9111 Sharp Road (7 page)

That night was one of the most difficult nights I had ever experience
d
. Lori slept soundly, which was a blessing, but outside, it seemed as though the creatures
—the chiroptera—
were
about, skulking about in the dark, their red eyes lighting up the night like the head lamps of a work crew.

I could hear the screeching sounds they made.
It was bone-chilling.
There must have been at least a hundred of them.

They seemed to be searching for something, looking frantically through the grass.

My curiosity got the better of me. I had to see where they were searching. I left Lori on th
e bed and got up. Walking to the north window,
I had an
idea what they were looking for,
and confirmation would come depending on where they were concentrating their search.

I could clearly see the remnants of the burned trailed that Lori had made when she had first transformed into one of those things.
It struck me as strange that when Lori was one of them, she burned marks on the floor and through the grass. The other ones I had seen seemed to freeze anything they touched. But then, I remembered the pipe. It was first freezing, and then hot. Maybe these creatures could control temperature at will.

With the combined light from their eyes, I could see what they were doing pretty well. They seemed to be looking around, picking up various tomb stones. Then they stopped at that clearing—which I could clearly see from my window—and
removed the stone.

Why was my father’s body buried out here? I thought back to his funeral, and I was told there was no body.
He must have died out here in Orchard Hills and was for some reason buried here.
It was a long road for me to come to this realization, but once I was there, certain things began to fall into place.

Dad’s death had to have had something to do with whatever was going on around here.
His body was here, but why? That was the question. If I could just figure it out, then maybe, just maybe I could get to the bottom of all the strangeness here.
Maybe he was trying to kill the chiroptera and died trying. Maybe that’s why his ghost came to me in a vision to tell me where they lived so that maybe I could finish the job he started.

Before moving to this crazy place, I never put any stock whatsoever in any of this ghost and monster business. Dad made sure of that. He would n
ever
let either me or Lori, even as young children, entertain t
he thought of the supernatural, which was something that a part of me now found somewhat amusing—as amusing as I could
now
find anything, anyway. Dad abhorred the idea of ghosts and monsters
. The irony was unavoidable, as
he
was
now a ghost helping me
against
a horde of monster
s
.

Turning away from the window,
I looked at Lori and nearly screamed. One of the bat-like creatures was staring in the east window, just above the bed
, and
looking at her like she was a delicious
mea
l.
The creature flicked its tongue as if it couldn’t wait to get a taste of her.

She stirred. The red light shining in her face was waking her. “Lori,” I whispered. “Lori, don’t open your eyes. Turn toward me.”

In her sleep-confused state, she did the exact opposite of what I told her and opened her eyes
and turned toward the window
. She let out the loudest scream I had ever heard as she saw the chiroptera looking in at her. It responded with a deafening screech.

“Help me!” Lori screamed in an absolute panic. She pushed herself away from the window, off the bed, and onto the floor.

I rushed to her and covered her with my body. She shook with fear. “We need to get out of her
e
,” I said as calmly
as possible.
I
grabbed her under the arms and
tried
to lift
her, but she couldn’t stand. Her legs
just
would not cooperate.
“Come on, Lori, we need to go.”

“No, no, I can’t,” she said.

“What do you mean ‘no, I can’t’?”

She
didn’
t answer. Instead, she put her face in her hands and cried.

Meanwhile, the creature continued staring in at
us
with i
ts thin, serpent-like tongue was flicking all about, actually licking the window now. The places where it touched immediately turned to ice.
The effect was chilling.

I didn’t know if I could pick Lori up until I tried. “Lori, help me a little, could you?” Instead, she kicked and punched
me
in a panic. She look
ed
directly over my shoulder at the window. Less than
a second later, the window exploded, showering us both with glass. “Lori! We need to go now!” Her entire body was Jell-O.

The creature screeched as it entered the bedroom. I managed to get Lori to the door but had to let her down so I could open the door. As the chiroptera
climbed onto the window’s ledge
, my hopes of escaping my bedroom alive quickly faded.

“Stay back,” I said. Its only response was a screech that probably meant it wasn’t going to listen to anything I had to say.

It leapt in through the broken window and landed on the bed. I could see its full form for the first time. It stood about seven feet tall with long, lanky arms and thin, but clearly define
d
legs. I
ts entire body
was
very thin, yet its muscles look like they were chiseled in stone.

There was no way
I was going to be able to pull
the door open, which unfortunately had to be pulled rather than pushed, so I put myself between the creature and Lori. “Get out of here, now!”

Instead of obeying, it stepped off of the bed and toward us, its long tongue whipping every which way.

Then it raised a clawed hand and bellowed that horrifying screech as it slammed
that
hand into my face. The last thing I saw before darkness swallowed me was those bright red eyes.

