Crowley's Window (Novella) (2 page)

“No!” Jarrett cried, trying to grab for her but Ingrid’s arms were sweaty and she slipped out of his grasp and ran for the hallway. Jarrett had no choice but to chase after her. Luckily he caught her just as she reached the bedroom door, and pinned his wife up against the wall to try and talk sense into her. “Ingrid, please…you can’t interfere.”

“Watch me, coward,” she said, spitting in his face and doing something she’d never done in all the thirty-two years they’d been married—kneeing him in the groin as hard as she could. It didn’t put Jarrett down and out, but it came close, making him stagger a little, releasing her just long enough that she could make a lunge for their daughter’s bedroom door.

Before her fingers could touch the knob though, the door was pulled open from within and out walked Reverend Crowley, larger than life and not looking pleased that his orders hadn’t been followed. He forced a smile on his face anyway, a dark and cruel smile that withered and stole all that remained of Ingrid Hawkins’ anger and strength. Behind the Reverend, her daughter’s body lay quiet and still on the bloodstained bed. Ingrid leaned against the wall and prepared herself for the worst.

“Is…is Abigail dead?” she asked.

“Of course not,” Crowley said. “She’s the one I’ve been waiting for. The one we’ve
all
been waiting for. I’ll send a doctor I trust over to tend her wounds but don’t worry; she’ll be fine. I promised she would be, didn’t I? You need to listen better, woman. Disobedience is something I don’t tolerate often. Lucky for you I’m in a good mood tonight…but don’t ever test me again.”

Ingrid ignored Crowley’s warning and pushed past him to go check on Abby. At the bed, she turned on the table lamp to get a better look at her poor unconscious child. Only then did she realize what Crowley had done to her, and what a savage monster he truly was. She slumped down onto her knees beside the bed, a broken soul, already beginning the process of shutting down from reality but not quite ready to let the man responsible for destroying her life walk away just yet. Unable and unwilling to look at Abby anymore, Ingrid turned to face Marcus Crowley again, her body shaking with rage and bitter hopelessness, her grip on sanity holding on by a thread.

“Why?” was all she said. All she
could
say.

Crowley was by the outside door, preparing to leave the house but he paused to answer her; his eyes like burning coals in the darkened hallway, a cruel, calculated smile on his face.

“Because you asked me to help her. That’s why. You said she could see into the fires of Hell, didn’t you?” From inside his large coat, he pulled a small glass mason jar and shook it in Ingrid and Jarrett’s direction. They could both clearly see the jar was three-quarters filled with some amber tinted liquid, and floating inside were two small white orbs with jade colored circles staring back at them.

“Not anymore, she can’t!”

PART 2

TOWNSEND TRAVELING SHOW

Westchester, Pennsylvania

June 25
^th
, 2010

The carnival came to town every June, usually on the last weekend of the month and the two young men sharing a lukewarm six pack of Budweiser in the parking lot had been wandering the same gauntlet of overpriced food stands, rigged game booths, and greasy outdated midway rides since before they could remember. There was nothing else to do in this little shithole of a town, and as lame as,l, the Townsend Traveling Show was, it at least was
something
for them to do. Much better than playing the same old video games down at the arcade or hanging out night after night smoking low-quality stale homegrown pot under the bleachers at the baseball park. And seeing as Raymond and Charlie Jensen had both recently turned 18, there was reason to be optimistic about this year’s event.

Tonight, after several frustrating years of failed attempts to gain entry into the one and only cool area of the carnival—the Sideshow Curiosities tent—the twin teenage brothers would actually be able to walk up to the ticket booth and legally buy their way inside. Curiosities was the politically correct term the owners had chosen, but everyone in Westchester, young and old alike, knew what was
really
inside the huge canvas circus tent—the Freakshow—the dark heart of the carnival and probably the only reason old man Townsend had been able to keep his traveling show afloat all these years.

Ray and Charlie had been waiting what seemed like forever to get a close look at the gallery of deformed animals and other medical oddities that made the show famous throughout all the tiny backwoods communities it toured every season, but most exciting of all was getting in to see the live human exhibits. Seeing the actual “freaks” was what really had the boys cranked up tonight.

