7 the Glowing chapter 7

Chapter 7

Fall 1993

Months have passed, Austin is back in school, he came back on a good day, Chess day. Kirk was not in class today, that was not unexpected. Phil stayed late to walk to the clubhouse with Austin.

Phil holds out his arms questioningly "so last winter you fell off your uncle's roof, now this fall you fell off the roof of your mom's house? Maybe you should stay away from rooftops."

Austin is walking with a limp, he rests a hand on Phil's shoulder to help balance himself. "maybe you are right. Rooftops are important, art and comics are full of images of rooftops. Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Cat Woman all stand on rooftops looking down at the world."

"Are you saying that you want to be Cat Woman?" Phil jokes around.

"if I wanted to be a superhero I think I would want to be Egon Spangler or Iron Man."

Phil looks over "Egon? From Ghostbusters?" Austin nods "you know Harold Ramus was also in 'Good Morning Vietnam."

"I didn't know that, no." Austin reaches over to rub his own arm "did I mention the 20-foot-tall bug that impaled me... and the squid in my leg?"

Phil looks at Austin sideways "what are you getting at?"

Austin lowers his head thinking back "for years I have had this experience. At night, usually, when I am out with my dad, there is something following me. I think it is a dream that is crossing over. Something from my nightmares that wants to be in our world. The walls are getting thinner."

Phil grips Austin by the shoulders "I have felt things like this myself." Phil reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pen "I hold in my hand a weapon, one that can break the sky, make armies quake with fear, move mountains and make kings and gods weep. With this pen, I can raise a man to divinity or strike one from existence. We are the artist, and it is with this that artist face monsters."

Austin takes the pen, he rolls it around his hand "I'm not the only one that has seen this." Austin looks up and down the street. Flag street is the next block. "we need to get to the clubhouse."

The clubhouse has been built up over the last few months, Rob has managed to work with Joe to steal electricity. They have a new T.V. And a small collection of new pirated movies. As Phil and Austin approach Joe and Rob are out front armed with bo-ken. Randy is sitting on the steps watching the show alongside Ben.

Rob holds his sword in one hand pointing it like a French swordsman, Joe grips his blade like a knight, both hands around the handle, blade centered to his chest. Rob rushes Joe, Rob moves fast and hard, it seems almost like the two of them are aiming to draw blood.

Rob swings left then right, Joe walks backward to keep out of reach. Rob turns in from overhead, Joe tips his blade sideways to slide Rob off to one side, Joe reverses momentum threatening to slash Rob across the face, Rob narrowly leans out of the way. Joe flips the blade around to break the bo over Robs back. Rob twist around to lock blades, Rob's one-handed fighting style can't deflect Joe's two-handed strike. Joe slaps the bo from Rob's hand.

Rob hops away laughing "Moose, you're a beast." Rob swoops down to pick his sword back up.

Randy stands up "I want in."

Austin limps over to the door to the train station. Joe drops his sword, he walks over to Austin. Joe grabs Austin and pulls him into a hug. "Welcome Back."

After the greeting Joe and Austin Whisper between each other, "Joe, when was the last time you saw the Glowing One?"

"sometime around September?"

"where?"

"outside my bedroom window, it was crawling on the side of the house like some sort'a... alien crab." Joe's room is on the third floor of the house facing the backyard, in the daytime joe can see Shady Oaks Park from that window, there is a short, wooded path between him and the park. Nothing could every walk by that window.

"was it in the same shape every time you saw it?"

This forces a moment of reflection. "it changes, the first time I saw it was at Uncle Jim's house, it was a man than with three-fingered hands and a straw shaped nose, then it was a disembodied head when I saw it at the park, the last time it was a Derider.

Austin is almost relieved. "then I didn't imagine it." Austin looks to his friend. In an uncharacteristic vouch of confidence, he addresses the group as a whole "I think monsters are living in our town!" his confidences starts to melt away"…I… I think we need to do something about it."

Randy is all in "then we all have seen it? The long Man?"

Rob nods "I have seen it."

Joe looks to Randy and Rob "so have I."

Ben points between himself and Phil "I don't know if we are in on the joke?"

Randy looks to Ben "there is a thing, some sort of an animal or elder thing, it walks the streets at night. Sometimes it makes people do things, sometimes it hurts them, sometimes it spirits them away into the darkness never to be seen again."

Rob elaborates "It is a totem beast, like the ghostly harbingers from Dakota legends."

Joe adds on "it is old, holy, something that is outside our world but still able to effluence it."

Phil questions "Like some kind of a Kami?"

Austin joins in "Like the Eldritch Abomination from the Dunwich Horror."

Phil plays along "what do we do about it?"

Randy takes point "we figure out the rule it follows and exploit them."

Austin nearly buckles under his own weight, nerve damage in his leg giving him a shock Joe and Phil grab Austin to help him hold himself upright. Austin points "can we go inside."

