a table and two rickety-looking chairs. Across from that was a large puke-green couch. Tufts of stuffing hung out from more than a few tears in the fabric, and a blot of orange…something had stained one of the seat cushions. On a TV stand sat an old television that reminded me of the one I had in my room as a kid. In other words, it was a piece of junk.

  Tommy, for some reason, went over to the TV and pressed the on/off button over and over again.

  “No power,” I said. It didn’t seem like it was me talking. I felt like a different person. I felt like I had changed in the span of a few minutes. That Twilight Zone feeling was as strong as it had ever been.

  “Now what?” Autumn asked.

  Her and Stephanie sat on the couch, where the overstuffed cushions basically swallowed them whole.

  Ruby answered. “We wait out the storm. Maybe the cops show up. I mean, we did call them. It’s their job to respond, right?”

  “I don’t think anyone is gonna be able to drive in this,” I said. “The street was already on its way to flooding.”

  I chose not to mention anything about the figure I’d seen out there, afraid it might confirm the fact that I’d lost my mind. I didn’t want any of them thinking I needed to be locked up in a padded room.

  “Fuck,” Tommy said.

  Yeah, Fuck was right.

  We gathered around the candlelight and waited for the storm to pass.

  I listened as closely as I could for any alien sounds beneath the sounds of the storm—footsteps, growling, ghostly moaning—but it was pretty much pointless. The thunder clapped, the lightning struck, and the rain pummeled the roof.

  “What the hell is this weather?” Tommy said.

  Stephanie and Autumn had their faces buried in their phones, constantly checking to see if they were getting service. I had left my phone and my keys out front, and I didn’t have the nerve to get up and go get them.

  “A nasty one,” Ruby said. “God, I hope Paisley is okay. She’s probably losing her mind worrying over me. We were gonna watch that new Will Ferrell movie tonight. I was so excited.”

  “Good luck doing that without power,” Tommy said.

  “No shit, Sherlock.” Ruby stood and paced the room. There were two windows on the wall behind the couch, but they were just small rectangles near the ceiling you couldn’t see very much through. I caught flashes of lightning behind the curtains and wondered how long this would keep up.

  Hopefully it would end soon, because I couldn’t stay here tonight. I had to get to my daughter—not just for her birthday party, but because I needed to know if she was safe.

  “Carter?” Tommy said.

  I snapped my head toward him, jumped a little at the sound of his voice. “Yeah?”

  “What’s wrong, man? You see a ghost or something?”

  “No. I’m good. Just never liked storms.”

  “Don’t blame ya. Neither did Buddy. You remember that dog? My Lab.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah, how could I forget? That little punk snatched so much food from me over the years. If you looked away for a second, he took whatever looked edible.”

  “Didn’t even have to be food,” Tommy said. His eyes were hazy with memory. “Paintballs, socks, hair ties, couch cushions, coins, you friggin’ name it. I loved him though. He was my best friend, and it about broke my heart when we had to put him down.”

  “I remember. We were still in high school.” I leaned over and patted Tommy on the back. “Sorry, man.”

  “It’s okay. Part of living, right? Who was it that said we all do two things in life, pay taxes and die? Ben Franklin? George Washington?”

  “I can look it up—” Stephanie began and then remembered
there was no service or internet to do it. “Sorry.”

  Tommy smiled and shook his head. “Well, whoever it was had it wrong. We all do three things. We pay taxes, we die, and we mourn our childhood pets.”

  Ruby sniffled. “Tommy, you almost have me in tears over here.” She was sitting next to him and she reached up and ruffled his wavy brown hair. “Sorry about Buddy. You’ll see him again one day, I think.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  I had never owned a pet, but you can bet your ass I wanted one. What kid doesn’t want a little puppy or a kitten to take care of? Hell, there were even times when I wanted a pet tarantula. Don’t ask me why. Carter Westman was a bit cuckoo at the tender age of seven.

  My mom never got me any of those animals. Her boyfriends always overruled it, said I was too irresponsible to even take care of myself, and they’d end up cleaning its piss and shit off the floor every day for as long as the dog or cat or whatever it was lived. I doubted that would’ve been the case. At seven, I was more responsible than a lot of those bums.

