Chapter 7 - Leks-cah-rekslah

Imaan closed the door behind her as she entered the Benson house. Sybil sat down in the dining room and everyone else followed her. "How long will this take?" Otis asked, as he sat down across from Sybil.

"It took only a couple of minutes when they explained it to me," Imaan told Otis, as she jogged from the front door to the dining room. Nelson sat down as she made her way to the dining room.

Sybil watched Imaan pull a chair out when she told the group, "We also need to discuss anything that's happened since."

Otis felt confused, he wasn't sure what they were all doing but he used to be sure it wasn't all that complicated or abnormal. Once Imaan sat down, Otis felt that he was being watched and a slight wind from behind him.

"There's a Haragcstic in this town," Sybil commanded. The space around Sybil felt as though it had closed in on her as the words left her mouth, and felt an overwhelming presence similar to the one she had felt last night.

Otis looked down at the table and asked "The ancient creature?" stammering as he asked it. Otis didn't question what Sybil was saying, she had never been one to mess with someone and had always told Otis the truth. He also noticed how Nelson and Imaan acted, subdue and held their hands in place, which was a large contrast to their easy going attitudes they had always had before.

Sybil fidgeted her hands as she told Otis, "The creature got to Matt and Mr. Sadiq is involved with it somehow. Any questions?" She did so in as steady a voice as she could, which was becoming more and more difficult as she felt more claustrophobic.

"Nope, none" Otis responded in an emotionless manner, similar to how Sybil acted. Otis raised his head, "Will you explain the details as we go?" he asked as he looked over to Sybil. Sybil nodded her head as she asked the group, "Any developments?"

Nelson stood up from his chair, losing his balance as he stood and emitted words that sounded similar to "I'm starting to see a figure and last night I saw Mr. Sadiq with a shovel and some burnt plants." He sat back in his chair as soon as he finished, feeling weirdly exhausted by standing in place and talking.

Imaan started to feel the space quickly close in on her as she lifted herself out of her chair with her hand and asked the group, "Can we take this outside? I'm starting to feel light headed." Everyone nodded their heads, refusing to speak, and got out of their chairs.

As Sybil followed everyone else out the door, at the far back of the line of kids, she tried her best to look out the windows. There were cloths over the windows, but even if they weren't there little could be seen outside. The outside seemed darker than it had when they had entered the house. Sybil soon realized something had happened, she wasn't sure what had happened but the house wasn't the house they entered. "Wait!" she shouted to everyone to try to stop them from opening the front door, but it was too late. Imaan had opened the door and the windows returned to normal.

The children all played, as they usually did, and the clouds in the sky had cleared up. As each kid stepped out of the house they gasped for air. Otis fell to the floor as he inhaled violently for air. "What happened in there?" Nelson blurted as he continued to sigh heavily.

"Can the Haragcstic manipulate houses and stuff?" Imaan asked, before anyone could answer Nelson's question. Otis slowly got off the grass and wiped the dirt off himself as he recovered. "From what I've read, no," Otis answered as he stood on his feet.

Sybil opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by a younger kid who ran up to the group, "What were you guys doing there?" the small kid asked them. Otis kneeled down to her height and started to explain a story. As Otis did this, Sybil walked away and signaled the group toward the creek bank, their common meeting spot.

Sybil, Nelson, and Imaan reached the bank and said nothing, they were waiting for Otis to arrive before saying anything. Otis arrived at the spot only a couple of minutes after they did and once he did Sybil immediately announced, "We're no longer dealing with the Haragcstic."

"We're not safe in our houses either," Nelson concluded as he attempted to skip a rock, but ended up throwing it directly in the creek.

Otis mimicked Nelson and began skipping rocks as he told the group, "As long as we're with other people, we should be fine."

"I'm an only child, and my mom can hardly walk, and my dad is..." Imaan warbled, slowly starting to hyperventilate.

"You should be fine, you can spend the night at my place for a little while," Otis offered, "My grandma's bed is open, so there's enough room for you and your mom. Quick question..." Otis started, gulping as he asked, "Just how involved is your dad, Mr. Sadiq?"

"He spoke to me in ancient tongue," Sybil answered

"Last night he walked around town with a large shovel and burnt plants," Nelson added

"He also gave Matt a mysterious book as his gift," Sybil added

"I don't think that's my dad," Imaan declared. Imaan stood up right and looked at the others in the group. "This creature has turned into Otis before, right?"

"Yes, it has." Sybil responded. Otis was taken aback when he heard this.

"So, there's a chance the thing has transformed into my dad right?"

Nelson looked away from the group and threw his rock, once he fell into the water he answered, "It could be the figure Sybil has seen, but I saw it with a figure last night."

"How do you know it's not the same figure?" Sybil asked him.

"It was shorter and completely black, about Otis's height," Nelson told the group, "I chased after it a couple of times but it ran away."

