The Collector (Prologue-Chapter 3)

Prologue-

Robert was down stairs, having his regular cup of coffee before work. Jo was running around the house like a mad woman, hair falling out of a messy bun.

“Lilly! Tommy! Come down and eat your breakfast!” Jo shouted from the outside of the kids’ bedroom door. Slowly, two little kids, close as a brother and sister could be, rolled out of bed, rubbing sleep from their eyes and yawning widely. Lilly was wearing her favorite Unicorn patterned footie pajamas, her long blonde hair messily blocking most of the ones on the back. Tommy groggily scratched the behind of his favorite skull patterned footies. Tommy held his special one-of-a-kind never-before-seen ever (for a reason) Ewie-Louie-in a shoie- bear. (Smells like real shoes for only $0.75!) Lilly wrinkled her nose at the scent. Today was the day she was finally going to get rid of that smelly old bear.

“Momma, what’s for breakfast?” Lilly asked. Jo sighed irritably and pointed to the cereal cabinet. Lilly skipped merrily over, suddenly glowing with energy, and got out her cereal of choice, Mallow crème mushy flakes. Basically, she was eating a bowl of marshmallow fluff, dried marshmallows, and milk. They were super sweet and had absolutely no nutritional value. She also grabbed Tommy’s cereal, corn flakes. Other than getting the box down for tommy, she wouldn’t touch the stuff, and Tommy was fine with that. For a child his age, corn flakes was a very odd choice.

“Honey, I can’t find my brief case,” Robert called, fastening his tie.

“Well, you better find it so you’re not late for work,” Jo called irritably. Robert sighed and went into the kitchen to pick up the brief case he had purposely left there for Jo to find. He changed his thoughts to the rest of the day. Today is a good day; don’t let this one complication screw it all up. Robert grinned at the thought. Lilly stared up at her father as though he had lost his mind. Robert walked around the table to kiss his children good-bye before work. Today is going to be a good day. I mean, what could ruin this surprise?

Lilly had finished her daily work in math, words, and science, when Tommy was working in his spelling book, trying to remember how he spelled ball. Lilly put her books back in her small cubby their mother had purchased. Tommy’s cubby stood next to it. Lilly ran up the stairs, onto the 1st floor, and immediately darted to the couch. She grabbed Tommy’s nasty-yucky-ewie-Louie-smelly-gross old bear. She held it by the dirty old red bow and ran out to the sidewalk, where there stood an old dumpster that belonged to their mean old neighbors.

She chucked the bear as hard as she could and it sailed right over the dumpster, to other side. Lilly sighed and ran around to pick it up.

“Nasty little varmint! Get away from that garbage!” Mrs. Riley shouted. Lilly nearly jumped out of her skin and ran back into her house, blond pigtails flailing wildly behind her. Mrs. Riley scowled and hobbled down the walk to pick up the stupid little bear. Why was that little girl always throwing her crap into her special garbage disposing unit?

Lilly rushed up the stairs to her room and crawled under the blankets sobbing until she fell asleep.

When Jo went down to check on the children’s progress, she was surprised to discover that Lilly had finished early and hadn’t been seen for over an hour. With Jo having been busy scrubbing the bathtub, she hadn’t heard Lilly’s sobs from two floors above. She and Tommy both set to work attempting to find her. Jo had nearly gone into hysterics by the time she found Lilly curled into a ball, fast asleep in her bed. The calmness of Lilly’s face had a soothing effect on her. She sat on the edge of her bed and called for Tommy to stop looking. Lilly jerked in her sleep as the sound reached her fragile ears. She entered that hazy-twilight time, where the lines between waking and sleeping are blurred together. Jo gently stroked her daughters flowing hair. How she had gotten that hair, had been a miracle. Jo had dark hair and Robert had a light brown, but Lilly’s were golden threads.

Lilly adjusted in her sleep. Jo smiled gently; somehow Lilly was the only person who she knew wouldn’t dare to leave her side, even if she had the opportunity. Why had she been so worried? Lilly was delicate, she was also very bright. Some doctors just called it good development; some psychos called it “psi powers”. Jo only knew that because her brother had some very peculiar friends in high school.

Lilly’s breathing became fast. She was starting to sweat, first only slightly, then profusely. She started moaning as if in agony. Lilly screamed as loud as she possibly could, but still, she was lying in a ball, asleep. Jo got worried and started to yell and shake Lilly, in fruitless attempts to wake her. Lilly’s eyes were streaming with tears of pain. This was not the first time this had happened.

Out of nowhere, Lilly sprung into a sitting position and hugged her mother, tears still streaming from her eyes, with a few quiet hiccups. No screaming, breathing much steadier. This happened anytime Lilly fell asleep before sunset, and doctors simply couldn’t explain it worth crap. Jo had had to take Lilly out of preschool, because she would disturb the other children every day at naptime, and the teachers would be just as hysterical as Lilly, when they got her to wake up, and she was almost perfectly calm.

New Neighbors-

After three miserable hours in the juice stained seats of a jittery old ford, Lilly, Tommy, Robert, and Jo were in their new home. The peeled wallpaper on the walls and the neglected look of the floorboards told Jo she would have a sponge in hand for the next few weeks. Lilly took a sniff of the musty air. Without any furniture and the aged look of the house, the feeling of neglect was teetering on the edge of creepy. Tommy, being as most three-year-olds, clutched his mother’s leg for support, just in case anything scary appeared before him.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” Robert said enthusiastically. Jo looked skeptically from Lilly to Tommy, but put on a smile for her husband.

“It’s…nice,” she said evasively. Robert, consumed with giddiness, nearly hopped from one room to the next exclaiming about all the wonderful things that he could do with all of their extra rooms.

