Blood Ever After

5

Mrs. Webb stared at Tyler.

"Try it. Tell me everything you know. Then we will tell you."

In the distance came those long, mourning cries.

Tyler found it difficult to explain everything.

He took a sip from his orange juice, coolness swept down his throat.

"Well ... like ... around the time it all started—those killings and that ... and the mad people—I was having ... images of these eyes. I, well, I believe they belonged to what everyone started calling the Deaija ... or whatever that weird thing is. Those dang eyes, they came into my mind somehow. Did that happen to you guys too? Or was it just me? Am I ... special in that way for some reason?"

Wham!

Brett slammed the ball against the wall. Sunlight shone in from the window by the TV.

Outside, the unkept grass swallowed those old faded toys.

"Yeah, you're special, Tyler ... you're real special, boy." Wham! He threw the ball once more.

Mrs. Webb heaved herself up, grunting, and with the back end of a mop slammed the boy over and over again on his head. This caused both Tyler and Hannah to erupt into a fit of giggles. Hannah grasped Tyler, seemingly needing to hold someone just from the sheer humor of the situation. "Oh, Tyler, he's such a doofus."

Brett writhed away from his mother's grip, scurried around the side of the table and started thwacking and thwacking at Hannah's face with his palm.

This caused Hannah to embrace her more masculine side. She shot up, grabbing her little brother, turning him upside down, slapping his leg and kneeing him just below the groin. "You wanna take me on, kid? You wanna take on the monster? I'll have your head for my dinner, I will. I'll have your head for dinner."

Tyler tried covering his mouth as he watched, his shoulders shaking.

As the fight wore on, Mrs. Webb sighed, waddling off into the kitchen. "Do you want some dessert, Tyler? What do you want, kiddo? A chocolate muffin? Do you want some ice cream with that?"

Soon the lady brought some ice cream to the dining room. As the siblings still slapped and threw the odd swing at each other's head, Mrs. Webb started heaping spoonful after spoonful of ice cream on plates resting on the wooden dining table.

Soon after, as they all sat eating ice cream, Tyler continued. "Then ... as you know, all those people ... they were possessed or something that night ... and went off to the caves ...."

He placed some choc-mint delight into his mouth, recalling the taste of his mom's home-cooked, choc-cherry ice cream as he did so. Having swallowed, he said, "Then ... then everyone was gone."

He thought about his Mom. Wondered where in the world she was, and prayed, prayed she was still OK.

"So what d'ya guys know?" he said, placing his spoon into the empty bowl.

Night came, and they talked long into it, and what was said was important, but the most important part came from Mrs. Webb, when she'd stood for a moment.

"Know what I think it is? This entity?" She was staring at the rough, peeling wallpaper.

The howls were low and mournful in the distance, but still sent chills down Tyler's spine. The room glowed a soft, warm orange, the taste of hot chocolate lingering in Tyler's mouth. A few remaining roasted vegetables sitting in the middle of the dining table.

Mrs. Webb waddled toward the window. "This ... Deaija thing took over this world. Why? We may never know." She stared a few more moments before looking back over to the boys. "But I think this ... this creature wants something out of whoever remains."