In the Aftermath: Burning of the Dawn Page 14

  A few windows to the house had been broken and the screen door to the front patio was lying in the grass a few feet away. Clarissa and her daughters made their way onto the patio. There was a small glass table in one corner with a knocked-over, faded, pink vase lying on top of it. A few old paint cans and some dead leaves also took up residence on the patio, but it was one item in particular that garnered the Hannigan family’s attention: a faded piece of paper had been nailed to the front door. Clarissa used her free hand to flatten the withered note to see if it was still readable. The writing was faded, but still legible.

  “What’s it say?” Vita whispered to her mother.

  “Dear James and Bill,” Clarissa read. “I’ve left for Spring Hill to stay at your Aunt Tressie’s place until all this passes. Some of the local boys from the militia told me I should leave the area. They’re not forcing me to go, but they say it’s dangerous to stay near the lake. Everybody else is leaving, so I am, too. Please come if you can. You boys stay safe. God be with you. Love, mom.”

  “I wonder when that was written.” Vita pondered.

  “Not too recently,” stated Maria. “She obviously never came back.”

  “Maybe she’s still in Spring Valley, or Silent Hill, or whatever that place was called, with her sons.” Vita replied with feigned optimism.

  “Yeah,” Maria replied in like fashion. “Maybe so.”

  Clarissa tried the door, but it was locked. She looked over to one of the broken windows on the front of the house; she did not fancy the idea of going in through there. Clarissa took a step back away from the entrance, and with one swift and vicious strike she kicked open the front door. She slowly walked in with her shotgun equipped for combat; her daughters following closely behind. The inside of the house was stale and very dusty; otherwise it was still in decent order. There was furniture, bookshelves, plant stands, and pictures; nothing looked suspicious. This house had not seen any looters or vandals; it had simply been locked away in time, until Clarissa Hannigan kicked down the door.

  The Hannigans moved swiftly yet thoroughly through the house and it was soon ascertained that nobody else was there, or had been there recently. Once Clarissa felt satisfied enough with the safety of the place, she went back outside and moved her car behind the house and out of view from the road. She retrieved a few items that she and her daughter might need during the night, including the road flares Daniel had given them. Clarissa closed the front door as best she could; locking it was no longer a possibility. By the time Clarissa had finished dealing with the door, the sun had vanished beyond the western horizon. There was still light, however, and therefore still not quite time for the Sayona to make their nightly expeditions.

  Clarissa and her daughters headed up to the second floor. There were only two rooms up here: a bedroom and a bathroom. There was a second staircase that led down to a defunct laundry room on the first floor, which also housed the entrance to the cellar. All that the cellar possessed was a collection of gardening paraphernalia. The second-story bedroom, in which the Hannigans would be spending the night, was pleasantly decorated with paintings, pictures, tapestries, and other assorted arts and crafts. At the end of the bed was an old, oak chest – very large and tremendously heavy. The room had one window: a large bay window which looked out over the long, gravel driveway leading up to the house. It made for a good lookout; Clarissa was glad for that. Maria soon noticed that her mother did not bring any of their blankets into the house. There was a good-sized bed in the bedroom fully equipped with adequate covers, but Clarissa wasn’t keen on her daughters sleeping in strange, old beds.

  “What are we sleeping on tonight, mom?” Maria asked.

  Maria detected some tension as her mother looked to her. She was more on edge than usual. Maria and Vita could always tell when there was a change in their mother’s demeanor, but what exactly she was thinking at that moment was unclear to both of them. What Clarissa was mostly feeling was confusion. She was convinced that the panels of glass left on the roads were left there intentionally, yet this small town seemed completely dead. Clarissa’s senses were baffling her; she was nearly certain that there was nobody around, but she was completely certain that something wasn’t right.

  “I’d rather you didn’t sleep tonight.” Clarissa stated.

  “You think there’s somebody else in this town?” Vita asked.

