《The Knife's Edge》 Welcome To Asheton: part one Benny could hear her screams coming from the foyer. He reached down to hold his bleeding leg, wincing. Jesus, he thought. With the two inch wide wound throbbing, he struggled towards the living room door, but it had been locked. He looked at his leg, it was only a superficial wound, he told himself. He heard Her scream again. He banged his fists against the door in vien. His palms slid down the unvarnished wooden door with every blow. A third scream, this time muffled by a sick, gurgling sound. Then the scream stopped, abruptly. And when Benny heard the thud, he knew it was his wife''s head hitting the floor. ----------- ¡°They''ll have to be told sometime soon.¡± ¡°I know.¡± It was not the first time Felix Drover had spoken those words that evening. ¡°A couple more weeks, please? Just until I¡¯ve settled the arrangements for the kids carnival. It''s a stressful time.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Felicity sighed. Once upon a time that sigh would have accompanied a loving touch. Even now he could feel her hand on his shoulder like a phantom limb. Felix set a flimsy paperback book down on his bedside table and placed his reading glasses on top of it. The pillow border between them felt childish, but he thought it was only right and moral for a formally divorced couple to hold separate sleeping quarters, no matter how close those quarters may be. And deep down, if he was being honest, he knew it bothered Felicity. It had too, and he took a secret pleasure in knowing that.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ---------------- High up on Meadow Hill, among the tall trees and thick bramblebush, at 4am on tuesday the 19th of October, a man could be seen, his robust, naked form illuminated by a pale moon. He hunched over a hole in the ground, his spine protruding from his back as if it might break through his skin at any moment. The man was washing his hands in the hole. In the hole was a pool of red water, red not as if it had been stained by blood, but red as if it had simply always been that way, and always would. It sloshed over the man''s hands in waves, washing away all the little nicks and cuts they had accumulated. Then the naked man stood, and, under that same pale moonlight, faded into the night from whence he came. ------------ Benny opened his eyes. Harsh light streamed through the bay windows. Searing pain was coming from his leg. He looked down to see a pool of blood around his leg, the wound from the night before still wide open. ¡°Shit.¡± He lurched up and around, grabbing the door handle and pulling it open as he shuffled away from the wall. There She lay, Jenny Shipton, her neck cut half open, her blood tossed along the foyer walls indiscriminate of any and all photographs and art. Benny shuddered. Fumbling through his pocket for his phone, he dialed 999. ------------- Micheal, Kyle, and Felicity Drover had all managed to busy themselves with the business of breakfast when Felix finally sat down to join them, looking unassuming but immaculate, with a briefcase of his church papers which he put down by his chair. ¡°I see you¡¯ve all been waiting for me to say grace.¡± ¡°Naturally,¡± said Micheal between a mouthful of scrambled eggs. ¡°Let''s hold hands,¡± Felicity said. Kyle held Micheal¡¯s, who in turn held Felix¡¯s, who held Felicity''s, who, naturally, Kyle''s other hand. ¡°Lord, we bless this food before us in your name. We pray that as we eat, we would be filled with your goodness, and that it would prepare us for the times ahead. Amen.¡± ¡°Amen,¡± Micheal, Kyle And Felicity chorused. Welcome to Asheton: part two Sheriff Norton was not acustomed to Murder Cases. He¡¯d been Sheriff in Acaster for three years, and in all that time he¡¯d only dealt with two homicides. So it was quite a shock to him, when, lugging his not insubstantial frame up the Baxtor manor staircase, he encountered the dead body of a woman he had never seen, lying on the ground in the foyer, with her head almost severed clean.. well no, it could hardly be called clean, but it was nearly severed off of her body nevertheless. Jesus, he thought, turning his face away in shock. It would be easier to look at, he supposed, if it wasn¡¯t so messy. Sheriff Norton looked back towards the dead body and felt his breakfast rise back up to the top of his throat. He struggled to swallow it back down. Upon reflection, it probably wouldn''t have been any easier if it wasn''t so messy. -------- ¡°Jack, could you pack those over there, please?¡± Felix gestured towards a pile of boxes ready to be filled with Halloween candy. ¡°Sure thing, Paster Drover.¡± Jack was Union church¡¯s only youth pastor, and as Felix went to fetch a cup from the water cooler he mused that one day Jack would replace him in the pulpit. If God sees fit, he thought. If God sees fit. ¡°Dad, have you seen Micheal?¡± Kyle asked from behind his father. Felix turned around. ¡°Not since breakfast, why?¡± ¡°Well, he was supposed to help me move some of my stuff into the apartment this afternoon, but he¡¯s not at the house and he hasn''t seen my texts.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Well, have you tried Bev¡¯s?¡± Yeah, I have. She doesn''t know where he is either.¡± Kyle sighed. ¡°The carnival looks like it''s coming together.