In the Aftermath: Burning of the Dawn Read online

  Clarissa backed away from the door with her daughters in tow. It wouldn’t be long until the advancing Sayona discovered her vehicle. The beast went for the car immediately. The place where it was parked was very conspicuous; the Sayona could tell that somebody had tried to hide it. She put her face against the metal to feel if there was any lingering heat from the vehicle. There was not. Nevertheless, she could see that the tires were good and that the tracks they left had been made recently.

  As escape through the backdoor was no longer a possibility, Clarissa led her daughters back towards the front of the house. As she made her way to the living room through the dining area, she heard a ruffing sound at the front door. The door then began to open. Clarissa herded her daughters past the staircase and hid them behind a wall in the kitchen. The remaining Sayona from the front yard, the screamer, impudently entered the home. She briefly examined the broken doorknob, but paid it little attention; she presumed that it was likely the work of one of her many sisters. The Sayona scanned the living room for anything interesting. She found nothing that fascinated her, so she continued on. The first place on her mind was the basement; the beast made her way past the staircase and headed towards the kitchen.

  Clarissa stood posed against the wall with her shotgun aimed at the doorway. As soon as the monster showed its ugly head, she would fire. The backdoor was not far away, and from the outside there came a faint burst of sound as the sentry Sayona ripped a hole in one of the back tires of Clarissa’s car. Clarissa could hear the other Sayona approaching from within the house. She squeezed the trigger of her shotgun and readied herself for the blast. As the indoor Sayona was mere inches away from discovering the Hannigans, she inexplicably stopped in her search. Of recent, this Sayona had not had much luck hunting around in basements; yet two nights earlier she and her sister had made a very nice find in a second floor bedroom – where they slaughtered and devoured Louis Doniphan and his daughter, Sophie.

  The Sayona turned and looked back to the staircase. It was her sister (who was currently chewing on Clarissa’s tire) who had made the initial discovery of the Doniphans the last time. Not wanting to be outdone again, the indoor Sayona abandoned her basement excursion, turned around, and raced towards the stairs. As the Sayona made her turn, the end of her tail briefly flashed directly in front of Clarissa. She, and her daughters, recoiled away from the doorway and the monster’s tail instantly vanished from sight. Clarissa took deep breaths as she tried to regain the oxygen that was momentarily depleted from her lungs. As she listened to the Sayona sprint up the stairs, she took hold of her daughters and ran back into the living room. The front door was wide open; as soon as Clarissa reached the opening she came to abrupt stop – her daughters crashing into the back of her.

  The Sayona that had bitten out Clarissa’s tire was now in the driveway. She had her face to the ground a few inches from the gravel, following the trail that Clarissa’s car had left behind. Clarissa backtracked yet again; she took her daughters behind the staircase into a small study room this time. As the girls entered the room, a loud blast came from upstairs. With a swipe from her tail, the Sayona upstairs had destroyed the large bay window – sending a storm of broken glass all over the driveway and onto her unsuspecting sister still examining Clarissa’s trail. The upstairs Sayona chirped and purred at her sister below. The Sayona outside made no response, but she immediately stopped what she was doing and headed into the house. She darted through the living room, past the staircase, and made her way into the basement. This was Clarissa’s chance to make it back outside.

  “Run for the trees.” She told her daughters. “Let’s go… now!”

  The Hannigans ran to the front door. Clarissa looked to the staircase and to the kitchen; there were no signs of the Sayona. She kept going, her daughters right with her, moving to the doorway and onto the front porch. The upstairs Sayona had grown disappointed and tired of this house. Believing that her sister could manage well enough in searching the rest of it on her own, the upstairs Sayona leaped out of the broken bay window and into the moonlight. She easily cleared the front porch and landed gracefully on the gravel driveway below – directly in front of Clarissa. Clarissa came to a quick, sliding stop; she fell to the ground, but instantly recovered. The Sayona had no idea Clarissa was there when she jumped from the window, but now she could sense the presence of something close. Subtly and methodically, the beast turned her head to see behind her. Though the moon was almost painfully bright, the Sayona’s slit-like pupils expanded into large ovals as the image of Clarissa and her daughters reignited her interminable bloodlust.

