Let's Play in the Garden (28 page)

They turned toward the furnace, and Merydith suddenly recognized the smell. It was the black smoke she saw so often outside her window. Together they went to the furnace and pulled open the door.

What lay inside only served to magnify the horror and disgust they felt—human ashes and bones. A pair of skulls grinned wickedly at them from the piles of black ashes that filled the furnace. Other body parts peeked out at them…parts of bones, ribs, femurs, some charred flesh, and the blackened remains of a woman’s shoe.

Merydith covered her mouth as Tobey fell away in disgust, covering his nose. Once Grandpa was done with the bodies, he disposed of them by burning them in the furnace. “Oh, my Lord in heaven, oh Christ Almighty…the black smoke I’ve seen, the smells I’ve smelled! Tobey, we have to get out of here…now!”

They turned and ran from the room, the charnel pit, Simon’s dungeon of death, terror running their blood cold. “We must get into town, Tobey,” Merydith said. “Even if it takes us all day. We have to get the police and turn these murderers in!”

“I know, Mery, but I’m so scared. They kill people. What about us? They’ll kill us if they find out.”

“We have to escape. Just follow me out of here and we’ll head straight for the road!”

They crawled up the stairs, the daylight just a few feet away from them, salvation, escape, just a breath away. Tears filled their eyes as they reached the cellar door.

“Your evil knows no bounds, does it, Merydith?” Simon stood on the stairway, his shotgun pointed at Merydith and Tobey. Their skin went pale as they froze in their steps, petrified with fear. “No, it wasn’t enough to show you who you really are and leave it at that,” he raged. “You had to know it all, didn’t you? Nothing stops your evil. It just keeps growing and growing. Well, now you know it all, and neither of you are carrying the secrets any further than this very yard. There will be no police. Our way of life must survive. The
garden
must survive! Into the house, both of you, or I will kill you right here and burn you in the furnace.”

They were speechless and put up no fight. Instead, they marched into the house as Simon commanded. He followed behind them, his shotgun pointed at their backs. They entered the living room where Marion and Gladys waited.

“Well, I’m sorry to say it, but yes, you were right, Simon,” Gladys said. “Their evil carried them into the workshop where they were attempting to destroy us all.”

“You should be destroyed!” Merydith screamed. “All of this should be! You’re killers. You’ve murdered for your stupid garden. You’re a foul brood, and Tobey and I will stop at nothing to escape and tell the police about you.” With that, she made a desperate bolt for the door, but Marion blocked her path and grabbed her by the head, turning her the other way.

“You will never escape, evil one!” Marion hissed. “Another move and I’ll break your neck!”

“No!” Tobey ran to aid his sister, but Simon struck him across the stomach with the butt of the shotgun, driving him to the floor.

“You foolish children,” Simon began. “Do you know what you’ve thrown away? That garden would have made you immortal. You would have been able to inherit its gift and continue where we left off. We would have retired and rested, leaving you to tend to the garden.”

“I would never have served that garden,” cried Merydith. “And neither would Tobey, despite how you tried to con and trick him. I’ve put an end to that.”

“I know, Merydith, you ruin everything you touch. You have failed us. Now the garden will never trust either one of you. At some point in the future you would have stopped aging, but now you’ll die, and we will live on without you.”

“The seeds?” It dawned on Merydith.

“Yes, the seeds,” answered Simon. “They are the garden’s gift to us for our faithful service. The seeds have stopped the aging process. We will never grow any older, and thus, never die by natural causes. I’m one hundred and twenty-three years old. Gladys is one hundred and seventeen. And Marion is ninety-two.”

“Faithful service? You fe+ed it human blood!” Merydith screamed.

“Yes, human blood mixed with fertilizer, sulfur, water, and many other chemicals and compounds found right here in Willington. It just took the right person and combinations to crack the mysteries of nature’s puzzles. It’s the blood that prevents it from ever rotting or decaying—unless, of course, the flowers or fruits are ever picked.”

“You’re the killer the police are looking for. That’s what’s been going on in town. They’ll catch you, they will!”

“No, no, children, I’m afraid that will never happen. You see, they have no evidence, and their only sources would be you two, and you will never leave here.”

