1-5
Decks Dark
Mae knocked at the door, and Mrs. Casey answered. She wore a dirty white T-shirt and shorts, and held a TV remote in her hand. The poor woman was a complete mess, her fur was muddled and her eyes were a blistered red. Her face was gloomy with her back arched as if she had been curled into a ball. Her spirits seemed to lift somewhat when she saw Mae, giving the girl a weak smile.
"Mae, it's good to see you again." She greeted the cat in a weak tone while she held the door open for her. She was trying her best to put on the facade of a happy woman.
"Same." She smiled back as she entered her house. The Hartley's once well kept home was now in complete disarray, like a tornado had flown through it. The counters were cluttered with trash, the floors looked sticky, and the dust in the air was thick enough to choke someone.
"I'm sorry about the mess, I haven't had many visitors lately." She apologized as she pulled a chair out for her. The young cat sat down and pushed a bowl that had been left there aside.
"Do you want something to drink?" She asked as she shut the door.
"Some water please." Mae answered. She didn't dare take her shoes off, even she wasn't that brave.
"So, what brings you here?" Mrs. Casey asked as she entered the kitchen.
"Just wanted to see how you're doing." She lied. Truth be told she felt guilty about what happened to Casey, every missing poster sign she saw of him made her think of what his parents were going through and she couldn't stand it. She wouldn't let herself just stand by and watch the Hartleys live the rest of their lives without closure.
"Oh how sweet." She weakly smiled at the girl as she grabbed a water glass from the cabinet. Mae took another look around the house, and noticed something else, Mr. Hartley was nowhere to be found.
"So is it just you here right now?" She asked tentatively. The woman's weak facade quickly fell away at the mention of her husband. She let out a depressed sigh while she turned to look at the cat.
"You haven't heard?" She somberly asked.
"Heard what?"
"He… he went missing 2 months ago, and no one knows why. I-I guess he ran away to…" She slumped her head while opening the fridge and pulling out their water pitcher.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know." The cat apologized.
"It's OK hun." She stopped right before pouring a glass for Mae and set the jug down.
"I'm sorry, the water filter needs to be replaced. Give me a moment will you?" She apologized while she rushed out of the room and down the stairs into the basement. Mae was now left alone with only her thoughts to keep her company, and began to think of what happened to Casey's father. Almost immediately the puzzle pieces clicked together like magnets thrown at each other, and her eyes widened while her stomach was filled by butterflies. The implications of what she had realized were horrible, for Casey, for Mrs. Hartley… She shot up out of her chair and swiftly left before her sobs could be heard by Casey's mother…
Casey's eyes slowly began to open as he became lucid. The EDM that blasted into his ears through the earbuds he'd loaned from his friend definitely helped him in that regard. 'Was… that a dream?' He pondered as he looked around him. Mae had been kind enough to let him sleep in her bed for the night, while she had pulled out an old sleeping bag and slept on the floor next to him. He looked over the side of the bed and sighed in relief to see the cat sound asleep. He grabbed her phone and changed the music to something that would help him go back to bed and let his body relax once more as he drifted off to sleep.
Only he didn't.
The boy tossed and turned in a half-sleep daze, his mind not able to find peace no matter how hard he tried. It kept returning to that same dream, the one with his mother. He assumed it was a dream at least, it felt more like a memory. It was too vivid, too concrete to truly feel at home in the land of dreams. Minutes felt like hours, and hours like days, yet only seconds passed by.
'Was that really her?' He pondered. It was heart wrenching to see his own mother in such a sorry state, he wondered why his mind would project such an image to him. He had already lost enough, could he not sleep without dreams of his parents in misery? It wasn't long before the boy gave up all hopes of a good night's rest. He sluggishly flopped out of bed and trudged to the door, grabbing Alex's jacket for some warmth as he crept past Mae's sleeping form and exited the room.
