Codex

Another chill struck Randy at fifteen minutes past nine o’clock in the evening. This was huge considering this was the same guy that never woke up easily especially on such a night when he was damn exhausted and besides, he always slept through all the alarms. Though he had been deeply asleep, immersed in dreams of playing in the park with his sister, Laurent, on a Saturday afternoon, he sat up quickly in bed. The pallid twenty-six-year-old dude clutched an old woolen blanket and stared into the faint light that came through the window of the cellar bedroom allocated to him by his grandma. On a narrow brick windowsill above the bed, a tin toy horse and buggy shuddered and rattled, as if they had come alive. This must have been his dad’s room when he was young, he thought as a slight smile threatened to spread all over his face. He knew the chills he was having meant something. He reached for his phone and immediately dialed his sister’s number, but the call went straight to voice mail. He was now worried. He pulled the blanket up to his chin, hoping to get warm and hopefully fall back to sleep, but the chills grew giving him goose pumps. This had never happened before. He went to the window and used the flat of his hand to wipe the fog from the pane. The glass remained blurry from the grime outside, but an immense shadow passed along the street. When he pressed his face close, he could see well enough that his eyes widened in fear. He thought he had seen a ghost of his sister which quickly turned to resemble Kevin’s, his friend. He was now terrified. He tried again dialing her contact number, imagining how Laurent would react given the poor timing, it was probably very early in the morning in Kenya, give or take four in the morning given the eight-hour difference in time between the two regions he thought. Her call went straight to voice mail once again. There were some murmurs from the room across the corridor and he wondered what grandma and grandpa could be talking about plus how early they had slept and how they were unattached to television. Typical of old people. Today he had slept earlier than usual since he had woken up very early in the morning and had been worn out by the long journey to Montana, but it had been barely an hour ago since he got into bed. Kevin’s image kept crossing his mind and definitely gave him the creeps he could not explain. Why was he even in his mind, it wasn’t like they were still close or still cared about him. May be had just lost himself. The windows suddenly splintered and fell in. He screamed, scrambling backward as the whole frame came crashing down. He then noticed that the same terrifying image he had earlier thought of as a ghost was actually a person in a black hood. For a second he thought they actually exchanged looks before the figure started moving fast towards a tree near grandma's garden. His heart was now threatening to burst out of his chest with terror as his knees gave in to his heavy body mass that was now trembling. The shattered glasses were now lying around him, with both of his grandparents already in his room helping him up from the floor next to the now wide-agape, curtain-less window. They both reflected each other’s terrified faces. “What happened?” is was grandma who spoke first confidently but with a hint of fear hidden deep in her voice, while grandpa was already on his heels scrambling to get outside with his cane somewhat angry. Randy crawled for shelter under the huge table, a place convenient for nighttime monsters, he thought. He was still frozen and could not make out anything that had just happened before his eyes. Right now, he was only afraid of the very real and tangible beast outside, whom he had actually seen but could not determine who it was given the hood and how short the look they had exchanged had lasted. He was shaking. Grandma took his right hand and began soothing him probably to get him out of the table. He was still far from safety. He knew. He was now worried of what the guy could do to grandpa and what he might have been up to. A few minutes later, grandpa walked in furious. Apparently they guy had gotten away on a horse, or at least something that looked like it from where he stood. Clearly, grandpa was a man who took responsibilities with admirable, heart-aching seriousness that for a moment Randy stared at him in admiration. “He is not gonna come back, and if he does, I have set him a trap,” grandpa now muttered with his eyes transfixed on Randy who now sat close to grandma. A cold wind was now strongly blowing into the room via the open window sweeping away the papers that lay idly on the floor leaving behind the shattered pieces of glass. “This has never happened ever. What would he want?,” now was grandma’s time to talk. Her fear was still deep in her voice. “Did you see how he looked like?” she added peeking out of the open window into the darkness that covered outside. “Not really, he was in a hood. I could not see him,” Randy answered slowly as he tried to make sense of everything that had befallen, but his efforts were rendered futile. This was followed by a long silence between the three. “Why don’t you go sleep on the couch tonight before I can repair the window tomorrow early in the morning,” grandpa finally uttered as he made towards the door looking somewhat puzzled by the whole thing. A few minutes later, Randy was alone in the living room on the couch with two blankets wrapped around him to his neck. The place was engulfed by a deafening silence that did not sit well with him. He began listening to music from his iPod over his earphones to hopefully disturb the quiet. At least he was safe tonight… Ten minutes later, Randy’s peaceful feeling was suddenly shattered by the pitiful wailing of dogs. A moment later a monstrous rumble shook the ground, accompanied by breaking glass and shattering walls in the living room. Grandpa was the first to draw his baton and trot toward the sound, by habit tapping his truncheon on the wall as he went, making a sound like rapid gunfire, from his younger days in the military. Truly, habits die hard. Shrill whistles sounded the alarm from the grandma’s room. Within seconds, the house was already surrounded by policemen in black. Randy was now standing perturbed at the door, staring into the dark far beyond where two policemen now stood taking aim at anything alien that could emerge, with grandpa beside the one on the left. Then like a dream coming to life, an image of a woman emerged from far beyond and slowly transformed to someone familiar. With time, the image became more vivid as it took perfect likeness of someone close to him at a specific point in time. Stella. Despite the huge distance from the image, he was certain it was her. This was not happening, he thought. “What would Stella be doing here?” he was more perplexed than before. Emotions he thought he had grown out of started catching up with him. It was crippling. Montana was miles from Los Angeles, where she lived! This was definitely a nightmare. He knew if she was to take further steps towards the house, the policemen at the front were definitely going to shoot her. Just then his phone came to live, its vibration terrifying him more. It was Kevin calling...