“Wait! There’s something more, something that frightens you. It’s in the garden, something that lives there. A thing, a beast, one of your experiments. You thought it was dead, but it’s not, and it’ll come for you. It wants revenge, too, just like us.”

Simon’s eyes began to drift as he called upon his distant, painful memories. “When I first created your mother, Marion, I realized she would be lonely, being different from all other people. I figured she needed a mate. I tried to create her one that would grow with her and be her husband when they reached adulthood. Something went terribly wrong.

“A slight miscalculation in measurement of the chemicals, sick or damaged cells, it could have been anything. We watched this half-human thing develop and grow and deform. It grew at an incredible and horrifying rate. It became huge and murderous. It was insanely evil, and we knew it had to die.

“In our attempts to destroy it, it fled into the garden. Gladys and I trapped it there, and there we put an end to it. Or so we thought. Somehow, after all this time, it lives. It has returned, its violent rage and temper multiplied a thousand times. It’s trying its best to get out and consume us. Children, he was supposed to be your father. He would have been, had he been normal. He was the one who took beautiful little Aaron from us. I swore after I’d made him that I’d never create another. Then your mother begged me to give her children. She wanted a chance to love and raise something, just as we had.”

Marion joined in with her own side of the bizarre, frightening story. “I begged Simon for children, seeing as that I could never reproduce. So again, he took part of his cells, part of mine, and part of the garden’s. These things made you a part of me and brought forth my children. So now you know all of it. That’s why the garden was secured…to protect you from it. It will never escape, and one day, when the time is right, we three will enter the garden and destroy it for good and the garden will be open and safe again.

“Well, I guess you’ve finally discovered all that there is to know, Merydith and Tobey,” Simon resumed. “You were not supposed to find out so soon, not until you were ready to take over the garden. Now that will never be. You two have become one more failed experiment. You have done nothing but try to destroy us. We loved you, we provided for you, we gave you life. We gave you everything. You’re just bad seeds, and now I think it’s time I started over. Back to the drawing board. Goodbye, my children.”

Simon raised his shotgun as the final realization burned in the children’s eyes—they were meeting their ends.

24. The Child Rebels

There was a vicious roar from the garden as the creature bashed itself against the gate in yet another furious attempt at escape. The gate shuddered and shook violently, the chains rattling, the crack becoming deeper and nearly giving way. The monster, frustrated, roared again, scattering all the other animals in the garden. It stepped back, gaining some distance and then rushed the weakened gate one last time with all of its strength…

At last!
The crack spit up the middle of the gate and broke it in two. Wood shattered as splinters rained every which way. The chains and locks rattled once and fell to the ground in a heap. The entire structure crumbled under the mighty force made of rage, heartache and hatred.

At long last the monster stepped outside the garden and tasted freedom. Blood seeped from its thorny tentacle. The monster stood towering and massive, writhing with green vines and leaves moving within its green flesh. Its mouth resembled a giant Venus flytrap with long spines interlacing one another, dripping with white pus. Its feet had three toes, and its one human arm was all muscle and sinew. It stomped forward and into the yard with thunderous steps. A victory roar escaped its lungs as it had always known it would one day escape and finally crush the ones in the house.

The house!
Oh yes, how quiet and peaceful it looks.
It wanted now to enter and destroy it and all those inside. They would now taste his terrible wrath and fury. It stormed toward the house with rage coursing through its deformed body, with fire raging in its black blood.

Simon pointed the shotgun at Tobey as Merydith struggled but was unable to break free of Marion’s strong grip. Just as Simon was about to shoot Tobey dead there was an enormous crash against the door. The entire house rocked but the door remained intact.

“It has escaped!” Gladys screamed. “My God, Simon, at long last it’s come for us!”

“Not before I kill it first!” Simon yelled. He went straight over to the door and aimed his shotgun at it. Suddenly an arm burst right through the door, hitting Simon squarely in the chest. He flew backwards, landing on the floor, the shotgun flying from his hand. Tobey picked it up.

The monster crashed through the door, tearing it apart as if it were paper. He stomped toward them. Marion let go of Merydith and screamed, Gladys joining the chorus.

