THE RED WAKE

Chapter 35

 IRIS stared at the creatures in the yard. Some were huge, misshapen parodies of human beings. Others moved about on all fours like beasts. Some of them were reptilian, scaled, with vulpine, predatory eyes that shone a bright yellow in the gloom. Iris recoiled, instinctively repulsed. And yet, a distant part of her found the aliens utterly and disturbingly familiar. One of the creatures, a massive, hairy white humanoid, stepped into the circle of lights created by the torches the other beings carried.  

     Jhun. 

      She found the word in her memory as if by magic. It had simply appeared in her mind, as if the knowledge had somehow been there all along. The word seemed to fit the white humanoid. With a shrug of its massive shoulders, it turned from its' observation of Jenny's distress to regard Iris. 

      Yes, Iris thought. That being is called a Jhun, a Brood Dam. 

      The giantess bared her massive teeth at Iris in an unmistakable gesture of challenge. It took a step toward her as a high- pitched, musical voice rang out in the yard.

      "Stop."

      A snarl burst out of the Brood Dam's throat. But she halted in mid-stride.

      "What is this?" 

      Iris turned toward the sound of the voice. A tall, pale woman, dressed in black leather pants, black biker jacket and heavy black work boots, stood in the center of the yard, well back from the circle of light. As the woman stepped forward, her face retreated momentarily from the shadows. Iris gasped. It was one of the twins, the girls that had been attacked, assaulted by the burned man in an Iowa cornfield outside the Quad Cities. Rachel. The girl had strangled her own sister after being possessed by one of the Fend. The same Yloi had ridden the burned man and used him up until he died. Iris had somehow constructed a visual replay of the murder from the psychic residue left howling in the ether. She could sense that presence now, as it flickered and shimmered in the corona that was Rachel's aura, betraying the strange, dual nature of the being standing before her. The girl was pale. But her lips had gone black. Her face had been ritually pierced in several places. Gold and silver studs had been hammered into her eyebrows. They arched up from the bridge of her nose, around her cheekbones, trailing along her jawbone to terminate at her chin. Her body had been... teased, elongated by the shape- molding powers of the being that had co-opted it. Her once blond hair had gone black as pitch in places, a harbinger of further changes to come. Her eyes, somehow grown impossibly large, resembled the fierce orbs of some great bird of prey; so gray they were nearly white. They shone with a malignant, devious cunning as she regarded the humans in the yard. Around her, misshapen figures slouched and shambled out of the night in increasing numbers. Iris sensed without having to look, that the house had been surrounded. 

      "Silence." 

      The twin spoke quietly. But the aliens in the barnyard ceased their chattering as if she had fired a shotgun. None of them moved as she sauntered casually into the light. Her lips curled upward, forming a fiendish smile.

      "You seem far too calm for the occasion, my dear."  

      Iris studied the twin. She wasn't afraid: not really. The feeling was more one of intense fascination, like a man regarding a cobra safely separated from him by a wall of glass.

      "I find you... compelling," Iris said simply. She spoke quietly from the shadows, outlined in firelight and moon-glow. "Nothing more. Why did you hurt my friends?" 

      Iris glanced over at Jimmy and Jenny where they lay in the dirt at the feet of the ape- like alien. The creature still gripped the spear which had pierced Jimmy's leg in one of its' clawed hands. Sweat poured down Jimmy's face as he clenched his teeth against the pain. His eyes widened slightly as Iris locked her gaze with his. But he glared silently at the confrontation between the two women on the porch. Jenny held Jimmy clutched tightly to her breast, her terror making her heart pound in her thin chest. But in her posture and the resolve in her eyes, Iris detected the willingness to battle death itself. Jenny glared defiantly up at the being that towered above them both. Releasing Jimmy with one hand, she gripped the spear that held him pinned, attempting to remove it from his thigh. The ape thing seemed to regard her with mild amusement as she yanked her hand back sharply as if she had been burned. Iris could make out the shimmer of tiny blades all around the shaft of the weapon. In a moment Jenny's hands went red from dozens of tiny cuts. The ape- thing savagely twisted the barbed spear, wringing a groan of agony from Jimmy where he lay pinned.