“We gotta go see the Lobster Boy,” Ray said, tossing down his empty beer can into the grass and reaching for another Bud. “I heard he can cut a Pepsi can right in half just like he was using giant tin snips or something. That’s fucking weird!”

“Not that weird, Bro,” Charlie said. Ray and he were twins but they were far from identical. Ray was two inches taller, had a naturally muscular body the girls all seemed to love, and an acne free complexion. Pretty much the polar opposite of the nerdy Charlie, who carried about twenty extra pounds of fat around his belly and was the poster boy for blackheads and pimples. Of the two, Charlie was the youngest (by 15 minutes) but people would look at his chubby body and prematurely thinning hair and swear he was at least five years older than Ray. Most people hardly even believed they were brothers, much less twins. “I vote we go see the Bearded Lady. On the posters her beard hangs down to her tits, man! We gotta check her out, right?”

“Why? Fucking gross, dude. You’re just hoping she’ll give you a kiss!”

“Screw you,” Charlie joked, taking a half-hearted swing at Ray’s chest. His fist hit nothing but muscle and he tried his best to shake it off and not let his brother see how much it had hurt. His glasses nearly slipped from his nose, but he caught them in time, pushing the thick black frames back into place before slurping another drink. “Okay, big shot. What do you wanna see first?”

“No idea. Let’s get in there, though. Times a wasting! Drink up!”

The brothers quickly chugged down another Bud and with a pleasant buzz carrying them onward, made their way to the main entrance under the big red, white, and blue TOWNSEND banner and then dodged back and forth through the crowd heading for the circus tent on the right-hand side of the field. Taking a bit of a detour, they paused long enough to buy a mustard smothered hot dog each and to make fun of a few of their friends who they saw screaming in terror riding the same old rusty Tilt-O-Whirl ride that had been coming to town for decades. Charlie considered stopping to try his luck at winning a giant size Sponge Bob Square Pants but knew what Ray would say if he even considered it so he shrugged his shoulders to the carnie trying to coax him closer and followed his cooler brother past the rest of the games. Within minutes, the Jensen Brothers were standing beside the Sideshow Curiosity tent, checking out the full size posters of the various “freaks” and exhibits on display inside.

“Step right up folks,” a carnival barker in a fancy red tuxedo coat climbed onto a makeshift wooden stage and began to address the crowd. He was a tall husky man with a big curly mustache that looked like the world’s largest caterpillar was crawling across his face. “See some of the World’s greatest mysteries unfold before your very eyes. Check out the medical marvels and outrageous oddities that defy modern science…as well as your imagination. Come on in, my friends, if you dare. See things you won’t find anywhere else on Earth. One ticket is all you need and you can have a front row seat to see Chollo, the World’s Shortest Man…Penelope, the Bearded Beauty…Mordran, the Fire Breathing Dragon-man…Lennox, the Lobster Boy…and Aurora, Mistress of the Dark. All these and more…”

A chill ran down Charlie’s spine and he flinched enough that his brother noticed.

“What’s the matter, dude?”

“Nothing. I’ve heard of that Mistress of the Dark before and she creeps me out a bit, that’s all. Let’s go in and see the—”

“What about her?” Ray interrupted him. “First of me hearing about her. What’s a mistress of the dark, anyway? Sounds like a porn queen.”

“You wish. No, man, she’s blind. That’s where the name comes from, I guess. Lost her eyes years ago in some crazy ass accident or disease but get this…she can still see. She’s a fortune teller…a powerful psychic. She’s the real deal too, or so I was told.”

“Get lost. How can she see if she’s really blind? She must be faking it.”

“No, not according to Mick Carver anyway. He told me she’s young, not much older than us actually, and that she’s good looking. Sexy as all hell. Lost her eyes and was blind for a while but somehow ended up drawing pictures of eyes on the palms of her hands and realized she could see again. Something like that anyway. With her right hand she can see into the future and uses her left to look into the past. Fucking creepy, huh?”

“Bullshit. Mick smokes too much weed, Charlie. These freaks all have made up stories like that. Bet she’s not even blind.”

“One way to find out, Bro.”

“Mick said she was hot?”

“Smoking, dude.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get a ticket.”