Simon tried to get up but the monster stepped on him, forcing him to the floor and using all of its weight to crush him. Blood vomited from Simon’s mouth as the air was squeezed from his body, his lungs collapsing, his ribs shattering. The creature lifted Simon with its tentacle and smashed him against a wall, and then up against the ceiling! Simon’s arms broke and his legs shattered. The creature’s tentacle slipped into Simon’s mouth like a serpent and forced its way down his throat and into his bowels, scrambling his insides until he was dead.

It then turned his attention to the others, who scattered for the kitchen.

It followed as Tobey held the shotgun up and fired. He struck the thing in the chest, causing little damage. Only some white pus oozed from its flesh.

Gladys drew a knife from the kitchen drawer to protect herself, but it was of little help. The creature grabbed hold of her and bit the top half of Gladys’s head off. Blood sprayed in waves, saturating the entire room: the sink, the cabinets, the bell collection. It spattered the walls. It let her go and watched as her body limped around like a puppet for a few moments and then plopped to the floor in a slump.

The others could do nothing but watch in terror as it went on the long-awaited rampage, blood now soaking its body, sweet blood that it had longed to savor and feel all over its skin. It wailed and roared, stomping room to room, smashing the furniture, breaking windows. Suddenly it eyed sweet Merydith and lunged for her.

“No!” Tobey jumped in its way, trying to use the gun again, with only one bullet left. The monster flung it from Tobey’s hand and wrapped its tentacle around his throat.

“No! Tobey, why did you do that? Damn you, let him go!” Merydith screamed with agonizing grief as she watched the life being squeezed from her brother.

Marion ran up the stairs, and after Tobey’s body dropped to the floor, Merydith followed behind her.

The monster stormed the stairs, nearly crushing them with each step. He roared again, vibrating the house, tearing at the walls, ripping wallpaper, knocking down paintings. He entered the top floor with the bedrooms and spied Merydith’s door swinging shut. He stomped toward it and tore if off its hinges.

Inside the room was a cowering Marion. She stood in the corner, trying to outsmart the beast by seeking refuge in Merydith’s room instead of her own.

“No! Stay away from me! Stay away!”

Its tentacle slithered toward her and snaked around her waist.

With all of its strength, it flung Marion straight out Merydith’s window. Her body sailed through the glass and air and landed on a spike atop the garden wall. She gurgled as it slipped through the center of her body. She vomited blood before going lifeless, her head hanging backwards over the wall.

Merydith heard the glass smash in her room as she eased herself out of the bathroom and crept down the hall. She started down the stairs as she heard a creak on the stairs.

With caution, Merydith made her way to the bottom of the stairs and picked up the discarded shotgun that Tobey had dropped. A noise echoed in the hall. She stopped and listened as Tobey turned the corner.

“Tobey?” Merydith whispered at first with joy until noticing something strange about him. “Tobey, you’re dead, I saw you die.”

“No, Merydith…I’m alive.” He walked toward her, his arms outstretched.

“Tobey, no. Stay away, please, get away from me,” she cried, tears streaming down her face.

“Don’t be afraid, Merydith,” he said as he followed her. She started back up the stairs, her back to the stairs but keeping her sight and the shotgun on Tobey. She knew it wasn’t really him. She knew somehow he was being animated. A puppet to a monster stomping above.

“No, Tobey, you’re dead. Please go away, just go away!”

He stepped onto the stairs and reaching for her. He opened his mouth and thick white puss oozed out. “Don’t be afraid, Merydith,” he gargled as if his throat were filled with water. “It doesn’t hurt. Father kills us quick so it doesn’t hurt.” The white fluid slid down his chin and onto his shirt. “D-Don’t b-b-be aaaffraid, Mery-Mery-dddith…”

He suddenly lunged at her feet, grabbing them and making her fall backwards on the stairs, the shotgun slipping out of her grip. He reached for her again.

She fought him with all she had. Scratching, hitting and kicking. She finally managed to give him one good kick that sent him rolling back down the stairs. As he did, Merydith managed to struggle to her feet. Tobey had already recovered and was on his way back up the stairs. His arms were reaching for her again. “Don’t be afraid, Merydith.”