The Man From Taured (10 page)

Noble didn't hesitate for another second. He ran to the right, dashed over the carpeted area, around the sofa, jumping over the coffee table, and across the basement. He found the doorknob after a few seconds of frantic flailing. He turned the knob and the door resisted. He pulled again, and the door jiggled in the frame, but didn't open.

"Hang on!" Eveline called.

She skidded to a halt next to him, unlocked a deadbolt and pulled a chain away from the door frame. Then she yanked the door open and pushed him through.

There was a short flight of steps that led up into the yard. There were no children standing at the top of the stairs or in front of them. Noble ran up the steps, grabbing Eveline's hand as he went. Both of them bolted up the stairs and into the backyard. Noble hooked hard to the right and to the driveway. At the back door there were at least 12 of the black-eyed children staring at the door. As Noble and Eveline ran past them, they turned as one.

"Noble!" They called. "Noble, come with us. Let us touch you and take you into the void!"

He could feel that pull in his mind again. He could just so easily walk over there and let those kids touch him. He had no idea what would happen then, but he felt that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. No pain, just nothing. He would get absorbed into the blackness behind their eyes and vanish. Charles Whitlock had vanished. It made sense, really, when you thought about it. No more questions. No more confusion.

"Noble! What are you doing?" Eveline screamed and yanked Noble's left arm.

Noble shook his head yet again and then he slapped himself across the right side of his face.

"Thanks," he said.

The kids were not moving particularly fast. It was as if whatever was controlling them was having trouble controlling so many at once. They turned at a snail's pace, stumbling a bit as they swung away from the back door and tried to shift their focus to Eveline and Noble. Noble was reminded of zombies in a George Romero film.

"Zombie children," Noble muttered, "just what I need."

Eveline and Noble ran past the cluster of children. Eveline ran ahead and unlocked the gate and then the two of them ran for Noble's car at the curb. The three kids on the front porch were already at the driveway. Noble felt them pulling, pulling, tugging his head and forcing him to look at them.

"Just come over here, Noble," the boy in the lead said. "Just come here and become one with us."

"Jesus, that has never sounded creepier," Noble said, forcing his face away and putting on an extra burst of speed.

Eveline was already at the car. Whatever pull the children were exerting over Noble, they must not have been doing the same to her. Perhaps whatever was behind them could only focus its power on one person at a time. Noble looked behind him and saw the dozen-plus children gathering in the driveway, none of them moving particularly fast.

"We'll see you soon, Noble," they all called in unison. "We'll see you and touch you and make you one with us. Soon."

Noble felt goosebumps run up and down his body, but he forced himself to face front and dug keys from his pocket. He pressed the button and the car beeped and the lights flashed, the doors unlocking. Eveline was inside in a second. Noble had this image in his mind that the back seat would be filled with black-eyed children and that he would see their tiny hands reach around the passenger seat and grab Eveline. There would be an instant of her screaming, her eyes filled with terror, and then she would just vanish.

That did not happen.

Noble was in the driver's seat and started the car. He cast one more look back at Eveline's home. All of the children were now in the driveway. Their black eyes bore through the windshield and into Noble's skull. He shifted into drive, did a three-point-turn, and floored it off of the street. He screeched around the corner and was on a main street moments later. Only then did he start breathing again and relax his grip on the steering wheel. Eveline was crying in the seat beside him.

"How did they know your name?" Eveline asked. "What did they mean? How did they know your name, Noble?"

"I don't know," Noble said. "I don't know, but I am going to goddamn well find out."

They sped off into the night.

***

Fifteen minutes later Eveline and Noble stood outside a hotel room door. It was the kind of extended stay hotel that had studio apartments. Eveline was shaking. She had left her house without clothing, without packing anything. She had been weeping steadily since they left and her terror was palpable.

"I don't know how long you'll have to be here," Noble said. "They seem to only come out at night. Maybe tomorrow you can get back to your house and get some clothes, but I wouldn't recommend going back home until I can get some answers. Maybe if I get some, I can find a solution to this and get it to stop."

"What if you can't?" Eveline asked.

Noble sighed and gave her a hug. "I'm trying to think positive here, Eveline. I don't have any answers yet."

Eveline hugged him back and wept a bit more. Then she let go and started to head toward the hotel. She turned and looked back at Noble.

"Be careful," she said. "Something really bad is happening here and something really evil is behind those kids."

Noble waved. "I will. Take care."

He watched her head into the hotel. When she was gone, Noble immediately felt alone and like he was being watched. He looked around, studying the shadows, looking for men with red eyes and wide-brimmed hats. No shadow men. No children. For some reason that did nothing to alleviate his fear.

He got into the car and headed back onto the road. He wondered what he was going to tell Olivia. Was she a target? Was whoever or whatever was behind all of this insanity the type of person who would go after his family to get to him? Noble felt a headache forming behind his eyes. The sheer volume of questions rolling around in his skull felt like they were going to crush his brain.

Noble drove home without incident. He looked at the clock and was surprised to see that it was only nine. He had expected the clock to tell him it was the middle of the night. Olivia would still be awake.

He got into his house fast, keeping his head down, not looking into the shadows. He didn't want to see red eyes. He didn't want to see a neighbor. He feared that he would look into something that appeared to be his neighbor, except for the cold, black, dead eyes.

Noble locked the door behind him and then leaned his back against it closing his eyes. There were the familiar sounds of twelve paws running down the stairs to jump around his feet. There were the familiar smells of the home. There was the welcome from his wife, sitting at her computer desk upstairs. He was home and home felt safe.

Except that he knew differently. Nowhere was safe.

