Armageddon Lost I: Out of the Dark

Prologue

Thorn propped his baseball bat against the end table and reached through the darkness, lifting the phone. Another bumping sound came from the back of the house, followed closely by a scratching. Something’s back there!

Was it at a window? The door? “Just a branch,” he whispered--but there’d never been a branch there before. He resisted the urge to turn on a light. The darkness would give him an advantage over intruders because he knew where everything was in the house.

His hands shook with the rest of him and he accidentally pressed ‘2’ instead of ‘1’. He disconnected, blinking back tears, and tried again. “Please answer,” he whispered when it rang. He hated himself for being scared. He was eleven years old--almost grown, he thought--but that night, he needed his mother.

Thorn lifted his eyes and they darted between the front and back doors, keeping a fix on them in case he needed to run. The scanning made him feel a little better. Though he couldn’t see the doors through the dark, he knew where they were and plotted his potential trajectories accordingly.

“Hey, honey,” his mother answered.

Relief flooded through him at the quiet sound of her voice. “Hi, Mama.”

No loud music and laughter came from her end of the line, which meant she must have left the bar already and was probably in a room at the motel. “Are you busy?”

“Little bit,” she answered.

Thorn heard a man’s voice in the background. It didn’t sound like a nice voice. It made him sad that his mother had to be nice to mean people to get money for the things they needed. Once upon a time she had a real job. She was a high school teacher, science and health education. She lost her job because she wasn’t healthy enough to keep it. Now she had pink business cards with fancy silver writing that called her Lana Reeves. Her real name was Irena MacDonnell, but she didn’t want that on there. The cards also said she was a dance instructor. She did dance, he thought, but mostly she just had sex. She gave the cards to men she met at HIV support groups, and her phone rang a lot.

“You okay?” his mother asked.

“Yeah,” he answered. “Just hearin’ noises outside.”

“Like what?”

The man’s voice came again, louder than before. “What the hell is this shit?”

Thorn swallowed. He didn’t want to make the man mad because then he might hurt his mother. “Prob’ly just raccoons or something,” he said, hoping to reassure himself as much as her.

“I’m not paying you to talk on the goddamned phone!” the man said.

“Honey?” his mother said. “I know all the windows and doors are locked. But double-check. Stay awake. I’ll be home as soon as I can. Okay?”

“Okay, Mama.” Thorn bit his lip. “Can I call the police if somebody’s here?” She’d told him he couldn’t ever call them. They might take him away from her if they found out she left him alone at night.

“Are you that scared?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “Something just doesn’t feel right.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“I’ll be there,” she promised. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mama.”

He put the phone down, hating himself for being a baby. He’d never called his mother home from work before and hoped she would forgive him for this one time. He retrieved the baseball bat and then checked the doors and windows. While he checked the lock on his mother’s window, something changed outside. It was like a shadow. He shifted his eyes but saw nothing. Probably just a cloud passing over the moon. He looked but saw no clouds.

Thorn moved back to the front window in the living room and raised his eyes to the glow above the treetops. His mother was there, just on the other side of the highway, in the place where the lights were shining. Now that the trees and bushes had gotten their leaves, all he could see of the bar and motel was the haze in the nighttime sky. Still, it was better than nothing. It made him feel closer to her. He fixed his attention on the long, tree-lined dirt drive, longing for the first sight of the headlights he knew so well.

Another sound came from the back of the house. A breaking twig? He wanted to go look, needed to, but was too scared. If somebody was there, he didn’t want to know. He wanted somebody else, somebody bigger, to come look for him. The police. They had guns. His mother would call them. “Hurry, Mama,” he whispered, rocking himself in agitation.

The crash of breaking glass shattered the silence. Back door, his mind supplied as he spun to face that direction. He heard movement--a hand scrabbling for the inside locks. He ran for the door, raising the bat as he went. He swung, using the groping sounds as his guide. The impact jarred his whole body, but he was rewarded with a pained bellow as the hand withdrew. He pulled the bat back over his shoulder and waited.

“You’re gonna pay for that!” came a voice from outside.

Thorn’s mouth went dry. It wasn’t the voice of a stranger. It was much worse. It was his father’s voice. Thorn hadn’t heard it in more than a year and he’d hoped never to hear it again. He’d been scared before, but now he was terrified.

Oh God, he’d called his mother home. She would come and his father would get her, and it would be all his fault. He needed to call and tell her not to come--but that wouldn’t work. If he told her his father was there, she would come to help him. And if he didn’t tell her, and pretended everything was all right, then his father would just kill him and be waiting when she did come home. “Nonono,” he breathed. “What am I s’posed to do?”