  The Sayona turned to face the Hannigans. Clarissa had her shotgun aimed directly at the monster, but her primary objective at that moment was getting the cap off of the road flare which she now held in her free hand. The tentacles on the Sayona’s head no longer lay dormant as they began to writhe and undulate; her tail did the same. Vita and Maria were both frozen where they stood; trapped in a hypnotic stupor of fear and a consciousness of impending death. Their frozen stupor would soon break as the Sayona let out a loud, piercing hiss as she lowered herself into a striking pose and prominently displayed her hellish fangs and needle-like teeth. The beast’s aroused and engorged pupils immediately went placid and sealed shut as Clarissa struck the flare. The Sayona roared with a scream of rage and pain as she raised her arms to shield her eyes from the glowing flame. Clarissa held out the flare towards the Sayona and looked back to her daughters.

  “Go…” She ordered her daughters. “You have to go now!”

  “No.” Vita replied in a weak voice.

  “Goddamnit Vita, go!” Clarissa screamed. “It’s the only…”

  In a flash of shadowy darkness the Sayona spun around and clubbed Clarissa with her tail. The Sayona hit her on the left side under the arm that was holding the flare. The flare fell straight to the ground and Clarissa was knocked off of her feet. She landed hard on her back two meters away from where the Sayona had struck her. It was difficult to breathe and she could hear her daughters screaming, but what concerned Clarissa the most was the fact that both of her hands were empty. The flare was far away, but her shotgun had traveled the distance with her and lay just out of her reach. Clarissa could see it plainly, yet her eyes were promptly diverted as the Sayona was immediately on top of her. The beast went for her face, but Clarissa was able to get her arms up fast enough to reroute the attack and receive a small scalping as the Sayona dragged her pointed teeth across Clarissa’s skull.

  Clarissa grabbed a handful of the writhing tentacles on the Sayona’s head. Instantly, they wrapped around her hand and dug their barbed tips into her skin. With her free hand, Clarissa reached for the shotgun, but the Sayona would have none of that. With her tail, she knocked the weapon far beyond Clarissa’s reach. Clarissa’s offensive options were no more.

  She was shaking beyond her control, but Maria still had confidence enough in her aim. As carefully as she could she aimed the MP5 at the Sayona on top of her mother and began firing. Maria’s aim was good and the bullets hit cleanly into the side of the monster… but the beast did not budge. She completely ignored Maria and her weapon and continued her assault on Clarissa. The 9mm bullets bounced off of the Sayona’s hide with no effect.

  Vita watched as her sister fired into the Sayona with hopeless results. Vita, however, held something more powerful in her hands: the handgun she had obtained from Daniel. She took a few steps towards her sister, still firing at the Sayona, but took no more as the second Sayona emerged from the house.

  With one of her hands, the Sayona shielded her eyes from the flare as she made her way off of the porch and closer to Vita. Vita backed away, which placed the flare directly under her feet. The Sayona in front of her hissed as it raised its tail. This Sayona was not in a playful mood and she wanted to end this young girl right now. The club on the end of the monster’s tail split open as the beast readied her primary weapon. Vita struck first. With both of her hands she held the p
owerful revolver and fired a single shot. The kick from the gun was potent and the weapon nearly flew out of Vita’s hands, but she hastily recovered. Her shot was good; the bullet passed between the Sayona’s fingers and struck the beast in the left eye.

  Maria spun around towards her sister and gasped in terror as she spotted the second Sayona. The Sayona reacted oddly to the gunshot; she did not move for a moment, but only looked away from Vita and the flare. A moment later she looked back with both eyes closed, at first. She then opened the wounded one. The Sayona blocked the light with one hand and with the other hand she reached up to her wounded eye and with two of her fingers she dug into her eye socket in an attempt to locate the bullet. Eventually, she found it. She pulled out the bullet and threw it to the ground. She then bellowed out a vindictive roar. Vita kept her weapon aimed at the angry Sayona.

