Fishing in Brains for an Eye with Teeth (Thirteen Tales of Terror) (5 page)

One night, three months after the three funerals, Jack came home from work to discover he had new neighbors.  The house next door was lit up; drapes hung in the windows; and two black Corvettes were parked in the driveway.

Jack barely noticed.  He had a date with a brand new bottle of bourbon.

As he ate his microwaved supper, Jack Carver's sense of personal identity had never been so unclear.

Wasn't he the lawman credited with bringing in the notorious Cornfield Killer?  Or was he the man whose lies got Joanie Eaton hanged?  Certainly, he was the man who shot his best friend.  And wasn't he the guy who strangled the helpless young woman he was supposed to rescue?

Or was he the woman herself?

If he wasn't Laura Eaton, he
should
be.

Was he the killer or the killer's killer?

He didn't know who he was any more.

As the man in the Sheriff's uniform struggled to remember his own name, there came a rapping on his front door.

He knew immediately it was Them and he was instantly angry.  He didn't know why They'd come back to him and he didn't care.  They had tricked him into stealing Laura's senses and now They were going to pay!

He
knew
it was the Sensora sisters.

Grabbing his gun, flipping off the safety, Jack stalked to his front door and opened it.

Seeing them again made him crazy.  Enraged, he pointed his pistol at Clara...

Only to lose all sensation of touch.

Simultaneously, he went blind (and he was fairly certain his sense of taste and smell were also obliterated.)

He couldn't tell if he was still holding the gun or not.  He couldn't feel
anything.

Clara's voice, “You can't harm us, Sheriff.”

Evata's voice, “Don't even try it.”

Flora's voice, “You've lost, Jack.”

Lucia's voice, “Why can't he accept it like a man?”

Ivona answered her sister, saying sarcastically, “Yeah.  Right.”

His senses were returned to him with a bang.  He found himself on the floor, his knees aching.  His gun was gone.  They had disarmed him while he was senseless.

“Shall we go inside, Jack?” asked Flora, batting her eyes at him.

The five sisters strolled into his house.  Jack scrambled to his feet and followed them.

The front door slammed shut behind him.

Clara said, “We did as promised, Sheriff.”

Lucia asked her sisters, “He found her
alive
, right?”

“Yes,” answered Evata.

Ivona remarked, “For all the good it did
her
.”

His rage rose again, fogging his mind, propelling him forward, fists raised, intent on beating Ivona's face in.

Again he was stripped of four of his five senses.

He was void.

He had no clue if he was still swinging his arms or if he had fallen flat on his face.

“You asked us if we are witches.  Remember, Sheriff?”

“We aren't.  Not exactly.”

“We're more like vampires.  We are a breed of night creatures that have existed for centuries.”

“We feed on people's perceptions, Jack.”

“We
eat
human senses.”

Jack's fury had withered.  He
believed
them.

They weren't human.

After each clairvoyant vision they gave him, Jack had thought the sisters looked like they were in some kind of drugged-out stupor.  Now he realized they were just overly
full
— having gorged themselves into a state of satiated lethargy.

Understanding— that these five sisters slowly devoured Laura's five connections to the world— terrified Jack.

The women returned his senses to him.  Once again, Jack found himself prostrate at the feet of the immortal Sensora sisters.

“What do you want from me?”  Tears streaming down his face, he begged to know, “Why are you doing this to me?”

“I told you,” said Clara, “on the night we first met.  My sisters and I have been wandering.”

“We've decided to put down roots here,” said Evata.

“You'll make a wonderful neighbor, Jack,” said Flora.

Ivona grinned devilishly.  “You won't even know we're around.”

“What do you think, sisters?” asked Lucia.  “With that
wonderful
feast he and Laura helped to provide us, it'll be at least five years before any of us will need to feed again.  Right?”

“Right, sister.”

“Oh, most definitely.”