Jo timidly shuffled Tommy from room to room, as Lilly bravely dared to walk two feet behind at all times.

“I mean, look at this! We’ve got five extra bedrooms with the kids each getting their own,” Robert half-shouted from two rooms over. Jo took a jab at adding kindling to his flame of joy.

“I was looking at the ad again, there are two kitchens,” she said shakily. The nervousness in Jo’s voice put Tommy over the edge and he started wailing for his home. Jo picked him up and Lilly quickly grabbed her around the waist. Robert’s ecstasy ebbed away as he saw the looks on their faces. His smile slacked into a frown.

“You hate it,” he said with a choking noise.

“No, it’s just…” Jo tried to explain.

“It’s scary,” Lilly helped.

“Brrrr,” Tommy said with a shiver to express that it was cold. He could talk, but he had his own way of communicating that he was more familiar with.

“And it smells real bad,” Lilly said, adding to Tommy’s remark.

“Once we get a fire going in the fireplace, and clean it up a bit, it will feel just like home,” Robert assured his family, “in the meantime, let’s wait for the moving van. Here, I even stored a few folding chairs in the trunk.”

With Tommy and Lilly sitting by the window and Jo wrapped in an excited Robert’s arms, they waited for a nonexistent moving van.

Tommy’s face lit up momentarily.

“What is it Tommy?” Lilly asked him.

“Vroom vroom,” Tommy said. Lilly looked out the window and saw nothing but the small, glassy black pond, in their front yard.

“What do you mean? The moving van isn’t here yet!” Lilly said. Tommy shook his head and pointed out the window to the stretch of trees that lined the road. Surely enough, there was the van, weaving in and out of their vision. Jo stood up as Lilly and Tommy yelled and pointed ,”Our stuff!” and “vroom vroom!”

Jo ran down the steps, stumbling on the last one, and ran out to greet the movers. They opened the door just in time to see it sink into the dark water.

“Oh my god!” Robert cried out as Jo tried to regain her stature. Everything they owned had been in that van. Robert pulled off his shirt and dove into the frigid water. One at a time, the suitcases floated up and Jo pulled them over with a broom she found in one of the closets. Tommy’s bag of toys, Lilly’s bag of toys. Jo’s make-up bag and all of their suitcases. The water remained still for a while. Just as Jo was about to pull the kids from the edge of the water and call the emergency number, Robert’s head popped out of the water.

“It’s nearly impossible to get the furniture out. The drivers will need medical attention,” he said gesturing to the other two heads that popped up at his side. They were shaking with cold and fear. Robert swam over to them and helped them onto the shore. He stood there a minute to reassure them before diving back into the water.

He fought with the stubborn door to get out their mattresses and the box springs from the truck. Finally, the door gave way and he pushed everything out that would float to the top. Again, Jo pulled them in as Lilly and Tommy tried to coax a few animal crackers into the drivers.

Robert was not going to give up. He tried to pull up a cooler that was wedged in by a particularly heavy box, but it wouldn’t budge. The only way was to pull it out and he couldn’t do it alone.

He ran back to the house and searched through every drawer, closet, nook, and cranny he could find. After what felt like an hour, Robert came across and old desk in the third floor study. He opened the single drawer and found a length of rope. He unknotted the noose it was tied into and flew back down the stairs.

He handed Jo one end and dove back in with the other. The water in there was vital. The water that currently ran in this house was muddy and lumpy.

Robert knotted the rope to the cooler’s handle and came back out of the water.

“On the count of three,” he gasped to Jo, “One, two, three!” They pulled as hard as they could and the cooler floated to the top with a satisfying bubbling sound.

By evening when they all went to bed, (the drivers insisted on staying awake) the mattresses were damp, but still dry enough to sleep on. The water on all of their belongings only added to the bone chilling coldness of the house.

* * *

Robert woke with a start, brandishing a cutlery knife as he heard a loud knock on the door. He had always slept with a knife in hand since his house had been robbed in 1972. He and Jo woke up, stepping over the slumbering bodies of the drivers, and looked out the window. They couldn’t make out the front porch from their bedroom window. Walking as loudly as they dared, they crept down to the front door and opened it slowly.

“Hello! It’s nice to have neighbors again! No one’s lived here for twenty-six years,” An old man exclaimed. His gray hair was shaggy and his eyes were full of boyish delight. His face was thin and gaunt, but he still looked only in his late forties. Robert dropped his weapon a fraction and his grip slacked. The man was one of those people you immediately know to trust, but Robert still didn’t drop his gaze.

“Who are you?” Jo asked timidly.

“Forgive me, miss. My name is Parson. Logan Parson. Most people call me Parsy though. Logan isn’t a very suiting name for my personality, I’m sure you’ll find,” he said, his grin unwavering. He looked truly delighted to see them. His eyes were so large and brown, it was like looking into the eyes of an excitable puppy. Very out of character for a man this age.

Lilly came down the stairs, rubbing her eyes and yawning widely.

“Well, look at you! When my cousins come up for Christmas, their kids will finally have someone to play with!” he said, brimming with happiness. Lilly stood wide-eyed, staring at the man.

“Lilly, this is Mr. Parson. He lives… I’m sorry, where do you live?” Jo asked kindly.

“Just up the hill on the other side of the road. There’s a small trail lined with fungi. If you do come, make sure you stick to that trail,” he said, turning grave.

“And didn’t I tell you to call me Parsy? Mr. Parson sounds too official. It’ll go straight to my head!” he said merrily, regaining his positively bubbly attitude.

