Tandem of Terror (38 page)

"Keep it up Joey. You'll be changing them
until they grow out of them."

"How was school?"

"Great." Gina's eyes lit up. Her teaching was
so important to her and she loved to talk about it. "We're studying
the witch trials of Salem and New England."

"Really? Sounds interesting."

"It is," she said as she changed Mark's
diaper. "We got new history books this year and they have new
information that was just compiled over the last few years. Did you
know there was a local woman, Sarah McBrey, who was put to death
because she wouldn't have sex with the local playboys? So they
accused her of witchcraft. It was said she put a curse on them and
all their descendants before she died. An interesting part of our
town's history, huh? I wonder how many descendants still live in
town? Wouldn't that be wild, Joe? Joe, what's wrong?"

He was filled with overwhelming dread. For a
few moments, he could only stand staring into space, a frightened
look upon his face, until his wife's voice drew him back to
himself. "You all right honey? You look like you've seen a
ghost."

"No. I mean... yes I'm fine. I just felt
dizzy for a few seconds.

"Maybe you should go rest while I fix dinner.
Maybe after you have something to eat you'll feel better."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." He walked into
the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

"You're so pathetic." Brian swung his hand
wide and hard, smashing Kerry across the face and sending her to
the floor.

"Stop crying," he demanded, with a series of
kicks to her ribs.

"Please...please," she begged, her sobs deep
and heavy as she crawled to the corner.

"I ask a simple thing and you can't do it. Do
you want me to get mad at you and slap you around? Because that's
what you deserve. Are you really that dumb? I work all frigging day
and you just ignore the house, dinner and everything. You call
yourself a wife?"

His rage increased at a frightening rate.
Kerry fled from the monster she'd once called her husband.

"Get over here. Bitch!" Brian chased her
across the kitchen, swatting at her almost for fun now. "Don't run
from me when I'm talking to you."

She scrambled into the living room, pulling
herself across the rug, burning her elbows, face distorted by
terror. She found herself against the front door, reaching in vain
for the doorknob.

"If you don't stop, Kerry, I'll break your
legs. Then see if ya can run." He stood in the doorway, between the
kitchen and the living room, towering over her.

"Brian...please, look at me. Look at what
you're doing..." She searched for something, anything to bargain
with, to stop him and spare herself from the inevitable. "What
would your mother think of you now?"

"Don't ever talk about my mother, she died
when I was four." He gritted his teeth, veins pulsing in his
temples. Kerry raised her hands to protect herself and suddenly
caught a glimpse of a bright falling star through the kitchen
window. Green-yellow light filled the house.

Kerry screamed as something appeared behind
her husband. A creature rose above Brian. It was female, with long,
shoulder-length dark hair. Its veins appeared to be on the outside
of its body, pulsing and throbbing. Its flesh was scaly and
greenish-yellow, its hands clawed, eyes huge white orbs.

It gazed right at Brian as he pulled back to
hit his wife again, and smiled- a wide, razor-toothed smile. With a
silent shriek of mocking laughter, the creature dove down upon
him.

Her clawed hands wrapped around his head and,
with one swift movement, his skull caved in, bones crackling, eyes
popping from their sockets. His body went limp and he dropped to
the floor.

Kerry began to cry. The smiling creature
stared at her.

"No...no...no...please," Kerry whimpered.

"I have no quarrel with you," the creature
told her, its voice a mere whisper. "In the name of Sarah McBrey,"
it said before vanishing in a ball of green light.

Joe lay awake again, his soul tormented.

He was filled with dread and worry but
couldn't explain it. Joe tossed and turned, sighed as sweat poured
off him. For weeks, a powerful force had been visiting him,
stealing his sleep. It had been happening for weeks now and the
closer he got to his birthday the more intense it became. Still, he
kept it from Gina. She had enough to worry about between her job
and the twins. She didn't need any more stress. This was his
problem.

