Owen: A Through Glass Novella Read online

  “What?” The girl behind me nearly shrieked. “You saved me, I want to stay with you.”

  A scream echoed through the darkened sky above us, it shook the leaves of the trees we stood next to. One screech followed another, making it clear that I was being hunted.

  They knew I was a threat now. How long until they figured out how to take me out?

  “No,” I was firm, “stay with them. These guys want my blood. You’ll be safer with them.”

  I slapped my bat into my opposite hand, waiting for her or any of them to challenge me. No one said anything.

  “Old Court Mall. Light,” I repeated and took off, leaving the girl behind and taking the screaming of the winged monsters with me.

  Every step I continued to blast my message, “Light kills them. Shine light on them. Meet at Old Court Mall in south Texas,” blasting through each channel as I gasped, and heaved, unwilling to give up. Focusing on the task if only to avoid the pain that was ripping through my muscles, through my heart.

  The beast’s cries followed me, breaking through the dark like ice as I sprinted down the now empty street. Screams echoed from the houses around me, mixing with cries for help. There were even the squeals of a car peeling out a few streets over.

  I just hoped they had enough sense to turn their headlights on. Although it would only protect them from one side. I’m not sure if the red of the taillights would be enough to kill the buggers and without light shining from the back, they were vulnerable.

  ‘Without light shining from the back…’

  “Oh god--” The beasts screamed again, louder, closer, diving right for my exposed back.

  I did the first thing I could think of, I dove headfirst into the darkened alley of the old main street I had been running through.

  The creature howled in frustration. I grunted at the impact, the bat clattering down the asphalt as the light on my head flickered and went out.

  I tilted my head, my neck aching from the impact as I tried to find the bat. Everything was so dark that I could have been looking into an abyss for all I knew.

  An abyss full of the slow tapping claws of the demons that were stalking me.

  Hunting me.

  Tap.

  I twisted, scuttling over the road, my right shoulder burning and screaming. Seeing as it had taken more of the impact, I had clearly done something to it. Not that a dumb little injury mattered if the beast turned me to ash.

  Tap.

  Smacking my palm at the lamp in the hopes of getting it back on, I arched my back, trying to find the bat as the light gave one feral flicker and lit up the alley just enough that I could see the long strip of beige wood less than an arms width away.

  The light flickered off as my hand curled around the bat, the creature rushing me as if he realized that this was his one chance to end me.

  I twisted on the ground as he screamed, giving a howl of my own as I swung the bat into the darkness with every bit of strength I had, ignoring the fire in my shoulder. Ignoring the fact that I couldn’t see enough to know if I was going to make an impact.

  The screaming changed as my bat made contact with something hard; cold, wet blood that smelled of used motor oil showering over me.

  I hit again. Another scream.

  Again.

  A howl and the thing scuttled back, claws tapping as I jumped to my feet and smacked my palm against the light. The thing blazed to life, just as the monster turned to me with those dark eyes, a wide inhuman smile spilling all of its features into that of a vile bird.

  It turned to ash before it could let out another call.

  Silence and dark dripped down the walls of the alley, it was only me and the flickering light on my head. Me and my heaving breaths.

  After a moment, the sound was broken by another scream, and then another.

  The light flickered again, it’s warning a scream in my head as I turned and ran.

  6

  May 8th 2013 8:59 pm

  I was covered in sweat, tears, and blood when I reached the parking lot of Old Town Mall, still yelling the instructions into my walkie talkie. I wasn’t even sure it had battery life still.

  I sprinted across the parking lot, the light of my headlamp showing the way as I ran toward those glass doors, toward what I could only hope was safety.

  Safety that couldn’t come fast enough, the lamp flickered with each step, the call of the monsters that were hunting me coming again and again. But I kept moving forward, staring at those massive doors. I swear I could see people moving around in there, people who had heard. People who were safe.

  I was halfway across the parking lot when the blazing light that was strapped to my head flickered again, the scream of the monsters echoing through the dark skies at the flick of darkness, exhilaration etched in the haunted tones.

  They had been watching me.

  They had been waiting for this.

  The light flickered again, more screams echoing through the empty parking light, rattling the shards of broken glass from the cars that were ripped apart, from the windshields that were broken out in an effort to get at who was inside.

  I ran faster, darting around the graveyard of ash as I raced toward the door and the figure that was just on the other side.

  “Owen!” Carl yelled as he burst through the door towards me, just as my light flicked out.

  The screams of the monsters turned into a panic as at least ten dark shapes launched from the roof of the mall and bee-lined for me.

  “Owen!” Carl screamed again, his voice ripping at my chest like the claws that were moments from ending me.

  I ran, legs pumping as my lungs burned. Burned and screamed and stumbled, sending me face-first into the ash strewn asphalt.

  “Carl,” I yelled as I worked myself to my feet, panic pulling at every muscle as I stood, only to come face to face with one of the monsters. The creature seemed to be sneering as it looked down at me, as it raised its claw. One after another landing and doing the same until I was surrounded.

