A Monster Escapes Read online

  Yet there was somehow a semblance of life left, surrounding the once mighty tree and still whispering shreds of its ancient truth.

  Jane considered briefly what the wisest course of action was in this situation. The power surrounding the tree was undeniable but small. Could she handle it? Or would she be consumed by it if she allowed, invited, a direct interaction?

  Caleb said, “This tree is wrong, Jane. It’s just… not right. This is what you were looking for, isn’t it?”

  “It is. I’m contemplating what I want to do with it.”

  “I say we get some axes and chop the fucker down right now. This thing isn’t right.”

  Jane smiled at the suggestion. “I’m not sure but I think they tried that once already. It didn’t go so well.”

  No. Force wasn’t the answer here, Jane realized. Even now, with the oak in its lamentable state, it would be able to protect itself in ways normal people couldn’t understand. Jane knew it would whisper to them, gently at first but then louder and louder, until its echoes became so vicious that death seemed the kinder solution.

  Jane took a deep breath, knowing that there was only one thing left for her to do. The thing that she had come here for to begin with. To face the oak’s hideous truths and learn more about the terrible force that had once lived here.

  She put her hand on the tree and focused on its rough bark answering her touch. The oak reached out to her then and asked, almost carefully, if it could embrace her soul. It would tell her things about the stars and the moon and about the truth of nature, it promised.

  Jane closed her eyes as she whispered, “Yes. Show me your truths.”

  5

  Caleb stood closely behind Jane when he watched her touch the tree and close her eyes.

  The dark mood that lingered over the field was lifted instantly, and its oppressive air that had slowly choked the life out of him vanished. It was as if, as soon as Jane touched the oak, all that darkness had found a new place to live.

  Caleb wondered if it now roamed inside the young woman that he was supposed to protect.

  “Jane?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Jane, are you alright?”

  Still no answer.

  Caleb sighed as he realized that he was, again, completely outclassed by things he didn’t rightly understand. What even was this field? How was it possible that such a threatening feeling came from a damn tree? A feeling so potent that even he, without any type of special ability, could sense it without effort.

  The tree scared him, and so Caleb hated the tree. Hated what it represented and that he couldn’t control it. Couldn’t control the feelings it sparked in him, either.

  All he could do now was wait for Jane’s attention to return. Caleb wasn’t great at waiting.

  He wanted passionately for Jane’s eyes to open and for her to turn around. She’d give him one of those trademark smiles and he’d know that the darkness hadn’t taken her. That she was still here with him on this field, ready to lead him to the next destination he didn’t understand.

  As it was, all Caleb could do was look at her childlike face and count the pearls of sweat that slowly appeared on her forehead. He stared at the focused curve of her eyebrows and the muscles that strained to pull up her cheeks. Her thin lips squeezed tightly, as if she was withstanding an invisible pressure that Caleb couldn’t touch.

  If he could have helped her… if he could have shouldered some of the load for her, Caleb would have done so. He looked at her tiny shoulders and realized that they weren’t meant for heavy lifting. That she had to be protected and taken care of. She deserved that from him, Caleb believed.

  He would wait for Jane to master the darkness that seemed to wrestle with her mind. He would wait and he would follow her wherever she wanted to go next. When the time came, and she had said that it would come, he would be there for her. It wasn’t a question anymore. There was no more room for doubt. This was his life now, this was his duty, and he would see it through like the good soldier he had always wanted to be.

  Caleb noticed that Jane’s body began to tremble. Her small shoulders jolted up and down, as if she was struggling to hold up weights that were too heavy for her.

  Then her knees began to shake and gave out underneath her. Jane collapsed.

  Caleb caught her before she hit the ground and carried her with both his arms. Looking down at her face he noticed her eyes had opened. They seemed even darker now, in contrast with her skin that was going increasingly pale.

  “Are you alright, Jane?”

  She threw him a vague smile, the best her tired facial muscles could muster. It was, somehow, a heartbreaking sight.

  As Jane returned to Caleb’s world, so did the darkness that had previously drawn into her. It filled the air with its oppressive atmosphere and made it harder for Caleb to breathe again.

  “I’m getting us out of here,” he said.

  Caleb turned around and, with Jane still in his arms, walked off the field.

  “I sure as hell hope you learned something useful here. This place belongs to the devil.”

  Again she smiled at him, her strength quickly returning to her. “Not quite the devil, but remarkably close, actually.”

  “You’re shitting me.”

  “I shit you not.”

  They left the field and Caleb immediately felt better. An invisible weight lifted from his chest and shoulders.

  “You can let go of me now, Caleb. I can stand,” Jane said.

  Gently Caleb put her down and watched as she stretched her arms and legs.

  “I’ll be sore tomorrow!”

  “What happened there? What did you do?”

  “I, um… I connected with it.”

  “With the tree?”

  Jane shook her head. “It’s not really the tree. It lived there, for a long time too—couple of centuries, actually.”

  “What is it, then?”

  “I’ll explain later. For now, I’d like to get moving. It’s gone from here but I don’t think we’re necessarily completely safe, either.”

