In This Twilight
tales of lost gods
and fragile transformations
by Al Bruno III
rev 1.0
Copyright Al Bruno III 2011
Smashwords Edition License Notes:
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IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter One
By
Al Bruno III
Those green eyes were to blame. They caught Thelma French’s gaze and held her fast; everyone else, the other students, the teachers and the chaperones all seemed to fade away.
The entire gymnasium had been made over to look like a disco; dim lights and streamers of foil and paper decorated one side of the gymnasium, while the other side was cluttered with chairs and refreshment tables.
A drooping banner proclaimed that this was the ‘1982 Spring Dance’ but most students weren’t dancing all that much, most just milled around in small groups. The A-V club geeks were working the sound system, arguing about treble settings and taking requests from kids that ordinarily wouldn’t even speak to them. The guys from the football team kept as close to the cheerleaders as they could without actually having to step out onto the dance floor. The theater club kids hovered near the exits, whispering conspiratorially and rolling their eyes with mock agony at each song.
The boy that owned those green eyes didn’t belong with any of those groups, he didn’t even belong at this school at all. Thelma wondered if he might be some other girl’s date or if he was just crashing the dance. In the pause between one song ending and another starting up she found all she could hear was the pound of her heartbeat.
She wondered if she dared to go over and talk to him? He must have noticed her staring by now.
How could he not notice her? After all she was the only student of Chinese descent in this small Florida high school and a gray-eyed tomboy at that. She suddenly felt self conscious, a few hours ago her jeans, suspenders and black T-shirt had seemed like a cool statement. Now she just felt ridiculous.
Someone said something to the green-eyed boy and he looked away. The spell broken Thelma wandered over to the refreshments.
“Hey.” A red haired boy walked up to her, “I didn’t think you’d come.”
“Hey Winston.” It was her former boyfriend. He was named after a rich grandparent he had never known and hated it, “It’s a free country you know?”
“Yeah, whatever. The whole thing’s a joke anyway, the stupid principal won’t let them play any metal.”
“Who wants to dance to Iron Maiden?” Thelma had been on three dates with Winston Krosky before she had broken it off. At first she had thought he was cute and funny, but he turned out to be just another dog in heat. He had grabbed her chest at the movies, her ass at the roller rink and Thelma did her best not to think about what he had tried at Homecoming.
The song Abracadabra ended, Funky Town started up, the theater club kids started to howl with laughter. Robin Vance came running up to them, she was wearing a billowy, low cut dress and a suicidal pair of heels. Every male in the room, be they student or teacher was watching her cleavage. She hugged Winston from behind, “Hey Eddie. I was getting lonely… Oh. Hi Thelma.”
They were both watching Thelma intently, wondering if she would get angry or upset. Thelma didn’t really feel much of anything, except amazement that her ex-boyfriend had finally gotten someone to call him by his middle name. “Hi.” Thelma said, “You two going out now?”
Robin’s mouth was smiling but her eyes were pure venom, “Hot and heavy.”
“Great.” Thelma said, “Good for you.”
“Who are you here with?” Robin asked. Winston was already looking bored.
Thelma said, “I’m here alone.”
“Oh!” Robin snorted, “That’s so sad.”
Winston took her by the hand, “Let’s go out to my car, I gotta hear some Krokus before I go outta my mind.”
That’s the line he used to get me out to his car during Homecoming. Thelma realized. I hope she’s ready for him to whip it out during his air guitar solo.
She probably is.
Some fresh air was in order, so Thelma headed out to the school’s side entrance. It was supposed to be locked but none of the chaperones seemed to have realized that the lock never quite caught. She wasn’t alone, five or six other students had found their way here, mostly nobodies and wannabees. They were talking and smoking; trying to sound jaded and world-weary. No one talked to her; no one offered her a cigarette or even a snide comment about her outfit.
Typical. She thought. She while wished that Peanut and Sam were there.
Thelma was adopted, shipped off to America by birth parents that were only interested in having a son. Sometimes Thelma wondered if her natural mother had ever held her, if she ever mourned her. Not that it really mattered; the Frenchs’ were good parents. They worked hard to take care of her, if anything they sometimes worked too hard.
The only thing she really had to be miserable about was they had moved down here.
For the first decade of Thelma’s life she had lived in the same city, and gone to the same school – The Blessed Heart Academy in Albany. The Blessed Heart Academy was a Catholic School that tried its best to act non-denominational. The students went there from first grade to Graduation, and Thelma had been having lunch with the same four friends since the age of six.
Unfortunately work had dried up for her father, and he had been forced to take a job in Florida to keep hiscreditors at bay and his daughter in shoes. At first Thelma had been thrilled at the idea, visions of amusement parks and beaches filled her mind. It was only later she found out they were moving to Lake Wales, a small town almost dead center in the state. In the two years since they’d gotten here she’d been to the beach three times and Disney World twice. Her Dad’s work just kept him too busy to be around more; he was always leaving early and coming home late. Sometimes Thelma didn’t see him for days. Her Mom had found a job too; at first she just worked at the fabric store to help pay off the outstanding bills but soon she found she had a taste for it. In a matter of a few months she was practically running the place.
The stars were bright tonight, as bright as they got in Florida anyway. Thelma had never appreciated it before but there was something about the New York skies that made the stars seem a lot closer. Thelma picked out the constellations, an old game from childhood; a way her Dad had showed her she could occupy her mind on nights when sleep didn’t come easily. All around her the other kids were gossiping and laughing, Thelma would have loved to joined in but something held her back, maybe it was the suspicion that she was one of the things that was regularly gossiped about.
It didn’t help that she had come to realize she was seen by the boys as a prize bass that they all wanted to try their hand at landing. A year ago she had overheard a bunch of them talking about Asian girls as though they were all a race of sexually submissive tigresses.