¡± ¡°It really is. Y''know, I was a little worried at first that we wouldn''t be able to make it as big as we usually do, especially after having to postpone it two years in a row. But by the grace of god, this year it¡¯s lookin¡¯ to be bigger than ever before.¡± ¡°By the grace of God.¡± Kyle smiled. ¡°Amen.¡± Felix patted his son on the shoulder. Kyle shuffled around for a bit ¡°I should go, got boxes to pack up at the house.¡± ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll let you know if Mike shows up.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± -------------- Jack climbed into the moving van, carrying a box full of peanut butter chocolate bars. As he set the box down he noticed something, a small, thick, dark blue tuft of hair next to the box. He reached down to pick it up, and hesitated. It was probably teeming with germs, it could even be carrying rabies. Those thoughts and a dozen others swam around in his head as he went to the janitors closet to fetch a pair of latex gloves. The closet was right opposite the entrance to the men''s bathroom, and Jack could hear someone hacking up something awful. ¡°Hrek. Gulh. Cough, cough.¡± Someone must have one hell of a cold, he thought, pulling a white latex glove over his hand. As he left the janitor¡¯s closet, he almost crashed into Micheal Drover, or at least, Micheal almost crashed into him. ¡°Oh, hey, you alright?¡± Micheal backed up slightly, his clothes disheveled, an unsure look on his face. ¡°Huh? Oh, yeah. I¡¯m fine. Just got some bad allergies.¡± He eyed Jack¡¯s hands. ¡°What you got those on for?¡± ¡°There''s this bit of.. animal fur in the moving van. A good handful of it, all dark blue and matted. Weird, eh?¡± Jack backed away a little. Micheal had become keenly alert, and he sensed something strange in the pastor¡¯s son''s eyes. ¡°Yeah, he muttered. ¡°Weird. Look, I gotta go, I told my brother I''d help him move some of his stuff.¡± ¡°Okay. Be seein¡¯ ya.¡± Micheal jogged down the hall towards the main section of the church. Welcome to Asheton: part three Sheriff Norton went over to where Benny Baxtor was hunched up in the library doorway, just feet away from the corpse. ¡°Benny.¡± ¡°Sheriff.¡± Benny nodded up at Norton. ¡°Dear god, Benny, what have you got yourself into?¡± ¡°It wasn''t me, I swear.¡± Benny winced as he moved his legs to sit up more. ¡°There. There was a man, clad in black. He. I don''t know how but he got into the house somehow. He was here when I came home with, with Jenny..¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Norton took a deep breath. ¡°Okay. Don''t go over exerting yourself. I¡¯m gonna call the E.A.T¡¯s, they¡¯ll get here as soon as possible.¡± Norton went into the library and took a seat close to Benny as he pulled out his phone. Opposite him, hanging above a large bay window, the head of a male deer loomed over Benny and Norton. --------- Jack wondered if Micheal was still troubled by what he had shared at prayer group last week. He seemed off today, he was usually much more sociable. But, he thought as he climbed back up into the moving van, it would be nosy to speculate on such things. He looked around the boxes for that filthy clump of hair, but it wasn''t there. He stared at where he had known it to previously be. Well, he thought, i¡¯ll be damned. Jack moved the box closer to the wall of the van and hopped out, closing the door on his way out. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. --------- An EMT moved away from Benny¡¯s now bandaged leg. ¡°It''s just a superficial flesh wound,¡± he told Benny and Norton, ¡°but he should come into the hospital if it starts showing any signs of infection.¡± Benny stared aimlessly as the EMT¡¯s loaded Jenny¡¯s body into a stretcher and covered it with a sheet. ¡°Benny? Benny? You there?¡± Sheriff Norton waved his hand in front of Benny¡¯s face. ¡°Huh? Yeah.¡± The EMT¡¯s carried the stretcher down the stairs carefully. ¡°Benny, I¡¯m gonna have to take you down to the station, to take down a statement.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It''s nothing personal.¡± ¡°No, no, of course it isn''t.¡± ¡°Ok. Can you walk on that?¡± He gestured to Benny¡¯s leg. ¡°Yeah.¡± --------- A knock at the door. Kyle got up from the kitchen table and opened the door. ¡°Mike.¡± ¡°Hey, sorry I''m late. I.. some stuff came up.¡± ¡°That''s alright.¡± Mile walked over to the kitchen table and Kyle shut the door. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you''re actually leaving.¡± Kyle laughed. ¡°Yes you can, you just can''t believe that I''m leavin before you.¡± Micheal looked over to the kitchen window. ¡°True.¡± ¡°You want something to eat?¡± Kyle asked, clearing up his plate. ¡°Nah, I got something on the way here. How many boxes you got left to back.¡± ¡°About three.¡± ¡°Alrighty.¡± Micheal sniveled, rubbing his nose. Kyle frowned. ¡°You ok?¡± ¡°Yeah. Just allergies. Come on, let''s get you moved outta this dump.