The group goes into the train station, bits and peace of the original furnishing are still there, the group has dug up a few more chairs, a bed, some blankets and cheap carpeting to liven the place up. They have a TV and radio as well as a bookcase with a hand full of nick-knacks on it. There was a storage room off to one side, but Randy had pulled down the door turning it into a blind corner in the main room. The only thing they don't have in the clubhouse is a working bathroom.

Ben falls into a chair "what are you guys talking about?"

The group fans out, everyone taking a seat somewhere around the main room. Randy is the one that responds "Monsters are real. I have seen them, and I am not the only one; Brooke, Austin, Joe, and now Rob."

Ben looks at his brother as if waiting for him to say something. Joe does "The window in my room, I wasn't the one that broke it, it was the Glowing One."

Rob cuts in "I want to fight this thing. We will go get our swords and we can pumble the thing all the way to hell."

Randy looks at Rob with an aggravated glance "if this thing is as big and bad as it looks do you think hitting it with a stick will make it go away?"

Rob points in the direction of the apartments "I have a shotgun hidden in my mom's closet, will that work?"

Joe joins back in "everything that is alive follows rules. Everything we do we do because it in some way offers us a survival advantage. We can try following the monster around, watch how it acts, maybe that will reveal something about it."

Rob is excitable, he jumps around with meaningless rage "it is tough enough to pick up a kid in one hand and open doors with its face."

Randy shakes her head "it can't open doors. I have never seen it open a door of its own accord. It can't unlock windows. It is frightened by most types of light. That is what I have seen."

Joe adds on "it doesn't seem to like groups, I see it most of the time when I am alone or with Austin. I have never seen it if there are more than four people around."

Austin leans over, lying on the table in the room. "it is a changeling. It shifts into many shapes to… I don't know what it is trying to do."

Phil looks between the speakers "well, do we all agree on lights and crowds keeping us safe? That is something to start with."

Ben is shaking his head in disbelief as the friends all seem to be joining in on this idea. "this is dumb, I think we should watch a movie then head home."

Rob looks between Phil, Randy, and Austin. "tomorrow, after the first hour meet me at the front office. We are going to let everyone in the school know that there are monsters around and we need to be on the lookout."

Ben walks over to the shelf with the movies on it "looks like we got some new stuff." Ben reads over some of the titles "Sand Lot, Challenge the Ninja, Hocus Pocus, Ninja Lady, Cat's Eyes, Lost Boys, Dracula, NIMH."

The last one catches Austin's attention "Rob, did you find a copy of Don Bluth's Secret of NIMH?"

Rob loses his train of thought as he looks over "Yeah, got it from Mr. Movies."

"I have had my mom rent that movie for me 20 times. I love the book, Brisby is just the most beautiful person in history."

Phil looks at Austin his head tipped as he thinks about the phrasing of that statement "I don't think that the mouse girl in that move counts as a historical person."

Austin looks at Phil with a watchful gaze "you know what I mean."

Randy looks up nibbling on a finger as she considers that also "can a cartoon be beautiful?" the group keeps themselves entertained by watching a hand full of movies together before slowly the group make their way home, hardly another word about what had transpired.

At least until the next school day.

In the middle of the night Randy screams, Austin awakens. Austin crawls over to the AC to look down into Randy's room. Randy falls from bed, she fumbles around looking for her flashlight. Once it is in hand Randy crawls back into one corner of her room and flips the light on. She shines the light down at herself looking at her own hands the turns the light to the door. Randy is shaking, sweating, she can't seem to catch her breath as she is glaring dead-eyed at the entrance to her room. The expiration on her face conveying the idea that her undivided attention is the only thing keeping whatever evil is hiding behind the door at a distance.

"Randy, Randy!" Austin tries yelling. Randy is experiencing auditory exclusion, she can't respond. Austin remembers something from one of the movies he was watching with his friends, he runs to the kitchen and grabs the salt shaker from the countertop and runs down the steps to rescue Randy.

Salt shaker in hand Austin ponds as the door to Randy's apartment. Randy's dad is the one to come to the door. The door is swung open with much vigor, Randy's dad stands in the doorway looking like a giant fur-covered monster, almost caveman-like covered by nothing more then a tight pair of tiger stripped shorts.

In the gap between the Door and Randy's father's body, Randy can be seen snuggled up on the couch in shock. The beasty man barks at Austin "what!" Austin's nerve fades away quickly, he drops the salt shaker on the ground and runs away.

Come morning Austin checks back in on Randy. The two step out of the apartment side by side. Austin looks to Randy as they start on there way into the school. Randy can't seem to lift her head to match his gaze. She offers only a few words "it got into my room."

"What happened" Austin ask

"I opened my eyes, and he was kneeling on top of me. I tried to run, I was unable to move. Only my eyes could move. The weight on my chest made it hard to breathe. Felt like I was in water. I don't know how long I was struggling. I could hear signing. It didn't do anything. It just sat there holding me."