Lynnette sat up against the corroded steel barrier of the rail bridge while listening and feeling the 6:15
roar by above both her and a snoring Cloyse. The young man was sleeping away on a cardboard slat
that he had carved out for himself the night before. Lynnette could tell that his so called rest was
anything but. He tossed, turned and threw a couple of fists in the air ever since falling asleep.
But as for Lynnette herself, even if she wanted to, she couldn't shut her eyes. No matter where she
turned there was something there in front of her chocking the life out of her. Isaiah was still somewhere
in the city, she couldn't quite explain how she knew that, it was just one of those gut feelings. She
couldn't explain to herself why she was sitting underneath a bridge with a switchblade in her hand and
not out searching for her child with the zeal of a nationwide manhunt. Perhaps it was fear of what she
may end up finding. But after hearing what Cloyse said the night before about her and the baby being
targeted, something told her that her hunters wanted her to suffer.
Killing Isaiah would be too easy. But then there was the man. The man that she once thought she
knew. With him all she could see was a monster, a monster from beginning to his grisly end. She
couldn't tell if she wanted to ignore him or see him burn in hell for eternity. Every so often, even though
she couldn't really confirm it, she could see Isaac turning from her and running to Karyn.
All the arguments they had, to last Thanksgiving, even his trip to Cuyahoga Falls, everything was
coming full circle as far as Lynnette was concerned. And as hard as she may have tried to divert her
attention elsewhere, that monster would not go away. Then again, Lynnette thought, perhaps she was
to be inescapably linked to Isaac forevermore.
The louder the train above roared by, the nails and screws that held the rickety rails together buckled
and jostled. Lynnette observed as Cloyse began to squirm and twist before he sat up in such a violent
sweat that he actually screamed out loud. Lynnette raised her switchblade only momentarily before
realizing that he was just having a nightmare.
Cloyse's crazed eyes gawked all around before they connected with Lynnette. The longer he looked
upon her the more he began to calm down.
"You okay?" She asked with relative ease.
Wiping sweat from his face, Cloyse coughed before saying, "I am. I saw someting in my dreams."
Getting up from off the warm ground, Lynnette asked, "What was that?"
"I saw three towers." He huffed. "I saw three buildings dat were once beautiful. I cannot imagine where
I have seen dem before."
"It's hard to tell." Lynnette stretched the life out of her body before slipping her switchblade into her
back pocket. "C'mon, let's get outta here before someone finds us. We look and smell like we climbed
out of the lake."
Cloyse got up and followed Lynnette out from under the bridge. It was a warm morning, no more than
seventy degrees with the unwanted expectation that it would become hotter as the day wore on.
The two walked alongside the train tracks next to the lake where some trains were slowly meandering
along while a few others sat idle, waiting to be operated.
"I wonder how my parents are doing." Lynnette sighed.
"What condition were dey in when you saw them last?"
"They were pretty messed up." Lynnette said. "My mother has been really off in the head since...it
doesn't matter anymore." She relented.
"I can hardly remember my mother and father, dey both died when I was very young."
"What do you remember about your sister?"
Cloyse hesitated before answering. "She was kind to me. She became a mother to me once our
mother died."
Lynnette then stopped beside a boxcar and turned around to face Cloyse. "What do you remember
when you first saw one of them?"
Cloyse turned his head for a second before replying, "For years, dey were only folklore and myth on
our island. We noticed people missing or turning up dead, but we always thought it was wild animals
killing everyone. Den I saw my sister change for de first time." His voice dropped. "After dat, I was
forever terrified of her. I wanted to save her, but I knew dat it wasn't possible."
Lynnette stood and studied the man for a few moments as though she were viewing life's cruelest joke.
"I just remember him turning back into a man after that detective killed him." She mournfully muttered.
"I remember him changing into that thing, but what sticks with me the most is him turning back. I
always wonder what it could have felt like for him to make that change. I had known that nigga since
the sixth grade, and to see him turn into that...thing, just doesn't seem real to me."
"How did dis detective manage to kill him?"
Lynnette said, "He used a shotgun."
Nodding his head, Cloyse stated, "Strong guns like dose work well, but on my island, firearms as
scarce. Our best weapon was fire."
"What, you just set them on fire, and poof, they were dead?"
"Dey are still flesh and blood, so if it is strong enough, any weapon could work."
"Good, I'll keep that in mind." Lynnette said as she turned and began to walk away in the opposite
direction.
"Did your fiancée do dat to your finger?" Cloyse all of the sudden asked.
Lynnette froze in place. She couldn't explain why the question just sliced right through her like a sharp
sword. She slowly turned back around and looked Cloyse right in the eye.