  Age trumps youth, though. Looking back, I’m glad it did, because the guys would’ve probably beat on those animals the same way they beat on my mom and me, and I would’ve been too small to do anything about it, unfortunately.

  Tommy flashed another smile and looked at the women. “You two ever had a pet, or have one now?”

  “Really? That’s what you want to talk about?” Autumn said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Hey, I’m just trying to get to know you all a little better. What else can we do? We’re stuck here until the storm blows over, and I’d rather not be stuck with strangers.”

  “Don’t mind Autumn,” Stephanie whispered. “She hates guys in bands.”

  “Stephanie, what the hell? Shut up,” Autumn snapped.

  I readjusted myself in the ratty chair I sat in, interested.

  “Ooo,” Tommy said, smirking, “juicy gossip incoming?”

  Ruby shot a look at both Tommy and me that said we better keep our mouths shut if we knew what was good for us and said, “Now, now, we don’t need to air out anyone’s dirty laundry here. It’s none of our business.”

  Lifting his hands up, Tommy said, “Hey, I was just trying to talk about pets.”

  Autumn folded her arms over her chest and frowned.

  I cleared my throat. Believe it or not, the storm and the figure I might or might not have seen in the rain was now the last thing on my mind.

  “Yeah, you don’t have to talk about anything you don’t wanna talk about,” I said. “I’m cool with sitting in silence. After all that’s happened tonight, silence doesn’t sound so bad.”

  Tommy rolled his eyes.

  “It’s nothing,” Autumn said. “I dated a douchebag singer a few years ago. Cheated on me and the relationship ended. Boo-hoo, end of story.”

  “Broke her heart,” Stephanie whispered, which only made Autumn’s scowl deepen.

  “Let’s…change the subject?” Ruby said. “Really.”

  Ignoring her, I said to Autumn, “Hey, I know the feeling. Lost the love of my life to another guy. He just came along out of nowhere and swept her off her feet. Now she barely even lets me see our daughter.”

  “That’s screwed up,” Stephanie said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” Autumn added. She uncrossed her arms. With the candles burning and the flashlights on, it wasn’t pitch-black in the backroom, but it was still dark. I thought I caught a hint of actual sympathy in her eyes, though.

  “Tomorrow’s my daughter’s birthday too. She’ll be five.”

  “You have a five-year-old?” Stephanie said, in awe. “That’s wild. I couldn’t imagine having kids yet—or maybe ever.”

  I shrugged. “Life happens, you know.”

  “How old are you? You look too young to be a dad,” Autumn said.

  “I’m twenty-seven—”

  Tommy interrupted me. “Twenty-seven and three-quarters. Birthday’s coming up in August. August 18th, to be exact.” He hit my shoulder with the back of his hand. “See? I remember these things. I’m a good best friend.”

  “Yeah, we’ve only known each other for pretty much our entire lives… How many birthdays have we spent together?”

  “Almost all of them. Well, except for your seventeenth,” Tommy said. “I was mad at you for breaking my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.”

  “It was an accident!”

  “Uh-huh…sure.”

  “You guys are cute together,” Stephanie said.

  “I’ve been saying the same thing for years,” Ruby added with a wide grin.

  “Funny,” I said. “But yeah, I’ve been a dad for a while now.” All I could think about was Clem. Was she safe? Was this weird stuff happening where her and Julia lived?

  Ruby noticed the worry on my face. “I’m sure they’re okay, Carter,” she said. “Better off than we currently are.”

  “Yeah, listen, man, we’re surrounded by booze. It can’t get much worse than that,” Tommy said, sarcastically.

  We laughed and then a new silence fell over us. Silence, except for the thunder and the rain and the sounds of striking lightning.

  “We should do something to keep our minds busy,” Ruby said after a while. “I’ve got a couple of board games somewhere around here.” She got up, crossed the room to the far cabinets in the kitchenette, and rummaged through them.

  “So…” Tommy leaned back in his chair, twiddling his thumbs. He then waggled his eyebrows at Autumn. “I take it you’re single?”

