The Children of Blackwater Bay

The town has never been the same since when the light beyond the world shed into town. The town is a simple place. It has some emotions that are never seen in big cities. The children biked to and from school. The school cafeteria always had everyone pray. Children said Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The lawns are always green and are fresh cut all spring and summer long. The paint on the houses never flake from the cold that comes onset in the late fall slipping into winter.

That is when the children are poured into the light from which it came. Then it started to happen when they call it, “The Thinning” as the proclamation of new is drenched in blood. The children of Blackwater Bay is now the product of the town that they reside in now as a little truck drove on the back road to the destination that is now changed with eyes that are all the same and the influence never changes, never flat-lines, never differs.

The truck driving the back roads continued on with the GPS giving its routes to where it needs to go. The eyes started to grow tired as the road traveled on and traveled far as the headlights felt dimmer in the eyes of the tired.

“I need to pull over.” Sherry says in the cab of the truck, clocking the wheel back and forth like it is about to fly out of her hands any second now.

The radio played some horrible country music that made her stay awake when the sound of the GPS flinched her awake of the female voice that is coming through the speaker on the back of it.

“Take a right in – 1. – 2 miles.” It say in that robotic drone.

“Okay, town should be three miles away. I’m going to find the nearest spot and rest up until morning.” Sherry spoke to herself, making sure that her hair is still tied in a bun on the back of her head.

She is too young to be doing something like this. She should be like her other friends that like to do drug and have sex with random men – or women if they prefer that kind of thing. She worked since she was fourteen years old and tried to help out her family that started to hate them for the very insinuation for what she is.

Conformist, that is what she is.

The green laminate sign on the side of the road suggests that Blackwater Bay should be less than 2 miles away. Her eyes are past the point of bloodshot when she felt the wheel in her hands being heavy, gliding towards the point of seeing shadows on the road when she came up to the four way stop sign that signals no other cars that are upon the road this late at night.

Why did I have to get lost before? I have a GPS for goodness sakes. This is far too obvious. I shouldn’t have gotten lost.

Sherry glanced at the lighted screen that is on the dashboard.

Damn you GPS. Damn you for all that it stands for.

She rolled past the stop sign and continued on towards the town of Blackwater Bay when she kept her sight in between the white line on the side of the road and the line that is in the middle of the road when she spotted something that she couldn’t comprehend at first. Sherry let off the gas on the cargo truck as it barreled slower and slower towards the scene that she is still trying to process. What she saw is unspeakable as she fumbled for the brake, blinking and then holding the lights on upon the back of the truck when the truck stopped.

Sherry didn’t get out of the truck when she saw the deer carcass that is stapled upon a thick piece of plexi-glass with its guts laid all over the grassy ground. Sherry didn’t see it eyes when she wondered what kind of sick animal placed it on the side of the road. She also wondered if she is being watched when all she can see is the prevailing darkness that is engulfed around her. Then she wondered if the people that are watching her have hi-powered caliber rifles.

She wondered in lasting thought if they are like the people in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre that kills a mass amount of people and eat their flesh?

I wonder if I can turn around and leave this outbound town of Blackwater Bay. I do have the room to maneuver but it is the back of the truck that will tangle with the branches if I bang a U-Turn in this small two-lane stretch of road.

Sherry considered the idea that there is no other car on the road which is spooky. Where in the hell is everyone getting off their second shift rounds, going to the bar to chug down a couple of cheap beers and probably get some from the slutty waitress that has no course in life but to go home and snort a couple of lines of K.

The truck still idled when she is well aware that she is awake now as the adrenaline flowed through her. She didn’t realize that she was hearing whispers in the cab of the truck when she concluded that the stereo system is still on, turning it off from the low decibel that only casted whispers in the darkness. She glanced at both of her mirrors on each side of the truck before backing out, not realizing before it is too late when she heard the thump underneath the rear passenger wheel when she exclaimed in obscenities of what it was.

She parked the truck and jumped out, hauling her feet towards the back of the truck when she realized what she ran over as the blood drained from her face.

“Oh Jesus, oh shit!” She whispered her appalling notion of the dead boy that is dressed up in biker gear that is upon the ground.

The boy looks to be about the age of 16 with his baby fat still upon his face. The motorcycle jacket is stained with blood with the boy’s mouth open and his eyes looking at the blank stretch of road. What is odd about the boy is that the hairs on the top of his head are pure white, like an old man’s.

“Oh sweet Jesus; I’m going to jail for this and my parents will be disappointed.” She started to hop from side to side on the balls of her feet; her hands are planted like a prayer’s sign on her lips when she hunkered down.