  Figures. Leaders of the revolutions were always the easiest targets. They also weren’t going to go down swinging.

  I lifted the bat, slamming it down on the head of the nearest monster with a resounding crack, before turning to the next. Hitting and screaming and fighting I went to one monster after another, beating them down as they swiped and screamed in an attempt to end me.

  I just kept swinging, that ache in my chest that I had been trying to push away ripping through me. The image of my mother's eyes shredding the last of my sanity as I howled and swung, and fell one monster.

  Then another.

  And another.

  I screamed as I beat the last creature, only to have him turn to smoke when someone turned on the lights of a car, the blazing yellow beams cutting him down to smoke and leaving me standing in the middle of ash rings and blood-covered carcasses, their black blood covering me.

  “Owen!” Carl yelled again and I turned, turned to the twenty others who stood around the doors, flashlights in one hand, a wide assortment of blunt objects or guns in the other.

  “This is him?” the guy by the truck said, his features washed out in the light that was burning my eyes. “This is the guy that sent the messages?”

  “That’s him,” Carl said, breaking from the crowd to pull me toward the group, everyone rushing into the building, although they left the car headlights on.

  “You all got the message?” I asked, looking around the group of kids, and adults. Dozens of faces with haunted eyes. “You all made it.”

  I sunk to the ground, gasping in relief as the bat clattered to the tile floor of the mall entryway. I sucked in a breath, forcing away the pain that was still ripping at my chest, when a different pain took over.

  Agonizing pressure swelled through my head, it cracked at my skull as I curled together, the darkness in my mind popping in lights of color as I screamed. Everyone else following suit as they fell to the ground around me.

  All of
us screaming.

  All of us writhing.

  Our minds were invaded by a hiss of a voice that rumbled through me so loud it might have been right next to us.

  ‘We are the Ulama.’

  The tone of the slimy voice invaded me, twisting through my mind like a snake and I cried out more, shifting on the ground as though I could make the voice leave. Make the pain leave.

  ‘You have been cleansed and now you will be warned. Your life is now our life, your mind our mind, your belongings, ours.

  We will kill you without question unless the rules are followed.

  Any groundlings found to have left the interior of your current place of inhabitance will be killed.

  Any groundlings found in open spaces will be killed.

  Any groundlings found to make noise will be killed.

  Any groundlings found to generate light will be killed.

  Any groundlings with an intent to cause harm will be killed.

  You have been warned.’

  The pain left as soon as the voice did, leaving us all panting, lifting ourselves off the floor as we looked around. I half expected one of those monsters to be inside, to be seconds from turning us all to ash. But it was just us, kneeling in the dome of half a dozen flashlights in the middle of a massive mall that suddenly felt more like a prison than a fortress.

  We all looked at each other, their eyes wide as they stared at me, clearly wondering what was going to happen next.

  It was only when Carl smiled and said, “What say you boss? Do we fight? Or do we comply?” That I realize exactly what was going on.

  “We secure,” I responded confidently. “We make this mall our home. We find survivors. We won’t stand down.”

  Everyone began to nod, jaws tight in agreement as they looked from me to the door and back again, still waiting for the words they wanted to hear.

  “We fight.”

  7

  May 8th 2013 11:59 pm

  It had taken us less than an hour to locate the main utility room for the mall, mostly because one of the people who were still there was a security guard.

  When the power had gone out, they had begun to evacuate for security reasons. Even then, most people had been drawn outside by what many of the others described as ribbons that fell from the sky.

  Ribbons that fell from the sky.

  The mall had been mostly empty, everyone outside dancing in ribbons of black that had come alive to kill them.

  I shuddered at the thought, at the haunted look in their eyes as he told me about it. As the scream echoed in his head. The dozen or so mall workers who had remained inside looked the same, tears still streaming down their cheeks.

  That was when I stormed away, seeing their tears had worked to spark my own and I had no interest in freeing the emotion.

  Work. That’s what I needed.

  Work to get the backup generators on. Work to flood the mall with light. Work to save everyone.

  I had sent most everyone else to work on securing the glass doors or moving the cars to shine their headlights out into the parking lot and create safe passage for those still coming. Anyone with electrical or computer knowledge I had sent to build a short-wave radio to broadcast from using parts in the electronics store on the second level.

  That may not have been the best choice seeing as I was now working on the generator in the basement with the dark and the cold and one flashlight as I crossed wires and tapped nuts and wished to hell I had a soldering iron. Electrical tape and hopes and dreams would have to work. Perhaps even a good whack with a monkey wrench

  “How’s it coming?” Carl asked from behind me, I nearly jumped.

  It had been hours since he had left me alone, having bolted out after I snapped at him for the thirtieth time and left while mumbling something about helping with the radio.

  “It’s fine,” I tried to keep my voice level, even though I knew the chances of him getting a second verbal lashing was high.