Thelma found her self blushing half with anger and half with… well she wasn’t quite sure…
Embarrassment? Anticipation?
That was the reason she had tried to make her relationship with Winston move slowly, despite the fact that there were times when she had really wanted to give in to him.
What held her back was the thought that if she was a prize bass to be landed, what would a boy do once she was hooked? Would she still have a boyfriend or would there be a catch and release so the next guy could try out her supposedly exotic charms?
“Everyone notices Vega.” A voice said beside her.
Thelma froze. It was the green-eyed boy- he was talking to her! Close up she could see that he didn’t look like a boy at all. Yes, his chin was smooth but his bearing made him seem older.
“What?” She asked once she’d found her voice again.
“You’re looking at Vega right?” He said, “The bright one.”
“Um, yes.”
He leaned in closer, putting his head beside hers and pointing up into the sky, “Right below Vega there are two stars, see them?”
“Yes,” Thelma felt his hand settle into the curve of her hip. He smelled like sweat and dust, he wore the scent like cologne.
“If you look really closely, you can see that those two stars are really two sets of binary stars.”
Thelma thought to lie and tell him she could see it all but thought better of it, “I’m sorry, I can’t-”
“Well, the streetlights don't help. Maybe some other night.” He stepped back from her, “My name is Chad, Chad Lunt.”
“Hi Chad.” She took his hand, it was cool to the touch, “I’m Felma Thench… damn. I mean Thelma French.”
“Funny,” He smiled at her, “you don’t look like a Thelma.”
“I’m named after my late Aunt.” She said, “My father's sister. She died before I was... born.”
His laugh sounded like a grunt but the smile made up for it, “That’s how I got my middle name. Hugo.”
“You have an Aunt Hugo?”
They both laughed at that.
Some students made their way back to the dance, others dawdled, made out or kept watch for chaperones. Thelma found her gaze wandering from Chad’s green eyes to his square jaw then to his broad shoulders and down over his chest, all the way to his…
“You like the belt buckle?”
“It was just, very… noticeable.”
“It's kinda my family crest. My old man never thought much of it, thought of himself as an American first you know? He didn’t have any use for the old traditions. So he made the family crest into a belt buckle to piss off his old man.”
Thelma risked another glance, it didn’t look like much of a crest to her, just a knot of silver and bronze. “And now you take it seriously to piss off your Dad?”
Chad smiled, “Well grandpa’s stories of the Old World sound a lot better then what we have now.”
The first carload of parents pulled up to the main entrance, three of Thelma’s classmates crowded into the back seat. Chad’s words left her thinking of that awful day last year when the President had been shot. She remembered the Principal, Mr. Rosenberg, getting on the speakers and delivering the news in a shaky voice. The ordinary class schedule had been scrapped and the students spent the last few hours of the day in whatever classroom they had happened to be in at the time of the announcement. A lot of students ended up talking with the teachers about what it all meant. Thelma had heard that the history teacher Mr. Sheehan had given a really rousing and patriotic speech about how the nation was bigger than one man and that America would go on.
Sadly Thelma’s teacher of the hour had been Mrs. Kushner and she spent the rest of the day telling them that the actions of John Hinckley had been prophesied in the book of Revelations and that God was going to send all their parents to Hell because they watched Three’s Company.
The worst part for Thelma wasn’t the impromptu sermon or the moment of pointless insanity that precipitated it. The worst part for Thelma was that she didn’t care. Family, friends and even the hot and cold running acquaintances of Lake Wales High School mattered but the suffering of strangers, even important ones, meant nothing to her.
Thelma often wondered if that made her a bad person.
“What time are your parents picking you up?” Chad asked.
You are not telling him you rode your bicycle here. Thelma thought, Don’t you dare!
“I don’t really have a curfew.” She said, and that was technically true. She didn’t have a curfew because she had never pushed her luck by staying out past midnight. “Do you want to go back to the dance?”
“Not really. You want to go for a walk?”
“I’m not… I don’t…”
He had already started moving, “Just a little ways.”
“Where?” She found herself running to catch up with him, they walked quickly until they were clear of the school. Once they were on the county highway they slowed their pace, “Where are we going?”
“Just up to Spook Hill. My place.”
“That’s not too far,” she thought aloud, talking herself into it, “barely even a mile. Do you live with your parents?”
“No. I have a place with my friends.”
“You’re not in high school are you?”
“Nope.” He gave her a sly look, “It’s not too late to turn back if that worries you.”
Spook Hill was one street away. Lake Wales was comprised of anemic side streets that branched off of the State and County Routes, bending back around themselves in grids and cul-de-sacs. Spook Hill was a local landmark and legend; the story was that long ago a powerful Indian chief fought a giant alligator to their mutual death. Supposedly if you parked your car in the right spot on North Wales Drive and put it in neutral you would find yourself rolling uphill. Depending upon who you asked this was either an optical illusion, an anomaly of science or the ghostly remnants of the great alligator and the Indian chief harassing passers-by. Thelma’s father had tried two or three times to make it work but they had just stayed at the base of the hill waiting.
Thelma and Chad turned off of the county highway and started walking along North Wales Drive. To their left were modest homes, most no more than a single floor and a handful of rooms. To their right was the dark water of North Lake Wales. “How old are you?” she asked.
“I’m not in high school.” He paused and looked at the oval shaped lake, the water was still and it reflected the stars. The air was alive with the chirping of frogs and the humming of insects. Something pale and white fluttered past them; it might have been a very large moth or a very small bat. There hadn’t been time to see. “When my Dad died I became man of the house. I had to grow up fast.”
“Oh I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Chad started walking again, “he was sick, but he didn’t suffer. That’s all you can pray for.”
