The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (38 page)

He realized he’d been
staring back at Elena the entire time, lost in thought. Now,
Mikalah was staring at him with a questioning frown. He smiled at
them both, in a twitchy, sort of nervous manner. He was sure it
didn’t reach his eyes. If he looked in a mirror, he’d most likely
see Charles Manson staring back.

This was too
much!

Unable to stand it
anymore, Anthony shoveled the last few bites in his mouth in quick
succession, chewing massively, swallowing huge gulps of food. After
a few breaths, he said: “Hey Dad, Mom, I’m done. Can I get up early
from the table? I have an Algebra II test to study for
tomorrow.”

His parents, so engrossed
in their own conversation, stammered over the next few words they
were about to say to each other.

Wiping her mouth with her
napkin, his mother replied, “What did you say, dear?”

Mikalah giggled as Anthony
answered back. “I asked if I can leave the table, because I have to
study.”

His mother looked around
the dinner table, then at their father, who merely shrugged the way
he did when he didn’t care one way or the other.

“
All of you can leave when
you are finished. Do me the favor of rinsing your dishes before you
leave them in the sink. Your father and I will clean up the rest,”
announced Myelly Herrera, smiling at them. She sighed, then turned
and spoke to Raymond, continuing her conversation as if nothing had
interrupted her at all.

Anthony looked at his
sisters as he got up. He walked toward the kitchen, itching to get
out of the dining room before he lost it completely.

He walked directly to his
room once he had fulfilled his mother’s request, went over to his
desk and snatched up his Mp3 player once more. He promptly sat on
the floor with his back resting upon the side of his bed,
waiting.

He didn’t have to wait
long.

She didn’t knock on the
closed door nor did she ask entry, Elena just led Mikalah into
Anthony’s room, and closed the door behind her. Once they were both
in the room, they walked to sit in front of him on the
floor.

Anthony watched them with
an unchanging expression, barely able to contain the urge to move,
to do something.
Anything!
They had both changed into their pajamas, which
meant, not only had they finished their dinner and put away their
dishes properly, but they had taken their showers as well. A
surprising feat, when he considered they’d it all in the twenty
minutes Anthony had been waiting.

They settled themselves
before him. He took the ear-buds from his lobes, paused his Mp3
player with the same methodical thoroughness of a man 60 years
older.

Neither of his sisters
stirred, which unnerved him, because they were never, truly
motionless or remained silent for an extended length of time. They
were serious and focused.

Anthony figured it was his
time to match their resolve and get this finished. Though, he was
still struggling with where to start.

It was Elena, though, who
prompted him gently. He was grateful it was only a small nudge to
get his rolling.

“
What happened,
Tony?”

A full minute passed
before he spoke. At last, he inhaled expansively and exhaled
hugely. “You won’t believe this when I tell you, but I think we are
all in some kind of trouble. And, I’m not talking about your
regular, everyday kind either. I think we’re in big, big trouble… I
can’t even begin to think where to begin in order to explain it to
you,” he rambled, already out of breath, though he’d only spoken a
few sentences.

“
What kind of trouble?”
asked Mikalah in her soft voice, imploring Anthony to
continue.

Somehow this gave him an
idea. “Hey, Mikalah, what do you remember about that old, ugly guy
you said was about to give you a dead kitten last
Thursday?”

Mikalah was somewhat
startled by the question. She hadn’t thought about the old, squishy
man more than twice, since he’d attempted to hand her that poor
crushed kitten in their backyard.

“
Ummm, let’s see,” she
began, thinking deeply, “he had a voice that sounded real gross,
like he had the flu for long time and didn’t take care of it.” She
put a finger alongside her mouth. “He kinda smelled funny. You
know, like old, moldy clothes stuffed way back in the back of the
closet for a long time. Then, when you pull them out, they smell
something like that, understand?” She tilted her head to the right.
“He wore all black, even the clothes under his robe, which was
weird. I mean who wears a robe around outside, right?” She shook
her head in consternation. “Also, everything he wore looked a
little dirty like he’d worn the same things for a few days…” She
shifted her weight, and then went on. “He… also talked kinda
strange… like Nixy.” Her eyes brightened as the connection
solidified in her young mind.

That was exactly what
Anthony was waiting to hear. “Do you mean he had an accent or he
spoke with his words a slightly different order than we would use,
maybe like someone much older than us?” he asked and watched as
Mikalah eyebrows raised.

She’d realized something
significant.

At her side, Elena frowned
not sure what Tony was getting at, but knew the conversation was
going somewhere just by the look on her sister’s face.

“
You
know what, Tony, it’s both – he talked with an accent like
Nixy’s
and
spoke
with weird words just like she does too.”

“
Would you say this old
fart and Nixy might be from the same place?” he
continued.

Elena’s eyes bulged with
comprehension, finally understanding what Anthony was trying to
piece together.

Mikalah didn’t take long
to answer. “Yes, I would, but that would mean –,” she
began…

…
And, Tony finished.
“…They are working together, possibly sent here, by someone, we
haven’t even met yet.”

“
Sent by who?” piped up
Elena, her uneasiness making her voice more shrill than usual.
Anthony could see the dread she’d expressed last Friday creep back
into her face.

“
Well, I was sitting here
thinking before you guys came in… And, you guys are really going to
have to trust me when I say this… If what I think is happening is
actually happening, then this whole thing is going to get
dangerous. I mean it could be real dangerous, possibly deadly, and
not just us three. It could be bad for us all, mom and dad too, and
maybe a lot more people as well.” Anthony took a deep breath to
steady himself and went on. “Earlier when I left the house and
Elena, you saw me go, I decided to go and pay a visit to your
‘friend’ Nixy.”