"So there's a colorless figure that has the possibility of being Mr. Sadiq that I keep seeing and a black one that you've seen at the same time as Mr. Sadiq," Sybil evaluated, trying to make sure Otis knew everything that was going on.

"I also don't think the black figure and whatever can control the houses are related," Nelson informed the group as he kneeled down to grab another rock on the bank. "I seemed to provoke the black figure, but if it could control the house it probably would've done something, right?" Nelson walked to the edge of the creek as he finished he sentence, then threw the rock. He missed the creek and the rock hit the other side of the creek.

Imaan sat down on the bank of the creek and passed on to the group, "That makes sense, so my actual dad is in the clear now."

Sybil started to respond to Imaan "That's not what anyone-" before Imaan interrupted with, "There's a chance he's still out there, we could help save him."

"No, if the figure has replaced him he's probably dead," Sybil told Imaan, trying to keep eye contact as Imaan shifted her eyes away from Sybil. A short moment after Sybil had finished, Imaan stormed away to the slope that connected the bank to the field. "Hey!" Otis shouted, "Where are-"

"Look up! It's almost time for dinner, I have to go prepare food for my parents," she avowed with a clearly agitated tone. Nelson looked to the sky when Imaan said this, now that the clouds were clearing up it was easier to see the time of day. The sun was slowly setting, "How long were we in there for?" Nelson questioned.

The rest of the children ran up the slope to go back to their homes, and in the bushes on the other side of the creek a creature sat there and watched the children, who had increasingly become aware of its presence.

"Leks-cah-rekslah" it did, it smelled, it chanted, and thought.

Imaan slammed the door to her home open and rushed to the pot at the back of the dining room to start preparing dinner. The pot was already prepared with chunks of beef and some strange plants. Mr. Sadiq burst out of his bedroom, where Mrs. Sadiq laid, with a large, wooden spoon in his hands. "We're having more beed tonight," he told Imaan.

Imaan backed away from the pot and made her way to the dining room table, "Haven't we been having that a lot lately?" she asked her father, who she knew hasn't the same father she was raised by.

"Mr. Randall Greene picked a lot of beef and ingredients for beef stew up, seems we'll be having that for a little bit," he said as he made sporatically made his way to the pot. He would take one small step, stop for a moment, then take a large step followed by a short step and a small jump. Imaan was starting to resent him for cheating his illness he had shared with his wife. "This isn't my dad, he's out somewhere. I'm going to save him, and mom. I'm going to save both of them," Imaan thought to herself confidently.

Sybil entered her house again, and reluctantly closed the door. She thought, "Would it do anything tonight?" as she walked to the dining room, where her dad was stirring the pot. Leopold ran out of his room and informed Sybil as he passed, "Dad's home." The man continued to stir the pot, he looked strangely foreign to Sybil likely because he hadn't been home in so long. "Where's mom?" Sybil asked Leopold, as he continued to pass her.

Leopold stopped walking to the dining room table and looked directly at Sybil, then their dad looked at the two children. "Leopold, can you watch this while I explain to Sybil?" he asked.

Leopold continued to march to the pot before answering, "Sure."

Sybil and her father stepped out of the house, under the darkening sky, and her father looked up at it with familarity. He continued to look at it before Sybil asked him, "Is everything okay?"

He continued to look at the sky, "Yeah, I was just hoping to see the sun when I got back but seeing stars for once isn't that bad," he told Sybil.

Her father continued to look at the sky, her thoughts lingered on the word I, he had just said. "Is everything alright, with mother?" she asked him, once she did, his eyes looked away from the sky and looked directly at Sybil.

He took a breath before saying to Sybil, "Your mother did not make it back from our trip."

Sybil's usual monotone facial expression felt a slight crack and her eyes widened. Her legs become unsteady and started to wobble in place, she looked at her legs to find them shaking in place. Her dad started to walk back inside, sulking as he walked through the open door. She followed him and once she was able to, she leaned on the doorway for a moment to regain her balance.

"When is mom getting back?" one of the youngest kids asked.

Sybil's dad picked up her sibling and walked him over to the dining room table, and as he set the kid down he told him, "It'll be a while." All of the other siblings continued to talk, except for Leopold who was standing next to the pot. He looked into the mixture of water, beef, and plants that were in the pot. "Me and Leopold must be the only ones who know," Sybil realized.

The next morning, Imaan heard a loud knock on her door. She was wetting a towel for her mom, when she heard the knock. She finished putting the towel on her mom's head, then made her way to the door. The person out front kept knocking until Imaan opened the door, Sybil was out front. "Do you mind gathering lizards today?"

"No, not at all."

"You do that, I'll get the stone needed for the knife."

Imaan leaned forward toward Sybil and whispered, "For the Haragcstic?"