“That’s-” Thelma had to run to catch up with him again, his easy gate seemed to cover ground very easily, “-that’s pretty bleak.”
“It’s a pretty bleak world. That’s why you’ve got to grab hold of the future and make it your own.” They were halfway up North Wales Drive and optical illusion or not Thelma felt an uneasy weight settle into her gut, like something was pulling her back. Who was this man? And what was she doing? Wasn’t it crazy to go wandering off with him? How many lurid news stories and horror films had beginnings like this?
Chad turned back to look at her, his smile was dazzling, “Almost there.”
He pointed to a house on the corner of North Wales Drive and Kissimmee Avenue; a rare two floor building. The lower level was dark but the upstairs was brightly lit. The house was what Thelma’s Mom would have called ‘a fixer-upper’. The front porch was a maze of cracked and broken boards, the gabled windows sagged ominously and the roof was a checkerboard of tiles and exposed wood.
It was hard to turn away from that smile but Thelma remembered another scrap of local legend. “Wasn’t that place condemned because some crazy old lady was living in filth there?”
“That was my great aunt.”
“Oh God! I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I never knew her. The whole family pretty much ignored her because of some stupid debate over religion that got out of control.”
“That sucks.” When he started walking towards the house Thelma found she was following him again.
“I guess she got senile or something living by herself. She started throwing her garbage down in the basement instead of taking it out to the curb,” Chad explained, “when the basement got too full she started filling up the downstairs.”
“That’s awful.” Thelma had heard the story a few times already at school but Chad’s personal spin on things was fascinating.
“A year or so later, when the smell and the vermin coming and going in packs got to be too much, the authorities got involved.” the gravel driveway crunched underfoot, “they locked her in a sanitarium and cleared the place out. It wasn’t until after she died under their care that I even knew she existed.”
“What did you do?”
“I sued. I sued the city, the county, the department of mental health, anyone my lawyers could get in their crosshairs,” he stood on the front steps of the old house, “I got the house, I got some very nice big checks and I’ll never have to work a day in my life.”
Thelma stayed in the driveway; she could hear music and voices from inside the house “So you spend your time visiting High Schools?”
“I was out for a walk and I poked my head in. High school kids always sell their weed too cheap.”
“Ah.”
“Then I saw you, and I just had to meet you.”
“Look…” Thelma was torn, she wanted to follow him in there but she’d already traveled farther than she should have at this hour of the night with a stranger.
He opened the door, “Come on in for a bit and I’ll drive you back home as soon as you ask. I promise.”
She looked back to the road, to the oval mirror of North Lake Wales, something disturbed its surface and the ripples made the stars crash together and split apart.
What am I doing here? She wondered. What am I trying to prove?
“Come on.” He said.
“Ok” She said, “But no funny business.”
He caught her in the doorway and leaned in for a kiss, it was brief and chaste but it left Thelma trembling. “Nothing will happen here that you don’t want to happen.”
The lower floor of the house was stripped bare; every click and shuffle of their footsteps echoed. The air was tinged with the aroma of mildew and something else- a thick, cloying odor that Thelma couldn’t quite place.
“Come on,” He closed the door behind them, and latched it, “I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
“Everyone?” Thelma asked.
Kerosene lanterns filled the second floor with white glaring light; two of them were at the top of the stairwell, and more were placed in each one of the upper floor's four doorways. The lanterns were all at their maximum settings, Thelma could hear them hiss and feel their heat as she walked past them. At the end of the hallway five girls sat huddled around a radio, playing cards with a handmade deck. Each girl was barefoot and dressed in faded, oversized clothes. When they saw Chad approaching they all started talking at once.
“Your harem?” Thelma surveyed them with a worried scowl. None of the girls looked much older than her but they all seemed haggard and sleepless.
“They had no where else to go.” Chad said, “ladies this is Thelma. Thelma this is Annie, Sara, Maureen, Jackie, Laurie and Bonita.”
“Nice to meet you all,” Thelma waved, “I should be going.”
“What?” Chad spread his arms, “What's the matter?”
“This is just getting too weird.”
All the girls shared a conspiratorial giggle at that. Thelma shoved past Chad and headed back for the stairs. She no longer cared who these freaks were or what they were all about. This is what I get for listening to something other than your brain. Let’s hope I make it out of here alive…
Then something in the last room on the left caught her eye, the light from another lantern lit the room but the radiance was pale and quavering, it reminded Thelma of a dying campfire. There was a mattress shoved up against the far wall, and three corpulent figures crouched around it. There was someone stretched out on the mattress, pale and pink. Thelma couldn’t make out the body on the mattress but the gasping cries and choking grunts she heard were distinctly female.
…alive and unmolested.
Chad’s hand settled onto her shoulder, his breath was quickening. There was something guileless in his voice “What is she doing without me?”
“It started an hour ago.” One of the other girls said, “Maybe it’s a flashback or something?”
Another girl said, “We tried to make her comfortable but I think she’s waiting for you.”
Slipping out of his jacket Chad walked into the room; he murmured an apology to Thelma and begged her to stay. At the sound of his approach the three hulking figures straightened and turned.
They were taller than Thelma had thought, at least as tall as her father but their hunched postures made it hard to be sure. The sight of their faces set her running.
She blundered down the steps, falling and catching herself. No one called after her or gave chase but Thelma didn’t dare a look back until she was almost to the school.
The dance was wrapping up, most of the larger groups had moved on to post-dance parties but some couples remained, snuggling in quiet corners and doing their best to delay going home. The AV kids were breaking down the audio setup while the teachers supervised and commiserated. Thelma’s bicycle was alone on the bike rack but she begged a quarter off of one of the teachers and called home. When her Dad answered she told him the truth; that it was too dark and she was too scared. He promised to be there in twenty minutes with ice cream sundaes for both of them.