The hand didn’t come back. Instead, something heavy hit the door. He felt the vibration in the house. His father meant to crash through. Thorn didn’t know whether to stay and fight, or turn and run. The memory of his father’s six-foot-four, 350-pound bulk convinced him to run.

Running was better anyway, he told himself as he headed toward the front door. He could maybe catch his mother before she got to the house, and they could speed away. He didn’t know where his father had parked, but it was probably some distance away since Thorn hadn’t heard a car approach.

His hands fumbled with the locks in the darkness. “Damn it,” he breathed. He almost kicked the door in his frustration that the very things meant to provide security were instead hindering his escape. He didn’t, though, because he didn’t want his father to know where he was.

Finally, he got the chain and slide-bolt unlocked. All that remained was the little lock above the doorknob. As he turned it, the back door crashed. He yanked the door open, then turned and hurled the bat in the direction of his father’s curses. His father roared, and he knew he’d hit the mark. He hated losing the bat, but it would have slowed him down anyway. He tore through the doorway and raced across the front porch, jumping to the ground and running. He wished he could fly.

His father’s heavy footsteps thundered in his ears. He thought about moving into the woods to hide, but decided his best bet was to stay on the driveway. If he could make it to the highway and across, there would be people. He would be safe. He was almost there.

An engine roared, drowning out his panting breaths and his father’s wheezing ones. It overrode the sounds of their feet on the dirt as it rushed toward him.

There were no headlights but he saw moonlight on metal as the car tore across the highway and into the drive. He and the car were both moving too quickly to stop. Thorn swerved to the right and prayed his mother would veer the other way. He heard the tires skidding when she put on the brakes. Time slowed down as the car slid toward him, coating him in dust. It didn’t hurt as much as he’d feared it would when it hit, but it sent him flying.

Landing hurt. He hit hard and rolled, feeling explosions of pain all over him. He ended up on his back. He couldn’t move, couldn’t even breathe.

“Thorn!” his mother screamed. “Please be all right!”

He wanted to tell her to run but didn’t have the air. Her face appeared above him. Someone had hit her again. Probably his fault for getting the man angry with her.

Thorn finally made the word. “Run!” It was too late. His father’s face loomed above him, just beyond his mother’s.

Something clamped around Thorn’s ankle and then he was dragged back toward the house as his father backed in that direction. One of his father’s huge hands held him with bruising force while the other was wrapped in his mother’s long, black hair. Thorn saw her struggling to stay on her feet.

Thorn bent his body, reaching for his father’s hand to try to get free.

“Be still!” his father commanded, savagely wrenching his mother’s hair, driving her to her knees.

Thorn knew that routine. Anything he did would cause his father to hurt his mother more. But what did it matter now, when he was probably going to kill them anyway? A little chance was better than none. He drew back his foot, hoping to land a kick on his father’s groin.

“Don’t, Thorn!” his mother said. “Just do what he says.”

He growled his frustration; it sucked sometimes that mothers could read minds.

Now he didn’t know what to do. How could he fight when his mother told him not to, knowing he could end up making things worse for her? He hated feeling powerless. He didn’t want to think about what his father would do when he got them into the house. The last time he’d gotten them, they’d both ended up in the hospital--but that was before he said he’d kill them.

Thorn protected his head with his hands and arms as he was yanked feet-first up the front steps. Once inside, his father slung him. Thorn hit the wall hard, jarring the breath from him and sending shards of pain through his already hurting body. He slid to the floor. He tried to push up but couldn’t manage it. He lay on the floor, praying for strength and the wisdom to use it.

The light came on and Thorn squinted. His father looked just as he had the last time Thorn saw him--big and mean, with the same blond crew cut, ice-blue eyes and sneering mouth.

“Thought you could get away, did you?” Travis demanded, giving Irena a backhanded blow that sent her flying to the opposite wall. He moved to stand over her, wrapped his hands in her hair, yanked her to her feet, and slammed her head into the wall. “I told you what would happen!”

“Please, Travis,” Irena pleaded. “Just sit down and let’s talk.”

“I’m done talking!” Travis said. “Told you that when you called the cops on me!”

“Why are you here?”

“You know why.”

Irena shook her head as if that could negate the intent. “You can’t mean that.”

“Hell yes, I can.”

“But you said you loved me.”

“I do,” Travis said. “How you think it makes me feel, knowing you’re whorin’ yourself for that little bastard over there?”

“It isn’t like that, Travis.”

“The hell it’s not!” he said, shaking her and pushing her head into the wall again. “This is your last chance. You go get in the car. And wait for me.”

“Come on, Thorn,” Irena said.

“Not him,” Travis said, shaking his head. “Just you.”

“What about Thorn?”

“I’ll deal with him.”

Thorn’s heart raced. Desperation gave him the strength to gain his feet.

“I am not leaving my son!”