“Feel free to come by anytime Mr. Parsy. If you don’t mind, could you wait until after seven or possibly call us first?” Jo asked politely. Robert was still deciding where to stab him if he became a venomous snake before their very eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry if I disturbed you! Around here, everyone’s up before 5:30. I would give you a call, but there’s no service up here, so I threw out my phone years ago,” said Parsy. Jo and Robert both whipped out their phones to discover that there was no signal.

“How are we supposed to call for everyone to come and help us unpack?” Jo asked.

“I’ll help ya’!” Parsy said enthusiastically, “When would you like me to come down?” Jo exchanged a skeptical look with her husband before she said, “thank you, but there’s really no need,”

“Oh. Well if you do need some help, give me a visit. And always remember, stick to that trail,” Parsy said with a nod and left. Robert finally slackened his grip on the knife.

“I thought the realtors said no one was living down here,” Robert said grumpily.

“Maybe he’s not living here legally. Or it might be his vacation home,” Jo said. Lilly had long since ran upstairs to inform Tommy about the strange man.

“What do you think, Tommy?” she said in barely a whisper. Even though she was two years older, Tommy was her main confidant because there wasn’t much way for him to tell anyone else. He made a spinning motion with his finger and pointed at the hill saying “Cuckoo, cuckoo,”

“I think he’s crazy too,” Lilly said, relieved. Tommy nodded at her and they ventured down the stairs together to get some breakfast.

“Who’s hungry?” Jo asked. She opened one of the cabinets where they had stored their food and let out a blood-curdling shriek as several mice jumped out at her. Lilly screamed and Tommy wordlessly yipped in terror.

“What’s wrong?” Robert asked, his mouth full of toothpaste. In answer, Tommy held his hands by his face and pulled his upper lip above his teeth.

“Mice? Where?” Robert asked. Tommy pointed at the cabinet Jo had opened. She and Lilly were crying and screaming in fear in the next room.

Robert cautiously approached the cabinet and eased it open.

“Jo, do you happen to be on something?” Robert asked sarcastically. This remark brought Jo into the room.

“But, but they were right there! Hundreds!” she exclaimed hysterically.

“Honey, I know you don’t like the house, but be reasonable,” Robert said, still suppressing a grin. Jo was beside herself.

“No, Robert! You be reasonable! See sense! The kids are terrified, I’m terrified! If we continue living here, we’ll all have died of hypothermia by the end of the month!” she bellowed. Overcome with fear by their parents’ shouting and anger, Tommy and Lilly grasped each other and cried out. Ignoring their wailing children, they continued to argue until the older of the two drivers, being around twenty, shuffled the children outside for some fresh air.

“Parents get angry sometimes. By the way, I’m Marvin. What are your names?” the driver asked.

“I’m Lilly and this is my little brother Tommy. He doesn’t talk much,” Lilly replied.

“Lilly, that was my sister’s name. Isn’t that funny?” Marvin said, “When your parents stop fighting, do you think they’ll drive Taylor and I home?”

“Oh, I’m sure they will,” Lilly said as Tommy nodded in agreement.

“Ruff, ruff,” Tommy said pointing to the woods. There was an ever changing streak of gray passing between the trees.

“Probably just a dog,” Marvin said, squinting.

“That’s what Tommy just said,” Lilly told him. Tommy nodded.

“Is that why you made that noise?” Marvin asked. Tommy nodded again. A loud howl came from the trees.

“Maybe we should go back inside,” Marvin said. Lilly and Tommy scurried into the house.

Apparently, Robert had gone upstairs with a headache. Jo was left to make lunch. (Breakfast time had long since passed) and the second driver was perfectly willing to help. They looked all through the cupboards, but their food was gone, packages and all.

“What are we going to do?” Jo whispered to the driver. She was a rather generously proportioned girl.

“Do you have any money?” Taylor asked.

“I have fifty-three dollars. Why?” Jo replied

“We haven’t any food here, so we’ll have to get some,” Taylor said.

“We could visit Mr. Parsy,” Lilly said. Tommy shook his head.

“Why not, Tommy?” Marvin asked. Tommy struggled to find gestures to explain.

“I say we go,” Jo said. All but Tommy nodded in agreement.

* * *

Even after over twenty minutes of convincing and crying, their hunger won out, and they left Robert behind. They did as Parsy had said and followed the trail. For a moment, none of them knew what “trail” they were supposed to follow. It was more of a narrow path lined by little periwinkle mushrooms. All of their noses started running slightly and their minds became foggy, but these were minor issues compared to their growling stomachs. They persevered. After a ten minute hike on slightly elevated ground, a steep hill was set before them. They were about to give up and go back, when they saw smoke unfurling just over the top, and the smell of cooking meat. They all cheered and started climbing up the hill with rapid pace. Tommy was left behind; Jo went back down to fetch him. She sat him on her shoulders and started to climb. Within minutes, all of them reached the top of the hill to find an ecstatic Parsy ushering them into a log cabin.

“Been wondering how long it’d take you to find me. Look at all a’ ya’! Why so glum?” Parsy asked worriedly.

“We don’t have any food,” Jo told him, “and now that I think about it, Robert has the keys and he locked the bedroom door!”

“Keys to what?” asked Taylor.

“The car!” Jo exclaimed. They all started worrying as Parsy ushered the kids to go into the house and take as many cookies and bacon slices as they wanted.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Parsy said to the female driver.

“I’m Taylor,” she said

“Well I am Logan Parson, but everyone calls me Parsy,” Parsy told her. After breaking Marvin and Jo out of their worried conversation, he got everyone inside to eat. They all had third helpings of bacon and Lilly and Tommy tried to hide their extra cookies from Jo. Parsy gave them another napkin-full with a wink. They didn’t really want to head back into the runny-nose inducing path yet and stayed to talk with Parsy. He told them scary stories and tales of the past residents of their house. He even got out his big book of Edgar Allen Poe poems and read a few of his choice favorites.

