Knowhere Oregon

Chapter 4 - It's You

The remaining flame of the candles finally went out. The large group of masked figures began to exit in an orderly fashion. To lines forming from the circle. After they exited all that remained was The Owl, The Ram, and me just standing there. The Ram let out a sharp chuckle and said "Welcome kid. We'll be in touch" as he turned around and exited the room. The Owl turned towards me and slowly raised her hands up to her mask. Slowly removing it from her face and bringing it downward. She hooked it to her belt and then went back up to remove the hood from her head. As she did, the remaining light from the far corner of the room lit up her face. It was a face I knew well. It was my mother. She embraced me in a tight hug. I looked up at her through the small slits in the mask. She removes the golden mask from my face. Tears streaming down my cheeks. "I can hear momma. I can hear again." I say. Her eyes begin to water as she holds me tightly again. The sounds of her sobbing begin to fill the room. The sound of a single tear falling from her face and hitting the cold stoney floor of the ancient basement with a wet splat. The creaking of the floorboards above us. The soft hum of the fluorescent light.The buzzing of a moth flying into it. The whispers of anxious men above us. The sound of the Ram loudly clambering up the stairs. The soft gasps and dead silence of the whispering ceasing as he entered their room. I heard everything around me in great detail. Almost as if I hadn't just regained my hearing... but gained the hearing of a bat. Everything had happened so fast. It was all a blur as I tried to recollect on all that had just happened to me. I felt as if my whole world was being flipped on its head. I had so many questions. So many thoughts running through my head all at once. Who is the ram? What is this place. Who are these people. What does my mom have to do with all of this. Who is she anyways? Is she who she really said she was? Is she even my mother? Why is all of this happening to me. I start to feel dizzy. My vision began to blur and my legs grew weak. I slowly collapsed into my mothers arms. Falling into sweet sweet unconsciousness. I awoke on my living room couch in a cold sweat. My clothes were drenched and a wet rag was placed atop my forehead. I quickly looked around the room. Not entirely sure who or what I was looking for. My mom came in from the kitchen stating how i had been completely out of it for almost twenty four hours. She told me that it was a side effect of the ritual from the other day. I began to ask her how I had received my hearing back but she cut me off. Saying that it was better to not ask those questions. She said I didn't need or want to know all the little details. She explained to me that she and now I are a part of a secret society called "Knowhere to be seen." A little play on the town's name and their ideas of keeping all supernatural events a secret from both outsiders and those still unaware inside our small township. She explained that the Ram is our leader. His identity is completely unknown besides to a few of the highest in command. I asked if she knew who he was and she confirmed to me that she did but that she wouldn't and couldnt say who. She told me that all of the members have had a run in with some supernatural being before their entrance into the group. Their mask representing either their trauma, the creature they met, or something that they had lost or gained due to the experience. I asked what the different ornate and material for the masks meant but she just told me that it didn't matter to me just yet and that all would be explained in due time. She told me that my bat mask represents both my loss and regaining my hearing as well as the creature I ran into which uses ultrasonic sounds to both ensnare and attack its victims. She told me that I have had several run-ins with different supernatural beings. Which was strange. Considering that mostly everyone in the group only has one encounter with different creatures before their joining. She said that I have had at least three or four encounters with multiple different beings. She told me that was enough questions for now and that I need to get some rest. She also stated that I need to still pretend to not have my hearing so that people don't start asking questions. I nod and lay back down on the couch. I close my eyes and slowly begin to drift off... I am running  hastily up a rocky incline. Several other figures around me were also running. One of the men looked over to me calling out "Maximian! Maximian! What are we going to do?! The Romans have chased us out! What now?!"  He's talking to me but that's not my name. I don't know how to respond. As if I wasn't the one in control of my body, words begin to come out of my mouth "Worry not John! I know of a place where we can go! A place where the seven of us will be safe. A place for us to sleep."  The man seemed shocked as he yelled "Sleep?! You expect us to sleep somewhere out here?! With the threat and danger of the Romans after us?!" Again my puppeted body called back to him "Worry not for our Lord is with us and he shall not let any beings harm us in our rest." The man had no response to that. Stumbling over rocks and the rough turian for what seemed like hours we finally reached a large cave opening. We slowly began our walk into the cave. Darkness starting to swallow us. The cave like a large warm mouth of a deadly beast. It seemed to laugh as it took us in one by one. The further back we walked as the cave began to get narrower and narrower. The walls and roof starting to close in. What was a nice walk went to a squat, then a crawl, to a flat worming on our stomachs through the tight space. Finally as if we had made it through the throat and esophagus of the beast to its stomach we entered a large and open cavern. As we all stumbled into the large opening we began to have a terrible uneasy feeling set upon us. We heard a large rumbling and then as if on queue the entrance we just crawled through collapsed in on itself sealing us in and blocking our only escape. John began to panic but I soothed him by telling him that if we couldnt get out then no one who wanted to harm us could get in. That seemed to calm him slightly. We began fumbling around in the dark. My eyes already starting to adjust to the darkness of our own personal sepulcher.  I walked around the spacious cavern. It seemed to be covered almost completely in this reddish moss. Several other tonnels towards the far back of the cavern that seemed to go down forever. I tossed a small pebble down one after several clanks it slowly faded to silence once again. We all gathered together. Our bodies could tell it was getting late. Both the long trip full of running and climbing plus with the added stress of our predicaments. We all laid down together in a big group and started to drift off to sleep. Before I could fall asleep I heard strange noises from the back of the cavern. I slowly sat up and looked towards the noise. My eyes fuzzy and trying to adjust to the darkness again. I see something hunched over near the entrance of one of the tunnels. I look around and notice none of my friends are around me anymore. In Fact they are nowhere to be found. I slowly walked over towards the figure I saw thinking it was just one of them doing something. I slowly walked towards it. Calling out some of their names. "Martinian? Dionisius? John? Constantine? Malchus? Serapion?" No response or reaction to anything. The closer I got to the creature the more I could see of it. It seemed to be a large bat? Its large winged arms seemed to be gripping something. Its flesh was like a wet leathery texture. Stretched tightly against its bones. Patches of fur covered it. The way it moved was so grotusque. As I got closer I could see that it was eating something. I walked around it to try and get a better look at what it was eating. As I did I immediately wished I hadn't. It was eating the corpse of John. He laid there lifeless. His blank expression staring up at me. His guts laid out on the floor and in the creature's mouth. Blood covering its entire face. I let out a blood curdling scream as I fell back onto the floor. The creature immediately looked up at me and went into a leap towards me.