“Oh, I’m going to be sick. I just know I am going to be sick.” She planted her butt in the middle of the road. The boy lied there, not moving, not breathing on the outer banks of Blackwater Bay when she veered at the cracks on the road.

“What should be done…Okay,” She got up from the road, pacing back and forth with her feet working again.

“Maybe I can put him on the side of the road then go to a late night car wash and wipe the blood away from the wheel wells. Then it will be never spoken by anyone again.” Sherry realized after that she was talking to herself when she gathered the boy and placed it on the side of the road. She realized that his guts came out of the holes of his stomach when she tried not to throw up. She placed her fist up against her mouth when she tried for the best part not to puke, not to puke, for the love of got not to puke.

She went back to the regular scheduled duties of cleaning up the mess when she ran back to the cab of the truck and closed the door, blinking out the dome light that is in the cab when she felt like crying over the wheel of the truck.

“No one should know about this.” Sherry spoke in the cab.

“Not a soul.” She laid over the wheel of the truck before rising up, putting the truck into gear when she backed up – being mindful not to run the child over again when she made a U-turn and went somewhere else with her mind not being tired anymore.

When she got to the nearest gas station that was the only lit up establishment in the next town, she parked the truck near the compressor pumps for tires. She gripped the steering wheel for a couple of seconds before shutting off the truck, looking at the side of the gas station when she thought about that dead bodies that is strewn on the side of the road, wearing a motorcycle jacket that is strewn with blood and other matters that she did not want to think about.

She rose up from the steering wheel and got out from the cab of the truck, shutting the door behind her when she walked towards the back of the truck, not wanting to glance at the wheel wells when she wondered inside the gas station, taking a look at herself in the light for any signs that are giving herself away. She went to the nearest shelf to get a Slim Jim, going to the counter when she is rung up by a fat lady who has too much perm in her hair for a style that is past the point of the 1980’s. She left the gas station with her mind thinking all of the possibilities when she arrived to the truck, crawling inside it and closing the door when she faintly heard the sound of pounding on the wall behind her.

It only happened once so she wondered if something came undone when she un-wrapped the Slim Jim and started chowing down. Sherry ate more faster than usual, thinking about her weight when she finished the Slim Jim and threw the wrapper on the passenger side floor board as the gearshift on the floorboard had a gleam on the knob of it.

Then she realized when she touched it that it is sticky with something when she jumped her hand off of the knob, jumping out of the cab of the truck with her hand in the air. She didn’t want to look at it when she jogged to the back of the truck, unlocking the cab of it and rolling the truck up when she felt the breath on her face in the middle of the darkness.

What came next is the flash of something through that dark when darkness became her when something fling on the side of her head, feeling nothing but the slight pillow of unconsciousness when she dropped on the pavement on the side of the gas station in the middle of the night.

When she came to, she is rocking in the truck with all the cabinetry squeaking all around her. All she could see is darkness when she helped herself up and shuffled towards the front of the truck.

“Hey! LET ME OUT!!!” She slammed her hand against the wall of the truck as it made an echo in the cargo load of the truck.

“Let me out, you son of a bitch!” She slammed on the metal wall harder as the truck continued to run about where it is going.

Where the truck is going, she didn’t know when she felt like being in a worse pickle than ever before now. First it was murdering someone out of a pure and simple accident. Now she is kidnapped like an unknown presence that is driving somewhere to be…oh, no.

“Hey, Hey,” She slammed on the wall again with one rap.

“I just want to know why you’re doing this. Is it for money? Is it for something else?”

The truck didn’t brake noir go faster when it hit a large pothole, bumbling the truck with the cabinetry bouncing around with the many tie downs keeping it all in place. The person driving the truck did not say one word.

“Can we just talk about this?”

“The only question is going to be answered when you get to Blackwater Bay.” The person – unquestionably a man said on the other side of the wall when the truck started to brake.

“Why didn’t you make a U-turn on the outer banks of town and hurt Bale Peterson who is just watching?”

Watching? Why is he watching? What is he watching?

“What? The boy with the motorcycle jacket; no, that wasn’t me.” She lied weakly.

“Now you know that it is not true.” The man chuckled on the other side of the wall.

“I know exactly what happened on the side of the road. I see all and all that it stands for. You will know all when you meet the people in Blackwater Bay. All questions of unknowing will be answered.”

“No, you don’t understand. I’m not the person that you are looking for.” She tilted her body to the side, against the wall so she doesn’t lose her balance when the truck starts rolling again.

“Sure you don’t. Does the license plate on the back of the truck reads 125815-A. I’m sure it does from the state of Idaho.”

I don’t remember. Have they been watching me this whole time? What kind of freaks are these people?