¡± ------- The sun was beginning to set once again on Asheton, and as Micheal drove back from Kyle¡¯s apartment, he could see the pale moon starting to rise even as the sky maintained its bright blue hue. Soon the sun would slip under the horizon for a night of fun with countries on the other side of the globe, and the moon would rise high into the sky, as was its prerogative. Micheal sighed as he stopped the car at a train track crossing. No full moon tonight. He was happy about that. Welcome to Asheton: part four As the sky turned from a bright blue to a deep, striped orange, Felix Drover was accessing how far the church staff had come in assembling the Kids Carnival. And him, he reminded himself, he had a part to play too. He was incharge of this project after all. The church had decided to set up the carnival in a flat field, offered to them by one of the congregation. They had outlined a general T shape for the walking area, and had managed to outline a couple of smaller walking paths coming off of the stalk of the T. At the bottom of the stalk they had assembled tables with free bite size candy, several games of skill and chance were going to be set up along the stalk, offering prizes of plush toys and larger candy bars. And he looked, and he saw that it was good. It was a conceited thought, no doubt, but Felix thought it warranted. He still didn''t fully understand why Felicity wanted a devorce, things hadn''t been that bad¡­ no, they had been that bad¡­ well. Nothing he could do about it now. Nothing but forget about it for a while. ------- Frothy water crashed against the rock faces of Lands End, a national park in California. Several hiking trails run alongside defunct train rails. And over the past three months, 8 people had disappeared from those hiking trails. The police had opened an investigation into the disappearances, but so far they hadn''t discovered anything. They were looking for human traffickers, or maybe a serial killer. They weren''t sure what exactly, but they were sure it was natural. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. That¡¯s where Will Baxtor thought they were going wrong. He had flown over to California two weeks ago, under the pretence of a vacation. People around the local area had seen things around Land¡¯s End. ¡°I thought It was green. Whatever I saw. It looked green.¡± Ed Rodgers told Will. They had sat in a crowded, beer stained bar. Ed had ordered a large rum and coke. Will ordered a class of apple juice and a packet of pork rinds. ¡°You said you saw it slip into the rocks?¡± ¡°Yeah-huh. Right up off of the sand and into the rocks, like an actual lizard. ¡°And you''re sure it wasn''t¡­ an actual lizard?¡± Ed choked on his drink, spitting back into his glass. ¡°Yeah, no, man. Way too large. Must have been five feet tall. It did have a tail though.¡± That was it. That was all Will needed to know. He¡¯d spoken to three other people who had seen something by the park, but they couldn''t be sure of what they saw, or, they didn''t want to be. So now he was here, on the beach, wearing a leather jacket and kevlar lined jeans, and carrying a large bag filled with picks and axes and shovels and a few¡­ more unorthodox items. Will dropped the bag into the sand, pulled out a pickaxe and shovel, approached the rock-face, and began to work. ---------- In the dense woodland that covered the lower quadrant of Asheton, a man emerged from trees, as if he had materialised out of thin air. Carefully he stalked the inhabited edges of the town, making note of the tent park near Downtown. He would have to return to that place, if he had the time, because now something else had caught his eyes.. Well, eye. A young couple, in love. Driving back to their apartment. He could sense their lifeforce, they were alone in asheton, no family. They would do nicely. Quietly he followed them through town, repelling any light that happened to be cast onto his form. Welcome to Asheton: part five Country and western music played over the car stereo. The streetlamps cast a gentle light into the car. This, Emily thought, her hand on the back of her boyfriend¡¯s head, pressing their lips together, this was perfect. ¡°Let''s go inside.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± David stroked Emily¡¯s cheek. As they noisily made their way indoors and up the stairs, the man watched them through the outside of their kitchen window. Then¡­ then he did something. He seemed to almost disappear, the surface of the flesh sack he currently used as a body seemed to wobble and fluctuate like a sound wave, and within seconds he had passed through the wall of the house, directly into the kitchen. His form solidified and he crept up the stairs. Outside, the wind whistled through the trees, it whistled a wicked tune, and why wouldn''t it? Tonight was a night for wicked deeds. -------- ¡°Sorry to keep you waiting, '''' Sheriff Norton said, slowly sitting down opposite Benny. ¡°Hm? Oh, you''re fine.¡± Benny adjusted his attention from the two way mirror to the sheriff. Norton loaded a CD into the recording equipment on the side of the table. He shivered. This was the only interview room in the department, and nobody had quite yet figured out where the draft came from. ¡°This is Sheriff Norton, ID code 77638. Taking the statement of one Benjamin Baxtor. Can you state your name, for the record?¡± ¡°Benjamin Baxtor.¡± ¡°All right. And can you confirm that you consented to this interview of your own volition?¡± ¡°I did.¡± ¡°Ok. Let''s start with the night Jenny was murdered. What had you two been doing that night, before she was murdered?¡± ¡°We.. we¡¯d spent the night out. We went to a restaurant, El Maria, we got a main to share.. and a dessert. Then I drove us home.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Just to be clear, you and Jenny Shipton drove home, nobody else was in the car with you?