The house was shrouded in complete darkness, the wind pushing and pulling at its weary form and causing it to creak ominously. Casey wasn't scared however, his night vision and the past 2 years of his life making sure of that. One thing did make him uneasy however, the stairs. He had an incredible phobia of heights, and avoided them where he could. He could handle them, but he wasn't happy about it. He crept down the stairs, his starved form being great for sneaking downstairs without a sound. In the silence of the house the old grandfather clock's ticking provided the young man a semblance of balance as he entered the living room.
The room was peaceful, not a creature stirred as he collapsed onto the couch, the old springs whining as he sunk into the stale couch cushions. Now that he was downstairs the soft sounds of cricket songs being played. His body turned to mush and almost got stuck between its cushions, maybe he could find some coins in there or something? His eyes shut and he felt himself almost drift into sleep, but something stirred him from sleep.
The muffled ticking of the old grandfather clock began to transform into a throbbing heartbeat, pumping blood through the house. Casey's eyes shot open as wide as dinner plates as he stared at the ceiling. It was writhing with maggots, 100s of them buried in the flesh of the house. One of them fell onto his shoulder and he yelped as he threw it off him. It wasn't long before several maggots began to rain down on him, so he picked up the old couch cushion and covered himself with it as protection.
The creaking of the house was now the squelching of flesh being burrowed into by thousands of maggots; outside the cricket songs had been contorted into the screams of damned souls. This old building was malicious, it gurgled and hummed as if it were alive, and it had trapped him within its depths. If the house didn't kill Casey first then his extreme hyperventilation surely would. His whole body trembled in fear, his body instinctively curling up into a ball and hiding from the nightmares around him. He had to stop it, had to make them go away.
The TV sat in front of him, like the light of the end of the tunnel, it saved him once and it could again. He made a break for his only hope, nearly tripping over himself as he dashed from the couch. The arms of damned souls reached for him, attempting to drag him to hell while they had the chance to. He collided against the TV and smashed the power button.
The TV flicked on and a scene of absolute horror was broadcast. A video of Mae in the nude and strapped down to a grimey floor began to play, with each of her limbs having a rope tightly wrapped around them. They then began to pull and she screamed in agony for what felt like hours, her screams burrowing into his soul, until her body gave way and one by one each limb was torn from her body. The screams abruptly ended when a man appeared and smashed her skull in with a hammer. The scene then repeated, only this time with Gregg as the victim.
Casey couldn't bear to watch it play out again, he quickly changed the channel but was only greeted with another brutal form of torture used against his friends. Again and again he changed the channels, each one getting worse and their screams of agony growing louder. He couldn't take it anymore, he rushed away from the TV and sprinted towards the front door, hoping beyond hope he would be free. He didn't dare look back as he violently sprinted towards the door.
He slammed against the door before flinging it open and diving outside, only instead of colliding with the concrete he kept falling. He looked back at the house to see it soaring into the sky, or rather, he was falling deep into the earth. The house was the last thing he saw before sinking deep into an infinite sea of blackness. Casey looked down at his body, he was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and black canvas shoes, the outfit he wore on that day. He screamed as loud as he could, his vocal cords burning like fire, but no sound came out. Suddenly he was falling through the roof, first the attic, then the second floor, then the first and-
Casey's once sleeping body was jolted awake the moment he hit the couch in his dream. His head wildly swung around looking for danger, yet found none. The house was inanimate once more, the grandfather clock ticked monotonously as faint sunlight beamed through the windows, with sounds of chirping birds and barking dogs outside. The poor boy was frozen in place from the shock, that dream felt so unimaginably vivid, he'd never experienced anything like it. The shock started to wear off and tears began to run down his face, he wiped them away as he sniffled.
"H-holly shit…" The boy softly quivered. He looked down at his hands, and they were trembling. He reached for the TV remote and flicked it on, he needed something to take his mind off of what happened. A crappy nature documentary began to play on the TV as Casey leaned back. He gulped hard and took a deep, trembling breath and tried to not think about what just happened as he watched the documentary.