Sherry didn’t say anymore when she thought of something new in mind, trying to find a way out of this mess and say hell with the truck and the job. Sherry realized in the conclusion that she will eventually be picked up by the cops if someone reported a bead body on the side of the road that will lead to the truck and then lead to the moving truck company and then lead to her doorstep with a warrant of her arrest with her pleading for a second-rate lawyer with an office firm out of his own mother’s garage.

What is she to do? The only option is to get away with the worst scenario that is on the other side of the wall in this truck that is going towards Blackwater Bay – or probably at Blackwater Bay by the feel of the truck not moving.

For a couple of seconds the truck didn’t move before it started moving again, drawing a sigh of relief out of her lungs.

“Don’t get all comfy in there, or quiet. Our time for a chorus is soon to come.” The man on the other side of the wall chuckled again.

Sherry started to feel scared when she hunkered down on the deck of the truck, placing her head in between her knees when the cabinetry started to rock in their respected places with the straps keeping it altogether.

She didn’t need to cry. She had other plans than to cry and break apart with her mind racing towards the point of self-destruct.

The truck stopped less than thirty minutes later in the veil of midnight. There are no clouds in the sky to hide the horrible acts that are below. The crowds are in swing and the fair is where the children are at. The man came out from the cab of the moving van and closed the driver’s side door, stretching when he sashayed towards the back of the truck. He opened the hasp and rolled the door up on the truck when the woman bursts out, wailing for dear life.

“Help me!” She cried out when she glanced around and saw the many of children that are standing en tow. What she saw is the similarities of them all with their hair all in white and their eyes glazed in the same color of white. The five of them that are closer to her whipped their heads around as two of them cradled glass bottled cokes in their hands.

“What is that, Minnie?” The girl says with her white hair all in tangles.

“I don’t know, Mannie.” The boy replied as his eyes brightened to the woman that stopped in the man hands.

“Her name is Sherry Hamlin from Oak County, Mississippi. She has two siblings: one is a drug addict and the other is a science fiction writer.” The boy by the name of Mannie took a sip of her coke when Sherry moved up from the clutches of the man’s hands.

The man has to be the oldest man that she had ever met with tufts of white hair coming from his billed hat that is planted on his head. His eyes have color when she noticed that there are dimples on his cheeks and lines all around the corners of his eyes.

His breath smells heavenly though.

“How do they know who I am?” Sherry stood astounded now with her boots planted on the tarmac of where the truck is now sitting.

The fair continued on in the stance of the children behind them.

“They have the sight of where they are found again.” The man let her go when Sherry tried to figure out why is she here in the first place?

“Why did you kidnap me?” Sherry didn’t let her defense down when she kept her hands in the quick and ready.

“I know you seem out of sorts.” The man says before smacking his hand upon his head in appalling past tense.

“I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Charles Brillweather. I’m sorry about the clout to the head sort of deal.” He really sounded concern when Sherry felt nothing on the side of her head where the pain inflicted her the most.

“I’m sure you are wondering about the little boy in the motorcycle jacket?” Charles Brillweather pursed his lips when he stood straight-upright. He doesn’t slouch.

“What do you mean?” She lied again.

Charles Brillweather didn’t even feel offended when he chuckled, putting his hand upon his mouth.

“The boy in the motorcycle jacket, you don’t know his name which is Harley Smits. I’ll introduce him to you.” Charles Brillweather waived his hand in the air as Harley came out from the darkness of infinity with the boy that she ran down appeared alive right before her.

Her mouth became unhinged when the white haired boy stood beside Charles Brillweather, putting his hand around Charles in a lock that is embracive as an old long lost family member.

“Harley, this is Sherry Hamlin form Oak County Mississippi.” Charles looked at the other children that are starting to group around the truck like seeing a national celebrity.

“Okay, you kids go back to playing your games.” Charles Brillweather flicked his hand in the air as the children did no hesitation of going away, running down the sidewalks in the darkness with no streetlights keeping them company in that darkness.

“Why is the fair the only light in this town?” Sherry asked, not forgetting the part of him kidnapping her.

“The fair is always lit. It keeps their minds cleansed from the happenings that have happened here. I dare not to speak of what happened thought for it is not courteous to speak about it.” Charles kept Harley close when Sherry looked behind her, seeing the salvation of the truck that is sitting behind her when Charles chuckled at the thought that is rendering into his thoughts as well.

“I know what you are thinking and it is okay to feel not ready to approach the subject that is unquestionably alien to you.” Charles casted a tone of light in his deep voiced tones.

“Alien to me, you were the one that kidnapped me.” Sherry wondered if the keys are in the cab of the truck.