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± ¡°So we went home and.. we went upstairs for some wine, in the study. I turned on the fireplace. Then we heard a noise. Like someone had knocked something over. When we got up to open the door and investigate, the door swung open. It pushed us over. A man dressed in black came in and pulled Jenny off of the floor, pulling her into the hallway. He, he slashed my leg when i tried to get up, as he was trying to get out of the room he slashed my leg, and slammed the door. When I limped over to try to open it, it was jammed. And I.¡± Benny stopped, swallowing back saliva. ¡°You ok to go on?¡± ¡°Yeah, yes. I, I tried to open the door. Then I heard her scream. I tried to open the door I swear.. at some point I must have passed out.¡± ¡°Then?¡± ¡°Then, when I woke up, the sun was streaming through the windows, and I called the police.¡± ¡°Ok¡­¡± Sheriff Norton paused for a while. ¡°Interview terminated at 10:36pm.¡± -------- Will had been digging for an hour, and he had, he thought, made quite a decent sized hole in the rocky surface the cliff face. So much so that his decent sized hole had revealed a larger hole, previously hidden behind the thick, sharp beach rock. Will stuck his head into the larger hole. Dear god, he thought, screwing up his nose. The hole was lined with a clear, thick, goopy substance, and smelt like a cross between industrial strength cleaning fluid, and birdshit. He went down to his bag and grabbed a 4 vault powered flashlight. Shining the light into the hole, a pair of cold, blood red eyes stared back. ------- The husband was in the bathroom, expelling his bladder. The wife, the man decided, would be the first. She was in the bedroom down the hall from the bathroom, naked from head to toe, considering a pair of landre on the bed, when she felt the cold burn against her neck, drawing a line of blood down her chest. He held her head back as blood gushed over the bed. She was dead before the blue-black thing thrust through her back, slipping between her rib cage. Impaled on a twisted appendage that used to be an arm. The man tossed her onto the bed and the appendage slipped out of her with a sickeningly slick sound. ¡°Emily, that you?¡± David called out from the don¡¯t tell me you''re getting impatient. The man took his place in the room, and waited. David crept along the hallway towards the bedroom. ¡°I¡¯m coming to get you,¡± he giggled, putting on a camp tone. At the doorway he saw Emily, laying in bed. It took him a few steps towards her before he realised that the bright red splash on the wall above the bed was her blood. His mouth fell open, and a cold sharpness shot through his neck. By the end of the night, all of him should be open, and he¡¯d live to experience it. Well. Most of it. ------- ¡°You need anything you just call, alright?¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Benny practically shouted to the Sheriff from his porch. ¡°Do let me know if you find anything.¡± Norton gave a two fingered salute to Benny before driving off. He was hardly the picture of an objective police officer, but that didn''t matter to Benny. He watched from the porch as he drove away. They wouldn''t find anything, he¡¯d make sure of that. Welcome to Asheton: part six The eyes blinked, and Will flinched. The creature slithered back deeper into the rocks, disappearing from sight. Will ran down to pick up his bag and threw it into the hole. I have to know how many are here, he thought. If this was anywhere else I could blow their nest to kingdom come and call it a day, but being this close to the park, I''d be risking structural damage to Land¡¯s End. The sound of wet feet echoed from behind him. He turned around, pulling a glock with a snub nose silencer out of his bag. There were six of them. Each seven feet tall when ironed out. But as they stood, with their cerved, running-blade-like legs, and downwardly curved heads, they were about five feet. And they were coming out of the water at what Will considered to be an all too nonchalant pace. Mean and green all over, Will thought, taking a shot at one of the lizards, who bared its forked tongue with a hiss. The bullet blew its brains out in an elegant shower over the water and the lizard fell down dead. The remaining five broke into a run, webbed feet plodding deep into the wet sand. Will shot down two more of them. Then another, as it came right at him, but he hadn''t been quick enough. The other two were almost upon him, flanking his sides. Will dropped down to his bag, grabbing a small fire ax. With a hiss one of the lizards came up behind him, and with one fluid turn Will spun around and brought that ax tearing down through the lizard¡¯s chest at a downward angle. The lizard toppled over, it¡¯s innards nearly falling out as the top half fell quicker than the bottom, having nearly been chopped in two. And then the last one was on him, knocking Will down into the sand. He thrust his ax up into the creature''s jaws as it lunged down to take a bite out of him. He struggled to keep the creature off of him, and went to knee it in the crotch out of foolish instinct, receiving the sound of a cracked kneecap in return.