As Thelma waited for him to arrive she found her gaze wandering across the night sky to Vega and its twinkling emerald light.
IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter Two
By
Al Bruno III
“And then what?”
Lake Wales High School was shaped like an E; the top and bottom ends of the E were the auditorium and the gymnasium, the middle was the cafeteria.
“And then I ran.” Thelma explained. An entire weekend had passed since her bizarre encounter with Chad Lunt and those 48 hours had helped diminish the worst of the memories. Those faces she had seen, they must have been a trick of the light and as for those girls…
“You ran?” Samantha Reid said. She was a heavy girl, with frosted blonde hair and an easy smile, “Just when it was getting good.”
A short boy with dark eyes and a too-long hair nodded, “I bike by that house every day while I’m doing my paper route.”
“Maybe you should see if they want a subscription Peanut.” Samantha said.
“Maybe I’m afraid to,” Peanut’s real name was Steve Cross but he had always been shorter than the other kids, and since the seventh grade everyone from teachers to students had taken to calling him Peanut “although the tips might be memorable.”
The three of them had been sitting together at lunch since last spring, after catty remarks and conspiratorial whispers of the more popular girls had driven Thelma away from the more upwardly mobile tables.
“Look,” Thelma said, “I don’t know who those guys were, or what was going on there but you can count me out.”
“They were probably all college kids getting high.” Samantha mused, “College boys always have the best weed.”
“Oh really?” Thelma said. When Samantha said something like that Thelma could never be sure if she was bragging or being truthful. All Thelma really did know that since September Samantha had runaway from home twice and had one pregnancy scare.
“Really,” Samantha said, “and if you ask me you just read too much into the whole thing. If this Chad dude is sitting on a nice fat lawsuit check, he sure as hell is going to have a bunch of girls at his beck and call. The two biggest aphrodisiacs in the world are washboard abs and a personal fortune.”
Peanut sighed sadly, “I am so screwed when I get to college.”
“Poor Peanut.” Thelma said, “I should have taken you to the dance.”
“Oh sure, and I’ll just pencil in regular beatings from Winston from now until the end of time.”
Samantha waved her hand, “Oh he’s too busy with his new girl. Any regrets there Thelma? I mean that was a pretty good set of abs you left behind there.”
“She can keep those abs,” Thelma said, “I’ve got better things to do with my time.”
*
There were three businesses and an abandoned gas station bordering the road that led to Eagle Ridge Mall. An oil change place, a game store and a fast food restaurant called Burger Clown. Clad in her polyester uniform, Thelma walked the circumference of the Burger Clown parking lot, a dustpan in one hand, a ratty broom in the other. Cars sped by, filling the air with exhaust.
The routine of school and home was broken up on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons by flipping burgers. It wasn’t the best job in the world but it got her out of the house and earned her a little spending cash. On the days when the manager was there the job was pretty bearable, mostly because he spent the majority of the shift locked in his office drinking. Unfortunately this Wednesday night wasn’t one of those shifts; the assistant manager, Blanche Costello, was in charge and she was a bear.
If someone had told her about Blanche, Thelma would have rolled her eyes at the obvious exaggerations but truth was unfortunately more irritating than fiction. Blanche was skinny, with over permed hair, over tanned skin and a prodigious nose. She reminded Thelma of nothing more than a cartoon buzzard. Thelma also learned quickly that the only thing Blanche hated more than her life was the teenagers she had been put in charge of. When Blanche held court the employees were not allowed to talk to each other while on the clock, breaks were skipped whenever possible and lunches were grudgingly granted late in the shift.
Sixth months of working at Burger Clown had taught Thelma not to cross the woman, but there was a history quiz on Thursday morning and she really wanted that fifteen minute break for studying. Fifteen minutes in a four hour shift, was that so much to ask?
Apparently it had been. The request had sent Blanche screeching and the next thing Thelma knew she was outside searching the parking lot for trash and dog poop.
Well it could be worse. Thelma tried to tell herself as she walked around the parking lot. On Saturday she made two of the college guys climb up onto the dumpster to jump up and down on the garbage so it wouldn’t have to be emptied for a few more days.
Thelma gagged a little at the memory of the smell those boys brought back with them. At least this punishment duty got her out of the building and away from Blanche for a while.
I’ll just get to school early and study in homeroom. Thelma decided as she walked along the rear of the parking lot, picking up wadded paper cups and napkins. The oil change place had just closed up and the game store seemed to be open for business on a purely random basis. Their darkened edifices left her laboring in the sunset. Thelma bent to work at a particularly hardened piece of gum and then just gave up and sat down on the curb. She stared sullenly across the parking lot to the abandoned gas station.
I should just quit. I bet Samantha could get me a job working with her at the Fashion Bug, or heck maybe Peanut could get me a paper route. Anything but this, anything…
A black pickup truck pulled into the parking lot of the empty service station. Thelma sat up, she had heard from one of her co-workers that hookers took their johns to the back of the building to turn tricks.
Turn tricks. Thelma mused at the turn of phrase. There were so many metaphors for that one thing, and it seemed that between high school and work she had heard just about all of them. Meanwhile my Mom and Dad still haven’t had ‘The Talk’ with me yet.
The truck’s engine idled, the headlights shifted from low to high beams. Thelma waited wondering what she would see, wondering what she wanted to see.
She certainly didn’t expect the see Chad get out of the truck. The very sight of him sent competing shudders of fear and excitement along her spine. Chad walked around to the passenger side and pulled out a bulky shape wrapped in a dark dropcloth. He hefted it and brought it over to the gas station’s front entrance, the front door of the building swung open with a nudge of his hip.