Something else caught his eye though, a small stack of boxes next to the TV, each one with a different label. He lightly pawed the floor to make sure it wasn't alive, before he cautiously approached them. He brought his sights to one top box, which was labeled "Family videos and music" and used one of his ruined claws to make an incision in the tape, his trembling hands making the cut sloppy.
Casey opened the box and peered inside. The interior wasn't anything special, varieties of magnetic and optical media were littered throughout the box, all in neat little stacks. Not a single tape or disc was out of place, except for one. Haphazardly thrown on top of all this was some kind of music tape. The boy thought he recognized it, it looked similar to the 8-track that he'd seen in Alex's car. The case was completely clear however, and scribbled on top of it in Magic Marker was "For Miss Lorraine Meyers Jr."
"Lorraine Meyers? I think I-'
'Hey I know her' Casey's head nearly crashed through the ceiling from how high he jumped from being startled.
"Mae?! Jesus Christ you scared the shit outta me, where are you?" He asked as his head spun around the room like it was on a swivel. His head shot up when he heard someone talking upstairs.
'That was Mae right?' He thought.
'Man I hope that's Casey' She said just a moment later. His eyes widened as he spun around the room to find who said that, only to see no one.
"Wait, are you still in the attic?" He asked.
"Yeah, aren't you?" Casey's mouth fell agape slightly.
"No, I'm downstairs." Both of them went quiet.
"Are we, like, talking with our minds or something?" Mae asked, a mix of confusion and excitement in her voice. Both young adults got up and rushed to the stairs to meet each other on the second floor. They both met next to the old clock, staring right at each other with lips not daring to move. Both of their eyes were wide with anticipation, it was like they were competing with each other to see who could have the bigger pair.
"Can you hear me?" He asked.
"Yep. And can you hear me?" He took a step back and let out a short gasp.
"Holly shit!" Casey yipped excitement as Mae covered her mouth and began to laugh.
"This is effing awesome!" She exclaimed with glee.
"Pinch me!" She reached her hand out and nipped his, and he reflexively shot it back before he started to grin like a madman.
"OKOKOKOKOKOKOK so this is real?!" He thought. The cats were both giddy with excitement with their newfound powers, and were jumping for joy because of it.
"Yeah!" She grinned. "We're like mutants!" She waved her arms around like a child who had just found out they could have ice cream for every meal.
"Did my thoughts wake you up?" He asked.
"No, I heard the TV." His smile faded slightly.
"Oh I'm sorry, I shouldn't have had it so loud." He apologized.
"It's OK." She replied. He nodded before his smile came back in full force
"How though? How can we do this?" He wondered. "Can we do this with anyone?"
"I think I know why actually." She answered.
"Really?" The boy asked as he cocked his head slightly.
"Yeah, I do. Let's go downstairs." The cats turned and rushed down the stairs and rushed to the couch. For some reason Mae was still wearing her clothes from yesterday, but he didn't ask.
"Hey, is that…" She looked over at the box that he'd opened.
"Yeah that was me… Sorry, I was curious." He admitted.
"It's fine, I wanted to look in that anyways." She stood up and approached the box, with her friend just behind. She looked inside and immediately noticed the 8-track that had been thrown on top of the piles.
"Huh, is this what you were thinking about?" She asked as she pulled the 8-track out of the box.
"Yeah, the thing with Lorraine's name on it. You said you know her?" She looked
"Mhm, she goes by Lori. I had no idea she was a Jr. though. Kind of like how your name is Kajetan, right?" He nodded softly before continuing.
"I recognize her name, do you remember that buddy program we had in elementary school?" Recognition spread across the cat's face.
"Yeah, she was your partner?"
"Nope! Her sister was, I think I met her once though. Do you know if she has an 8-track player?"
"Probably no. Alex had one right?"
"Yeah, it could work." He replied as she sat back down onto the couch while she threw the tape onto the table.
"So! This whole telepathy thing." Casey finally decided to speak aloud as he plopped down next to her. "You said you know how we could do it right?" He asked.