“
You did what?” said both
girls loudly, in unison.

Anthony sighed in
resignation. “Yeah, I know now… a bad idea.” He fell silent, and
then waved it away as though the quiet was a cloud of bothersome
gnats buzzing about his head. “But, you see, I called Andrew, my
old friend from Yorkdale, so I wouldn’t be alone. I wanted someone
to back me up just in case, you know?”

They nodded slowly, brows
creasing.

“
Our intention was to go
up there and talk with Nixy’s parents, to get them to tell her to
leave the two of you alone, especially after she sort of threatened
Elena after school today.”

Elena gave Mikalah a
“remember-what-I-told-you” look.

The youngest Herrera
sibling nodded gravely at the two others. She knew what he was
talking about.

They turned back to him,
their eyes riveted. “When we finally figured out how to make it up
to the top of the hill and discovered the new dirt road that led us
up there. We walked it, until it ended. We came to some kind of
clearing. At first, it looked like a construction site, where
someone was thinking of putting up a house or something. Only there
was no construction crew or anything like that. There wasn’t even
evidence any type of crew had ever been up there. All we found was
this doghouse.”

They gaped
incredulously.

“
Yes, yes, yes, I know it
sounds ridiculous,” he pleaded the instant his sisters began to
raise a fuss. “Let me finish, ok?” He got nods from both of them.
They relaxed before him. “Now, this doghouse was huge, like three
times bigger than on one grandma has for Kodie. So… umm, we see it
and were as surprised as you guys were just right now. You know,
totally clueless as to why a doghouse would be up there. We were
looking for something more normal, like a pile of lumber or a stack
of sheet rock, right? We thought we’d find something to give us the
impression where on the site would they build a house. All we found
was the doghouse. It was shocking, but sort of frustrating at the
same time.

“
Then, the storm hit with
all the thunder and lightning. The rain drenched us in like
seconds, so we decided to wait out the worst of it inside the
doghouse. At the time, it seemed like the logical choice, since it
was the only place nearby to shelter us from the rain. So, we ran
in all quick, not really paying much attention at first. We get
inside and lightning flashes. That’s when we saw her. I could see
Nixy standing all the way in the back, up against the
wall.”

“
She was
actually
inside
the doghouse?” blurted Mikalah.

“
Yup,” said Anthony,
nodding avidly.

“
Dang, she was in there
with you guys.”

“
As I
said already, yes,” Anthony answered, a little bit more anxious
than before, his vision blurring slightly from unbidden
moisture.
Don’t you freakin’ cry in front
of the girls!

“
But, why was she in
there? I mean, does she live there in a doghouse? Where is her real
house, her stuff? Where does she go after school? What does she
do?” These were all questions from Elena, each one adding ever more
emphatic nods from Mikalah’s head.

“
Yeah, right?” began Tony,
answering all of her question with a question of his own. He
gathered his feet underneath him and began knee-talking closer to
them. “Those were the same questions both Andrew and I had, almost
exactly what you’re asking right now. Unfortunately, we never had
time to fully figure anything out.”

“
Why?” It was Mikalah’s
turn to question.

“
Because, there was
something else up there were her.”

Both girls frowned
anew.

Unbidden, Anthony’s eyes
suddenly filled up with tears. They could both see the fear seep
into his expression like water flowing into a dry sponge. His face
seemed to swell with a myriad of feeling – fear and anger,
disbelief and disgust. It was a twisted tangle neither girl could
accurately explain what they saw squirming underneath his skin.
Merely, it was dreadful. Moreso, because Anthony hardly ever cried,
he wasn’t a big conveyer of emotion.

“
What kind of thing…?”
prompted Elena.

The girls seemed to be
taking turns now.

“
Something…,” started
Tony, but he stopped as if had fallen into some sort of mental
void. His jaw slackened, his eyes glossed over. His thoughts were
so intense, he needed all of his energy just to navigate through
them. He had to keep it together. He had to get control. He had
too, otherwise he’d lose his sanity. “Something, h-huge and white…
with white fur…”

“
What, Tony?” Mikalah
copied Anthony’s pose, placing her hands on her thighs, clearly
uncomfortable with her brother’s inability to coherently describe
his experience. She wanted a clear answer to her
question.

Anthony’s eyes locked on
Mikalah’s with newfound intensity. “She called it an Isighünd,
although, to me, it looked like an over-sized wolf with long white
fur and long fangs coming out of a mouth. But, it was obvious to
both me and Andrew that thing was way too big to be any kind of
animal from around here. Its feet were black and ended in the
biggest claws I have ever seen, even bigger than a bear’s. It had
an elongated snout, equally black, with a large, sweaty nose
dripping with mucus. Even though it was raining, I could still see
it falling from its nose and onto the ground, which was bad.
B—b-but what was worse, so much worse… it freaked me out. It still
freaks me out when I think about them. It’s so… they’re so…” He
trailed off, a retched sob constricting his throat.

“
It’s what, Tony?” queried
Elena, curious, but not sure she wanted to hear the answer, her
forehead etched with apprehension.

Her brother looked at her
through haunted eyes. “It’s eyes, Elena. It was its’ eyes. They
were horrible. They were the worst.” He gulped, breathing raggedly,
but somehow continued. “They were red, and not just reddish-pink
like an albino, that’s not even close. They were completely red.
They glowed. I could see them. I could tell, because, though it
wasn’t entirely dark, it was dark enough I could tell its’ eyes
were giving off some sort of light, like a light bulb only from
within. They were glowing, red eyes with no iris or pupil just
glowing, red eyes, looking at me with hunger. It was - I-It… was
the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life.”