Malignant Summer by Tim Meyer

Author:Tim Meyer [Meyer, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: author, dark, Fiction, fantasy, horror, literary, Paranormal, writer
Publisher: Silver Shamrock Publishing
Published: 2021-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

5

When her story concluded, Doug just stared at her. His brain served him a buffet of questions and new riddles, so many that it was hard to concentrate on just one. His vision fuzzed a little, like an old television set having trouble with the reception. Stealing a glance at his friends, he saw they were reacting similarly, their minds buzzing with thoughts and revelations and more components to this complex puzzle.

This hunt, he thought. It’s not a puzzle. It’s a scavenger hunt. Only, we’re hunting her, and she’s hunting us.

Or me.

He couldn’t help but feel at the center of this, more so than the others. He knew that was because of his mother, what she’d told him, her sickness and everything that followed after she had fallen ill. Her connection to the Mother of Dead Dreams, whatever it was exactly.

“You believe me?” asked Abby, incredulously. Doug witnessed tears building in her eyes, the kind you couldn’t hold onto for forever. “You actually believe me?”

Doug was the first one to say he did. “Yeah. Yeah, of course we believe you.”

“Oh, God,” she said, lowering her chin, throwing a hand over her eyes. She shuddered as the leftover grief from that awful night swept through her. A comforting hand landed on her shoulder, and Maddie pulled her in for a best-friend hug. The two girls squeezed each other, hung on like the earth below was crumbling apart.

After her emotions were purged, she came up for air.

“Sorry,” she said, brushing away the final tears that clung to her lashes. Once they were gone, she faced the three boys, seemingly ready for the barrage of questions that were sure to follow.

“So,” Doug started, jumping in before others had a chance. “Lauren was…possessed?”

Abby swallowed. “I… I guess you could call it that. She wasn’t her, that’s all I know.”

Grady stepped in. “How do you know?”

“Didn’t you hear the story, numbnuts?” Jesse asked. “Lauren ate the friggin’ dog.”

“Yeah, but—” Grady stopped, thought about what to say next, knowing it would require a delicate delivery. “But couldn’t it have been her? Just…a little different?”

“I don’t understand the difference,” Abby said. “It was her. I mean, her face, her body. But her eyes, they were different. Whatever makes her her. Whatever makes a person a person—a soul, if you will. Lauren’s was gone. Replaced by whatever that thing was.”

Doug motioned to the others, calling them back into the huddle. “One second,” he told the girls, holding up his forefinger. Once the three had taken a few steps back and were out of earshot, Doug asked, “What do you think?”

“Clearly dealing with the same thing Randall and Alphie were,” Grady said, sounding certain.

“I mean, yeah, clearly,” Jesse added. “The question is, what do we do about it?”

Doug sighed. “We need to find this woman. The Mother.”

Grady and Jesse winced simultaneously, not the plan they were hoping for.

“Was afraid you’d say that,” Grady said.

Jesse, who looked no more excited about it, said, “Come on, Grades. Not up for a little adventure?” Looking aside, his snarky smile was interrupted when he coughed into his hand.

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