"Not really, it's just a theory." Mae admitted.
"Tell me about it!" He leaned in slightly, excited to hear what she had to say.
"I meant to tell you this earlier, but we both have that same marking on our stomachs." Casey's grin slipped away from him like soup through a fork.
"What?" He asked, his shaky voice overflowing with worry and fear.
"Yeah, look." She lifted her shirt up enough for him to see the mark. Sure enough it was there, with absolutely no difference between the two of them besides age.
"Oh god, fuck fuck fuck no fuck!" He backed away and began to pace around the room as his breath became panicked and heavy. He covered his eyes with his hands as he shook his head back and forth. "You're fucking kidding me Mae!" His voice was trembling and sick with worry.
"Why couldn't you just stay out of it?!" He suddenly got back down onto the couch and placed his hands onto her shoulders, making her yelp.
"You could have had a good life, a normal life! But now you're…you're fucked! They've marked you and once that happens i-it's, you can't…" Casey took his hands off of her and took a deep breath, composing himself.
"I-I'm sorry for doing that Mae." He apologized. She gave a simple nod as an answer. He turned and looked deep into her soul before continuing.
"So you saw the Black Goat as well? How did you… make it back?" He asked, a tone of curiosity with a hint of concern buried within. Mae let out a deep sigh.
"Well, it started during last year's Hallowfest…" She went on to explain her encounter with Eide, their investigations, the standoff with the cult, their escape and her encounter with the Black Goat, all while Casey listened intently. When she finished they both sat quietly, just staring at each other intently, the boy's head racing with thoughts.
"They just… let you go?" He asked in a tone filled with disbelief.
"Yeah, I thought they were going to kill me." Casey Hartley let out a startling bark of laughter before going quiet.
"They don't kill," He stated in a slightly shaky voice, "that would be too kind." There was another long pause before she continued.
"What about you then? How did you encounter them?" For just a moment the cat's eyes glazed over as he remembered something.
"I don't want to say, but…" He trailed off before he stood up and walked to the window. There was a small family of birds perched on the old tree just outside their house. He took in a deep breath before continuing. "I was sent back here as a recruiter, that sick fuck needs more sacrifices, more souls. And I was the only one who was still alive and able to take it." He admitted. The boy suddenly turned around and faced Mae, a second wind having come over him.
"But fuck that! I'm not their fucking puppet! I'm gonna destroy that fucking thing no matter what! Because if I don't it's gonna keep growing and destroy everyone and everything! A-and I can't let that happen, I can't…" He was on the verge of tears once more as he sat down next to his friend. He softly took her hands and held them in his lap as he leaned in slightly.
Casey's next words were barely audible.
"But I can't do it alone, I need your help. I need as much help as I can get. For the love of god I need your word that you're going to help me stop the Black Goat. Please." Mae didn't even know what to say to that.
"Would that even be possible?" She wondered.
"I don't know, but we have to try." He answered. She almost asked him how he knew what she was thinking. She thought about it some more, if he had come back then who else had? The cultists, Eide, something else entirely? She couldn't truly know for sure. There was only one thing she did know, and that if what he said was true, then this was only the beginning. Without another moment's hesitation, she answered.
"You have my word." It was instinctual, the words having slipped from her mouth without her even needing to think of them.
"Cross your heart and hope to eat worms?" It was a phrase Casey's mother used to say, and one he himself carried on.
"Cross my heart and hope to eat worms." His face lightened again and he smiled at her.
"Thank you, thank you…" Casey said as he wrapped Mae into a hug. She hugged him back and the two of them sat there for the moment, just enjoying being together for that moment.
"I have one question though." She pulled away and placed her hands onto his shoulders. "Do you know why we can use telepathy?" She asked. The boy shook his head.
"No, but we can do this for a reason, and I don't think it's a good one." Mae simply nodded yes. Truth be told she didn't have a good response for a statement that boiled down to 'We've been given telepathy for evil'.
End