IS

Meanwhile, on a dark windy night in the Sunshine State, a small girl had escaped the confinement of her room to walk the beach. Her mother hadn’t felt the absence of her presence as she was now collecting shells by the light of the moon, sometimes playfully being chased by the rolling tide as it intermittently climbed the shoreline. Alley couldn’t sleep tonight. She had already experienced more than one vision when she felt it best to go off somewhere on her own. She didn’t want to be responsible for waking her mother. It would be too soon for her to find out anything yet… at least that’s what Alley felt, anyway.

The breeze was warm, but had picked up considerably during the short time Alley had spent digging through the wet sand for exoskeleton treasures, her long dark hair streaming behind her. She caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a large sand dollar, completely intact and beautiful. She dropped to her knees. They slowly sunk deeper into the foundation of ocean sediment with only the slight weight of her small frame to drive them; lifting her find up and out of the path of the next approaching wave and holding it up in front of her.

Her face changed from delight to alarm as she noticed another presence in the distance, much farther down the shoreline. She squinted, trying to make out the figure of whoever, when it seemed apparent that whoever it was, they were standing still-–and possibly staring in her direction. She continued to squint even harder, but with no desire to move any closer, when Alley heard a voice within the increasingly strong breeze that rushed over her.

“Hello, Alley,” she heard the voice say. Her eyes grew big, and a ripple of fear washed over her entire upper body. She opened her mouth as if to respond, but response as well as breathing had stalled. She became frozen in the warm ocean air—almost as if she were in shock, or experiencing yet another one of her visions.

“I have no wish to frighten you, only to speak with you,” the voice spoke again, with a cautious, almost comforting tone. Alley finally broke free of her frozen disposition and felt it possible to breathe again. She nervously began to scan the immediate area around her, expecting to find someone, but astonished instead to find no one; only the presence of whoever, maybe half a click down the beach.

She squinted one last time, leaning forward as the figure appeared to be somewhat closer to her now. Someone had spoken to her, and whoever it was, they knew her name; so close, as if they were next to her. She knew this. She knew she hadn’t imagined it. Only there was no one close enough to show proof of that.

She was beside herself, anxious and scared, when she then dropped her collection of shells into the late evening tide and headed for the steps that would take her home; following her father’s trait of trying not to look panicked when panic was at its most high. Her breathing had become more rapid, just as the beating in her chest, when a voice, somehow familiar, spoke to her once again before either one of her feet touched the first step.

“Please do not be frightened, Alley.”

“Seriously? Who are you? Where are you?” she turned and responded, scared, but also showing a very tried and true color of anger; another one of her father’s traits. Feverishly shaking beyond her control, Alley reached down into the sand and bravely returned with a piece of driftwood resembling a small bat. “I–-I’m not afraid of you!” she lied, as her eyes welled up with fear.

“Where are you?” she yelled. She looked down the shoreline and noticed that her distant visitor, the only person close enough to help her, had gone. Probably retired to a nice soft bed, Alley thought, when she now wished she had stayed in hers. She lifted the piece of wood higher into the air where it slowly started to fall, and again called him out.

“I fear that my appearance may frighten you,” the voice said.

Alley felt a different kind of chill come over her. It was more so the acceptance of shocking acknowledgment than anything else. “Daddy?” she quietly whimpered, as a small tear broke free. The familiarity of her father’s voice had softened her heart for the moment, but soon became a fleeting impulse, when the possibility of her father’s presence became null and void.

Alley began to race up the long incline of steps, escaping whoever or whatever had been feeding her attention. By the time she reached the top, Alley turned around, gasping for air and ready to yell one last cry of defamation–-when she saw something that paralyzed her speech, as well as any movement she could have hoped for.

Back down the stairs, down on the beach, with the moonlight hailing his ash white face-–it was her monster come to life. She slowly began to back up, vibrating in terror. She had backed herself up against a small wood fence, when her body released a warm steady stream down her leg, puddling in the dry, white sand at her feet.

Her monster tilted his head to one side and then the other.

Her vision started to blur and she closed her eyes. Trembling, Alley counted backwards, starting at ten. She was fearfully disinclined to open them again, but when she finally did ten seconds later, he was gone.

Maybe he had never been there to begin with. And as far as the voice was concerned, well, maybe that was something her mind had conjured up. After all, she’d heard her father’s voice—surely that wasn’t possible! It just seemed better to write it all off to the fact that maybe she was losing it; that her mind was riding just a little shy of stable… another one of her father’s traits.

She hadn’t bothered to look any further, when her feet seemed to take action before her mind had the chance to. They felt heavy and awkward, lifting thick white sand in her wake as she slowly peeled off the distance between her and her Grandparents’ patio, suspicious of every sound or movement around and behind her, no matter how trivial or insignificant. The closer she seemed to get, the more desperate she became, when it took only one small imperfection in her stride to throw her off kilter, as Alley awkwardly dove face first into the sand.

At first she laid there, turning her head to the side, listening, breathing hard and frantically through the dark hair which had fallen wildly over her face. Fear of the unknown convinced her to rise, panting, spitting white grainy residue, moving backwards with cautious, but unfaltering persistence into the last remaining few feet of what she felt would be her sanctuary.