Around sunset, to everyone’s surprise, he went inside and came back out to their newly lit bonfire with a woodcut flute. Judging by the quality, Parsy made it himself. He put it to his lips. It made an eerie, unearthly sound that seemed to make their bones shiver. He played it to the tune of one of the poems he read earlier and out of nowhere, Tommy began to sing:

“’The soul shall find itself alone

‘Mid dark thoughts of the gray tomb-stone-

Not one, of all the crowd to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy’”

It went on and on until he finally finished reciting ‘Spirits of the Dead’ All the while his voice was steady, but his eyes went from glassy and blank, to wide with shock and fear. All of them sat with their mouths hanging open, for Tommy had never said more than seven words in a row.

When Tommy finished, he was drenched in sweat and Parsy decided to put away his flute. Lilly was clapping and telling Tommy how well he could sing. Jo, Marvin and Taylor each got up and started to leave at once with Lilly hopping around Marvin’s ankles and Tommy on Jo’s back, fast asleep.

They all unsteadily slipped down the hill and sneezed uncontrollably through the mushroom path. Tommy woke up due to sneezing and Lilly’s eyes were watering.

Eventually, they got back to their house. The second they crossed the road, their noses stopped running and itching and there were only a few final sneezes.

Jo sent Taylor and Marvin to bed, promising to drive them to town in the morning. She tucked in Lilly and Tommy and all that was left was for Robert to open her bedroom door. She turned the knob, it wasn’t locked. She let out a shrill scream as she saw her husband’s body suspended by a length of rope above her bed.

A Runaway-

I hear a car coming, I should check if it’s a police car before I duck. How many civilians drive around at this time of night?

Rose cocked her head; it was just a group of teenagers, still partying late into the night. There was no need to duck; she was concealed by her dark clothes. Besides, they would be too drunk to notice anything more than three feet away.

Just as the headlights showed her silhouette, she turned to look the other direction to conceal her face for good measure. How could she be sure that all of them were too incoherent to notice? She made sure she was completely surrounded by darkness before revealing her face again. The truck was just an oddly shaped crescent of light in the distance. Good. She felt safer in the dark.

Being only fourteen and raised in the city, it was amazing how sure-footed she was. Not that she knew the area; at this point she could practically smell the air and know when to jump.

“I’ve been going north all day,” she thought, “I should find a new direction.” As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she noticed a crunching beneath her feet. Gravel. There was a narrow trail leading into the woods. Deciding her knife could take down a few small animals for a meal, not to mention all the herbs and berries in the woods, she headed east down the path. Lighting a small lamp she had stolen from an antique shop, she discovered that the only living thing in these woods were trees.

Towering, skinny, grayish trees were in every direction. She discovered the path had ended a ways back when a particularly thick tree smacked her obside the head. She rubbed her cheek and swore under her breath. When she did talk, it was always in a whisper or she would be hiding her face while getting information from a lowly farmer. Rose did not want to be seen.

In the flickering light, she spotted a berry bush and quickly sampled one. Who would care if she would die by eating a false mouthful of berries? She popped a few more into her mouth and savored the sweet juice. They were blueberries that were simply bursting with flavor inside her mouth. She stripped off all the berries she could find and ate a quarter of them without hesitation. Rose was hungry and there was more food to come.

Before the path was even out of her sight, she had already captured and killed two sleeping rabbits and a rather unintelligent squirrel.

Rose cooked the squirrel over an elaborately made fire and ate half of it. She cooked the rabbits and wrapped them all in a greasy cloth she used to store food. She put the bundle in her pocket, doused and disguised the remains of her fire and continued through the woods. She collected some cherries and hickory nuts as she went. She would be able to eat considerably well for at least a week with the food she had gathered. She also slathered an extra layer of mud so her fair skin on her face and hands would give her away on the open road.

Checking the area for any prying eyes, she quickly got out a map she had taken from her father’s glove compartment over a year ago. She checked the map for I-44 and ran her finger down the gravel road to where she had turned into the woods. The map showed no such path or wood. It was all open plain. Trees didn’t grow in seventeen months…

Rose quickly stuffed the map in her pocket and tried to retrace her steps back to the path. Going at least a mile in every direction, she didn’t find the path, let alone the remnants of her fire. Breathing much more heavily than someone who had just sprinted a mile would, she began to panic and hyperventilate.

Never, in the seventeen months of running from the law, had she not known exactly where she was. She always would swipe a map of each state she went through before going more than a mile in.

Rose composed herself and decided that, if she couldn’t find her way out, obviously no one could come near her camp. Besides, she thought, then this’ll all be over if they do. No more nightmares. No more scavenging. I’ll be truly free at last.

On that note, she started a second fire and found a tree to rest in. Strategically placing her backpack under her, she ensured she wouldn’t fall out due to bad dreams. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep, her mind still working just as hard…

“Rose, put that down, honey. You know I love you,” said Rose’s father.

“No! If you loved us, you wouldn’t have beat down the door and gagged Mom!” Rose shouted, “Not to mention, beat up Benny and I!”

“I just got angry, sweaty. All parents do. Some are more forceful, like me. I think it helps to discipline you-,”

“No! Don’t come any closer! I don’t want you to hurt us anymore!” Rose shrieked.

“Ash, help me,” Benny wheezed from the corner.

“Rosy, please, don’t do it. The police will come. I promise,” Rose’s mom said.

“No, they all will listen to him! They never believe me! We all know it!”

“Ash…” A sudden think outside made them all jump (Benny simply coughed) and Rose’s finger instinctively drew in. Another sound, a loud BANG rung through the room as Rose’s father slunk to the ground. Rose and her mother screamed as Benny started to tremble. Rose reacted faster than anyone.