After staring at the ceiling for what seemed
like hours, he threw the covers aside and got out of bed, and with
no clear destination in mind simply walked out of the bedroom until
he found himself in the children's room. Whatever taunted him at
night had drawn him here again. Somehow he felt he had just been
wandering but deep down knew he'd been led here on purpose.

Matthew and Mark were sleeping soundly. The
innocence on their faces, the angelic beauty radiating in them,
nearly brought him to tears.

He stood over their cradles and studied them
as if afraid they'd change before his eyes. He felt a connection
between the three of them. It was nothing he could see or touch but
it was stronger than anything he'd ever felt. Had the twins brought
him here?

"Sarah McBrey..."

Whispering, teasing, threatening...

"Sarah McBrey..."

"Stop it," Joe begged, gritting his teeth and
clenching his fists. "Leave me alone." He went to the twin's
window, which, oddly, was open. "Do you hear me? Leave me alone,"
he cried to the sky.

Silence then, as he stood, still gazing into
the mesmerizing night sky. A falling star burned out in a flare of
green.

Joe knew something was not right. He could
feel it in his soul.

"Joe?" His wife's voice jerked him awake.

Is it morning already? How did I get
back in bed?
He didn't remember leaving the twin's room.

"Joe, c'mon," Gina said, obviously irritated.
"I've called you three times. The babysitter will be here any
minute. I'm on my way out the door and you're going to be
late."

Joe rubbed his head. He felt hung over. "What
the hell happened last night?"

"Joe, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine honey. Go on, I'm on my way
to the shower."

Gina headed for work as he made his way to
the shower, and as he passed his sons' room he peered in with
wonder.

Paul Hopkins sat alone, the house empty. His
eyes were sore and bloodshot from sobbing, hands quivering with
rage and sorrow. For hours he stared at the pictures of his father
and brother before him. How happy they seemed. How true and good in
life they'd been. Now all that was gone, taken away by someone who
knew nothing of them.

"They will pay," Paul muttered. " I promise
you both."

From out of his father's closet, he took a
handgun. Time and time again he'd cleaned and loaded it. Now he was
ready to use it."They will not escape me..."

The front door swung open and Paul's mother
rushed into the room, a distraught look on her face.

Their eyes met.

"I went by your job," she told him. "They
said you hadn't been there all day, that you never showed up." She
was clearly upset now. "What's going on Paul? Are you all
right?"

"I'm fine, just don't worry, okay?"

"Don't play me for a fool, Paul. I know you.
You'd never miss work. "

"It's okay," he said. "Everything's going to
be okay. You're never going to have to worry again, mum. I'm gonna
take care of him, you hear? " He took the gun from its hiding
place, and showed it to her.

"Paul...no. You don't know what you're doing.
Please, put the gun away."

"I can't, I have to do this. For dad and
Phil. I'm doing it for them. I know the guy who killed dad is the
same guy who got Phil."

"Paul, please listen to me. You're all I have
left. Don't do this. Please!"

"Mum, just leave me alone." With that, he
raced out of the door, gun in hand.

The door to his office had been closed all
day, and whenever the phone rang, he ignored it. Something else
occupied Joe's mind and it was bigger than anything he'd ever
experienced.

The sky through his office window entranced
him. He almost expected it to open up and release something grand
and majestic.

"Sarah McBrey..." The voice came again,
cutting into his thoughts, seducing him.

"Leave me the hell alone," he growled,
pulling himself from his chair and standing before the large
windows, his hands on the glass.

A i light went on and his eyes widened. He
hurried to the phone.

"Honey, yeah, it's me. I'm sorry to bother
you. Is your class still studying the witch trials?" His expression
was that of relief coupled with eager interest. "You are? Good. Who
was that local woman again, she cursed somebody but-Sarah McBrey.
Yes, she wasn't a witch but murdered and buried by her father. They
wouldn't allow a church burial? She put a curse on her murderers
and their descendants. What was that curse?"

There was a moment of silence then all color
drained from his face. "They'll never live beyond their
twenty-fourth year," he whispered. "Yeah honey, I'm still here. No,
everything's fine, I'll talk to you later. I love you, bye."
Hanging up the phone, he left the office in a fluster, heading for
the street.