* * *

When the phone rang, it took the tall man several rings to realize it was actually his cell making the noise. With all the bells, buzzers, screams, laughter, and general craziness going on around him at the busy carnival, it was a wonder he could hear the phone at all. Frantic, he dug into his front pocket to retrieve his cell, deathly afraid he might miss the call. In the display window, it said one word. CROWLEY. It was the only person he’d been expecting a call from, but now that it was here he was reluctant to answer it, though he had no choice. His heart began to race inside his chest.

He’d been here for about an hour already, but had stayed in the shadows, hardly moving, just silently watching the crowds scurry past and trying to not look too out of place. That wasn’t easy for him. He was nervous and sweating far too much, looking guilty of something even though he hadn’t done anything…yet. People’s eyes seemed to narrow when they gazed at him, not liking what they saw. Their eyes would invariably drop down to take in the large hunting knife sheathed on his belt too, and they’d make sure their family took a wide berth around him, instinctively not wanting to get too close.

“Hello?” he shouted into the cell, plugging his finger into his other ear to drown out the chaotic din of the crowd. There was silence on the other end of the line. “I’m here, Mr. Crowley…at the carnival.”

A cold, hard voice on the other end of the line simply said, “It’s time.”

The tall man had trouble swallowing, the saliva gone from his throat. “Okay,” he said, but the caller had already hung up. Putting away the phone, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a long, deep breath. Then he opened them and began his search.

* * *

After waiting for years, the Jensen brothers were finally inside the Sideshow Curiosities tent and to be honest, they weren’t all that impressed. The circus tent had basically been sectioned off by plastic tarps, with a corridor open right down the center and the entrance to all the various freaks and displays off that. You found the exhibit you wanted to see, stood in line, and then got a few minutes alone, or sometime with a small crowd, inside. The crowds were fairly large, so they kept the lines moving as fast as possible, not really letting the people have enough time to enjoy themselves.

“This place sucks,” Ray complained. “It’s too damn busy.”

“Definitely, Bro, but that’s how they make their money, ya know? Get ‘em in…get ‘em out.”

“Yeah, I hear ya. Plus it keeps everyone from seeing how fake everything is. If we could stand there and really get a good look, we’d all want our money back. Bastards!”

They’d originally set out to see the Mistress Of The Dark first, but the line up to get in her section of the tent had been huge so they’d gone and seen three or four other “freaks” just to pass the time. Mister Chollo had been a dud. He might very well have been the World’s shortest man, as the posters proclaimed, but big deal. It was just this tiny two and a half foot tall dude that just stood there and waived to the crowd. He juggled a little and tried to do a little dance, but the brothers were bored within seconds. Lennox the Lobster Boy hadn’t been much better. They’d been expecting some half man, half monster with hard red skin or something, but all they got was a tired looking old man with deformed hands. Forget crushing bricks and cutting through steel cans, the old guy could hardly hold his coffee cup without spilling it. The fire breather was okay and the exhibit of mutant animals and medical curiosities was pretty cool, but they could only look at three eyed sheep and two headed cows for so long. Soon they were back milling around in the common area wondering what to do next.

“Hey look,” Charlie said. “There’s no line in front of the fortune teller’s tent anymore. We can go see her now. Hope she’s as hot as Mick said she was. ”

“Right on! And since she’s blind, she won’t be able to tell that we’re checking her out either! Let’s go.”

“Jesus, Ray. Do you always have to be such a pervert?”

Inside the small enclosure, there were several chairs around a small wooden table. When Ray and Charlie sat down, they were the only ones in the room. On the table in front of them sat a large crystal ball about the size of a soccer ball, dark inside and not giving away any secrets.

“Where is she?” Charlie asked, but before Ray could speak the lights in the enclosure dimmed and from behind a curtain emerged one of the most gorgeous women either of the teenage boys had ever seen. She was tall and moved with the grace of a dancer. Her hair was jet black, curling down to her bare shoulders and she was wearing a see through purple wrap over a sexy black bra and long black skirt. Her eyes were covered with a dark purple cloth tied around her head, a makeshift blindfold that did nothing to hide how beautiful her face was. Her breasts were large and full, and to the young men’s joy, nearly bursting out.