  Maria turned back to her mother and the other Sayona who were still brawling in the gravel. Maria’s weapon was out of bullets; she released it and let it fall to the ground. Her plan now was to grab the monster and try to pull it off of her mother. She took a few paces forward, but stopped when she spotted something in the distance. She knew what it was and she was quick enough to duck beneath its attack. The third Sayona came running out of the darkness. The beast leaped over her sister and Clarissa and straight at Maria. The Sayona missed the ducking Maria, but sideswiped Vita, knocking her to the ground. The beast made no follow up attack as she was currently blinded by the flare. As Vita scurried back to her feet, the third Sayona frantically grasped for the flare. She soon got a hold of it, and with a quick fling of her arm, the beast hurled the flare through the air and into the woods. The horrible light had been extinguished.

  The two Sayona near the Hannigan twins took positions next to each other as Vita and Maria huddled closer together. Vita took aim at the newest Sayona. The beast stooped lower to the ground in a pose that signaled a forthcoming leaping attack. Vita pulled the trigger, firing a shot at the Sayona’s eyes. In a frightening display of speed and agility, the beast ducked her head and dodged the bullet. With no hindrance to their vision, the Sayona could see and anticipate the slightest movements of the Hannigan girls.

  As fun as it was scratching and clawing at the woman beneath her, the Sayona holding down Clarissa was starting to get hungry. This fight had gone on long enough and it was time to end it. The Sayona raised her tail high into the moonlight, making sure that Clarissa could clearly observe her imminent death as the beast subtly parted the club on the end of her tail, revealing the pointed tip of her terrible stinger. The Sayona released her grip on Clarissa’s head and took hold of her throat instead. The small thorns on her palms and the bulky size of her hands would have made choking Clarissa a difficult task, but strangulation was not the Sayona’s plan. She wanted to immobilize Clarissa’s head as best she could in order to drive her stinger directly into her face. Clarissa, sensing what was coming, tore her hand loose from the Sayona’s tentacle-hair and tried to pry the monster off of her neck.

  Vita fired another shot at the Sayona. The beast did not bother to dodge this time as she was able to calculate the trajectory of the shot by the alignment of Vita’s aim. The bullet hit the Sayona in the shoulder. Vita’s gun was more powerful than the Sayona had anticipated, but the beast was still left unscathed; it only pushed her back slightly (the flash from the muzzle hurt more than the gunshot wound). Maria looked to her mother and saw that the Sayona on top of her was about to attempt a killing strike. Maria started to run to her mother’s aid when the single-eyed Sayona (whose stinger was also ready to strike) charged at her. Vita fired a shot at the Sayona targeting her sister. The bullet hit the beast in the side, but it did not halter her attack. The third Sayona was about to launch an attack of her own on Vita when the beast caught sight of something strange beyond the Hannigan twins moving swiftly up the driveway. Maria put up her arms to defend against the one-eyed Sayona’s impending attack when a giant blast of light lit up the entire yard. Both standing Sayona reeled from the intense light – screaming and snarling in both pain and rage.

  All three Sayona were instantly blinded as their pupils sealed shut and their eyelids closed tight. Vita and Maria looked back to see what was causing the light, but it was so bright that they, too, were blinded by its presence. The Sayona on top of Clarissa sheathed her stinger as she was struck with instant blindness. It was as if the sun had suddenly risen from out of the south for reasons unknown. It wasn’t sunlight, but it was still powerful. Clarissa seized the opportunity and fought back with all she had left to get the Sayona off of her. The beast would not budge, at first. Clarissa then received a mysterious assist as somebody else grabbed the Sayona by its head. She saw the glare of the bright light reflect off of the knife blade just before the person wielding the weapon drove it into the back of the Sayona’s head. The beast went limp and lay lifelessly on top of Clarissa.