“Looking for these?” Harley fished the keys out of his pocket, twirling them around with his index finger doing all the work.

“How did you get them?” Sherry started to form sweat upon her back in dwindling fright that is heightening in her body.

“Oh just something of mine that I acquired from my past life, that’s all.” Harley dropped the keys in Charles Brillweather’s hand as Charles smiled; hugging him like a child that came from his lines of questionable inaccuracies that Sherry cannot absolute to.

“Past life,” Sherry placed her hands on both sides of her head. This was all getting too much.

She felt like she was leaving the world with her feet coming off the ground, one little inch at a time towards the atmosphere so she can suffocate from the lack of oxygen before her body freezes from the heat giving it all away to the infinite darkness above.

“I have another question that I want to bring up.” Sherry kept her hands together as the Ferris wheel continued to spin around and the bumper cars still rammed together with the children that are driving them. Sherry wondered that the children at the fair all have the color of white which is odd.

“Why are you the only adult here?” Sherry asked Charles Brillweather when he stood there with that complexion of deep thought on his brow. Then a grin appeared there, like the grin of a madman in the middle of this eerie conquest that is not beset to mind to be complete in mystery.

“I have inquiries of the other adults that were here in town. They are all in my head and nothing else.” Charles tapped his temple with his gloved hand tapping, tapping, tapping.

What in the hell is going on? This is like an episode of The Twilight Zone.

“Shall we see the rest of the town; you are my guest this evening.” Charles flashed his arm to the black center of Black Water Bay when Sherry felt a chill render up his spine.

“I am not your guest. You kidnapped me.” Sherry felt her anger boil over her common sense of reasoning.

“Well it is agreeable to come along. If you don’t abide then I’ll have to do something that is most unfavorable to your sense of physical comfort and dump you on the side of the road like a sack of dead kittens.” Charles furrowed that disgusting frown when Harley jumped out from behind her and pushed something up above her bottom. She knew what it is, probably knowing what it is when the gun clicked behind her, almost making water in her panties.

“Move or I’ll disconnect that cord leading to your pretty legs, dear.” Harley sneered when Sherry did nothing else but to start walking towards the dark part of town.

“I didn’t want to be brash but you do know far too much, Ms. Hamlin.” Charles broke something off beside him past the plenty full bike rack and did something when Sherry wondered what he did after.

He raised his hand from the top of what he broke off and ignited it with only his hand like a magic trick. He revealed it to be a thick piece of wood when he brightened the night with the torch that is burning in his hand. His eyes are cold when Sherry kept walking with that gun against her spine.

“You know that for thousands of years, everyone used to know the studies of black magic in underground castles that used to have moats. Now, they are rotting in the elements of the world that are forgotten. We hid ourselves after The Crusades when Christianity was not only cutting the throats of Muslims but of people with sorcery and dark power that could spell dominion over the race of humans.” Charles blinked when he continued to walk, not looking at Sherry that clicked her heels beside him.

“We are humans but we are more than humans. You remember the Black Plague? I’m sure you read that in history books.” Charles looked at Sherry when Sherry nodded her head, remembering high school in a faint haze.

“The last of the sorcerers were the ones to concoct that plague from one rat that we found sniveling around in our labs. We worked on that device for countless years before one of our sorcerers by the name of Nalmo Wallace came up with simple flux of bacterium that infects the bronchial passages with just one little scrape of the concoction that we were even scared of being around with. It served its purpose when we knew that we have won.

“But someone had the curiosity of snooping around, murdering one of our witches and stealing the plans in their cabin that served just a cabin in secrecy. Then the hunt of the witching hour had come to pass and the humans were getting better and better with their tools that killed off all of the populations with the exception of the one Judas that ruled supreme.” Charles tapped his chest when Sherry felt like this whole collaboration of knowing is getting too much for her to comprehend.

“I’m the last one that is protected by the humans that I’m so righteous to kill at any notice necessary. They had forgotten me over hundreds of years when I went into sleeping until now when someone found out where my crypt lies. These humans are forever curious like my spells that never fail.” Charles laughed when he stopped in the middle of the road that is cleaned with no cars sitting on the sides of the streets.

“You’re going to have to take a right.” Charles pointed the torch to the darkened street.

“Where are you taking me too?” Sherry asked Charles when the gun dug into her back.

“You are not in the position to ask, killer!” Harley sneered behind her when Charles raised his free hand in the air.

“There is no need for that, Harley.” Charles dropped his hand with that expression of calm finesse.

“We will soon be on the winning edge soon enough.”

“What winning edge?” Sherry sheered sharply when the gun is pressed against her back like the edge of a knife digging into her skin.