  “Wow, you’re not very good with women, are you?” she replied.

  “Read the room, Tommy,” I mumbled out of the corner of my mouth.

  “There’s better questions you could ask to get to know someone,” Stephanie said. “Like, ‘What do you do for a living?’ ‘What’s your favorite food?’ ‘How many times have you watched The Office?’”

  “‘How many times have you watched The Office?’” Tommy repeated. “Now that’s a weird one.”

  Stephanie shrugged. “What? You can tell a lot about a person by how many times they’ve seen The Office.”

  “How they have no life?” Tommy pointed at me. “Case in point: this nerd quotes that show all the time.”

  “Oh, not all the time.” That was pretty much a lie. Under better circumstances, I did quote The Office a good amount. What can I say? It was a great show.

  “All the time. C’mon, don’t be so hard-headed, Carter.”

  “That’s what she said…”

  He snapped a finger and shouted, “See! That’s Steve Carell’s go-to line!”

  “You set me up for that one,” I said. “If you throw me an alley-oop, you know I’m gonna slam it home.”

  Tommy rolled his eyes and laughed. “I don’t know about that joke being anything close to a slam-dunk…”

  Stephanie and me chuckled with him. I’ll tell you what, laughing felt good after the mood the storm and the blackout had brought upon us.

  “You two are dweebs,” Autumn said.

  “Major dweebs,” Tommy agreed.

  But even Autumn flashed a grin.

  “What’s so funny over there?” Ruby called from the kitchenette.

  “Nothing. You had to be there,” Tommy said. “You get those board games?”

  Ruby stepped into the circle of light with a stack of boxes in her arms. I saw Clue, Life, Monopoly, and Operation. All were blasts from the past. Before Tommy ever got a PlayStation, we spent most of our summers outside, but if it was raining like it was now, we had to stay in and pass the time other ways. If there was nothing on TV or the power had gone out—again, like now—we played board games, and I can’t tell you how many times him and I argued over the rules of Monopoly or who was cheating who in checkers.

  Ruby cleared the coffee table by pushing the boxes across. “Take your pick, ladies. Looks like it might be a long night.”

  Autumn sighed hard enough to blow a strand of her dark hair from her brow. “Please don’t tel
l me that.”

  “I’m just telling you the truth, dear. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. I’m sure you’ve heard that one.”

  That wasn’t something I wanted to hear either.

  “I-I can’t,” I said suddenly, and I stood up. “I gotta go check on Clem.”

  “Isn’t that like fifty miles, dude? You’ll never make it in one piece,” Tommy said.

  “Let the storm pass,” Ruby added. “Clem is fine.”

  “Yeah, what’s the rush, Carter?” Tommy asked. “Too afraid to get your ass kicked in Monopoly?”

  “I’m—I’m just worried sick about my daughter. I have to take my chances, because I have this crazy feeling…”

  “I’m telling you, Carter, she’s fine,” Ruby assured me again. “But you, if you try driving through this storm, might not be. You could get in a wreck and then what? Clem wouldn’t have her daddy anymore.”

  I bowed my head, defeated. Ruby was right, as she usually was.

  “It’s just a thunderstorm, Carter,” Tommy said. “Only thing crazy here is you, brother.”

  “No,” Autumn suddenly said. We all turned and looked at her. There was something in her eyes, something worse than fear. Abject terror? Pure horror? “He’s—he’s right. Something is wrong here.”

  Tommy shook his head and chuckled. “You guys are killing me—”

  “Let’s list off the facts,” she interrupted. I could tell she was about fed up with Tommy already, and this was after knowing him for maybe an hour. “The storm came out of nowhere. It wasn’t on any forecasts.”

  Tommy smiled. “You must not be from around here.” I loved the guy to death. He was my best friend, my brother from another mother, but when he smiled like that, all smug, it was hard not to punch him. You know, just to knock some sense into that sometimes narrow mind of his. “Ohio weather is unpredictable,” he continued. “One day it can be eighty degrees and sunny, and the next day the ground can be covered in snow. That just happened last April.”