IGMS Issue 50 by IGMS

Author:IGMS
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Hatrack River Enterprises
Published: 2016-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Tara dreamed of a storm, and her boys fighting. She woke up and found both were true.

Wind pushed against the walls of the house, but the boys were even louder, shouting over each other. At this rate, they'd wake up Zandy. Maybe Mike, even. Tara pulled her bathrobe on and stormed into the hallway, shushing them.

The ruckus came from Tommy's bedroom. Tommy held Jack down on the floor as Jack kicked and struggled. Tara bulled into the room and pushed Tommy off.

"Thomas Michael Howard, what are you doing?" There was rage in her voice. It scared and thrilled her, this naming-of-full-names voice, this mother-goddess voice.

Tommy reeled backwards, banging an elbow against the wall. There was something on him. A scratch? Long and scarlet, it extended from just above his temple, down his cheek and neck, reaching his bare abdomen and lower. The room wasn't bright enough to see it well.

"He wrote on me, Mom!" Tommy said.

Jack scooted toward the wall. Tara let him go. She took a step backwards, and fumbled for the light switch.

"I woke up," Tommy said. His voice hitched. His face reddened. He looked away from her. "He was writing on me, and I woke up. He was trying to pull down my underwear."

Tara swallowed. The wind pushed and howled outside. Where was the mother-goddess now? Gone, gone . . . "Let me see," Tara said, and turned Tommy's face toward her.

It was not a solid line of red. The marks weren't marks--they were symbols. Symbols she knew. Things she'd read on a burned piece of paper, that had brought silence to her world, and now strangeness, now dread.

Jack held a red marker. His eyes were huge, dark, and wet with fear and wonder.

"What is this, Jack?" Tara asked.

He just stared.

"Jack!" she screamed.

He flinched like she'd slapped him and clutched the marker tightly to his chest.

Mike's heavy steps drummed in the hallway. "Tara, what--?"

He stopped in the room. Tara saw his eyes take them in. Herself; Tommy; Jack. His eyes found the red line on Tommy's face. They followed it until it disappeared into Tommy's boxers. She saw his eyes latch on to the red marker in Jack's hand.

"Boys, explain this," he said.

Tommy started to answer. Tara didn't hear him. She was looking at Mike, and so her eyes were on the hallway. There was movement by Mike's leg. There was a sound from behind him, a soft sigh. The wind howling, Tommy explaining, and why was it amidst all that noise, that she heard a sigh as soft as a breath?

Because it was Zandy's sigh, and before today, she had known all the noises her children could make.

Zandy was standing there by Mike's leg.

Standing there naked, her little body covered in those red symbols, in Jack's symbols, so they crossed her like ropes or veins.

Inside, the house fell silent.

Outside, the wind chuckled and roared.

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