“I love you, Mom. But I need to run. They’ll never believe it was self-defense.” Rose’s mother numbly nodded, mouth still hanging open on shock. I felt as though there was a curious sensation inside of her. Strangely enough, she liked it. It felt so good. This must be how murderers feel, she thought numbly. She grabbed around three dozen items from her kitchen cupboard, a spare set of clothes and began to walk out the door.

“You dote dink you’re leabing widout me, do you?” Benny said through a heavy nose bleed. Rose staunched thee flow with a nearby napkin.

“You’re innocent, Ben. Stay here, lead them off my trail.”

“ I dill haben’d unbacked my bag from a dleepober ad Rocco’s” Benny said he ran to grab the bag and came back, looking expectant. Rose patted his shoulder, “Alright,”

With an unpleasant jerk, rose woke up, covered in sweat. She was no longer in her tree, but in an empty, one room house. (Two including the bathroom) She looked all around but no one came. Getting up out of the cushy bed, she went to the kitchen area to find a weapon, or possibly her bag…

No bag, no weapons. Just some uncooked meat and a plastic cookie jar. At the sound of an opening door, she instinctively reached for her knife and held empty hands in front of her.

“Well, hello there. I was wondering when you were going to wake up. I heard you screamin’ in that tree for a few hours now; muttering and things. Thought you might like to wake up to some company,” A strange old man said. Judging by and old high school football trophy, his name was Logan Parson.

Don’t ya’ know how to talk? No matter, I’ll just make you a cup of tea and some bacon. That sound good?” Logan Parson asked. Rose simply stared in utter disbelief. How could he have found her? Or better yet, not recognized her for who she is? He hummed merrily to a song and walked over to the kitchen area.

Eventually, Rose’s curiosity won out and she looked around the small house. Then walking to sit back on the bed, she stubbed her toe on something hard and gasped in pain.

“You ok? Sorry, put that up pretty quick-like the other day. Had some company come ‘round. I could have a look at it for you if you like,” Logan Parson said with a wink. Rose bent down a and pulled up an old, graying, dusty, tome. Rose opened it and saw pages filled with words, charts, and diagrams of hands, tea cups, and cards.

“Most people think it’s stupid to look at that stuff, but I find it dead useful. And not to mention accurate.” Rose flipped through the pages and became transfixed by their diagrams, filled out so intricately.

After a few more minutes, Logan Parson set a plate of bacon and a cup of tea on a nearby nightstand. She drained the tea and inhaled the bacon. Parsy snatched the cup and the book as soon as she had put both down. Still chewing her fifth savory piece of bacon, Rose didn’t notice. Logan Parson cracked open the book to page 473 and began to swish around the dregs of tea.

“Hmm,” said Logan Parson, “this is interesting. Says you’ve quite a bit of suffering, and still have some now. But…. There’s no future reading.”

Rose was eyeing him suspiciously. She thought of grabbing for the cup, but what good would it do?

“So, we best be getting you home. Where do you live?” Logan Parson asked. Rose hadn’t spoken in the last five months. She wasn’t sure if she even remembered how…

For at least a minute, Logan Parson watched her expectantly as Rose looked anywhere but at him, looking for escapes.

“No…..hum….”

“What?” Logan Parson asked.

“No… home…” Rose uttered croakily. Her voice cracked with every syllable. Logan Parson watched, perhaps expecting an “April Fools!” But none came.

“Well, if you won’t tell me where you live, you’ll have to stay here until I can drive to town and phone the police. Heck, they might be looking for you.”

“Nuh! Nuh!” Rose exclaimed frantically. She couldn’t waste all of that time for nothing. She couldn’t have let his death be in vain….

“Well, what do you expect me to do, then?” Logan Parson demanded. Rose thought hard on what words to say. Not to mention how to say them…

“Stay….hair…”

“Pardon?”

“Stay…Here…”

“Well, I suppose. But no. I can’t have a houseguest and not know their name.”

“Roseanna.” One of the five words she would always remember.

“That’s a lovely name. Parson’s the name. But you can call me Parsy,” said Logan Parson, a.k.a- Parsy.

Rose looked at her feet, all the sounds and syllables coming back to her. She started clicking her tongue, making certain noises in the back of her throat.

“I can see that you don’t talk much,” Parsy said from the kitchen area. Rose jumped, for she hadn’t noticed that he had moved at all.

“No…haven….sp-spoken in munfs….” Rose told him croakily. Parsy looked at her for some sign of misgiving and tried to compose himself.

“You know what? I think I might take you down to meet the neighbors tomorrow,” Parsy said in a would-be calm voice. The words were barely out of his mouth before a blood-curdling scream pierced the night.

“Well, I suppose we should introduce you early,” Parsy said, standing up and grabbing a concealed rifle. Rose stood up and crossed to the door quickly. Parsy followed with equal haste.

Together, they jogged through the mushroom-lined path. That was, until Rose heard a very familiar moan of pain.

“Ash,” a voice cried in a whisper. Rose stopped dead, shaking violently. Parsy had gone 20 more yards before noticing her. He turned around slowly.

“Rose, are you ok? Is something wrong?” Parsy asked. Rose didn’t move. She just stood with a look of pure, incomprehensible, terror. Mouth slightly open, she dared to turn a fraction to her right.

“It was instantaneous! Second she looked around, fell to the ground, unconscious,” Parsy told a distraught Taylor, standing on the threshold of Jo and Robert’s home.

“Well, I was going to the restroom before bed and just as I reached the door, Jo screamed. You knocked only seconds after. I haven’t had time to see why,” Taylor informed him. Parsy dropped Rose onto the nearest couch and set off up the stairs with Taylor at his heels.