Flora clarified, “Now that we have secured entry into this community, we'll be able to eat without your aid, of course.  But our
first
meal, that wouldn't have been possible without
you
, Jack!”

He was more overwhelmed than confused but he found himself muttering, “I don't understand.”

Her stoic features clouding over with a frown, Clara further explained, “We have certain... restrictions on our existence, Sheriff.  Before we could take up residency here, we needed to introduce ourselves to the people's protector.”

“That's you, Mr. Carver,” said Evata.

“But there
is
something
you
get in return,” added Flora.

“What?”

Ivona frowned and Flora smiled.  Lucia gave the answer: “A glamour.”

“What?” he asked, more confused than ever.

Evata told him, “You will continue to serve as Sheriff for a very long time, Mr. Carver.  People
outside
this county may criticize your actions but around here, you'll always be a hero.  You will be reelected every time you run for office.”

Clara insisted, “And you will continue to run for office until your dying day.  You will
never retire. 
And
while
you are Sheriff, you will never disturb my sisters and I.”

Ominously, Lucia declared, “You're
our
protector now, human.”

“Otherwise—” warned Ivona, “the entire world will learn the
truth
about how Laura Eaton died.”

He was shocked to the core of his being and yet not at all surprised by the threat.  Of
course
these fiends knew what he did.  Meekly, he said, “You set me up.”

“No, Jack,” said Flora.

“We did exactly as we promised,” insisted Evata.

Ivona reminded him, “
We
didn't murder the girl.”

Five pairs of eyes said in stares,
You
did that.

Jack decided,
I'll just kill myself
.

Clara seemed to read his mind (or his defeatist body language).  Coldly, she informed him, “You'll find it impossible to do yourself harm, Sheriff.  If you try, you'll again lose all your senses.”

“And when you
do
eventually die, well...”  Lucia shrugged.  “Do you honestly think that means it's
over
?”

With acidic disdain, Flora said, “You'll just be handing off your problems to the next Sheriff.”

Ivona called him a, “Coward.”

“Who knows?”  Clara stated evenly, “In that case, another serial killer might even crop up.”

Immediately, Jack recalled Ed's final words: “
She made me do it, Jack!  She
made
me!
”  He went absolutely berserk when Ed said it because he thought Ed was talking about
Laura
.

Now Jack wondered if Ed was referring to a
different
'she.'

“Don't worry, Sheriff,” reassured Clara.  “It won't be so bad.”

“We don't eat often.”

“Once a year or so, some young maiden somewhere in the county will suddenly go blind...  or inexplicably lose one of her other senses... and the world will continue to turn.”

“We'll try to select women who are unknown to you, Jack, so we don't exacerbate your guilt.”

“Rest assured: you won't ever hear about most of our exploits.”

“Do you
understand
, Sheriff?” asked Clara.

He understood all too well.  “I'm your slave.”

“Don't look at it that way.”

“Think of all the
good
you can do for the people of this county.”

“Think of the lives you
can
save
.
”

“Think of duty and honor and all that happy horseshit.”

“Think whatever you want, mortal.  Just leave
us
alone.”

As one, all five asked him, “
Do
you
understand
us, Sheriff?”

“Yes,” he said.

Lucia smiled brightly.  “We should be going now, don't you think, sisters?”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely.”

“We've still got a lot of unpacking to do before dawn.”

Clara said, “Goodnight, Sheriff.”

Evata said politely, with no hint of sarcasm or irony, “Thank you for a lovely evening, Mr. Carver.”

Ivona opened the front door, saying gruffly, “Later, neighbor.”

Flora blew him a kiss and Lucia gave him a quick (cold) peck on the cheek before leaving.

Alone again in his house, Jack headed into his kitchen and retrieved his bottle of Jack Daniels.

He sat at his kitchen table, poured himself a glass, picked it up, then hesitated.

Five years. . . .  They said they wouldn't need to feed again for at least five years.

That gave him five years to figure out a way to defeat them.