"I keep my scars as mementos." Lynnette stated with grinding teeth. "Everyone thought that Isaac had
just beaten me up, and I plan on allowing them to believe that for the rest of my days simply because
it's all I have to offer as far as explanations are concerned. What else am I supposed to tell people?"
She shrugged.
Cloyse's face took on its own wretched frown at that instant. "I am just thankful that you and your son
were spared his fate."
"How do you mean?"
Smirking, Cloyse said, "I am not as naïve as you may believe me to be, Lynnette. I am aware of how
dis curse is passed on. Either through a bite, scratches, or...another way."
Lynnette squared her eyes at Cloyse right then. She wasn't naïve either. "I thought the same thing, too.
But now that you mention it, the last sexual encounter Isaac and I had was through...sucking and
eating. He and I hadn't screwed since before last November. After that, that's when he started acting
like an even bigger jackass than he was before."
Both Lynnette and Cloyse stared each other down as hard as they both possibly could for what
seemed like forever before Lynnette eventually turned and began walking away down the tracks.
"Some nights ago, while I was sitting inside a car with...someone I knew, one of them blasted through
the windshield and killed him." Lynnette sorrowfully explained with folded arms. "All I saw was fur. I
didn't see or hear anything else. All I ever saw was fur."
"Growing up, all I saw was de dead bodies of de people on my island." Cloyse said. "After a while...you
get used to seeing dead people."
Lynnette continued to walk on until she saw the pier just a few yards up ahead. The more the morning
wore on the warmer it became until a soothing lake breeze began caressing her face.
"You never did tell me how this all began." She uttered. "I mean, how did this Akoni and Arthur become
these things to begin with?"
For the longest time Cloyse never responded. Lynnette had to actually look behind her just to make
sure that the man was still there in her presence.
His head was turned in the direction of another train being pulled down the tracks. He had the blank
look of someone who just wasn't there anymore. His dark skin was actually turning insipid.
"It's like two magnets." Cloyse spoke in a hopeless demeanor. "No one knows for sure where he came
from, but, years ago, a mon washed ashore on our island. Till dis day, no one knows what he even
looked like. Dey say dat dis mon brought wit him his own witchcraft and sorcery. But on our island, dere
was already a family of witches. De father, mother and deir three children were very wicked people.
Dey would perform sacrifices on animals and burn down houses. Dey was soon kicked out of de
village, but dey were never very far from us. Soon, dis family happened upon the shipwrecked invader.
Dey all joined together to form dis union. Not too long after deir union was forged, what we all thought
at first to be animal attacks began taking place. But dese so called animals had a different form. They
looked like animals, but walked like people. Dis evil went on for years until...until dey completed what
dey set out to do."
Lynnette suddenly stopped and turned around to look at Cloyse. The man was standing right there
behind her. She could sense the tension in his voice that sounded like nail-biting bitterness.
"Like I said last night, when dey mark someone, dey hunt until dat someone is destroyed. Dey came
back for our village for kicking dem out. I watched as our parents were driven mad by de devils. If you
are not slaughtered, den you are broken in spirit. One way or another, you will be dead."
All Lynnette could do was stand in place and drop her head in shuddering defeat. With her right toe she
aimlessly scraped against the gravel burdened ground before folding her arms.
"I hate him." She faintly muttered to herself.
"What did you say?"
"I said that I hate him." Lynnette lifted her head. "I never imagined that I would say that out loud. But I
truly hate that man with everything inside of me."
As Cloyse began to advance towards Lynnette the man was abruptly seized to the point where he
clutched his stomach and dropped to his knees.
Lynnette ran to his aid asking, "What's the matter with you?"
Trying to catch his breath, Cloyse said, "I see...I see de three buildings again."
"What three buildings could you be talking about?"
Cloyse started to cry before he slowly rose back to his feet and pointed northwest. "I see someting from
dat direction." He gasped.
Lynnette turned in the direction of his pointed finger. At first all her eyes could see was the hazy
Downtown skyline. But just as soon as she was about to return her attention back to Cloyse, Lynnette
unexpectedly caught herself and gazed back in the same direction all over again.
Remembering his 'gift', Lynnette shut her eyes for a second before saying in a dreadful tone, "Oh God,
the three buildings. You have to be talking about Hollis Estates."
"What is Hollis Estates?"
Looking back at Cloyse, she replied, "It's a collection of buildings that were shut down way back in '71.
No one lives there. Not even the fuzz will go there."
"Dat must be where dey are keeping your son. We must go!" Cloyse began to take off.
But Lynnette remained in place while holding her arms together as tight as she could. Her entire body
began to quiver at that moment to where her knees wanted to buckle.