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Will screamed out and pulled the ax to his side, taking the lizard''s jaw quite a way with it before it released the ax from its grasp. With a desperate swing Will brought the ax up and through the lizard''s neck, decapitating it, and releasing an unholy torrent of purple-red blood and guts all over him as the lizard''s body fell down. Will pushed the filthy thing to the side and wiped his face, unsure of how he would explain his new fashion choice to the owners of the travelodge he¡¯d been staying at. -------- Micheal drove down to a creek he¡¯d used to go to when he was younger, to be alone, a creek about five miles away from the family home. But tonight he went there for more than merely to be alone. He parked close to the land edge and opened the boot of his car. Inside was a pair of pants, torn to shreds as if from the inside out, a pair of boot cut jeans, split at the knees, and a popped open shirt, covered in blood. He quickly gathered them all up into his arms and went over to the creek. He placed them into the rushing water, one after the other, and they quickly raced out of existence. He didn''t even fully think about what he was doing, but he knew he had to get rid of those clothes, so he did. He hadn''t even thought about what had happened, he hadn''t allowed himself to, and wasn''t going to start now. ------ Rain began to fall in Asheton, drenching the town in a thick blanket of misery. In a downtown apartment building, Kyle Drover sat on a chair next to a couple of boxes, and watched the rain patter down on a window. The apartment only had two windows, and Kyle thought there was only really one, because a fire escape could hardly count. Still, it was.. a perfectly adequate window. Kyle''s thoughts trailed off. If only Will wasn''t busy with that business in california. The idea made Kyle feel selfish, he was, after all, one of the very few people in Asheton who know the real reason behind Will¡¯s sudden trip to the Golden state... He looked across to the estal he had set up by the window. This is home now, he thought. It made him uneasy, but he didn''t.. no, he did know why. He¡¯d been so used to a truncated life, a life with boundaries. He picked his chair up, took it over to the estal, and began to draw. From now on, he thought, there''d be no more boundaries, he would stop letting his parents'' lives define his own. ------- Welcome to Asheton: part seven The kid¡¯s Carnival had been a success. Almost everyone from church who had children aged 5-11 had come. Felix had given a short speech about how guarding yourself against the evils of the world needn''t be about not having fun, and then the games began. But after a few hours it had been wrapped up. Almost all the families had left, and the two who hadn¡¯t, one that harboured a curious fascination with the last, half way full free candy dowl, were told that the carnival was now over, and gently escorted to their cars. Felix could remember most of the festivities in vivid detail, but now that it was over, it felt like it hadn''t lasted one for half as long as it had. Like all the good things in his life, this too seemed to make itself known quite a bit more after it was gone. ¡°Great job, pastor Drover.¡± Jack, who had been one of the young men the church had drafted to assemble and disassemble the carnival, offered Felix a high five, and he reciprocated it half-heartedly. Jack went on, packing the final carnival boxes into the u-haul. ¡°Well,¡± said Felix, ¡°we all better get a move on before dark.¡± --------- Benny Baxtor paced around the large basement of the Baxtor estate. The building itself wasn''t much by today''s standards, though Benny was sure he could turn it into a tourist attraction, the kind you talked about on a guided tour, whenever you decided you were old enough to start going on guided tours. But Benny hadn''t wanted that for the estate. It had been in his family since before the civil war, and it held a great deal of arcane power within its walls. Benny continued to pace, watching from a slit window by the top of the basement wall as the sun slowly set. Was it going slowly? Benny thought it was. He was dimly aware, in the back of his mind, that it was only his malleable perception that dictated the sun set so slowly, and that he could speed it up if he chose to. But he was too occupied with other things to focus on doing that. Laid out on the floor of the basement was a red cloth, angled to the corners of the wall to form a diamond shape. In the middle of the cloth Benny had arranged a circle of grey-black stones, each barely small enough to fit in his closed hand. Inside the circle he had placed a fig leaf and a dead rose. Outside the circle he had placed a small lock of his hair into each corner of the red cloth.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Finally, Benny thought, turning his attention away from the window. The sun had set, andhe could start the spell. He opened the book, and began to read. After about half an hour, the reading portion of the spell had been completed, and Benny laid the book down and opened himself up to the forces of the prime elementals of time and place. He felt a great rushing pressure from within and around and outside his ears, straining as if to get in and get out at the same time. He closed his eyes and the pressure engulfed the sides of his skull, just beneath the thin flesh of his skin, and in that moment he thought he might pass out then and there, ruining the spell. But he did not pass out, and moments later he realised that he had broken through to the other side, a realm in which you could see anyone and anything if you searched hard enough. He knew nothing of how long it had taken him, but he wasn''t about to question it. He opened his eyes and gazed through the fiery nothingness of the realm¡¯s material side. It was time he got to looking. ---------- Felix turned on the coffee maker. He¡¯d gotten home about twenty minutes ago, and arrived to a curiously empty house. Kyle had, no doubt, left for his new apartment. He hadn''t actually been staying at home for two weeks now. And Micheal¡­ well. Mike was a bit of a mystery to Felix. In a way, he always had been. Felicity had texted him, told him she needed to get some groceries from E-Mart. She should be back any minute now. The garage door opened. A moment later, it closed, and Felicity came through the washing room door, carrying a small plastic bag. ¡°What did you get?