  Caleb gestured for her to lead the way and, when she passed him, quickly followed behind her.

  “Hey, Jane?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I mean, if it’s no longer here….”

  “Right. Then where has it gone?”

  6

  The evening was already falling when Agent Bradford first stepped inside Ellie Aulding’s hospital room.

  He found an atmosphere that was even darker than the fading twilight, with Arthur Toaves looking grave as he stood next to the girl’s bed. The old man’s arms were folded tightly and his forehead had dug itself into a worried frown.

  The small room’s only source of light came from the lamp hanging in the middle of the ceiling. The toxic green walls were draped in wide shadows, as if they were trying to hide secrets the special agent had no interest in anyway.

  Agent Bradford walked up to the left side of the bed, positioning himself across from Arthur in the process. He briefly met the old man’s tired gaze before focusing his attention on the girl.

  On the bed lay Ellie. Her pale blue eyes wide open, sweat pouring from her forehead, and her muscles fighting desperately against the straps they used to tie her down. There was real fear in those eyes, Agent Bradford saw that much.

  The girl didn’t try to scream or speak. Not even so much as a whisper came from her paralyzed throat. There were only those pale blue eyes, set into her tanned face, that drove home the reality of her absolute terror.

  Agent Bradford had trouble looking at her. This young girl, struck down by an unknown illness, was in degrees of pain he couldn’t even bear to imagine. Her sweaty body and her strained muscles that worked so desperately to escape an unseen truth sent shivers down his spine.

  This wasn’t like Ethan Walker, the special agent thought. This felt so much worse to him. He realized then that he had never seen Ethan Walker in the early stages. He had seen the young
man only as he was now, docile and drugged up. Agent Bradford almost questioned his decision to go against Jane Elring’s recommendation.

  What was done was done. He was here, now, with a fresh victim, and fresh victims always presented the best learning opportunities. That was how he had to see the young girl on the hospital bed now. As a chance. As a thing to be researched and examined. If he allowed himself to see her as a person he wouldn’t be able to make good choices. He might fuck up the investigation.

  “Do you know what happened, Mr. Toaves?” he asked.

  The old man had difficulty tearing his eyes away from the suffering girl.

  “They told me she had an episode in class, injured a teacher even. Then she ran from school without her belongings. Next thing we know is that she lay collapsed near the south border of town, just beyond the Williams farm. Edgar Williams actually found her when he came driving into town,” Arthur said. “Edgar participates in my program. Several people are housed with him and help out on the farm in return. He’s a good man.”

  Agent Bradford’s phone buzzed, but he paid it no mind. At this hour it was probably his wife checking in. She would want to talk about her day, the kids, and to hear about what he had been up to. That stuff could wait; it wasn’t important.

  “You said she attacked a teacher?”

  Arthur nodded, his face pained by the realization of what had transpired. “Mr. Boothby. She broke his nose after class when he tried to explain some of the material to her.”

  Agent Bradford returned his gaze to the young girl struggling on the hospital bed. This little thing had assaulted a teacher? A nose was easy to break, he knew that much, but it was hard to imagine this girl striking out with any kind of ferocity.

  “Has she been violent before?”

  “No. Ellie has been kind and gentle ever since I picked her up.”

  Agent Bradford knew about Arthur Toaves and his projects. The old man was fond of the underdogs, he knew, and probably had a penchant for the strays, too. The Ellies of this world.

  Agent Bradford could almost sympathize, but he knew too much about human nature. It didn’t change or improve. It was ugly, always, and how it behaved was strictly dependent on the rules greater forces set for it. There was no real good; there was only enforced order because the alternative was worse for everybody. Chaos and destruction—those were human nature’s proclivities.

  “Ellie is a runaway?” he asked.

  Arthur nodded.

  “What do you know of her past?”

  “Painfully little. I know she is from Cleveland originally, but she refuses to speak of what made her leave. She spent several months hitchhiking before I found her. Hitchhiking is actually how I found her.”

  Agent Bradford knew that a girl this pretty hitchhiking through the country could only mean one thing. She had been sexually active, trading her goods for the next ride and shitty meals.

  “How old is she?”

  “Ellie is fourteen, Agent Bradford.”

  Agent Bradford’s own daughter was only one year older and, involuntarily, his mind jumped to his relationship with her. It was troubled because they didn’t understand each other very well. She lived in an age of freedom and liberation, leaving her unaccountable for her actions. What little control he once had over her he saw fading over the years, as the love she felt for him was no longer reason enough to obey.

  In a different universe it could have been his daughter tied down to this bed, trying to run away from demons others could not see. It could have been his daughter that had fucked her way through the country, offering up her vagina as a fair trade for gas and sustenance.

  What Ellie had done, what Ellie was in his mind, scared Agent Bradford. He hated the girl for it.

  “Shouldn’t you call in your investigator? Jane Elring?” Arthur Toaves interrupted Agent Bradford’s haunting thoughts.

  The old man was right, of course, but the mention of her name always left him with his hand in his right pocket. Safely on the button.

  “I’ll give her a call.”

