The Hollow Root - Chapter 32
First time? Here’s the table of contents:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29
Silas rushed out of the door and onto the street where he stopped and steadied his nerves with a deep breath. The air was alive with their scents. They were close and his years of plotting and planning had finally bore their fruit. A smile sliced across his face as he scanned the empty streets of North Falls. The houses were mostly empty now as a developer had bought the majority of residents out 3 years ago but then permitting and red tape ruined the company leaving only their billboard on the largest road into the town. North Falls was a modern ghost town. There were a couple of older residents who refused to sell but they kept mainly to themselves awaiting a visit from their grandchildren.
Silas himself had not been back for years and really only chose this location for the significance in his own mind. This was the place that pushed him to become what he was. That forced him to study these creatures... their lives... their desires... their very being. Silas felt his muscles flex with pride as he remembered where he came from.
“They are so close. I cannot wait to see the look on their face when they see who did this to them. When they understand that I, Silas, have become more powerful than them. That I created a rum that could humble them. I got them to kill that prick Vaino... I possessed Kavin’s feeble mind. That I sacrificed everything for this moment where I get to finally put them to an end.” Silas’s fist clenched as his eyes flashed between rage and excitement.
He walked slowly down the sidewalk past the closed buildings and the hollowed shells of businesses promised but never delivered. His body twitched with excitement as he plotted a place to finally confront them.
Kavin, Amy, and Fasaani stood by the car looking at North Falls in the distance. They were all lost in the thought of what might be waiting for them, and why this town.
“Amy, have you even been to North Falls?” Kavin cut through the silence with his question.
“Only recently. I worked with the developer who was trying to build it into some kind of idealistic small town from a television show in the 50s. They had me come and assess the buildings but ultimately their budget was a bit thin and they couldn’t afford to use me after a while.” Amy said finding comfort in reliving her more recent past.
“So you helped kill the city Amy?” Faz blurted out.
“I didn’t kill anything. I simply charged them a high dollar sum to inform them that they couldn’t afford my high dollar sum... if anything my efforts saved the town from the nightmare they would have built.” Amy scoffed.
“Damn and you always got mad at me for grifting the normies.” Faz chuckled.
“It’s... I... you’re right... I think I have been pretty mean to the normies myself.” Amy reflected.
“What’d you keep?” Kavin asked.
“What?” Amy said.
“What’d you keep? You always keep something when you fuck someone over, so what did you keep from this place.” Kavin said.
“Oh... you know I do that. I suppose I don’t really keep it a secret... I just never thought anyone noticed. The developer’s first acquisition was Vaino’s old studio, I think it had changed hands a couple of times and was a coffee shop when they bought it. I...” Amy flushed a light red at the memory she just had “I took the hot water handle in the sink.” She finished.
“Why?” Fasaani shouted.
“I... I don’t know... I went to the bathroom and it was so ornate for such an old bathroom. It had a marble base with a gold knob on top. It was ridiculous and... and I knew it would be obnoxious to replace... so I took it... cause who would think someone would take just one?” Amy said.
“Amy, all these years I thought you were the sage prophet of our kind. Above the temptations that Kav and I always succumbed to. Yet here you are taking a faucet handle to fuck with people you are screwing out of money. Amy you might just be the best of us.” Fasaani said.
“Yeah... I guess I am. Faz you came here before, right?” Amy inquired.
“Yeah I visited Vaino and Kavin. I tried to avoid this place though it always felt like death. The whole town reeked of how it shouldn’t exist to me. Like the land itself screamed at me to leave it alone. I hated this place. Kav how did you manage to stay here so long?” Fasaani said.
“Ha Faz I think it was the smell of death that kept me around. The town always charmed me. Like because it shouldn’t exist it was okay to influence it, experiment, test things out.” Kavin said.
“I miss hearing what the land says.” Amy said somberly.
“So are we just going to sit here and reminisce? Listen to us. We did all of these things and never batted an eye. Never stop to think who or what we broke along the way. The world was our oyster and we slurped it. Now... now it feels like we are just licking the shell. I don’t like the shell for one.” Fasaani said decisively, her breath forming small clouds in the cold air.
The gravel crunched under Kavin’s feet as he shifted his weight. “You’re oddly right. Before we drank that rum and started feeling all this shit, I would have marched into this dead town and given whatever was waiting more than it could handle.”
“To be honest, I would have probably convinced you two to do it for me.” Amy said, pulling her jacket tighter against the wind that swept down from the mountains.
“Amy... did you do a humor?” Faz said, intentionally choosing a sentence structure as awkward as Amy’s joke.
“Faz you only knew me as your scary big sister. Some people think I am very funny.” Amy said.
“Who?” Fasaani and Kavin harmonized in response.
“People... that I pay to... shit.” Amy chuckled, her voice carried away by another gust of wind.
The three of them could smell wood smoke drifting from the few remaining chimneys in North Falls. The scent mixed with something else - something that made Fasaani’s nose twitch with unease.
“Amy we need a plan.” Fasaani said, her tone suddenly somber as she stared at the cluster of weathered buildings ahead.
“How can we plan for the unknown? Kavin... it hates you the most. So we have two choices - send you in as bait or hold you back as a bargaining chip.” Amy said calmly.
“Bait or Barter? I’m glad you value my abilities so highly.” Kavin scoffed.
“I still have my knife. I don’t look like my old self. I could go see who approaches me.” Fasaani made stabbing gestures. “If the opportunity presents itself, I just stab away so we can live another day.”
“Haven’t you stabbed enough? Though beyond the stabbing, you might be onto something.” Amy said, watching the empty windows of the town like dead eyes staring back at them.
“Is this really the best plan? If whatever it is grabs her, are we jumping out with boards?” Kavin asked.
“As proven with Vaino, I act quickly in violent situations, so don’t judge my skills so harshly.” Fasaani replied.
“Do you want to go then, Faz?” Amy said.
“Want? No. But I can’t stand sitting here doing nothing.” Fasaani’s eyes held their familiar dangerous twinkle.
The wind shifted, slicing through them with northern air that carried more than cold. As it intensified, they each felt a haunting whisper drip into their ears: “I know you are here. Come and face me.”