¡± ¡°Nothing of interest.¡± ¡°Jeez,¡± he muttered. ¡°What did I do to poke the bear this time?¡± Felicity took a punnet of blueberries out of the bag and put it into the fridge. ¡°What did you do?¡± She turned to her soon-to-be ex-husband. ¡°What did you do? I¡¯ll tell you what you did, you slept with that slut who owns the craft store. You¡¯ve been sleeping with her for months, and I know all about it.¡± Welcome to Asheton: part eight ¡°When did you find out?¡± ¡°Did you not hear what I said? Months ago, Felix. Months ago. You were late back from a church meeting one day, some kind of theology discussion with the other pastors you said. So I decided to get lunch at La Marie¡¯s and text you to meet me there when you finished up at church, but much to my startled amusement. I saw you in the restaurant. I saw you before I''d even crossed the street, and do you know what I saw you doing?¡± Felix could feel blood rushing to his head. He could barely think straight. ¡°...no.¡± ¡°No? Oh dear, oh dear me, your memory must be going spotty, because I''d certainly remember if I had my lips locked against another woman¡¯s. I started asking around after that. Every time you''d go out for a church meeting, I¡¯d slip a question to one of the other pastors. A ¡°how was the meeting¡± to Greg, a ¡°I hope he''s not running late, I talked his ear off¡± to Peter. I think you get the idea.¡± Felicity was almost yelling. ¡°Why¡­ why not ask me about it, why wait all this time.¡± ¡°Oh trust me, I didn''t want to, the waiting was the hardest part. But I had to see you suffer, see you suffer the way I was suffering. Every time you asked me what''s wrong, every time I moved away from you in bed, or jerked away from your kiss in the morning, every single time I took pleasure in knowing that you were suffering.¡± Felicity walked over to the couch and sat down, reaching for the tv remote. She looked over at her husband. ¡°You know, I was wondering, deep down, how long it would take you to figure it out. How long it would take you to put two and two together and drop to your knees, apologising like a man possessed. But you never did.¡± Felix could see the pain gathering in Felicity''s face, could see it swirling with rage like the bird''s eye-view of a storm. He almost believed he could really see it. It was some kind of shock induced hallucination. Felicity looked away. ¡°There''s a bed made up in Kyle''s old room, you can sleep there tonight.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Can''t we talk about this?¡± ¡°As far as I¡¯m concerned, we already have.¡± ---------- Benny could feel the creature¡¯s thoughts. It was pacing back to the woods at an ungodly pace, but no, no, he practically screamed despite, in this realm, for all intents and purposes, having no mouth. He needed to go back, to see who the creature had killed, he.. he needed to know who would be next. The fire seemed to meld into a blue sea of sharp flowers. The creature was walking back, like a rewound movie, back¡­ back¡­ to a house, covered in blood, its fur matted and filthy. But he couldn''t see who was in the house. Benny felt himself tumbling, losing grip of his extra sensory vision, but he was too exhausted to fight for control of it. The blue flowers melted into a purple sea of sludge and the creature ran forward, towards the woods, to the woods where it dematerialised. Of course, thought Benny, that''s just my fucking luck. But it was too late, much too late, and the spell was winding down, preparing to drag him back to from whence he came. -------- Micheal crept down the stairs. He¡¯d been awoken by the sound of raised voices, but had no idea what his parents had been talking about. He saw his mother curled up on the couch, dry tear marks on her face. ¡°Mom? Are you alright?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± She looked up at Micheal as if she was coming out of a daze. ¡°Oh, yes, I¡¯m fine. It¡¯s just.. it¡¯s just been an emotional day. Micheal was silent for a while before sitting down next to her. ¡°.. Is it about dad?¡± ¡°I. Yes, I¡¯m afraid it is. How did you know?¡± ¡°I heard you two, talking, I just figured..¡± Micheal trailed off. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Felicity started crying again. ¡°Oh Mike, so am I.¡± Micheal held his mother as she began to sob. For a moment he entertained an intrusive thought. He could kill him, he could tear him limb from limb. He could shred his father¡¯s flesh from his bones with his bare hands, as easily as anyone else could shred pulled pork. He didn''t understand his condition, not in the slightest, but he knew he could do that¡­ he shook the thought away, it was too hideous to entertain. And yet he had. New In Town: part one Stepping back from the rock face, Will looked at the hole for a moment, knowing what he would have to do. If there was more time he would perform a spell of devinitation before clearing the area, but that could be done afterwards, for night had indeed long since fallen, and more lizards could appear at any time. Will took out a piece of chalk from his bag and drew a rough circle along the rock face, making sure there were no breaks in the line. He stood back and peeled off his shirt, revealing much of his lithe frame, and drew a line of blood across the top of his left bicep. Standing ten feet away from the chalk circle, Will spoke. ¡°May the fires of Abbadon purify this place in my name, for I am of the Cause.