  Agent Bradford turned around and pulled out his phone. He had two missed calls from his wife and a message from Dr. Greer. Without hesitation he cleared the notifications about the missed calls and looked to see what the doctor had to tell him.

  Larry, don’t worry about the bodyguard. It was always expected

  that she would look for the boundaries of her new freedom. As long

  as she does the work there is no reason to panic. You know there’s a

  team standing by if need be. No single bodyguard is a match for trained

  elites, surely. The specimen is my property and has nowhere to run to.

  She knows that.

  Agent Bradford thought the doctor was being too arrogant. As if he couldn’t see the clear danger he himself had set loose on this world. It boggled Agent Bradford’s mind that a man of Dr. Greer’s intelligence could be so blind to the obvious.

  Agent Bradford saw her daily and he knew the girl was dangerous. Dangerous because she was powerful beyond measure and didn’t have the character to control that power. No woman ever had. When the time came she would burn down the country just to get what she wanted. Without a sense of responsibility, and with a complete disregard for the consequences.

  Women needed to be kept in check. Even if his society had for some reason forgotten that fact, it was still true. It was true for Agent Bradford’s wife and his daughter, and it was true for Jane Elring.

  For now, all he could do was play the game and prepare for the time he knew was coming. That moment where it was just him and her, and the button he had in his pocket. He’d get her to fall in line. He’d keep her in check. If the rest of his society failed, he would just have to try harder.

  Agent Bradford had Jane on speed dial but she didn’t pick up. He left her a brief message.

  7

  She had come to watch him die.

  Ethan Walker knew it as soon as the angelic face appeared above his own. She didn’t have to say anything; he knew it was time.

  He had known that it was his time to die when Billy’s putrid teeth finally broke through his skull and pierced his brain. It didn’t hurt or anything; he was just afraid of what was coming next. What if this was just the beginning?

  Billy was his reckoning, his punishment for the mistakes he had made years ago. He hadn’t atoned and so the devil sent for him. If the devil took a personal interest, then maybe there was a special place reserved for him in hell. Where it was hottest? Or maybe the coldest? Ethan didn’t really know what to expect from hell.

  He was afraid, but a little less so because she smiled her kindest smile at him. He didn’t know her name, but her dark eyes and golden crown told him all he needed to know. She was an angel and had been sent here to support him in his last moments. She didn’t judge him and that was all the relief he could ask for.

  Ethan’s mind was so tired and he wanted to die. He wanted for Billy to stop eating his brain and to get out of his face. To leave him alone and take the horrible scent of decaying flesh with him. It was always that scent that was stuck in his nose now and made him sick to his stomach. His body was just too weak to throw up.

  A stranger’s deep, beautiful voice rose up inside his head. “Ethan. You look so tired, Ethan. Are you tired, Ethan?”

  He was so tired.

  “Do you want this to end, Ethan? Do you want me to take Billy away?”

  He wanted relief. In whatever form it would come, he wanted it. He needed it.

  “I can help you, Ethan. Do you want my help?”

  Ethan looked at the girl’s face that still lingered above his own and saw the approval in her dark eyes. She said that it was okay. That it was okay for him to give in and go.

  “Your soul, then, Ethan. A small price to pay for eternal peace.”

  So it really was the devil that came for him now. Ethan had known it all along. This macabre confirmation renewed his fear and his buried survival insti
nct kicked in. To give away his soul to the devil himself?

  Again Ethan looked at the girl. Her dark eyes were clouded by her tears for him and the fear she felt he felt.

  “You can’t win, Ethan,” the girl whispered to him. “Stop fighting and let go. It will be easier that way. It will hurt less.”

  When Ethan heard her words he gave up. He let go of everything that still lingered in the back of his broken mind. The sights he still wanted to see. The people he knew he would never meet. The music he wouldn’t be able to hear again.

  His thoughts and his feelings belonged to the voice now.

  “Then come with me, Ethan.”

  Billy vanished from the room as a dark blue door appeared next to Ethan’s hospital bed. From it emanated the most beautiful blue light Ethan had ever seen.

  He looked into the girl’s dark eyes one final time and wanted so very much to thank her for her last kindness. She had come to him in his darkest hour, and she had stayed. Now that he was ready to let go, she would see him pass the point of no return. It was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for him.

  “No worries, Ethan.” Her voice shattered underneath her sadness. “I wanted to.”

  The blue door opened and a current of warm air filled the hospital room. Then a pale man stepped out of the door and walked over to the hospital bed. He was the most beautiful thing Ethan had ever seen.

  The pale man extended his hand as he said, “Let us go then, Ethan.”

  Ethan’s spirit reached out for this strange visitor, passing through the restraints that kept his body down, unencumbered by the drugs coursing through his veins.

  Together they walked toward the blue door that stood open for them. Ethan couldn’t see what was inside. Only an impenetrable darkness met his gaze. Perhaps this beautiful stranger was leading him into the void.

  He followed his guide into the darkness and a humid warmth embraced him. Caressed the skin he no longer possessed with a careful touch.

  The stranger was true to his word. Ethan could feel his pain and fear fall far from him, into the forgiving darkness. There his burdens would lie for all of eternity, no longer belonging to anybody.