  Vita and Maria both cried in cold exhilaration as they witnessed Daniel slay the Sayona attacking their mother. He tore his knife (the one Vita had given him) from the back of the beast’s neck and then threw her off of Clarissa. Daniel then looked over to Vita and Maria. The girls were elated beyond belief; Daniel’s expression was much less ecstatic. Fervently, he yelled out to the girls, “Look out!”

  With one blind swipe, the one-eyed Sayona struck forth and latched the claw on the end of her tail onto Vita’s leg. The young girl screamed as the monster pulled her to the ground and dragged her away from her sister. The Sayona tightened the grip of her claw and then triggered her vicious stinger. It pieced through the side of Vita’s left leg, just above her knee, and injected its venom.

  With both hands, Daniel dove towards the attacking Sayona and buried his knife into the back of the beast’s neck. His aim was not as accurate this time as it was on the previous Sayona, so this one did not die instantly. The Sayona flailed as Daniel attempted to remove the knife, which caused it to break off at the handle and remain lodged in the beast’s neck. Daniel’s strike might not have been accurate, but it was sufficient. The dying Sayona screamed and trashed around on the ground until she, too, was dead. The remaining Sayona called to her sisters in vain. She could not see what had happened, yet she knew that her sisters were not going to respond. The Sayona began to growl and hiss as she was overcome with malicious indignation.

  Daniel picked up Vita’s handgun and aimed it at the enraged Sayona’s head. He knew that shot would not be effective, so he raised the weapon higher and targeted the Sayona’s undulant tail. He fired once and hit the club on the tail’s tip. The Sayona roared vindictively as the heavy impact of the bullet reverberated right down to her stinger. Being completely blind, outnumbered, and facing an adversary who knew her weak spots, the remaining Sayona soon retreated – vanishing into the fields behind the house.

  “It got me, momma… it got me!” Vita wept as her mother held her. Maria was by her sister’s side as well. Both Maria and Clarissa were lost in a stunned silence. They knew that within a matter of mere moments Vita would be gone. The handgun fell from Daniel’s hand as he watched the Hannigans.

  Maria’s stunned silence came to a vivid end as she burst into tears. She tried to speak to her sister, but she could not construct her words. Clarissa could not function; her mind refused to fathom the idea of her daughter dying. She softly spoke, “My beautiful daughter, please don’t leave me.”

  Vita tightened her grip on her mother and her sister as she was stabbed in the abdomen by a searing pain. She gasped in agony as the brutal venom took over her body. Vita could feel herself losing control. Her legs were already paralyzed and she was quickly losing her arms and hands as she desperately clung to her family. Her eyelids were heavy and her lips were numb. Before she could speak no more, Vita composed her parting words.

  “I’m sorry…” Vita cried in a fading voice. “Stay… stay with… stay with me, please.”

  Daniel looked ahead into the blinding light in front of him; he stared for a moment and before h
e even realized he was moving, he had left the Hannigans and entered the light. The bright light came from the plethora of lights Daniel had rigged to the front of his vehicle and from the powerful spotlight on the top of his truck. The door to the truck was open; Daniel reached inside and pulled down the driver’s seat. He immediately found what he was looking for. Daniel ripped a long, metal box out from behind the seat and dragged it out onto the driveway. He forced the box open and removed two objects. He then ran back to the Hannigans.

  As Daniel reached the girls, he finished attaching the two objects together: a resuscitator bag and an intubation tube. Daniel dropped to his knees and pulled Vita away from her mother and sister. He locked eyes with the young girl and spoke to her.

  “The venom is paralyzing you, Vita.” Daniel swiftly explained. “When it reaches your lungs you won’t be able to breathe on your own, but we’re going to keep you breathing, okay? We’re going to keep you alive.” With her last ounce of control, Vita grasped Daniel’s arm. Daniel continued to speak. “It’s going to be uncomfortable, but I need you to do one more thing for me – one last deep breath.”

  Daniel readied the intubation tube and placed the end of it into Vita’s mouth. “Are you ready?” Daniel asked. Vita could no longer make any replies, but Daniel knew that she was as ready as she could be. “Okay, now!”