¡± The chalk circle lit up, burning a brilliant bright blue, singing deep into the rock on which it was drawn. Suddenly a wild blue fire rose up from the hole Will had dug, splashed with strokes of shimmering purple, bursting out and reaching high up into the air above Will, barely avoiding his windswept hair. The fire calmed and shrunk back into the hole, leaving the entrance ablaze, almost crawling around the rock, acting more like some kind of animal than a fire. Will felt the tension drop from his shoulders and he stumbled into the sand beneath him. Now¡­ his thoughts hurled around his brain like runners on a race track, and he felt unable to catch any of them. The blood on his chest was drying, the line he¡¯d drawn already sealed with a kind of deep blue scab. When that peeled away, there would be no visible scar, such was the way Abbadon chose to do business. He still couldn''t think straight, though. When his thoughts came back to him, he would perform a divination spell, just to be sure there weren''t any more of the bastards hiding in the ocean nearby. Then¡­ then he would get ready to go home. --------- Buck¡¯s Diner was located in a quiet part of town, just off of the maindown town road, next to a laundromat and an apartment block. It had been there for 40 years, and might be there for 40 more. The woman gazed into the diner through it''s glass windows. Practically everything inside had been polished beyond the pale at some point, and the chrome (and there was a lot of it) gave off more light than it reflected. The big, gaudy, LED meatloaf sign hanging above the door swayed back and forth ever so slightly. After eyeing the 5-star hygiene rating stickered by the door (no surprise there) she went inside.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. She held herself with a sort of aloof confidence, as if she were prepared for something, but nothing that she would encounter here, in a small diner in the middle of downtown Asheton. The woman took a seat at the bar. Buck eyed her from the soda machine and walked over. ¡°Howdy.¡± ¡°Hi¡­ what¡¯s good to eat here?¡± ¡°Oh uh, I¡¯d say pretty much everything. But, we only have three main meals. Most people recommend the meatloaf though, we¡¯re kinda known for it.¡± Buck chuckled. ¡°You want a menu?¡± ¡°Sure, thanks.¡± Sarah looked over the menu idley. She already had half an idea of what she wanted. ¡°Is it usually this quiet here?¡± The way she said it, Buck couldn''t quite tell if it was a statement or a question. ¡°Eh, usually. We make most of our money with deliveries.¡± ¡°Can I get a cheeseburger, without the pickles and the mustard?¡± ¡°Of course you can. One extra special cheeseburger comin right up.¡± Buck disappeared into the kitchen. The woman smiled. She¡¯d only been here for five minutes and already the small town kitsch was getting to her. She hadn''t been to a place like this since she was 5 years old. And while the city had it¡¯s charms, many of them, it also had a sort of self-consciousness, a self-seriousness, that wore down anyone who stayed there for long periods of time. ---------- After a while, Micheal crept back up the stairs and left his Mother to finish.. whatever it was she was doing. He didn''t want to pry, he couldn''t imagine what she was feeling-- Micheal stopped at the landing and looked over to Kyle''s old room. A slim crack of light was pouring out through the open door. Micheal opened the door and found his father sitting, hunched over with his hands clasped together, on the edge of a blow up mattress. No doubt his mother had blown it up earlier in the day. ¡°You bastard,¡± he muttered. Felix looked up. ¡°What did you say?¡± ¡°You heard me. Why¡¯d you have to be such a fuck up?¡± Felix lunged at Micheal, pressing him against the wall and almost lifting him up by his neck. In an instant the delicate lattice of veins in his father¡¯s forehead, of which he was so familiar, had risen into ugly blue/green tracks, bulging out under the skin, almost begging to be freed in some way. ¡°That''s rich coming from you,¡± Felix sneered. ¡°Look at yourself, 21 years old and you¡¯re still living with your parents, with no aspirations for higher education, no idea what you want to do with your life, and as far as I can tell, you haven''t been interested in the good book since you were five. God, at least Kyle could be bothered to read the damn thing, even if he probably *is* a queer, at least he shows sexual interest in *something*. You¡¯re just a piece of shit.¡± Felix shoved his hands off of his son and he fell forward a bit. ¡°You make me sick. Get out of my sight.