He half-dragged half carried the shape into the building, the door swung to a close behind him. Thelma held her breath, expecting him to come right back out again but he stayed in there.
What’s he doing? She wondered, What’s he getting rid of?
A body? Naturally that was her first thought but why hide a body in such a public place? There were a dozen safer places to do something like that, forests were few and far between in Lake Wales but the ones they had were lush. Thelma thought again of the girl on the mattress and the men kneeling over her. The more she thought of their faces the more she was certain it all had to have been a trick of the light. You didn’t see faces like that anymore- there were surgeries and cures.
Lights flashed in the abandoned gas station, brief eruptions of emerald-tinged illumination that filled the buildings dark windows and faded away. It was as though Chad were striking a flint, or playing with firecrackers. Thelma wondered if she could get closer without being discovered. She stood, leaving the dustpan behind but keeping the broom in case she needed a weapon.
Thelma made it halfway across the parking lot before Blanche Costello caught sight of her and started yelling for her to get back inside and start manning the fry station.
IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter Three
By
Al Bruno III
“So what happened next?” Peanut asked. They sat alone at the cafeteria table. Samantha was still in line getting her food.
“Nothing. By the time I got done with my shift his truck was gone.” Thelma shrugged. All around the room were posters proclaiming that Friday was the yearbook club’s annual carnation sale. Last year she had gotten a handful of them from potential suitors. All of them cute boys but all of them more interested in rounding the bases than getting to know her. Most of them didn’t even acknowledge her in the halls now but that didn’t bother Thelma much at all. She wondered if that was another sign she was a cold person.
“Did you go to the gas station and check out what he left?” Peanut asked, “I mean I would have been dying to know… actually I am dying to know.”
“No I didn’t look. By the time I got done re-cleaning my work station my Dad was waiting for me,” Thelma said, “I don’t think he would have been interested in helping me play junior detective.”
“Hey you never know.”
“Oh I know.”
Samantha plunked herself down beside Thelma. She had two pieces of pizza and chocolate milk. She also looked like she had been up all night. “Did anyone hear that Robin Vance dumped Winnie?”
Thelma shook her head, “You’re always the first to know.”
Peanut lowered his head in mock sadness, “What went wrong? I thought those two were going to make class couple for sure!”
“Well,” Samantha took a bite of her lunch before continuing, rivulets of cheese and tomato ran through her thick fingers, “the word is that she decided to let him go all the way with her but the poor dear never quite got there.”
“Oh!” Peanut winced, “I’m sorry I asked.”
Thelma just shook her head, she wasn’t sure if she felt pity, amusement, disgust or some new combination of all three.
“She wasn’t as understanding as I would be in a situation like that,” Samantha tore off another bite of pizza. “aren’t you two eating? Are you on diets or something?”
Thelma explained, “We brown bagged it.”
“Pizza Day lines are too damn long,” Peanut explained, “Hey did Thelma tell you she saw that Chad guy?”
“She’s not the only one,” Samantha grinned with her mouth full; it made her look like her teeth had been bloodied.
“What?” Thelma almost fell from her seat, “You… what?”
“I saw him at the mall, him and babes”
Peanut leaned forward at the word ‘babes, “What were they doing?”
“They were going to see that Mad Max movie. The one with all the car crashes. He’s loaded. He was taking all six girls to the movies with him. He had a thick wad of bills he was flashing around,” Samantha paused for effect. “he offered to pay for me too.”
Thelma was reeling, “Oh you did not.”
Peanut shook his head, “She did.”
“After what I told you? After the freaky stuff I said he was up to?”
Samantha shrugged, “He was a gentleman.”
Thelma buried her face in her hands, “Please say you didn’t talk about me.”
Peanut was still shaking his head, “She did. You know she did.”
“What are you two worried about?” Samantha rolled her eyes. Raucous laughter erupted from another table. The three of them turned to see Winston Krosky storming out of the cafeteria, his face reddening. “Sheesh, he finishes lunch early too.”
“OK,” Thelma said. “How did I come up in conversation?”
“I told him I was a friend of yours,” Samantha finished her first piece of pizza and started on her second before continuing. “The move was really wicked by the way. You should totally see it. And that Mel Gibson guy is –”
“Sam!”
“All right. I asked him where he was from and stuff. His little honey cakes did most of the talking for him. I think they’re all stoners, they have stoner eyes. You know what I mean?”
“Yes.”
“So he lives in that house which he owns free and clear. He bought it with money he won in some kind of a sweepstakes contest.”
Thelma shook her head, “That’s not what he told me.”
Samantha’s shrugged, “That’s because he was probably trying to get you into bed. Most boys will make up anything to get a girl like you in bed.”
“I would never lie to get a girl in bed,” Peanut declared.
*
It was a rare Friday night that saw Thelma’s father home early, so her mother had celebrated with spaghetti and meatballs. Everyone was in a good mood, her mother talked about all of them taking a weekend off. Maybe they could finally head out to Sea World or spend a few days on the gulf coast just taking in the sights. After dinner, they settled down to a game of Monopoly and her Dad kept turning over the idea of a weekend getaway. Thelma helped them make plans but she suspected she had a better chance of managing to buy Park Place and Boardwalk on the same turn.
Oh sure they might make plans but Thelma knew that some other work related disaster would suddenly crop up and snatch one or both of her parents away at the last moment.
A phone call interrupted their game, it was Samantha. Thelma told her parents to skip her turn; it wasn’t like she was going to go any less bankrupt if they waited.
“Sam?” Thelma retreated with the phone to her room, “What are you doing home?”
“Thelma?” She whispered, “Is it you? I can’t see.”
“Are you drunk?” Thelma fell back onto her bed and stared at the Bon Jovi posters on her wall. It wouldn’t be the first time her friend had called her in this state, drinking always made her moody.