“Just what I figured,” Travis returned.

“He’s a child, Travis.”

“From the day that little bastard was born, everything’s been about him!”

“No,” she said. “We could have all been happy, but you wouldn’t stop drinking.”

“It’s always about what I got to change!” he yelled, hurling her across the room. He strode to stand over Thorn. “This!” he said, grabbing Thorn’s hair and shaking him. “This was the only thing that ever needed to change. I told you to get an abortion!” He picked Thorn up and threw him. Thorn landed on his mother and her arms wrapped around him. “You made your choice, Irena,” Travis said, looming over them. “And just like always, you left me without one!”

Thorn tried not to cry out as his father’s boot landed on his back, but the sound was torn from him. Irena rolled on top of Thorn, placing her body between his and his father’s before Thorn recovered enough to stop her. Thorn felt the impact of his father’s fist on his mother’s back as she was pressed into him. Then they were lifted together and thrown. They hit the floor and rolled until they slammed into the couch. Then Travis was on them, his fists flying. He was yelling, but they weren’t a man’s sounds. He was like an animal raging above them.

Using both hands, Thorn managed to deflect his father’s fist as it rushed toward his face, but it hit Irena instead. Thorn struggled to put some distance between himself and his mother so he wouldn’t hurt her again.

“Run, Thorn!” Irena shouted as she landed a well-directed fist on her husband’s nose. He howled with rage as the blood started, but only hit her harder.

Thorn had never seen his mother fight back. She always said it was better to endure than to make Travis angrier, and so they’d both gotten good at enduring. Evidently she realized they couldn’t take what Travis had planned for that night.

There was no way Thorn was going to leave his mother. He would stay and help her. He doubted it would do any good, but he couldn’t leave her. Between them, Thorn and his mother had four hands and four feet, and they used them all. Thorn gained some measure of satisfaction as he drove three fingers into his father’s right eye. Travis bellowed and leaned away. Thorn scrambled to escape, preferring to fight on his feet rather than his back. Travis caught his arm. Thorn spun, ignoring the pain, and landed his heel at the base of his father’s skull. Travis’s grip loosened for a second, and that was all Thorn needed.

He jerked loose and scrambled across the room, knowing Travis would follow. Thorn’s eyes sought the bat. He found it but couldn’t get there in time. His father’s weight crashed onto his back and he fell to the floor, pain screaming through his body as he was sandwiched between the hardwood floor and his father’s massive bulk.

A crash sounded above him--something broke--and his father yelled. The weight rolled away and Thorn crawled forward. He looked back over his shoulder as Travis turned on Irena. She backed away, holding what was left of the lamp. Thorn couldn’t watch. He turned and fixed his eyes on the bat. His hand closed around the handle and he rolled to his feet.

By the time Thorn got there, Travis had hit Irena again. Thorn aimed high and swung hard as Travis turned toward him. He hit the side of Travis’s neck, knocking him down. While Thorn raised the bat for another swing, his mother closed in with the fireplace shovel. She brought it down on her husband’s back and he grunted.

Thorn knew they might not be able to hold onto those weapons at close range. If Travis got hold of them, he’d be able to take them away. “Go to the kitchen,” he told his mother as he hit his father with the bat again. There was lots of stuff in there they could use. Thorn was only a few steps behind her, but he was limping. The car had done something to his leg.

His mother flipped the switch, flooding the kitchen with light. “Don’t!” Thorn said, and she immediately flipped the switch again. There was still a little light flowing in from the other room, but he thought the kitchen was dark enough to provide them some cover.

He heard his mother slide a knife from the wooden holder. “What you gonna do?”

“Throw it!”

“No,” Thorn said. “Then he’d have it. Just keep it, in case he gets close.”

“Right,” Irena said.

The wooden block holding the knives was too close to the door, too close to his father, for his comfort. He wrapped an arm around the block and carried it to the other side of the kitchen.

Thorn had spent a lot of time thinking about strategies. He’d also spent a lot of hours watching horror movies and Court TV. He moved into the back corner of the kitchen, pulling his mother with him, and opened the cabinet where they kept the canned goods. “These’ll hurt,” he whispered, pressing a big can into her hand. He pulled out another for himself--and they waited.

Travis appeared on the other side of the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. He made his way toward them, looking bigger with every step. They threw the cans together. Irena’s hit him on the chest. Thorn’s got him in the face. Thorn got a second one in, hitting Travis’s groin, before Travis backed away. He ducked, and Thorn couldn’t see him anymore. Thorn heard loud sounds. He thought Travis was looking for weapons. Thorn held the bat between his legs and a can in his hand.