Jo was curled into a ball, at the end of the hall opposite her bedroom. Marvin and the kids were trying to calm her into speaking. Jo would make barely audible whispers.

“Rob…..in….rope….room…” She refused to blink. She would only stare, eyes wide in shock.

“We should call an ambulance,” Marvin suggested.

“No use,” said Parsy, “none of the phones work down here.”

“Not even landlines?” Taylor asked.

“No one ever bothered to connect them out here. Look around you! Not a power line in sight. All the power comes from a wood burning furnace under my house,” Parsy said impatiently.

“Let’s drive her then. Get her some help, at least,” Marvin said.

“No use, the only road to town is closed and the other way is a dead end drop,” said a deep voice behind them all. All heads turned as Robert walked up the stairs. Jo started screaming.

“NO! YOU WERE DEAD! HOW? WHAT-? AAAAH!” She was incoherently screaming for another ten minutes as Robert fruitlessly tried to soothe her. Lilly and Tommy jumped at a loud groan from the downstairs living room.

“Why don’t you two go and tend to Rose, down there,” Parsy said to Lilly and Tommy who both looked terrified at the prospect. Each clutching the other’s hand for support, they slowly climbed down the stairs, gingerly touching each step as though it were a slumbering monster of massive proportions.

Rose looked around for the source of the screaming as she sat up. Lilly and Tommy barely made it to the bottom of the steps before they screamed. Both had looked out the window and seen a looming shadow of a man eerily blurred through the drapes. They both began to dart back up the steps before Rose could remember how to ask, “Who are you?” or “Where am I?”

Rose got up from the couch and started toward the stairs, pausing only to look for the cause of the children’s sudden departure.

She looked up to the top of the staircase to see Parsy and, unbeknownst to her, Robert kneeling over something as the children tugged at Robert’s shirt. When she got up the stairs, she saw a young man and woman hugging each other tightly. The man, Marvin, was stroking the woman, Taylor’s hair and whispering words of comfort into her ear.

Without even really thinking about it, Marvin locked her in a watery, but comforting embrace nonetheless. Rose surveyed the strange scene a few times before Marvin opened his eyes and He and Taylor embarrassedly broke apart with an odd squelch sound. Taylor blushed as her cheeks went scarlet and Marvin put on kind of a painful smile with a nervous titter of laughter to match his feeling of awkwardness.

Rose turned away to find the screamer. Jo was lying on the hall floor and still breathing somewhat rapidly. Parsy was attempting to calm Lilly and Tommy as Robert held Jo’s head in his lap as he gently stroked her hair.

“Well, this is Rose,” said Parsy, gesturing to Rose. Rose jerked her head in recognition of her name. Marvin and Taylor both did a kind of half-hearted wave. Lilly and Tommy both gave her looks of uncertainty. Rose felt like an outsider, an intruder upon this family crisis.

“Pars…I…go….back?” Rose asked slowly.

“No, Rose just stay here,” Parsy said firmly, looking harried. Lilly and Tommy looked at her curiously.

“Don’t you know how to talk?” Lilly asked.

“Used…to…forgot…how…” Rose answered with a strained look on her face, searching for the proper sounds in the back of her mind. Lilly looked incredulously from Rose to Parsy, seeing if they were tricking her.

“I can teach you how,” Lilly told her confidently. Lilly walked over and took Rose’s hand. Rose automatically tried to pull away.

“Don’t worry,” Lilly said, “You’re safe now.”

The Safe House

Lilly was true to her word. She used her old phonics book that had been packed away in her toys bag, (that was laminated so it remained well in tact) to reteach Rose how to make all those sounds into words of the English language.

Parsy visited regularly with food for them. Apparently he had a storage/safe house under his cabin where he kept all of the meat he hunted and the crops he harvested from his small garden.

Rose now stayed with the Lamkemans full time. Her English was improving so much that they had stopped cheering every time she said “May I please be excused now, Mrs. Lakeman?”

Jo’s hysteria turned out to be fairly short-lived. After about three days, she had started talking to people other than herself. By the end of the week she seemed normal, though still shaken by her vision.

Parsy was the only one that dared to venture to his house now. Jo, Robert, and Rose had all agreed that his house was the cause of all the hysteria. Shortly after leaving his house, Jo and Rose had both had very traumatic visions, though Rose refused to tell any of them precisely what she had seen and heard. All they were told was that it was from exactly one year ago last week. Rose had cried all night that night, still refusing to confide in them.

“Parsy,” Rose said one evening after Parsy had arrived with a smoked chicken, “I would like to go back to your house with you tonight.”

“Why do you want to go there?” Parsy asked.

“I have my reasons, but I want to come back here tomorrow,” she said with her firm tone of finality. Parsy shrugged and cut into the chicken.

“Why aren’t you staying here tonight?” Lilly asked, “I thought I told you not to let the man scare you!”

“What man?” Parsy asked, his gaunt face becoming more pronounced and his lip trembling slightly. Everyone was startled by his sudden change in mood.

“The skinny man outside the window,” Lilly replied, “he looks at us, but I can only see him through the drapes. He’s really blurred, so I told him, ‘I’m not scared of you anymore!’ and he went away.” There was a heavy silence.

“Lilly, why didn’t you tell us?” Jo asked, incredulously.

“I didn’t think I should worry you about something I took care of. I told Tommy,” she added. Tommy shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Lilly, you should never have talked to that man,” Parsy said gravely.

“I am capable of teaching my own child about strangers, Mr. Parson,” Jo said.

“I disagree,” said Parsy, “especially if your child is having discussions with a possibly life threatening person!”

“We only talked to him once!” Lilly cried. Again, Tommy fidgeted.

“You should never talk to someone you don’t know,” Jo said sternly, “Go to your rooms. Now!”