  He probably shouldn’t be down here with how much I was raging, but I did need the help and no one else knew anything about electricity or motors. One of the older men was still hopeful of finding an instruction manual somewhere.

  “Any closer?”

  “No clue. I think there’s just a ‘lights are on’, or ‘lights are off’ option here,” I grumbled, electing to hit the metal casing to the massive generator again. “I’m not even sure why it didn’t automatically turn on when the power went out, these things are supposed to do that.”

  “It’s probably because there was a surge before, I think they meant to take out the generators, for reasons just like this.”

  I spun around at the new voice, the very feminine and younger voice. The girl was blonde and a bit shorter than Carl. If I had to guess she was maybe fourteen… fifteen? And was wearing a grey shirt with a bright “42” on it. The irony of the shirt was particularly painful for today.

  “You need to bypass the breaker, I’m sure it got tripped,” she continued. So Little Miss Hitchhiker was a know it all.

  “I already did that,” I grumbled and went back to the massive generator, ignoring the tap of her blood-soaked Chucks as she made her way over to me.

  “Yes, but a model this big is sure to have four or five. We had one similar at the PC gaming place my dad used to own, and they had them in the dumbest place.” The girl was quickly taking over, and pissing me off.

  She walked right up to the huge thing, lifted a panel that was so covered with grease I didn’t realize it could open and revealed a panel of four toggle switches and one master. She flipped the master, all five switches moving back and forth as something clicked inside.

  “Give that a try,” she said, wiping her hands on pants that were covered with just as much blood as her shoes.

  I glared at her for a minute before cranking the lever before me and letting the generator erupt to life. Everything bumped and buzzed as one light after another flickered on, and cheers of success erupted through the halls.

  It was simple. No hacking, no wire manipulation. And to be honest, I never would have been able to do that without the punk girl.

  Frustration melting away, I turned, holding my hand out to the girl who fixed me with a smug grin.

  “Thanks,” I said, the last of my grumps seeping out with that one word. “I’m Owen.”

  “Bridget. Bridget Rome.” Her grin spread wider as something clicked into place and I turned to Carl who was smiling just as broad as the girl.

  “Owen, meet Rome. Sly little bugger that she is,” Carl said with a laugh. “Gotta tell you. I never saw that coming.”

  They were laughing, but I just stared forward, dumbfounded at the smiling girl that for the past year I had thought was a boy who lived on the other side of Texas. Guess she lied about that too.

  I wanted to cheer, to whoop, to holler, to hug the girl and spin her around or something stupid like that.

  But a boulder had begun to form at the pit of my stomach, everything growing painful as I realized who was missing, and if Rome had gotten here already, someone else would have.

  “Where’s Spencer?”

  8

  May 11th 2013 4:03 p.m

  Cans of corn, beans, tuna, and everything else we had pilfered and distributed from where else but the dollar store, were cluttered around the base of what once had been the fountain. The now still water was a deep grey color thanks to everyone who had used it to wash the black blood from their hands, and their clothes.

  It was a foul sight when mixed with the food, but no one seemed to mind. They scooped what they could onto paper plates, devoured the contents, and threw their plates into the massive fire that a few others had made. Not fire for light, but fire for heat. Without the sun beaming down and warming the Texas dirt everything had grown a bit cold.

  But not so cold that you could tell the sun was gone.

  Just cold and humid as though it was just hidden.

  Hidden would be better than gone. Hidden had ho
pe. Gone was an ending.

  “I think it’s time we establish some kind of grouping. And perhaps leadership,” one of the older men spoke up, the same one who had looked for instructions rather than help me repair the generator.

  Carl, Bridget and I, looked up from the assorted canned products we were inhaling, baked bean juice drizzling down Rome’s chin as she glared at the guy.

  “I agree, we do need a leader,” one of the mothers, Junie I think, called from the edge of the group, as she helped her little girl eat. She had lost another little girl and her husband in their escape. I think this was the first time I had seen her with somewhat dried eyes.

  “And we need a plan.”

  With that, the room erupted in shouts, questions, and suggestions, several of the older males jumping up and nominating themselves as the leader.

  I just ate more beans.

  “Thank god these guys don’t play,” Rome grumbled narrowing her eyes at the guy who was still trying to get himself elected president. “They would never be able to get past level five.”

  “They need a better DM,” Carl said, both of them laughing.

  “If only this was a fantasy,” I snapped, shoveling the last of my beans into my mouth.

  I didn’t miss the gnarly side-eye the two gave each other. I wasn’t going to give them the smile or the laugh they wanted. I wasn’t in the mood, might not be for a while.

  Just like Junie. Just like everyone else.

  Everyone had lost someone. Everyone had watched someone die.

  With all the self-nominations and panicked requests the room had resolved into chaos, everyone yelling and getting louder and louder. After a minute I rolled my eyes and stood, well aware that Carl and Rome were watching me walk to the fire and throw my plate in.

  “If we don’t have good leadership we are all going to die.”

  “What does it matter what we do? We are all going to die anyway.”