  “No, but there might be somebody in a nearby town.”

  “So what?” declared Maria. She hated and dreaded living in the unknown; the sinister anxiety of this place was too heavy. “It’ll be completely dark in the next twenty minutes. You think they’re gonna chance going out at night?”

  “Better to be safe,” Clarissa asserted. “You never know what a lunatic is crazy enough to do.”

  “If they’re fond of strolling in the moonlight, then yeah, I think it’s safe to say they’re not somebody we need to worry about anymore.”

  “Just do as I ask, Maria. If Daniel knows the routines of the Sayona, allegedly, then maybe somebody else does, too.”

  “Do you enjoy this, momma?” Maria asked in an insolent manner.

  “What?” Clarissa retorted sharply – vexed by her daughter’s questions and growing insolence. Maria looked both frightened and angry. Her mother was unsure if the fear and anger were a result from the mysterious circumstances surrounding this place, or if it was aimed directly at her. Clarissa had the impression that it was a bit of both, though possibly a bit more of the latter.

  “We should’ve stayed with Daniel,” Maria proclaimed. “We would be safe with him; we wouldn’t have to be afraid all the time.”

  “The moment you stop being afraid is the moment you die.” Clarissa spoke both forthrightly and harsh. “Fear is a terrible thing, but it has kept us alive more than anything else… remember that.”

  “It can kill us just as easily, momma, and one day, or night, it will… I wanna go back.”

  “We can’t go back.”

  “Why not?!”

  “Because I said we can’t.”

  “Yes, we can! He begged us to stay! You’re just so cold and too damn stubborn!”

  “Maria, stop!” Vita snapped as she grabbed her sister and pulled her to the other side of the room and held her against the wall.

  “I’m so sorry, Vita, but I can’t take anymore.” Maria sobbed. “I’m so tired… tired of running… running to nowhere. I’m not as strong as you and mom. This world is going to kill me.”

  Maria slid down the wall and sat on the floor, quietly weeping. Her sister followed her down. Vita wasn’t happy with Maria’s outburst at their mother, but she understood her sister’s agony. Seeing Maria in such a state quelled Vita’s anger, but replaced it with sorrowful pain. Maria was right: Vita and her mother had learned to detach themselves from the world, while Maria herself had never quite mastered the brutal art of it. Vita was not the master of detachment like her mother, but she could live without the rest of the world if need be, so long as she had what remained of her family.

  Clarissa watched as Vita hugged and caressed Maria in an attempt to comfort her. She was not angry at her daughter; only worried. Maria was a fervent girl who was not shy to throw a fit of discontent when she deemed it necessary to make a point. In the past, she would normally get over it with no hard feelings. In more recent times, Maria’s scorn tended to linger on a little bit longer with each new outburst. Clarissa took a seat in the bay window to keep a watch on the outside world. Within minutes, the light of the sun was completely gone and replaced with the dark glimmer of the full moon.

  About an hour more had passed and the outside world remained silent; the inside world was much the same. Vita and Maria sat upon the floor subtly comforting each other; they still remained vigilant as their mother continued her watch from the window. Clarissa briefly attempted to quell her concerns regarding the strange happenings in this small town. She entertained the thought that maybe whoever had left those panes of glass upon the road had be
en killed by now, but that thought didn’t hold for very long. Clarissa chose to trust in her paranoia; she was content to trade in amiability for vigilance. Vigilance might not bring her daughters happiness, but it would keep them safe… in theory.

  Clarissa’s introspective revere ended abruptly, right along with the ubiquitous silence of the night. A sound she had never heard before reverberated violently across the small town. The noise caused Maria to gasp dreadfully, as if she had just awoken from a nightmare. Vita remained silent, yet her fear could not be stifled and bared itself prominently in all of her features. Clarissa stepped down from the bay window and slowly backed away. The sound that the Hannigans were hearing was a cross between a high-pitched cry and a guttural scream; a sound they could feel just as much as they could hear. It was not human. The terrible sound soon ended, and the world was quiet again. It was loud and prominent, though whatever had made the sound was not very close. Clarissa was somewhat sure that the point of origin was a few miles away, at least. However, if her most likely culprit, the Sayona, were the perpetrators of that horrible noise then they could be on her position within minutes.