Jack had seen a lot of monster movies.  Even the worst villains had their vulnerabilities.

The Sensora sisters
must
have a weakness.  They compared themselves to vampires and vampires had
many
weaknesses.

Jack knew his own lack of self-confidence led him to disaster.

He was determined to do better.

He took the bottle of Jack Daniels to the kitchen sink and poured it down the drain. 

“I know who I am,” he muttered aloud.

Jack Curtis Carver was the Sheriff of Trinity County.

Pulling back the shade on the window that looked out on the house next door, he vowed aloud, “And I
will
find a way to protect the people.” 

THE END

 ___________________

THIS IS NOT A TEST!

___________________

…   …   …

This is the Emergency Broadcast System!   THIS NOT A TEST!  This
is
an actual emergency!

A state of martial law is now in effect
globally
as rampaging mobs continue to cause worldwide carnage!  It has been positively
confirmed
that a masked transmission of mysterious origin is being piggybacked on all known radio and television broadcasts!  This is an ongoing attack that is ultimately universally lethal!  Continued exposure to the signal gradually destroys the cerebellum, resulting in wildly uninhibited behavior!  This essentially means that if you are hearing my voice right now, you probably are too frenzied to realize it... but you are
already dead
!

This message was prerecorded… obviously!
  

…   …   …

This is the Emergency Broadcast System!  THIS NOT A TEST!  This
is
an actual emergency!

A state of martial law is now in effect
globally
as rampaging mobs continue to …

THE END

The Night Lightning Struck Paintersville

In the end, when lightning struck Paintersville, the Taylor sisters were together.

******

When Talytha Taylor entered the (only) general store in the little town of Paintersville, Montana, she heard three things simultaneously.

A bell above the door rang, heralding her entrance.

A woman was bawling— not just crying but
bawling
, like her heart was breaking.

And a man was shouting, “—always comes back to the same shitty choice: either
we
suck it up and do as he says or our loved ones suffer!”

“Ssshh!”

“Like they aren’t suffering
already
?
 
Like we
all
aren’t suffering?”

There was a hissing chorus of, “Ssshh!”

Talytha didn’t see anyone.  The voices were coming from farther back in the store.  She walked down an aisle with canned vegetables on one side and cartons of soft drinks on the other side, floorboards creaking underfoot.  She could smell a pleasant mix of apples, onions, cedar wood, and cigar smoke.  Sunshine was in short supply this afternoon and the store was full of deep shadows. 

On the long drive here from Great Falls, Talytha kept hearing gloomy meteorological forecasts; severe thunderstorms were expected later tonight.

She was glad she made it to Paintersville before the bad weather.  It was a bitch finding this place.  Apparently, until just about a year ago, this town went by another name.  No one in Montana seemed even aware that a ‘Paintersville’ existed.

It had taken all day to get here. 
Now
all she had to do was find her sister.

The voices had hushed.  Except for Talytha’s footfalls on the hardwood floor, the store had become eerily quiet.  Ahead of her was one of those big circular mirrors mounted just below the ceiling.  In it, she could see the rounded reflection of a cluster of people.  Talytha walked past jars of pickles on one side and chips and dips on the other, coming to the end of the aisle and turning right.

Here, in an open area in the middle of the store, seven people were clustered around a long counter, like the kind she’d expect to see in a diner.  On the counter were a cash register, an opened box of beef jerky, a display of cheap butane lighters, several jars of honey, and a humidor.  Twin ceiling fans lazily beat the air from above.

Two women— one older, one younger— stood behind the counter, both wearing demure black dresses.  The moment Talytha saw the puffy red eyes of the older lady, she knew this was the person that she heard crying.  Her cheeks were dry; Talytha saw no tears; but she noted the handkerchief being squeezed by the woman and that was all the confirmation she needed.  The younger lady also looked distraught and worried.  Noticing a resemblance in their eyes and the shape of their bodies, Talytha assumed they were mother and daughter.