"Hi, honey!" Olivia called. Noble heard her chair creak as she stood up. "What's wrong?"

He raised his head and watched her descend the stairs. He squatted down and began playing with the dogs, scratching behind the ears, petting the top of their heads.

"Long day," Noble said.

"You look like hell," Olivia said, putting her arms around his neck and giving him a deep kiss. "Are you getting sick?"

Noble put his arms around her and pulled her close. Inside his head he was debating what he should tell her. Telling her he was seeing shadow men and black-eyed children would cause her to think he was losing his mind. Of course, he wasn't entirely sure that he wasn't. He had to talk to Dash and Dr. Shaw. They had to have answers. They had to. It was the one straw he could cling to.

"I'm just tired," Noble said. "I told you that I need to take a vacation. This case is wearing me out and taking me in strange directions, babe."

Olivia kissed him again. Then she pulled away and headed into the kitchen. Noble knelt down and petted his dogs again, trying to steady his nerves with the familiar surroundings of home.

"Did you eat?" Olivia asked. "I made some pork chops and put yours in the fridge. Want me to heat them up?"

"Yeah, sure," Noble said.

Later, as he sat upstairs and they watched their TV shows, his dirty plate sitting on the coffee table, he let his mind wander. What was he going to do with Olivia? Did he mention that there might be danger? There had never been any danger before this. What would she do? How would she react? More to the point, how could he explain what the danger was without telling her that he was seeing shadow people and children with black eyes?

"So, you remember that I have to go to D.C. tomorrow, right?" Noble asked.

Olivia was watching something on TV and said distractedly, "Mmhmm."

"OK, cool," Noble said, clearing his throat and trying to get himself psyched to talk about what he had to say. "Look, if anything weird happens here at the house, just keep the door locked and don't open the door for anyone."

Olivia kept watching the television for a minute. Then a strange look passed her face. Her brow furrowed and her head swiveled slowly until she was looking at him with a smirk on her face.

"What?" She asked.

Noble smiled back and shrugged, trying to play this off like he knew it was crazy. "I was just saying. If anyone shows up at the door while I'm away, make sure you keep the door locked."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Olivia asked. "Do you think I normally open the door wide whenever someone knocks and you're not here?"

"Well, now," Noble stammered. "I'm just saying that, well, just saying to be careful."

Now the look turned from comical to one of concern. "OK, you have officially freaked me out now," Olivia said.

"No, no, there's no reason to worry," he realized he had backed himself into a corner with this one. "Look, there's just some weird things going on with this case. Stuff I can't talk about."

"Are we in danger, Noble?" Olivia asked. "What the hell are you into with this thing? I mean, what is going on? You've never said anything like that to me before."

"Look, I'm just saying that weird things have been happening with this case," Noble said. “I’m sorry that I can’t explain more.”

"What kind of weird things?" Olivia asked. "Don't give me that bullshit about this being a secret. If you think that there's a danger to me, then you need to tell me."

Noble stood up and began pacing. "I can't," he said, pleading with his eyes. "I have to talk to Dash tomorrow and get some answers. If I get some answer, I can probably explain things."

Olivia crossed her arms across her chest and pulled away from him.  Cookie raised her head, licked her lips, and looked from Olivia to Noble and then back again before deciding that whatever the problem was, it did not concern her, and putting her head back down between her paws. Noble wrung his hands in frustration. This was the scenario he was hoping to avoid.

"This is not acceptable, Noble," Olivia said. "I don't give a fuck what your job says, or what the protocols are, you cannot sit here and scare me and tell me that there might be weird people coming to do the door and not give me specifics. You do shit like that and it makes me want to open the door the next time someone knocks."

"Don't, please," Noble said. "Just do this for me. I promise you that when I get some answers, I will give them to you."

Olivia's face was a mask of anger. Her lips were a tight line across the bottom fo her face and her eyes blazed. She was barely holding it together. Noble had seen this look before and she was definitely mad and very close to an all-out screaming fit. Noble figured that he might be sleeping on the couch here tonight.

"Don't give me that look, Olivia," Noble said. "I am not the bad guy here. You always want to make me the bad guy. I'm just asking you to please not answer the door while I'm gone. If it's a delivery, they'll leave it on the porch or they'll leave one of those things attached to the door and you can go pick it up. Is that too much to ask?"

"Fine," Olivia said. "This is just great. What’s one of the keys to a happy marriage? Communication. Right? Is this communicating? This is you scaring me, hinting that something in your job might have put me in danger, and that I need to avoid answering the door. What the fuck is that? That tells me nothing. That leaves me here jumping at shadows."

Noble opened his mouth to speak, but there were no more words. Olivia got up and walked down the hall. Cookie looked at Noble for a moment before deciding that the momma was the more important of the two of them and headed off after Olivia. The other two dogs soon joined her. Noble was alone.

He looked at the television. What was on was immaterial. He was barely paying attention. Inside he was filled with fear. His mind was turning over and over and over again. Too many questions, lots of weirdness, not enough answers. It was the most frustrated he had felt in a long while.

After thirty minutes Noble got up and walked down the hall. Olivia was asleep in the bedroom. Henry and Cookie were on the bed, taking up his side. Noble crept in and changed into his pajamas. One look at the dogs spread out on his side of the bed and he knew that he was not going to be sleeping there. Noble grabbed his pillow and trudged back to the sofa. He lay down and pulled the blanket around himself.

With the lights off, every shadow jumped out at him. As the wind blew outside, every sound was like that of small children sliding their hands along the side of the house. Every time the house creaked he was sure that both shadow men and black-eyed children would be coming through the front door.