  As Clarissa was about to turn to speak to her daughters, an awful realization overcame her. The panels of glass that had been placed in the roads had not been left there by a person – the Sayona had left them. It was a trap and she had sprung it. It was obvious to her now that the panels of glass were markers. If they were moved or broken then the Sayona would know that somebody had been there. The beasts had found the one at the campgrounds and it would only be minutes before they discovered the other one Clarissa had broken just outside of town. That ungodly shriek was a call to arms; the Sayona were now hunting for Clarissa and her daughters.

  Clarissa turned and went to her daughters. She lifted both of the terrified girls from the floor. She was about to speak, but Vita beat her to it.

  “Mama,” she whimpered. “What was that?”

  “The Sayona,” Clarissa responded calmly. She could not protect her daughters from the truth. “They’re looking for us.”

  Vita began to cry. Maria remained quiet, but trembled terribly as she stoically stared to the ground below. Clarissa didn’t want to lose her daughters: not to the Sayona and not to their own fear. She picked up Vita and Maria’s weapons from the bed and thrust them into her daughters’ arms. She then spoke to them again.

  “We cannot run; we have to hide.” Clarissa stated. She overwhelmed her own fear with a zealous determination to protect her daughters. The thought of the Sayona tearing them into pieces was too much for her to bear, and Clarissa did not believe she possessed the willpower to kill her own children, even if it was necessary to spare them from such a horrendous death. Nevertheless, she would gladly face that death herself if it would save her daughters. Her daughters, however, would not be as accepting of that plan. Clarissa then added, “If they find us, I’ll have to fight them… and you MUST go when I do. Go into the woods and hide; you can’t run or they’ll catch you. Just hide, and when the morning comes, make your way back to Daniel…”

  “NO!” Vita interrupted. “I’m not leaving! No! Never!”

  “Vita, please…” Clarissa beseeched, with little avail.

  “No!” Vita cried. “If you die then I’m dying, too.”

  Clarissa could see that threats and demands would be of no use at this time, so she attempted to persuade Vita in a different way. “You can’t!” She stated. “Your sister needs you; you have to look out for each other.”

  Maria put a quick end to that attempt: “I’m not leaving.” She declared in a quivering voice. “Not without you both; I’m not going anywhere.”

  Clarissa had always feared that this would happen: that her stubborn daughters would not leave her, even on fear of death by mutilation and being eaten alive. She had neither the time nor the capability to convince them otherwise. All she could do was try to ease their fear as best she could and encourage them to do what was necessary.

  “All right,” Clarissa spoke emphatically. “But know this now: I can’t kill you; I don’t have it in me. If they overtake me then…”

  The terrible sound returned, and this time it was much closer. The Sayona had discovered the second panel of destroyed glass. Vita and Maria huddled together, sharing their tears, in what could be their final moments. Clarissa turned away from the girls and slowly walked towards the bay window. She had never actually seen a Sayona before; she never actually wanted to either. From the bay window, Clarissa looked beyond the gravel trail leading up to the house and out to the road that brought her to this place. The Sayona soon ceased her abhorred screaming. How many there were and how many had been called, Clarissa had no idea. The moon was bright enough to allow Clarissa to see the road in relative clarity, and in an instant she saw the Sayona.

  It was mostly a blur, as the sole Sayona raced down the road at a terrifying speed. It ran right past the driveway leading up to Clarissa’s house, yet this gave her no comfort. More than likely there was another panel of glass somewhere down the road and once the Sayona had discovered that it had been untouched, the monster would know that it had gone too far and that whoever it was that had broken the other panels was probably hiding somewhere in this small town. Clarissa had to think. The Sayona were incredibly fast – too fast. She and her daughters would fare far better hiding in the woods. It was a risk, but it was also her only option at this point. She swiftly roused her daughters.