Samantha said, “…bleeding through… infecting… the Verge and the Maelstrom…”
For a moment Thelma had to take the phone away from her ear and just stare at it. Samantha was still babbling away, “What are you talking about?”
“I can see it… beyond angled space… I can see it all… the black pantheon… fallen one by one… gone into hiding…”
“Is this some kind of a joke?” Thelma sat up, “What are you doing? Where are you?”
“…gone into hiding… the wall of masks… twisting in my mind… I can see them... in the lost places...”
“Are you home?”
Her voice sharpened with a desperate urgency, “Bodge Loyar the frozen... Anzon the bloodless... Kressor who walks... Damiea clothed in worms... Delphanos fallen and longing... Eldrad the dismembered... Formless Noggar-Dallieon... make it stop Chad please make it stop…”
“Chad?” Thelma swallowed hard and tried to speak calmly “Chad’s there? Where are you?”
But she knew where her friend was. Oh you stupid… Thelma thought, Stupid! Stupid!
“I can see the eyes under the mask! I know what color they are! I know- rrlh… closer… chchch...” A moist cracking sound overwhelmed Samantha’s voice. Then the line went dead.
IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter Four
By
Al Bruno III
After her Saturday afternoon shift at Burger Clown was over Thelma made her way to the Eagle Ridge Mall and waited. She told her Dad she was going to see a movie and spend a few bucks at the arcade. She wished she could have told him what she was really up to but she didn’t even know where to begin explaining what was going on, she wasn’t sure of she dared.
Sipping a soda, Thelma sat in the food court and watched the ebb and flow of people. There were a few adults but it was mostly wall to wall kids, she saw a few familiar faces but no one said ‘hi’ to her these days unless she said ‘hi’ first. A lot of her classmates were milling about the front entrance, smoking and cursing. Thelma wondered idly what any one of them might be doing if they were in her place.
Since the events of last night Thelma had made three calls to Samantha’s house. She tried twice more today, first in the morning and then again when she was on her lunch break. As always Samantha’s mother was utterly oblivious to her daughter’s whereabouts.
Samantha’s all right. Thelma thought, She probably drank herself sick.
And suddenly there he was. Chad moved through the crowd of teenagers near the front entrance; he was wearing the same clothes he had worn the night she met him. She watched him flash a smile and bum a cigarette from a jock in a varsity jacket. His girls, his ‘harem’, moved around him, each pausing to touch him as they passed; fingertips stroked the back of his neck, an open palm slid across the small of his back and a single fingernail slipped through his uncombed hair. He barely seemed to notice, he was too busy talking.
The girls were dressed to impress, short skirts and skimpy tops, but all of the clothes had a faded, used look to them. Thelma watched the six of them fend off a flurry of unwanted advances from some college-aged boys. Then they went to the Chinese take out kiosk and came back to the food court with a pair of trays heavy with fried rice, eggrolls and soda. Thelma let them get settled at a table before she approached.
The redhead noticed her first, “Hey! Hi Thelma. Come sit down.”
Thelma sat down, “Look Laurie…”
“Bonita. I’m Bonita.”
“Bonita, I think you know my friend Samantha? Samantha Reid. I was supposed to meet her here.”
Bonita grinned toothily, “Oh her. Chad took a liking to her right away, he liked the way her mind worked.”
“But where is she now?” Thelma asked, “I don’t think she came home.”
One of the other girls, the frizzy blond, said, “She didn’t run at the sight of the Squonks. You really hurt their feelings. They cried.”
Thelma shook her head, “Squonks?” Did they mean the monsters she had seen? Squonks sounded like something from a Saturday morning cartoon!
“Oh don’t be a bitch Annie,” Bonita said, “she got taken by surprise that’s all. What did you think the first time you saw them?”
“That’s not the issue.”
The college boys made another run by the girls, trying to chat them up. One of them even gave Thelma a wink but she ignored him and pressed on, “So where is she? Is she back at the house?”
“I think she went home,” Bonita spoke over the boy offering to buy her alcohol. “We said she could sleep over, even set out a sleeping bag for her but she wasn’t there in the morning.”
Thelma said, “I just want to know what happened to her.”
“Last I saw she was hanging out with Chad.”
Annie added, “And the Squonks.”
“She called me. She sounded wasted. Did you guys give her drugs?” Thelma asked.
Bonita explained, “Oh yes. But it’s all organic, all natural and home grown. He calls it Eagoryl.”
“You should totally try it.” One of the other girls chimed in, “Chad still thinks you’d be perfect.”
“I’m not interested in fucking or getting high with Chad. I just want to know…”
Bonita shook her head, “That’s not what Chad’s about. It’s like he can’t or he won’t, like he’s a priest. At least that’s what I think it is. But he gives us so much more than that, he takes care of us, he makes us his Oracles.”
“Eagoryl is just for girls,” Annie said. “Only we can use it. When boys try to… well you’ve seen the Squonks.”
Squonks? Eagoryl? Oracles? This was lunacy, made all the more insane by the fact the conversation was taking place in the food court of the local mall. Thelma said again, “I just want to know where my friend is.”
“You’ll see her once more,” Chad said as he sat down beside her. The college boys cleared out, spooked by his presence. “Right girls?”
Bonita nodded, “In four days you’ll see her. I promise.”
“And then seven days later…” Annie said, “You’ll have tears on your sleeve.”
The frizzy blond continued, “And then a week after that you’re going to be in the hospital.”
Chad shrugged, “Sorry.”
“Was that a threat?” Thelma felt her adrenaline surge but she couldn’t move from her seat. Chad was so close, what would she do if he touched her? “Are you threatening me?”
“No,” Chad said. “I would never. We’re gentle.”
