I had run into so many brick walls and MACK trucks that night that I hardly thought it were possible for another twist to surface.
This is Marlowe Choler?
Right.
If that's true than I'm really six foot five and an all-star playing for the Indiana Fever in the WNBA. I was shaking my head, unbeknownst to myself.
"It's true," Jonas said. "You're a very smart woman Tracy, not even my own mother could figure that out after all these years. But it's been eleven years; if you tell anyone who I really am, I'm a dead man. That's because this will not stop unless we end them tonight and show full proof in the morning."
"Full proof?" Tracy asked.
"Yes. The Garaj Family wants to kill as many people as they can, drag them into the ground with them, and get out of sight without one hint of proof. They've succeeded so far, and they could do it again." Tracy moved closer to him.
"You know about my sister?" I overheard her say, but I didn't know anything about her family so hearing she had a sibling was like hearing she was really an actress.
"When I heard your father had disappeared, I knew what had happened. He was adamant about researching it, just like we were back in Missouri, but they had to silence him. When I wrote that article a day after the wreck, they immediately put a number on my head. When Mark went missing, I knew how serious they were. I kept up with your family. I kept up with you all, even when you went off to college. I did it for Mark." He lowered his head a moment. "I felt like a failure when your mom and brother went missing." He raised his head again. "But I thought if I kept a better eye on you and your sister I'd help out. So one day when I went to check up on your sister, I saw you. You were running back from some street corner in the pouring rain with slashes all over you. You were crying and I came and—"
"That was you?" Tracy said.
"Yes. By that time, I had changed my identity, but yes that was me."
I never felt so out of the loop.
They kept talking about some mysterious night where Tracy had fought for her life, and I can't lie, I started to fade away.
It was because of not being able to fathom Tracy in distress. The small knocking noise I had heard over my right shoulder was part of the reason as well. It was quiet enough not to be there, but pronounced enough to entice my intuition.
"You had face reconstruction surgery."
"Yes. I look nothing like I did," he said, a sense of gloating in his voice.
"You come here every rainy game?" Tracy said. The conversation between them, I noticed, had turned casual.
Letting them speak, I inched my way toward the double doors which was now closed. There was a square window towards the top half of the door which I knew I wouldn't be able to see out of even if I jumped. Maybe my make believe six foot five self would be able to.
"Over the years I've developed a sense of great prediction when it comes to the weather," Jonas was saying.
Meanwhile, I was edging toward the door. The knocking sound was rather consistent and creepy. I remember asking myself if I was hearing this in my head, but I wasn't about to wait and find out. Jonas continued.
"I've followed the studies of meteorologists and done studies myself. I am now so good at knowing when a big storm will hit that it isn't even the month that it hits yet." I strained to listen now, as I guess when he saw me walking away, his voice shrunk for only Tracy's ears. "History repeats itself, Tracy, but the weather does not. Even in seasons where we can damn near expect it to be some type of way, it may be that way a little, but with each year, it changes. I'm tracking the changes and I think so is the Garaj Family."
I put my small hands on the handle of the door. I've kept my hands in my pockets for the most part, but the long silver handle was so cold that I remember jerking back. I don't know why, but my reaction was almost as if the handle was one of those mechanical pens where when you go to make the ink ball point come down, pushing in the finial, jolts of electricity goes running through your thumb. Meagan would get all the CFFs with that most nights in college.
"I have followed their scent, Tracy," Jonas still speaking. "I knew they were heading this way so many months ago it wasn't even funny. This is the night. With your help, we can end this." I pushed down on the handle, and peered through the crack. Instantly I felt the danger.
There was a gust of cold wind that wasn't there before. We are on the lower levels after all and I think my mind just put two and two together. Some kind of portal or door or opening that wasn't open before has been opened. The noise, sounding like feet, was a little more pronounced now. I knew they could hear it now, because all was silent, neither Jonas or Tracy speaking.
"Ariel," I turned back to Tracy and would've responded to her had I not seen Curro's face.
"It's the start," he said.
"What?" Tracy responded.
"Shhh..." Jonas said, his eyes fixed on mines as if he was using my eyeballs as mirrors, looking through the hallways himself. I turned back to the empty hall. The constant knocking was so prevalent now that I was kicking myself. I knew something was there, I just couldn't see it. The echo that came bouncing from down the way I looking was loud and sharp enough to have been concrete and visible. But nothing was there. Or so I thought.