“Do what Mr. Brillweather says and this will all end soon.” Harley grabbed her by the shoulder when Sherry moved in a split second. She didn’t want his hand upon her.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen to you but when you ran over poor little Harley here, I had an idea that it would be you in mind.” Charles continued to walk beside her when Sherry started to look for a way out of this. She didn’t want to know that Charles had in mind.

“You do seem alone. We didn’t even find a phone in your truck or on you. So this would be easy.”

“Oh yeah, really easy;” Harley sniggered behind her when Sherry felt like running as Charles turned towards her, feeling his eyes upon her.

“I know what you are thinking so if you are going to be that then I’ll have to do this.” Charles lifted a finger in the air and struck it down to her feet when she could no longer feel her feet anymore. Her feet continue to pump down the black edge of town with the yard lights off and the lights off from the windows that share no life anymore.

It is creepy, creepy as creepy can get.

“That’s better.” Charles rolled his sleeves down on his jacket as his torch continued to burn. The torch flame still burns in the same place with the wood not changing chemical properties. Sherry knew this as her feet walked with her mind not doing it. Her power is not her power anymore.

“Okay, we are almost there. It should be the last house on the left.” He pointed towards the towering three story house near the tree line of the woods that probably stretch out for miles. There are not lights coming through the woods when she heard the snapping of a twig in there.

“Harley, are you ready for the purge?”

“Yes sir.” Harley replied when Sherry noticed that he was not pointing the gun at her back anymore. He is probably lost in a trance.

“You are going to feel great after he is done. No more worries, no more fears, no more glint of wishing fears.” Harley started to drool out of the side of his mouth.

Sherry kept on walking when her feet suddenly stopped. The rest of her body continued to move forward when Charles corrected that with his hand coming up towards her chest. He did not touch her when Sherry stood straight up.

She didn’t do this. She didn’t have the power to do this.

“Yeah, no more worries.” He waived his hand up towards her face when she black out. She still stood in that spot when Charles commanded her to walk up the steps of the three story house that is at the end of Blackwater Bay. Sherry didn’t know what is going to happen before she woke up. Then she knew that it is too late.

When she did, she smelled the cinnamon coming from a room that is completely unknown to her. Her back is killing her when she got up, feeling the drape of something on her forehead when she wiped it and then tried to understand what it is. All she could see is nothing when she got up, hearing the creaking of the floor that is beneath her when she waved her body upon the floor, wondering how she can feel so tiny from the floor to her head when she reached down and touched the floor with her knuckles rapping upon it.

“Ow, son of a bitch;” Sherry placed her hand towards her mouth when she realized that her hand is smaller. Three inches too smaller when she touched her hand with her other small hand in the darkness that she cannot see what is in front of her face.

What happened to her when she stood up from the floor, shuffling towards some darkened spot where there is supposed to be a wall but she realized that there is no wall but sufferable darkness when she kept shuffling more and more, realizing that there is no wall but darkness and darkness with the wood beneath her and nothing else around her.

What happened to the bed that she was laying on before, she didn’t know when her shuffling turned into a walk, into a jog, into a run as the darkness kept pious around her.

“Wondering where the sidewalk will end?” A deep voice thundered above her when Sherry looked up from the darkness. Is it the sound of god or the sound of someone keeping her prisoner?

“What happened? What did you do to me?” Sherry pointed towards the darkness that is only darkness above her.

“There is no worry dear. You’re in a safe place. Nothing will happen to you. The fair is only a lifetime away.” A familiar voice spoke like a leech that is about ready to strike.

“Is that you Charles?” Sherry invoked to the darkness when that voice chuckled above her.

“In spirit and not in flesh,” The voice above her thrummed evil as Sherry felt like falling on her bottom.

“There is nothing to worry about. You will soon be my pupil in the grace of what rule will come. I will be your master and you my students. We will rid the world of these pests that kill off their own brothers for wealth, trick their fathers to die quicker, and twist their mothers to be insane.”

Sherry couldn’t understand what is happening when she looked at the darkness with no intent of knowing what is really in that darkness.

“Where am I?” She asked Charles in the pit of darkening infinity.

“You are in the unknowing in your head. You are in the pit between the line of sanity and insanity. You are in the nexus of what people cannot calculate. I will break you and reshape you. Then you will understand. You will understand what I can really do.”

Sherry could only stand in the darkness as the eras of night quivered around her.

She felt like a little child in the fold of the night, crying her way to come back home when it felt so far away. She didn’t know how long she was in the darkness when Charles brought her back with her hair colored in white and her body childlike again. She didn’t know how long she was in the darkness as sanity drove away from her, not thinking of home anymore.

END