“What about our supper?” Lilly asked as Tommy pointed at his half eaten chicken leg.

“Let them take it with them. They barely get enough as it is,” Marvin interjected.

“Fine then! I suppose everyone here knows what my children need better than I do!” Jo shouted.

“Your children? When did they become your children, Johanna?” Robert demanded.

“When I gave birth to them, Robert! They became my children when you left!”

A heavy silence fell. Robert looked mutinous as Jo stared daggers.

“You knew I had no choice-,” Robert began quietly

“You had every choice! You knew about Lilly and you knew what kind of a position we were both in! Without the other, neither of us had the money, yet you let us starve for all those months as I tried to get a job!” Jo shouted through tears.

“You never starved. You were living quite happily when I arrived,” Robert said with a sneer.

“Yes, after I swallowed my pride and asked my parents if I could move in with them!” Jo shrieked. Lilly started wailing as Tommy looked from one parent to the other. Marvin, Taylor, Rose, and Parsy moved into the shadows in awkward silence.

“Mommy, can I go to bed?” Lilly asked as Tommy gaped at his parents, not bothering to shut his mouth. Seeing the expressions on their parents’ faces, Tommy and Lilly both bolted up the stairs. Rose quickly followed.

Robert and Jo were so angry at each other that they both took separate rooms in the house and Jo had attempted to run away with the kids by the next morning.

“I told you that road was blocked,” Robert said with an evil sneer. Jo stared him down as Rose loudly asked, “More toast?” to keep the conversation going.

Lilly had taken to shooting her parents dirty looks so as to guilt them into making up. Whenever this happened, Jo would scoop up Lilly and run into a room to cry.

Tommy was acting virtually normal by the third day of the argument. He would just sit outside on the front lawn with a toy dump truck and relocate various piles of dirt from one area of the yard to another. He wouldn’t talk, but he would always make the same noises, vrooooooom, eh eh eh, pwoosh! The noises of the dump truck. Marvin and Taylor would sit on the porch and watch him, clutching each other’s hands for support.

Meanwhile, Rose just tried to keep a decent flow going through the house. If she saw Jo packing up snacks and a sleeping bag, Rose would intervene and innocently tell her that something needed to be done in the house. Rose had unscrewed half the light bulbs in the house by the second week.

Parsy still came with food regularly, but he always seemed anxious. His eyes would incessantly go from one face to another as he strained to express his thoughts. Right as he would seem to get ready to tell them something, he would dart out the front door and not return until he brought more food.

Marvin and Taylor were rarely seen separate. If they weren’t right next to each other, Marvin would be helping in some way as Taylor rested. Taylor rested more often than anyone else. She never really wanted to get up. Lilly or Tommy would ask her to play and she would decline.

“Parsy,” Lilly said one evening, “why do you bring us all this food if you don’t like us?”

“Why would you think I don’t like you?” Parsy asked. His hands began shaking violently.

“You look at us like you are scared of us,” Lilly replied. Parsy’s mouth hung open slightly as his lip started trembling. He was so pale; He made the moon outside look like yellowish parchment.

“It’s not that I’m afraid of you,” Parsy began.

“Then what are you afraid of?” Lilly asked. At the last word, Thunder cracked across the dark sky. Wind began to rattle and shake the windows. They all looked around as the wind whistled through the trees outside.

The wind was rapidly becoming stronger and it was bending full grown pines like saplings. Tommy and Lilly covered their ears. Lilly tried to shout over the wind, pointing at a cloud that was spinning rapidly.

“Do you have a basement?” Parsy asked loudly over Lilly and Tommy’s screams.

“No!” Jo shouted.

“I have one, we can get there before anything gets too serious,” Parsy shouted as he gestured for everyone to follow him towards the door. Lilly and Tommy bolted after him.

“Is that really a good idea?” Marvin yelled.

“We should just stay here!” Taylor shouted.

“It would probably be safer!” Jo bellowed. Just her sentence was finished, the window behind Robert was blown out behind him and he was sucked out the empty window frame.

“NOOOOO!” Jo screamed. Lilly and Tommy cried in anguish as Rose, Taylor, and Marvin ran out the door toward the trail. Lilly and Parsy followed as Tommy struggled to hang on to Parys’s clammy hands.

“Jo, you have to come! He’s gone!” Parsy shouted, as he came to a halt just outside the door. Lilly slowly let go of Parsy’s hand and walked toward her mother. She grasped her mother’s hand. They looked into each other’s watery eyes, and understood. Jo got up and they walked, hand in hand, out the door.

Once they reached the porch, they broke into a run after everyone else. They barely got off the front step before the south wall of the house collapsed. They passed the low garden fence, hurtling over the low garden shrubs that were being sucked into the air around them. Over the last shrub, Lilly’s left pant leg was thrown into the air. Lilly was hanging in the air by her ankle. In a matter of only a few seconds, Lilly was swung backward into her mother, who toppled over beneath the sudden weight.

“Are you okay, Lilly?” Jo asked breathlessly. Lilly nodded wordlessly. They both got up clumsily and resumed running after the others.

Parsy and Tommy had taken the lead. Rose, Taylor, and Marvin were only a few yards behind them. When they were about halfway to the cliff, Tommy looked to the left of the path and stopped. Tommy squealed and pointed at the forest.

“Tommy, we can’t go off the path, especially in this weather!” Parsy half-shouted over the roaring wind. Tommy pulled his hand loose. He was still making random noises only Lilly or Jo could ever understand.

“Tommy, we have to go!” Rose yelled as she, Marvin, and Taylor caught up. Tommy pointed frantically towards the woods. Why don’t they understand? Tommy thought angrily. Can’t they see the short cut? I’m pointing right at it!