Hoping the coast was clear, I saw something moving. The circular mirror that was over the visitor's locker room in my peripheral was giving me feedback. I couldn't quite put it into words then, but what I saw was terrifying. My breath caught in my throat and I heard Jonas and Tracy say something, but I was completely scared stiff.
It was a large number of the Garaj Family cannibals.
They were crawling on all fours, but it had to be a hundred of them just in that hall alone. They looked like an army. I couldn't see anything else, just them as they crept closer and closer toward us. My lower lip started to quiver and I could feel my knees converting into Jell-O.
"Uhm Tracy... I think you better come and see—" I stopped talking on a dime, shouts of multiple men scared me enough to almost have an out of body experience. I fell on my ass and cursed the cold ground that I slapped down on.
Jonas ran to the door and peered out of it, Tracy making sure I was okay before she joined. With a pained look on my face, I could see through Tracy's leg and out of the crack door. Mr. Basel and the officers were stuck in the mud with their hands over their heads like a deer caught in headlights. The look on Mr. Basel's eyes was death. Nothing more; nothing less. He knew his time had come. He was completely petrified. They must've heard the knocking noise and came out to investigate too.
Tracy stuck out her hand toward the ceiling and told Jonas to look and next thing I knew, Jonas was creeping away. Tracy snatched up her pipe, then came over to yank me up off of my butt.
"Time's up," Jonas said as we climbed the stadium's stairs. "The army of demons have finally left the ground."
At one point, as we passed the first floor's lobby, I thought I had heard screams from down below, where Mr. Basel was. This was around the time I had looked out the windows. Clearly we were still flooded in Indianapolis, flashes of lightning still warning people not to come out. It was now storming so bad that any hopes that we'll be able to make it out alive had left me when triple zeros showed up on the Jumbotron.
In the stairwell, between the second and third floor, Tracy placed two hands on Jonas's shoulders and asked him what the plan is. Jonas was out of shape, clearly, but he still had more energy than me. I was hanging onto the railing, relieved that Tracy had stopped him. He was breathing a little heavy, but when he was ready his voice was calm.
"The pace that they are taking is common. I saw it before."
"You saw it before?" Tracy asked, awe-stricken. "Why are they crawling?"
"It's a ritual. If they are to attack this place, they need to do it in army numbers. They're going to examine each of the lower floors carefully to make sure no threat is there. The third floor won't see them for another hour, maybe hour in a half."
"And maybe more time if there are people on the other two levels, right?"
"Right. They'll attack them and then scan that area more carefully."
"I'm not risking that," Tracy admitted, turning to pace. "We need to attack fire with fire. We can't let them get up to the third level." She turned and looked at me, as I hung to the railing breathing wildly with my mouth open as if I had never ran before. Her eyes told me she was ready to fight. "I'd rather die first."
"One more thing," Jonas said, stopping Tracy who was ready to run up the stairs. The look in his eyes made me sigh.
More bad news, I can feel it.
He squinted and made a frustrated look.
"We have to tell the people." I wasn't so sure it was the best idea, but who was I to say? "At least, then, the ones who do believe us can prepare to defend themselves when the time comes." He took one last look at us and took the stairs up, two at a time. I put my hand on Tracy's forearm.
"Tracy," she looked at me, a bead of sweat rolling down from her hairline. "Does he know what he's talking about?" I asked. "I'm scared as hell. What if he's wrong? What if we don't have that much time? What if we only have twenty minutes before those things pick up speed?
"Do you trust me?"
I heard her, but she didn't speak.
It was more of an exhale. I nodded my head, but she lifted it with both hands as I started to lower it. "Good," she said, a tad louder. "That's all you need right now. Just trust me." She nodded at me as she helped me wipe the water from my eyes. "This bastard may know me and my family, but he doesn't know what I'm really capable of. Let's go."
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A/N
"It's the start" 😨 This would be a crazy moment in real life; to see how we react with a few hours to prepare for battle. Lol. Anyways, this Jonas guy is very knowledgeable. He believes all hell is about to break loose. Do u think he's right about telling the people or will it backfire?
Please continue to comment and vote :) next chapter real soon!
For now,
-two fingers' ✌️