  “Okay, it passed us; it’s still searching the highway,” Clarissa spoke as she armed herself with her shotgun. “But it’ll be back; we have to go, now.”

  “You saw it?” Vita asked.

  “Maybe it’s not looking for us,” Maria exclaimed. “Maybe it’s after something else.”

  “The glass,” Clarissa stated. “They’re the ones that left the glass. They know we’ve been this way, but they don’t know where we are yet. Yes, Vita, I saw it. Right now there’s only one. Maybe we can handle just one, but others might be coming, so we have to go now.”

  Vita and Maria did not argue. They joined their mother and made their way out of the bedroom and onto the staircase leading down to the living room. They took nothing with them but their weapons, except Clarissa who also brought the road flares. The first floor was very dark. The windows that remained were covered with dust and grime and blocked out much of the moonlight. Although navigating the furnished house was tricky, the Hannigans managed it easily enough; soon they were at the front door. Clarissa paused as she reached to open it.

  There was a sound; not the same sound the Sayona had made when it had found the broken glass, but a sound still familiar to Clarissa. She left the door and walked over to a broken window. She ducked down below it and listened. The familiar sound came again; it was purring. There was another Sayona and this one was very close. Clarissa carefully peeked over the ledge of the window. She could see the monster about halfway up the gravel driveway standing on all fours just off in the grass. The hideous beast moved elegantly in the gloomy light of the moon. The Sayona was waiting for the return of her sister, or for the call to come and search further down the road. That call was not going to come.

  The waiting Sayona did not have to wait long. Soon her sister—who had been tracking the Hannigans—came sprinting out of the nearby trees. The speedy Sayona came to a sliding stop just in front of her sister. What came next was a hodgepodge of purrs, growls, and chirpings as the two beasts communicated something between one another. Clarissa had witnessed enough; she took her nearest daughter by the hand, Maria, and led her deeper into the house. Even though she was terrified, Vita’s curiosity briefly prevailed over her fear. She took her mother’s place at the window and stared outside, mesmerized by the fearsome Sayona.

  “Vita,” Clarissa quietly beckoned to her daughter. “Come on.”

  Vita put an end to her mesmerized state and returned to her mother and sister. Clarissa led her daughters through the dark house towards the backdoor. In order to reach the
nearest tree-line out the back way, the girls would have to cross a large, open field – a nearly six hundred yard run. They could easily be spotted if either Sayona happened to be facing in the proper direction. Wild rice and fervent weeds had taken control of the fields, so moving through them would also be difficult. The woods that the screaming Sayona had recently appeared from were less than a hundred feet away from the house. Unfortunately, that option was not a viable choice so long as the Sayona remained in the front yard.

  Clarissa’s options then became even less promising. Through the small window on the backdoor, Clarissa spotted a third Sayona. This one sat idly at the edge of the backyard, keeping watch in case anyone or anything from any of the nearby houses tried to make a run for the fields. Had it not been for the green glow of the beast’s bioluminescent eyes, Clarissa would have walked right into its trap. The Sayona was looking towards her sisters who were still somewhere in the front yard. Soon she lay prone, fighting the rice and weeds behind her with her long tail. Patience was not a virtue of the Sayona, and this one was swiftly tiring of her job as a sentry. Soon enough, however, her watch would be ended. She rose back up to a sitting position as one of her sisters came running up to her. They exchanged a few purrs and chirps and then the sister Sayona left her sentry sibling and disappeared into the overgrown fields. Relieved of her tedious duties, the former sentry Sayona looked around at her surrounds briefly and then settled her gaze onto the nearest house – the one in which the Hannigans were hiding.