He turned on the faucet—not all the way, but enough to get hot and have some pressure. He lifted the sprayer nozzle and put it in his mother’s hand. She held it in front of her, two-handed, as if it were a gun. Thorn reached for the phone; they couldn’t take him away now because his mother was there. He crouched so Travis wouldn’t see where he was, and dialed.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“My father’s trying to kill us,” Thorn whispered. “How do we stop him?”

“What’s he doing?”

“Looking for stuff to beat us to death with, I think!” Thorn whispered. Couldn’t the woman hear all that banging and cursing? “Hurry up! How do I stop him?”

“Son, I can’t tell you what to do. I’m not there. But tell me--”

“Send help,” Thorn whispered. “Route One, Number Fifteen. Right across from The Firelight Inn.”

“What’s your name?”

“Thorn,” he told the woman. “Can’t talk now.” His father was coming back. Thorn could hear him but couldn’t see him.

“Wait, I--”

“Gotta go,” Thorn said. “Tell them be careful. We got HIV.”

“Stay on the line!” the woman said. “Son!”

Thorn put the receiver on the floor. He kept low as he moved closer to the bar. His father was quiet now, trying to be sneaky. Thorn thought he was just on the other side of the bar--probably planning to jump it or rush through the door. He prayed for the bar not to protest as he leaned his weight on it. He wanted to look but knew his father might be waiting for that. Thorn held his breath, ears straining for the sound of his father’s breathing. There. He threw the can with all he had and was rewarded with a thunk and a howl. By the time Travis raised himself, Thorn was swinging the bat again. Travis yelped like a dog when it hit his head and stumbled backwards. Irena squirted him with hot water and he bellowed, backing away.

The first of the cans sailed back toward them over the bar. It missed, but the second one hit Irena’s leg. They scrambled for new positions. In the minutes that followed, they hurled cans, dishes, cookware, the toaster, and the microwave at Travis as he made his advances. Then came the moment Thorn had dreaded. Travis rushed into the kitchen, ignoring the barrage, and threw himself onto Irena. Thorn got in a few hits with the bat before Travis’s hand closed around his arm. He knew Travis meant to disarm him, and he couldn’t hold onto his weapon if Travis got his hands on it. Thorn used his other hand to fling the bat into the other room, out of Travis’s reach.

Something hit Thorn’s head. Maybe a can, maybe his father’s fist, he didn’t know. It hit him again. He didn’t look because if he did, it would hit his face. He saw his mother drive her knife into his father’s back and yank it away again. Another hit came on his head and he fell. With Thorn down, Travis returned his attention to Irena. Thorn managed to push himself upward, driven by his mother’s cries. He drew back his arm and slammed the heel of his hand into Travis’s injured nose. Travis roared with the pain but caught Thorn’s arm. He put his other hand to Thorn’s arm, too. Thorn struggled to get free, but couldn’t. He gritted his teeth, awaiting the pain of his arm being broken, even as he fought to save it.

His father cried out and let go. Irena had managed to bury the blade of her knife in Travis’s shoulder, but she lost her hold on the blood-slick handle when he wrenched away. Travis’s hands reached for the knife. Thorn couldn’t let him have that. He yanked the iron skillet off the floor and swung, slamming it into the side of his father’s face. Travis fell back, his hands still clutching for the knife protruding from his shoulder. Thorn hit Travis’s hands with the frying pan, yanked the knife loose, and pressed it into his mother’s trembling hand. She plunged it into Travis’s gut. Thorn ran into the living room, retrieved the bat, and hit his father some more.

Finally, Travis was lying still--but so was Irena.

Thorn moved to lean over his mother, wiping blood from his eyes. He could see her face in the light from the other room, but she was unrecognizable. He blinked back tears. “Mama?”

“Run… Thorn.” She found his hand and put the knife into it.

He shook his head. He didn’t want to be in the house but he couldn’t leave her. He tried to help her up, but she couldn’t do much. Thorn was dizzy from the hits on his head and he hurt all over. He got his mother halfway up, but they fell.

Thorn prayed for more strength. He couldn’t lift her again. Still holding the knife, he dragged her across the kitchen, over his father’s still form, and into the living room, wanting to put as much distance between them and Travis as he could.

He opened the front door and heard sirens. For the first time since he’d recognized his father at the door, hope coursed through him. He knelt beside his mother. “They’re almost here.”

He didn’t think she heard. He moved until he could see her face better. Her eyes were open but he didn’t think she saw him. “Mama?” Thorn’s heart stopped and then raced at the sudden realization. His mother had dead-people eyes. “Mama?”

The world stopped, for Thorn.

He heard movement behind him and turned, lifting the knife as he went. His mother wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be. But he wasn’t going to let his father touch her. Not ever again.

Thorn reared up as his father lunged forward. He slid the knife into his father’s throat and wrenched it sideways, screaming the agony of his soul as the blood erupted onto him.