¡± Micheal looked at his father with a red glint in his eye, his head full of thoughts of slaughter. Felix flinched. Micheal shambled out of the room, being sure to not make so much noise that his mother would hear, or worse, learn of his confrontation with his father. New In Town: Part Two As the sun began to rise once more on Asheton, woke up Felix, not that it would have taken much of anything, he tossed and turned all night, struggling to stay asleep. He could smell the faint odor of pancakes coming from the kitchen. Shit, he thought. It was a dream. It must¡¯ve been. Felix ambled downstairs in his pjs, ready to greet Felicity, expecting a kitchen full of food prep and, well, food. He stood in the kitchen, alone. Two out of three ain''t bad, if you count a full pantry and fridge, which wasn''t exactly what Felix had expected. He ran the tap in the sink and washed his hands, staring down at the dirty dishes. A small voice in his head told him that he should wash them up, but a louder voice, his actual voice, told him to leave them to rot for all he could care. -------- 187 Maple street, downtown Asheton. That was the address for Emily and David Beaumont, the last time Sarah Beaumont had checked, anyway. And now she was checking again. Well, it was more of a surprise visit than a check up, but Sarah thought it might technically qualify as both. She shuffled uncomfortably on the porch, she didn''t usually do this sort of thing, or most any other thing if she was being honest. She could count the amount of times she had been outside in the past year on two hands. She certainly didn''t make a habit of turning up to people¡¯s houses unannounced, but something had told her that she needed to this time, something small, close to her heart, persuaded her to do something she would never ordinarily do, because it had¡­ what? Some kind of cosmic importance? Hogwash. A dark feeling came upon her, one of the ones she had gotten off and on since childhood. She pushed it down and rang the bell again, and waited. -------- Kyle stretched out in bed, yawning, his arms high above his head, nothing but a green silk sheet covering his nakedness. You didn''t need much with the heat in Texas, even in November. Kyle got out of bed and set a cup of coffee to brew. He looked over at the clock on the wall. 11:38am. Christ, he¡¯d slept in. He wondered if Will would be up yet, then wondered if he would be busy if he was up. He sat down a cup of coffee onto the table and opened his laptop. --------Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Will tugged at the bag, trying to get it to zip up. His dirty clothes had expanded into a sticky mess overnight, and he¡¯d had to go to a Dollar tree at three in the morning and frantically search for sone damn plastic wrap. The slime they gave off was probably his least favorite thing about lizard people. Well, aside from their unhealthy habit of stealing people off of the coastline and cooking them in caves. -------- Blood. Dreams of blood and fire flowed through Micheal¡¯s mind like a thick black sludge. He was in a time period he didn''t recognise as anything more specific than ¡°medieval times.¡± There were people, yes, so many people, but none who were alive. They were all dead, dead by his hand. Strewn over each other in a bloody mess of torn limbs and eviscerated organs. He had tossed and turned in the night, and awoke to find the better part of his bed sheet wrapped around his left leg and draped down the end of the bed. He pulled himself up in bed and noticed the broken glass scattered along the floor. Damn, he thought. I.. I must have knocked over my glass in the night. He sighed, pushing the thoughts of bloodshed that had been so vivid out of his head and stepped out of the other side of his bed. -------- ¡°We are now boarding.¡± Will looked up from his book. A gaunt, not unattractive, young man of around 20, dressed in an AmAir uniform, stood in front of the boarding gate with a smile plastered on his face. Will got up, packed his book into his backpack, and said a silent goodbye to the city by the bay. ------- Felicity shielded her eyes from the sun as she walked through the Italian Kitchen car park. She thought it was kind of tacky, if she was being honest, but they were a state-wide staple, and she certainly didn''t have any scruples about eating there, and neither did Raven Stepton. ------- ¡°I just can''t believe it.¡± Raven let silence (and the sound of chewing coming from the booth to the left of them) hang in the air for a while. ¡°On second thoughts I can, he always did walk like a pig.¡± Felicity snorted into her wine glass, repressing a laugh. ¡°He stopped after I told him it made him look like a penguin¡­¡± Felicity paused, cycling through memories of a happier time. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s the end of your marriage, not the end of the world.¡± ¡°It''s social suicide.¡± ¡°Only at Harbor Church.¡± ¡°You''re forgetting that my whole life is at Harbor Church.¡± ¡°It doesn''t have to be.¡± A waiter arrived at their table with two plates, a bowl of salad, and set of breadsticks Felicity considered that for a moment as they shared out the breadsticks. ¡°Ok,¡± she said, what are you proposing? I leave Harbor Church and go-¡± ¡°To my church. To Pacific Heights. You know they¡¯d be a position of some kind there for you, if you want one.¡± She said it so nonchalantly, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Leave the church that your husband runs and join my church. A guaranteed position at Pacific Heights. Sure, it wasn''t as large as Harbor Church, but it would be a nice change of pace.¡± Felicity took a bite of breadstick. ¡°Ok.¡± Again, more confidently, ¡°Okey, sure, yeah. Let¡¯s do it.¡±