"What is de matter?" Cloyse began to walk towards her.
With a tear dropping down from her eye, Lynnette whispered, "Is this just a dream?"
Frowning in confusion, Cloyse asked, "What are you saying?"
"Please say that this is all just a dream." She pleaded while drooling from the mouth.
Cloyse attempted to take Lynnette by the arm but instead she backed away crying even more furiously.
"I'm fucking scared!"
"So am I. But my visions are never wrong, Lynnette. Your son is over dere, and we must get him."
"But they'll turn into those things!" She stomped her foot on the ground.
"Maybe...maybe we should just let them have Isaiah."
Cloyse stood and placed his hands on his hips while gazing up at the sun that was gradually emerging
from the clouds.
"What was your life like before you found out your fiancé was damned?"
Wiping her wet face, Lynnette said, "It surely didn't have this going on in it! All I had to worry about was
a hardheaded boyfriend and getting A's in my writing class at Cypress State!" She yelled.
Steadily looking at Lynnette, Cloyse remarked, "I was born into dis, Lynnette. All I know is fear and
death. I used to wake up almost every morning seeing or hearing about a dead body floating in a
stream or washing ashore on de island." Looking up, he added, "All of dis, dis city, dis country of yours,
dis is all you have ever known. All I see here are people who overfeed themselves and call each other
nigger left and right. Your fear, my fear, none of it matters. All dat matters now is getting your son and
killing Arthur and Akoni."
"But how do we kill them, for God's sake? You've seen them; you've seen what they become!"
Cloyse took off his right shoe and pulled out a small pouch from within. "Dis is de one ting dat de police
didn't notice when dey were arresting me."
Gawking strangely, Lynnette asked, "What is it?"
"It does not have a name, but it is a concoction dat those witches brewed up over de years. It paralyzes
a person from head to toe. My friend Sunta discovered it, but not in time, I am afraid. If we can
somehow manage to use it on dem, den we will have a better chance."
"Maybe we should call the police."
"But you just said last night dat dey would not take you seriously."
"I know, but...I just can't believe—
"You must be strong, Lynnette," Cloyse yelled, "because we are going into purgatory!"
Lynnette rolled her eyes up to the sky while pacing back and forth as though she were searching hard
for some sort of daring rage that would propel her into combat.
"Dere is only one more ting you must bear in mind." Cloyse stated. "Seven years ago, we managed to
put an end to de mother of de family. Den came de father at last. Damerae was next. Akoni can be
dispatched no differently dan de others, but dere is Arthur."
Lynnette's entire body at that instant went completely numb. There was a huge engine rolling behind
her at that second, and not even its thunderous roar could deter her attention away from what Cloyse
was explaining.
"Out of all of dem, Arthur, the eldest child, is quite different. While he is a beast, he is also someting
else. Somehow, someway, over de course of time he has managed to tap into a different source of evil.
For some reason, he has de ability to cross over into another world and become something different."
"Different how," Lynnette held her breath.
"He is both flesh, and not flesh."
"You can't be serious." Lynnette's voice and stomach dropped before she caught sight of a payphone
lanced to a tall pole about five yards ahead of her.
Without another second's hesitation she ran until she came face to face with the old, dingy phone.
"Who are you calling?" Cloyse coughed and spat, still trying to seize his fleeting wind.
Glancing back at the man in disbelief, Lynnette reached into and searched her pants pocket. "You want
to go head to head with the Devil with some fairy dust? You and I both know what we're dealing with.
I'm calling the police, and I don't care what they think of me." She bluntly remarked.
Lynnette pulled out a quarter and inserted it. She then dialed and waited. "Cypress Police Department.
How may I direct your call?" The female operator spoke.
"Yes, my son was kidnapped last night, and I believe he is being held at Hollis Estates!" Lynnette said
out loud.
At first there was a long pause over the phone, the pause was soon followed by a sigh. "Ma'am, this is
a busy police line. We do not have time for prank calls."
"But this isn't a prank call!" Lynnette stomped her feet. "My son really is at Hollis Estates! If you would
just send a unit down there, then—
"Ma'am, either quit wasting our time, or else I will have no other choice than to report you to the proper
authorities." The woman hung up.
What little life Lynnette possessed had all but been sucked right out of her at that very instant as she
simply dropped the phone, leaving it dangling by only its cord.
"What did de police say?" Cloyse questioned.
But Lynnette didn't answer, she just began walking northwest with her mouth hanging slightly ajar.
"Lynnette, what is de matter?" Cloyse persisted as he followed her.
But Lynnette still did not respond. She just walked in a trance, and would not stop.
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