He bought a paper. The big story was the
murder of wife-beater Brian McLellan. His wife was being brought up
on charges. He was twenty-four. Joe remembered the other murder
victim, Phil Hopkins, had also been twenty-four when he'd died.

"My father was twenty-four when he died. And
in a month, I'll be..." He left the newsstand and headed for his
car. His next stop: the town library.

Night fell on the town, bringing with it a
glittering blanket of stars.

Paul had been roaming the streets, gun
stuffed into his pants, a fury burning within him. He didn't know
where he was going or who he was looking for. He hit every dive and
bar, listening to the scum of the city talk and brag, hoping for
information.

But he was left disappointed and walked
alone, along the trash-strewn sidewalks, angrier than ever. "Damn
cops don't do shit."

Suddenly, something possessed him to stop in
front of an alley. He turned and peered into the pitch-dark but saw
nothing.

The footsteps, however, were more than
clear.

"Who's there?" He drew his gun. " I'm
armed."

The footsteps continued, undaunted.

"Paul," someone said.

"How do you know my name?"

"It is over Paul."

Paul emptied his gun into the alley. The dark
was abruptly vanquished by green-yellow light. And from the light
stepped a green-scaled beast.

Paul cried out, attempted to run, but her
claws latched into his face, dragging him to her.

It wasn't until Gina had gone to bed that Joe
returned home. He had told her work would be keeping him very late
and not to wait up. The moment he stepped inside the house, the
feelings took over.

He walked upstairs, and found himself in his
sons' bedroom yet again. He looked down at them. How beautiful and
precious they were. Leaning in he touched Mark's hand and visions
flooded his mind.

He watched in horror as they dragged a young
woman to the gallows, and slung a noose around her neck.

The crowd roared. "Hang her! Hang the
witch!"

"Here be the witch, Sarah McBrey," Silas
Hanson said, standing atop the gallows beside her.

Joe trembled as he watched the nightmarish
scene unfold behind his eyes. He could smell the smoke of the
torches, feel the anger of the crowd, the fear within Sarah
McBrey.

"Hear me Silas Hanson," she said. "You want
curses, I'll give you curses."

Hanson
. It struck Joe like a
thunderbolt. He was one of the descendants of these criminals, the
murderers. He was next to be punished for what his ancestor had
done.

"I curse you three and all of your
descendants," she cried.

"No!" Joe was back in the bedroom. Jerking
his hand away, he let go of his son and cried, "It's you. You two
have been doing all of this. Somehow, you're trying to warn me."
Now he could feel the power emanating from his boys. Then a flash
of light in the window caught his attention.

He saw a star fall from the sky. It appeared
to be heading right toward the window. Joe backed away from it and
shut his eyes.

He opened them again to find a shadowed
figure in the doorway.

"Gina!"

Green-yellow light bathed the room. "You are
the last." The creature in the room, most certainly not Gina,
grinned, her razor sharp teeth gleaming in the light.

"Who are you?" he asked despite his fear, in
an attempt to stall for time.

"I am the avenger of the wronged, champion of
the innocent. I am summoned by the outcries of the victimized and I
must complete my mission or I cannot rest. You are the last and you
must die."

"Wait, I am not the one. I did not kill Sarah
McBrey. My ancestor killed her, not me. I am not the criminal here.
He is long dead."

"
It is of no concern of
mine. I must complete my mission. I have been summoned. It ends
with you."

"No, no it doesn't. My twin sons are
descendants of Silas. Will you come for them too?"

There was no answer.

"And what of their children and their
children? When will this end? The bloodshed must stop! Even Sarah
would see that. She has already been avenged. Don't you see? You're
keeping a three-hundred-year-old crime alive."

"I have no choice." She advanced on him, her
eyes glistening, claws clicking. "I am bound by my mission."

"Your mission was to avenge her death. It's
done. The cycle must stop," he said. "I apologize for the crimes of
my ancestors but I cannot accept responsibility for them and I will
not allow my children to."