Jeremy Finley - The Darkest Time of Night

The creature stood just a foot away. On seeing my dazed expression, it began to click again.

I knew what it wanted. From me, from all the returned.

It began to click faster, its head tilting. It stepped forward to where there was only a few inches between us.

All it needed was a few memories more, to determine what they’d put in me. What they sent me back to do.

What weapon I carried within me.

“No!” I cried out. “Stay away!”

I stumbled back, trying to steady myself. I awkwardly swept up William and blundered down the other side of the hallway, ignoring the screaming pain in my knee. The further I moved away, the sharper my thoughts became.

We’re their weapons. Whatever they put in us, whatever we carry in us, they activate and watch the chaos unfold.

William’s drawings flashed through my head like videos on the evening news. The unexplained rise in hurricanes, tornadoes, cancer, and even deadly allergies to food—science struggled to understand why.

It was all by design. Our world is where they test these weapons.

And whatever they planned to do in the end, it said William was the final stage.

They cannot have him. Whatever happens, I have to get him out.

The frantic, strobelike lights made me feel as if I could go crashing into a wall at any moment, but I kept running. The lights were growing brighter now, coming through wide glass windows of the room beyond.

The hallway led into a lobby. Several men in heavy camouflage coats, their rifles pulled up to their shoulders, ran past the windows outside. The light fell on the drifting snow, making it look like it was raining confetti.

William was still entranced. I carried him to the glass entrance doors and waited a moment for them to open.

The power’s out, they won’t open.

I set William down and tried to pry the doors open at the seam. “Come on,” I pleaded.

Through the glass I saw a man, standing a yard or so away. He wore a heavy coat and a sock hat and stared up at where the light originated, transfixed by whatever he saw.

“Joe!” I cried out, banging on the glass. “Joe!”

I even saw his massive truck parked nearby, its plow covered with a layer of snow. “Joe!” I said, striking the glass repeatedly.

He continued to stare, his eyes wide, the lights spilling over his face. He isn’t even blinking .

The lights in the lobby came roaring back on. I hurried to stand before the doors.

The glass didn’t part. I looked around, seeing another keypad flashing beside the door. Of course there would be a code here, they wouldn’t just let anyone in. Or out.

I heard the sound of William’s feet scuffling.

I whirled around, seeing him beginning to walk back to where we came from. At the far end of the hall, I could see several shapes emerging.

I ran and seized William, rushing back to the door. I smashed my fist on the glass, screaming for Joe. I scanned the lobby for anything I could use to try and break the glass, but the only thing I could see was a computer monitor on the front desk, and it wouldn’t have made a dent.

I could feel the numbness growing on the back of my head. I kept pounding. The memory of Daddy’s warning about the woods broke me free of the creature’s control before, but I didn’t know if I could snap out of it again.

I looked out to see the interior light come on in the cab of Joe’s truck. The door opened slightly, and someone peered out.

Despite my staggering panic, I gasped. Roxy’s face was so bruised, so swollen from the ugly gash down her forehead, that I almost didn’t recognize her at first. I cried out her name, waving my arms wildly. I saw her limp out of the truck towards Joe. She looked up in the sky, her hand covering her mouth in astonishment. She looked back at the truck, and then briefly towards the medical center.

I screamed her name, striking the glass. She did a double take, and I could see her yell out my name. She moved towards Joe, pointing in my direction. Roxy shook him, but he continued to stare upwards.

I watched her give a frightened look in the direction in which Joe stared, and then she painfully moved towards us.

“Come on!” she motioned to me.

“The door won’t open! We can’t get out!”

Roxy went back to Joe, this time hitting him in the arm. When he didn’t respond, she gave me a frantic look, made an obscene gesture at Joe and limped back towards the truck. She was practically dragging her right foot. I watched her open the driver’s side door and haul herself in.

The lights went out again, and as soon as I turned back to the lobby, the numbness was back. All I wanted to do was relax. The feeling was so refreshing, such a relief, the euphoria almost too much to fight.

There were five, six, no… ten . They were like tall children, some walking, others… arranging themselves, twitching in rickety sections, angling and reaching out like a scurrying insect.

None of this was alarming. It was such a delightful feeling. I wasn’t even worried that William was a few feet ahead of me, walking—

I heard the roar of engine. I groggily turned back to look outside, seeing Joe’s truck move in reverse and make a sharp turn towards the lobby. The light in the cab came on briefly, and Roxy was motioning wildly at me from behind the wheel.

“Get back!” I could see her yell.

The headlights of the truck shone out over the plow as it barreled towards the doors.

I rushed forward and grabbed William, stumbling away, closing my eyes as the glass exploded behind us.

As the plow smashed through the doors, I heard them scream. The sound, metallic and feline, made me want to cry out myself. The numbing feeling was immediately gone.

The truck tore back in reverse. I seized William and carried him over the shattered glass, wincing as an icy blast hit us both.

“What the hell?” I heard Joe call out, now turned in our direction. “What are you doing?”

“What are you doing, you moron!” Roxy hollered while she rolled down the window. “Took me driving through a building to get you to pay attention! Lynn, get in the backseat! Joe, get the hell in here! I had to use my bad foot to hit the gas, and it’s hurting like a son of a bitch!”

I opened the door and lifted William inside, looking back towards the lobby. “Go! Get away from here as fast as you can!”

“What the hell is going on out there?” Joe said, climbing in to take the wheel, rubbing the back of his head.

“Holy Mary Mother of God! William, is that really you?” Roxy reached out to brush his knee, and then winced in pain at the effort. “Lynn, you found him, you found him….”

“Roxy,” I said, my heart in my throat. “What happened to you?”

She leaned back. “Joe, get us the hell out of here.”

Joe sat, still dazed. “I… froze. I just can’t believe it. My whole head felt like I was doped up. What are those things? I mean, it can’t be—”

“Shut up and drive.”

The comment came from what I first thought was a pile of snowsuits on the other side of the bench. Instead, the groggy and wizened face of Verna Cliff revealed itself from within the hood of a long maroon coat. After scowling at Joe, she reached over and touched William’s shoulder. “Sweet boy. Your grandma found you.”

“How are you here…?” I stammered.

“Cover his eyes, Grandma.” Verna leaned forward. “Or he’ll be as useless as Joe was out there. Hard not to be; even I couldn’t look away.”

I realized that William hadn’t stirred. He was sitting on the edge of the seat, staring out the windshield.

I followed his gaze and immediately felt the numbing again. Beams of light spilled down from the snowing sky. Dozens of columns, white and gold, amid a flurry of colorful pulsating lights high in the gray night sky. As I looked beyond, I could see even more of the light beams behind the hospital.