Tommy tried to pull Parsy into the woods, but Parsy wouldn’t budge an inch in his direction. Tommy finally gave up and walked over the periwinkle fungi and trudged through the woods. Parsy was told to go and get him, but he refused and insisted they go on. Just as they turned to continue on, Jo and Lilly caught up.

“Where’s Tommy?” Lilly asked as she tried to catch her breath. Jo had tried to say something and nodded as Lilly asked the question for her. Parsy, Rose, Marvin, and Taylor looked anxiously from one to the other. Jo and Lilly looked out into the woods just in time to Tommy dart behind a tree and disappear.

“Tommy! Tommy, No!” Jo wailed. Lilly started shouting and charged toward the forest. Rose caught her around the middle. Lilly’s voice broke and she cried silently, her hair violently whipping her face in the wind.

Silently, they all started toward Parsy’s house again. Halfway up the steep wall of dirt and rock, Lilly’s arms gave out and she plummeted to the forest floor, hair hardly brushing a few mushrooms. Taylor, who had just begun climbing, helped her up and stayed below her in case she fell again.

“Get in through here!” Parsy said, pointing to a small door a few feet outside his house. Marvin wrenched it open and they all piled inside.

“Is Daddy and Tommy gone?” Lilly asked her mother. Everyone shifted uncomfortably.

“So, is there any food in here?” Marvin asked Parsy before Jo would have to give an answer.

“Oh, yes. It’s right over through that metal door,” Parsy replied, eagerly taking up the change of subject. Marvin crossed toward the door and opened it. Inside were hundreds of plump smoked chickens, turkeys, squabs, pork, and ducks.

“I just like to keep in stock in case of an emergency,” Parsy told Marvin. Marvin did a sort of incredulous nod. Without warning, Jo burst into tears, and Taylor ran over to her and hugged her. Lilly, distraught by recent events and her mother’s breakdown, started to hyperventilate. Marvin picked her up, rubbed her back and whispered comforting words into her ear. Parsy looked around at his fellows. Rose walked up to him and looked him straight in the eye. It wasn’t her normal, piercing look that she saved for Parsy, but a softer one. One that said, “It’s not your fault, you tried.” Parsy replied to this with a stiff nod.

A loud thud jerked them all back to reality.

“I think we’re ok, that door’s not going to break,” Parsy said. A second thud followed, a loud one that made their ears ring. The small window of light coming from a pane of glass in the door vanished.

“Well, was that a defense mechanism?” Marvin asked uncertainly.

“No, that wasn’t supposed to happen,” Parsy said gravely.

“How will we get out?” Rose asked.

“How will we see with only that freezer light?” Taylor asked.

“How will Daddy and Tommy find us?” Lilly asked. For a few moments, no one spoke.

“I don’t know,” Parsy said hoarsely, “do you expect me to have all the answers?” Parsy shouted at no one in particular.

“I don’t plan ahead that far, all I knew was I need to get you all to safety! I got out as many of you as I could, didn’t I? You!” He shouted, pointing at Rose, “who found you in the woods and brought you here? Who got you to a place where you could learn to talk?” Rose looked at him through watery eyes.

“Who got all of you to safety? Who fed you when you had no food? Who warned you to stay on the trail?” Parsy bellowed. Lilly started wailing and Jo started choking on her tears. Taylor and Marvin both looked mutinous.

“All you’ve done is corner us in,” Marvin said quietly, “you told us we’d be safe to come here. You took right out into that storm that killed Robert and Tommy! Did you care that Tommy just ran off? You didn’t go after him, or even try to hold him back!” A deafening silence followed this speech. Jo looked like she was going to explode between wanting to kill Parsy and trying to speak.

“We should get some rest,” Taylor said firmly, “do you have any sleeping bags down here?”

“Yeah, I’ll get them,” Parsy grunted. He retreated into the freezer room and returned a few minutes later, shivering, and clutching four mismatched sleeping bags.

“This was all I had,” he said through chattering teeth. Rose and Parsy each had their own while Lilly and Jo shared a blue one and Marvin and Taylor shared a green one.

“Where are we going? You still haven’t told me!” Benny whined.

“Yes I have told you, we’re going east,” Rose said patiently.

“My arms hurt really bad. Can we please rest?” Benny moaned. Rose sighed and bowed her head. “No, not until morning. We have to keep moving all through the night to get as far as possible!”

“But my arms-,”

“No,” Rose said firmly. They trudged on through the dewy morning grass. Rose walked behind her brother and brushed the grass so that his tracks wouldn’t be seen.

“Look, the sun is about to come out. We’ll rest when the sky starts turning blue.

“Fine, but when my arms give out-,” Benny began. Rose silenced him.

“Quiet, I hear something…”

“NO!” Rose shouted.

“Calm down Rose, It’s me, Taylor. You’re going to be alright. It was just a nightmare. You’re safe.”

“No, Ben…. Can’t….” Rose tried to put the words together, but through her tears, it was very difficult.

“Who’s there? Are you alright? How many of you are there?” an innocent voice asked. Everyone looked around.

“Lilly, did you say that?” Marvin asked quietly into the almost total darkness.

“No…” Lilly whispered.

“Could you please let me out, It’s really rather cold in here,” the voice asked politely. This was followed by an absolute silence. You could almost hear the hearts pounding in their chests.

“Please, I won’t hurt you? Have you got stuck in here to? Could you help me out of here? I’m really, quite nice actually,” the voice asked. Lilly got up, shook off her mother’s silent pleading to stay put and open the freezer door. A skinny, boy in tattered clothes looked at them all. A grin broke across his unkempt face as he said, “’Ello! M’name’s Charlie Anderson. ‘Oo are you?”