"It's not the Haragcstic."

"Then won't it not work?"

"The lizard siliva reacts to the shape changing parts of their body, that's why it's effective. This creature can still change shape, so in theory, it should still work"

"Alright, I'll get that done today."

Sybil walked away from the house, "Thanks," she said.

Nelson and Otis ran across the bridge and made their way to the east side's field. "Sybil told me her and Imaan are going to make the knife today," Otis told Nelson, gasping for breath between the words.

"Are we supposed to do anything?"

"Keep the kids away from them both? I'm not really sure we have anything."

They both arrived to the field and were the last of the kids to arrive, apart from Sybil and Imaan. Sybil was shortly seen after walking to the bank of the creek, Imaan was not seen by the children the whole day. "Sybil!" Lewis called, as she took the first step down the slope. Lewis ran to the slope and followed Sybil to the creek.

"What are you doing?"

Sybil crouched down and looked at the rocks on the bank, looking for one strong enough to keep its composure. She picked a small rock and said, "I'm looking for a hard and sharp rock," before hitting the rock on the bank, shattering it.

"I can help!" Lewis exclaimed, before crouching in the area Sybil was in to look. They continued to look, and when they found rocks they would shatter them on the bank. They continued this until Lewis picked a rock up that was the largest and sharpest there. Lewis handed it to Sybil and smashed it against the bank, but it didn't break.

"This is good, thank you Lewis." Sybil then ran up the slope again and Lewis followed. Lewis joined the rest of the kids and Sybil ran to her house. She ran to the study and fell into her chair. She hit the rock against the wooden desk and made a noticable dent. "This will definitely work," she thought.

Imaan never went to the east side, but instead went into the bushes and greenery on the west. She was able to move her mom outside again, so she could feel the wind and cracks of sunlight through the trees. Imaan brought a small towel and tied it shut, to make a small bag to put the lizards in. She chased them down through shrubs, bushes, and chased some to the creek. She put the fourth one in her bag, "How many will I need?" she thought to herself.

After the fourth lizard, she wasn't able to find another, no matter how hard she looked. "This will have to be enough," she thought, defeated, as she walked past her house and toward the bridge. Sybil met Imaan before she could reach the bridge.

"Did you get any?" she asked

"Yes, four"

"That's more than enough, thanks."

The thanks felt disingenuous, Sybil didn't change her facial expressions and monotone voice tone. Imaan passed the bag to Sybil and Sybil walked away. "It should be ready by tomorrow," she told Imaan.

Sybil marches back home, and picked up a pebble on the way. On her desk in the study, she had a small wooden bowl and the rock her and Lewis had picked out earlier. She untied the towel and let the lizards loose in the small bowl, before taking the pebble and smashing the lizards. She smashed the lizards and dragged the guts toward the center of the bowl, continuing to smash them up. Once she was sure they were smash enough, she filled the bowl with water and let it sit. "I only needed one lizard for this to work, but Imaan got more than enough. If we need to we can also make other weapons with this." Sybil thought, as she left her home to grab a branch.

Nelson noticed Sybil leave the house and yelled to her, "How is it going?!"

Sybil acknowledged his question but walked closer to him before answering, "It's almost done, just getting a branch to work as the handle."

"Nice! Do you need me and Otis to do anything?"

"Not yet, but you two can come watch me finish."

"Sure!" Nelson agreed, before following Sybil get a branch.

Nelson climbed one of the shorter trees and broke a small but thick branch off, Sybil picked at the grass and picked a sturdy and long enough piece. The grass was usually cut by Mr. Wilcher, but he had taken Nelson's mom's previous work of washing everybody's clothes. It had been years since the grass was cut, so the grass has grown long and sturdy in certain areas.

They both walked back inside the house and marched to the study. Nelson handed Sybil the thick branch, she put the branch in a position where it would connect to the stone and tied it together with the strand of grass, then tied it again with other strand. She picked the knife up by the branch and it fell a little. Before the weapon fell apart, Sybil put it back on the desk and tied three more strands to it. She continued this until he was tied enough to feel comfortable to use.

Once she finished the structure, she put Imaan's towel in the bowl of water and crushed lizards. Nelson watched as Sybil let the towel soak, before she took it out and rubbed the towel against the knife. She continued to rub it up and down the knife before she put the towel back in the bowl. "It's done," she told Nelson, as she felt the study's walls start to enclose.

Imaan walked toward her house, hoping to take her mom back inside and maybe take a nap herself. Chasing the lizards was more exhausting than playing the children ever had been for her. She walked past Nelson's house when Woody Kemp walked out the front door, "Hey, Mrs. Sadiq? Right?" he asked her.

Imaan turned her head toward Woody, "Yes, Imaan Sadiq."

"I hear you're the oldest of the children here, is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"Can we talk about your mom and dad?"