I awoke in the hallway in front of the door to nowhere, surrounded by an incredible blue light
. I reached out for the door handle
, and e
lectricity ran through my arm as I grasped the knob
. Then
I was thrown aside like a doll.

I landed just outside Lori’s room.
I could see
the stink pipe was glowing red.

“Stay out of there,” a voice I recognized as my father’s said. I looked toward the voice, which happened to be the door to nowhere. Dad was standing there in that old fashioned suit.

“Dad, they have Lo
ri,” I said
. My voi
ce sounded like a distant echo, like a dream. I stood and walked over to him. He seemed to have the same realness about him that he had during my
earlier
vision. Was I unconscious?

“Yes,
they have Lori, and
you are
unconscious
, but that doesn’t mean this is any less real or important.” He paused a moment and looked directly into my eyes. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“What are you talking about?”

Instead of answering my question, he motioned to the glowing door behind him. “You see the door?”

“Yes….”

“And I expect you noticed the pipe
in your sister’s room
?”

“Yes, it was red.”

“The pipe
was, until recently, the only means the chiroptera had of getting into the house.
The well is not really a well, but a doorway, a portal, into another realm. Do you understand?
”

“No.”
I thought about it…the pipe was part of the septic system…and they lived in that well
that was a doorway to another realm
.
So, these creatures lived in the dirty wastes of a septic system?
“Dad, it doesn’t make any sense.
” Then I thought for another moment.
“
They came in through my window and took Lori.
They didn’
t come through a pipe
.
”

I thought back to that day that I saw Lori transform. That was the day after we saw the chiroptera for the first time. They had been lurking outside, looking in our windows, but seemingly not able to come in…except…the pipe in Lori’s room. They must have come in her room, done something to her that night to begin the process of transforming her into one of them.

I didn’t quite understand the anatomy of a house, nor did I know exactly how a pipe like that could connect to a well at least a
tenth of a
mile away, but I supposed it didn’t really matter. When you were talking about humanoid bats kidnapping your little sister and turning her into one of them, issues like plumbing
no longer
seem
ed
to be very important.

“Amanda, that pipe connects directly to that well I showed you. The well where they are now holding Lori. She is…becoming one of them. That’s how they breed.”

Tears started streaming down my face. “Is there anything we can do?”

He didn’t answer
at first, as if he was reluctant to tell me anymore
.
“Amanda, I don’t want to say this, but,” he paused, pain etched across his features, “you must let us out.”
He
then
turned around and reached for the glowing door. It opened to an even more brilliant light
of blue and white
.
“Come.”

We walked through the door, and I was amazed at the grand world around me. It was almost as if I was walking through space. Wisps of blue-tinted gas swirled around me, twirling up my arms and around my legs. It felt like there was electricity all around me.

“Why are we here, Dad?” I asked. My sense of urgency still lingered. I—or we—needed to get to
Lori
. I didn’
t have time to mess around in
some sort of ghost world.

“Amanda,
I need to show you this
.” As he spoke, the gas began to take form. Person after person stepped forward—
man, woman, child.

“Who are these people?”

“They are the ninety-one eleven. They are the imprisoned dead.
You must
release us
.
”
He sounded like he was reading a script.

“I don’t understand.”

“There are nine thousand one hundred and eleven spirits trapped in Orchard Hills, the cemetery town…and this house is the focal point of that prison. Everything in this town centers around this house.”

“Are you one of the imprisoned spirits?”

“You found my grave out there?”

“Yes.”

“That’s your answer.”

“Why is your body buried here? How did you die?”

“I was killed trying to destroy the chiroptera. They have been holding your grandmother hostage for some time now, for
cing her to live in this house.”

The house was the center of Orchard Hills? But what about the well? Where did that come in? Just the home of the chiroptera? Perhaps, but before I could ask for clarification, I was distracted by t
he ghosts
that
kept materializing
and closing in on us as if they were either
interested in the di
scussion or fascinated in a living
person.
But then one ghost came to me, someone I recognized. My mother.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” I asked. She wasn’t dead. So far as I knew anyway. I could feel the tears starting to brim up again. I thought about how she did nothing bu
t sit in that rocker
, not interacting with anyone.

“Amanda,” M
om said with a joyless smile.

“Mom.” I rushed into her arms
as tears exploded from my eyes. The touch of her skin against mine made my hair stand on end. “Mom, I’ve miss you so much.”

“I missed you too.”

“What happened? Are you dead?”

My mom let go of me and glanced at my dad. They exchange
d a look that made me think they really didn’t want to tell me anything but were being forced to
.
I just wish I knew then what I know now.

“
Yes…I’m trapped here, just like your father.”

“A
manda,” my dad said. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore. Amanda, everything you’ve been told is—
”