“Yes,” Bonita said. “We’re all gentle.”
Thelma found her legs and stood up.
“Don’t be angry,” Chad’s green eyes were pleading. “Come back to my house, I’ll help you understand.”
Thelma backed away until she was able to duck into the record store. She tried to act casual, nosing through the tapes and records all the while watching the food court and waiting for Chad and his ‘Oracles’ to leave. Were they all crazy? Or were they some kind of a cult like the ones that had decided God wanted them to drink poisoned Kool-Aid? Thelma felt she had to tell someone- her parents, the newspapers, the police, someone.
But if she did that what would it mean to Samantha? How gentle could she expect Chad and his weird friends to be if the Sheriff came knocking on their door? They had promised her she would see Samantha in four days time. Could she trust them to keep that promise?
Do I have a choice? No, I don’t. She thought, I have to wait and make sure she’s OK. Then I’ll tell everyone about what’s going on in that house.
When she looked back at the food court she saw that they had left. Were they heading back home or were they off to see another movie? She decided to wait a little longer. Thelma glanced down at the record bin. She was in the ‘G’ section. She flipped idly through it and found herself staring at a sepia toned album cover depicting a row of figures that ranged from devils to dandies. It was a Genesis album but it wasn’t one she’d ever heard of. All she knew of the group was the stuff they played on the radio like Abacab. She had never cared enough for their music to buy one of their albums.
This album was called A Trick of the Tail, and she scanned idly through the song listings looking for something she might have heard. At track three she stopped dead, a tiny cry escaped from her lips.
Track three was called Squonk.
IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter Five
By
Al Bruno III
The next four days passed like a nightmare. There was no sign of Samantha, no sign of her at school, no sign of her at home. Parents and authorities had been called and Thelma found herself questioned. She kept quiet about Chad and his Oracles. Who would believe her anyway?
Each afternoon she and Peanut would sit at their usual table in the cafeteria, wondering where Samantha had gotten to. She had run away before but that had always been a three day weekend kind of thing, this felt different. Peanut’s thoughts were full of lurid worries, full of violent images cribbed from slasher films and the TV news.
On two separate occasions Thelma had gone for a bicycle ride after school and found herself pausing at the house on the corner of North Wales Drive and Kissimmee Avenue. The first time the house had been quiet, the second time she had been able to hear music- and a thick, phlegmy voice singing along with the radio. She wondered what she would have done if someone had walked out the front door to confront her, if Chad had called her name. She tried to dare herself to make her way up the driveway, either to spy or knock on the door but she didn’t have the nerve.
Wednesday came and Thelma got up for school an hour early and bicycled in. She waited by the front entrance, reassuring herself that Samantha would be there, brimming with scandalous stories.
Do I slap her or hug her? Thelma wondered.
The homeroom warning bell came and went but there was no sign of Samantha. Thelma made her way through her classes trying to stay hopeful but in the cafeteria it was just her and Peanut again.
The school day ended and Thelma biked home hoping to find a message waiting for her on the answering machine.
Nothing. She got ready for work slowly; Burger Clown was the furthest thing from her mind. She toyed with the idea of calling in but decided against it. The drive in to work was something both she and her father looked forward to, it was a chance for them to catch up with each other. Dad would tell her about life at the office, what went wrong and what went right. She would tell him about school and work, about her worries and her hopes. Today however the ride was too brief and the conversation stilted. Her Dad hadn’t been feeling well lately, he was chewing antacids like they were candies and going to bed early. Thelma kept trying to talk about that last call from Samantha but she didn’t know how to start. Talking frankly about her friend would inevitably lead to questions about Chad. What would her Dad do if he found out his sweet, tomboy daughter had been at some older boy’s house all alone in the middle of the night?
Would he chuckle understandingly and talk about the mischief he’d gotten into in his navy days or would he be outraged?
What was it Samantha used to say? Sometimes it’s better if your parents don’t know anything, I mean they already suspect everything.
Her shift at Burger Clown went by uneventfully, the customers were well behaved, there were more than enough people working and the manager kept to the office with his paperwork and his ‘special’ thermos. With each rush of customers Thelma kept expecting to see Samantha come in.
When eight o’clock rolled around Thelma had made peace with the realization she’d been had. She was sure that Chad and his girls were probably having a good laugh at her expense. When the manager boozily asked for someone to empty the garbage cans and run the trash out to the dumpster Thelma volunteered.
By the time she reached the dumpster with the four bags of trash Thelma had decided to tell her father the whole bizarre story. It would be his call where things would go from there.
There was a door set into the dumpster at waist level but Thelma never opened it; the local rat population thought that it was an all you can eat buffet in there and she didn’t much like the idea of being eye to eye with one.
I’ve got enough rats in my life these days. She thought as she tossed the garbage bags up and over the side of the dumpster. The sky was cloudless and illuminated by a low hanging crescent moon, it was so bright that even the stars paled before it. Vega was reduced to an insignificant pinprick of light.
A crash of breaking glass startled her from her thoughts. A shape shifted inside the abandoned gas station, blundering out the front door.
“Oh no…” Thelma watched the shape take three unsteady steps and collapse. Thelma ran across the parking lot.
Samantha was lying on her back in the doorway of the decrepit building. Her one hand was over the right half of her face; the other was tapping restlessly on the concrete. Thelma slid to her knees beside her friend, when she tried to speak nothing came out.
“I knew I’d see you,” Samantha said dreamily, blood ran through her fingers. “I saw through everything and knew we’d be here.”
“What did they do to you?” Thelma turned back to the Burger Clown, her voice a scream, “Help! Somebody help!”
IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter Six
By
Al Bruno III
Thelma continued to keep her silence about Chad and his Oracles. When the ambulance had arrived for Samantha, she had kept the details to a minimum. When the police pressed her for more she had only said that she heard a noise at the abandoned gas station and gone to investigate. Even now at Samantha’s wake she kept quiet.
That resolve had almost broken when Samantha’s mother had hugged Thelma and told her how glad she was that her daughter’s best friend had been there at the end. “If only she could have been more like you.” She had said. “You’re such a good girl.”
When the hug had ended, Thelma hadn’t been surprised to find the woman’s tears on her sleeve. Excusing herself Thelma had made her way to the front entrance of the funeral parlor. There was a fish tank there and she watched the exotic salt water specimens dart to and fro. She remembered the last warning from Chad’s oracles. “…you’re going to be in the hospital.”
In the hospital… That could mean anything and Thelma found her thoughts going from one morbid possibility to another. What did they have in mind for her? Was it something that would make her envy Samantha’s smashed skull and gouged eye?
It was more then the threat of bodily harm that was keeping her quiet however. There were secrets to be learned here, secrets more valuable than just the truth of what had happened to her friend. Secrets that she knew could change her life forever.
“Hey.” Peanut walked up beside her, he looked smart in his pale gray suit.
Thelma gave him a little smile, “Hey. You holding up?”
“I was going to ask you that,” his voice was already soft but he dropped it to a whisper. “You’re the one that found her.”
“I just wish I’d found her sooner you know?” By the time the ambulance had arrived Samantha was dead. The EMT’s had done very little to revive her, saying later that a head injury like the one she had suffered would have killed her instantly. Thelma was happy to keep their last conversation to herself, at least until she had made sense of it.
“I wonder if that Chad guy…”
Thelma shook her head, “I don’t know.”
They had called it ‘Death by misadventure.’ Thelma was sure Samantha would have loved that.
Peanut asked, “Did you tell the police about him?”
“What’s to tell?”
“I just wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Oh I’m fine,” her reassuring smile faltered when she saw how hard he was staring at her. “What’s wrong?”
“I love you.” He said.
“Oh Peanut…”
“Steven, my name is Steven. I’m tired of that nickname. It’s not who I’m supposed to be.”
“Uh, Steven? You’re upset.,” Thelma felt like blushing on his behalf.
“Winston? That Chad guy? All those others? They don’t give a shit about you. Not really.”
“This… this isn’t the time.”
“There is a never a right time when you’re someone like me but you have to know how I feel. I’ll go crazy if you don’t.”
“Well…” Thelma looked back to the viewing room, to the ornate white and gold casket. The lid was closed and a blown up picture of Samantha from 1981’s yearbook was on an easel beside it. “I’m very flattered Pea- I mean Steven.”
“You don’t have to do anything about this yet,” he said, “just promise me we can go out when all this blows over. If you just go out with me you’ll see how I feel.”
“This is a little sudden.”
“I know. I know. We are supposed to be here for Samantha but she’d been telling me to say something to you for the longest time.”
“She did? She was?” That was a surprise; Thelma had always assumed Samantha was keeping Peanut/Steven in reserve for herself.
“Yeah. We talked about you a lot. I was worried Winston was going to ruin you.”
“Ruin?” Thelma said. Ruin? I’m a girl not an egg salad.
“Samantha said you were scared of having a real boyfriend. She said every kiss is practice…”
“…until the right kisser comes along.” Thelma finished for him.
That was Samantha’s second favorite bit of canned wisdom, and it was kind of sweet and profound in a way. Then again Samantha’s favorite saying had always been, “It’s not the face you fuck, it’s the fuck you face.”
“What else did she have to say about me?”
“Nothing. Just good stuff. You were like the only girl on Earth she liked,” he took her hand, “we should go out for her if nothing else. Give it a chance and see what happens.”
“Look I can’t think about this right now.”
“I know. I know,” he said, “but could I have your number, could we at least start with that?”
“Oh look. There’s my Dad.”
IN THIS TWILIGHT
Chad’s Oracles
Chapter Seven
By
Al Bruno III
Seven days after Samantha’s wake Thelma found herself in the hospital.
All that week she had been cautious, taking the bus instead of riding her bike and never allowing herself to be too exposed or alone. She stayed home and went to bed early, she even quit her job.
She hadn’t planned to quit, she’d just meant to call in, but Blanche Costello had been the acting manager for the night. The woman had gone up one side of Thelma and down the other, calling her lazy and accusing her of blowing off work to get stoned or get laid. After that Thelma had told Blanche she could go and piss up a rope.
That had left her pretty much free from then on so Thelma decided to use the time wisely. She begged her Dad to drive her to the public library and while he had relaxed in the periodicals section she had done some research.
The word Squonk was listed in an encyclopedia of folklore. Apparently it was a monster so ashamed of its ugliness that it constantly wept as it tried to hide itself from the world. The legend said that a Squonk could be found by following the trail of tears it left wherever it went. Once found the creature would die of humiliation and shame, sobbing and melting away until all that was left was a puddle. Thelma had to laugh at that, the story was funny, almost cute really. She could imagine it being a Disney cartoon, with flashy visuals and a musical number or two.
The term Eagoryl however wasn’t to be found anywhere, she tried English, Latin and Greek dictionaries just to be sure. She wasn’t really surprised, Eagoryl sounded like nothing more than a made up word anyway. Oracles she already knew about but she did a little nosing around the books on comparative mythology just in case. There wasn’t much new to be learned, Oracles were advisors with the power of prophesy and every ancient culture had a few on hand. It seemed to Thelma no different than the things people did now with psychics and horoscopes. The card catalog had suggested an intriguing book called Post-Modern Oracles by a Professor Olaf Carella but when Thelma had gone looking a librarian had told her that volume had been pulled from the shelves for ‘academic review’. Whatever that meant.
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