She stopped once she set foot on the tabby flooring, finally becoming still and quiet as she held her breath and listened into the night for anything… there was nothing; only the not so distant sound of waves breaking onto the shoreline, and the tiny old and rusted wind chimes dancing erratically from the second story balcony above her.

But she still wasn’t convinced that just because she couldn’t see anything, that at that very moment, eyes, somehow different from her own, weren’t watching her; thinking bad thoughts, planning evil plans. Assuming that what she saw was in fact real, the worst possible scenario would have now come true… her visions had transcended far past a dreamlike state and found their way right to her, or rather her grandparent’s, backyard.

A strong blast of warm ocean scent blew past her face, pushing her back ever so slightly, revealing a stench of rotting fish from the beach below. Alley turned up her nose and frowned with disgust, spitting the last remaining salt and grit from her mouth, beset with an unwavering feeling of being watched.

“I know you, you know! I mean–-I’ve seen you before!” she yelled, fighting to keep her sight clear, while the wind continued to send her hair lashing at her face.

“Alley,” a quiet voice called to her from behind. She reeled around in surprise, only to find her mother standing behind the screen door; calm, but curious.

“Mom – how long have you been there?”

“Never mind that. What in the world are you doing?” Corey asked. Anger had found a place in her voice.

“I couldn’t sleep. I just went for a walk on the beach,” Alley replied, playing the role of inconspicuous.

Corey then swung open the screen door. “You’re covered in sand, did you fall or something?”

“So I’m clumsy! Sue me!” Alley snapped, as she moved past her mother and into the house. Corey grabbed her daughter’s arm as she passed.

“I don’t want you ever out here at night by yourself again. Got it?”

“Okay!” Alley replied, with a look as though she had just got caught stealing something.

Corey released her arm and turned to face the screen again, as her daughter made her way for the closest shower. Slowly, Corey’s face evolved into a look of repugnance when a strong gust rushed through the screen and over her. “What is that smell?” she hollered.

Alley stopped in her tracks and looked down at the wet stain in her shorts. “What smell?” she answered, moving her hands to cover herself.

“A sick fishy smell… strong!” her Mother answered.

“Oh. Yeah,” Alley answered back, as a feeling of relief set in. “I think maybe something dead washed up on shore, or something.” She then continued across the floor and into the bathroom next to the kitchen. She turned on the light and looked back at her mother who was still standing at the screen door, motionless, gazing out into the blustery night as if waiting for something. Alley pulled back her hair away from her face one last time, and shut the door.

To finally answer Alley’s question–-her mother had been there for some time, watching her daughter stricken with fear. Trembling, unknowing, searching with eyes and ears for someone who had followed her, and then calling out as if she knew who it was. The mystery was unsettling. Alley had been acting strange the past couple of days–-and now this?

She opened the screen door and slowly moved out onto the patio, as the eerie sound of wind chimes seemed to announce her arrival. The wind lifted and pushed her hair as she continued even further still, progressing across the warm white sand until she reached the stairs. The stairs were a series of railroad ties positioned into the hill one above the other, rising to an elevation of maybe twenty feet above the beach, and ultimately to another level where a string of big and beautiful homes resided; Corey’s parent’s included, almost directly across from them. Corey stood at the very top, looking down upon the beach, finding it almost hard to breathe when the wind was at its most intense.

The view of the ocean from there was breathtaking. She marveled at the large rolling caps of white water moving relentlessly towards the shore. But amidst the awe-inspiring beauty, there still remained a stink in the air, something that took precedence far past the dead smell of rotting fish.

Something with the unforgiving intensity that made her daughter fear her surroundings, and yet, controlled her to the point of keeping it all a very closed secret. Corey hadn’t spoken to her husband in some time now. She reached for her back pocket and slid out her cell, when a blood curdling scream came from the house that caused her to carelessly drop her phone in the sand. She began running for the patio door.

“Corey Lynn!” It was her mother’s voice that shrilled the night air, sending a message of panic straight into Corey’s bones. “Corey! Oh dear God in heaven. Corey! Where are you?”

She couldn’t get there fast enough. The sand slowing her stride, making her fight for every foothold she achieved. When she finally reached the screen door, her mother and father were standing at the entrance to the bathroom just across the room. The light was on, and Corey was scared when Alley was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Alley?” she yelled, catching her breath “Mom! I said, where’s Alley?” Corey cried again.

Both her parents appeared stunned and speechless as to what they witnessed before them. Her father hadn’t acknowledged her, when her mother finally turned to her with both hands placed over her mouth, weeping in dismay as Corey came in between them and into the presence of light that filled the small steamed room.

The sight she saw answered her question. She looked down upon her little Alley, curled into a fetal position in a corner of the tub, with both arms tightly wrapped around her small boney knees. She was convulsing in a state of terror as she stared off into some other place, as if she were witnessing something horrible, something that suspended the breath that she desperately needed.

Corey lunged forward and dropped to her knees next to the tub. She didn’t scream, although this certainly warranted it. Instead, she was remarkably composed, as if she had already been here before–-when in fact, she had.

“Alley? Honey?” Corey spoke quietly into her daughter’s ear, doing her best to stay calm for her little girl, when she herself was coming apart on the inside. Tears were streaming down her face. “Alley, you have to breathe, Alley. Please honey. Mommy’s here,” she sniffled.

Nothing had changed, when Alley’s mouth suddenly and slowly began to open, sucking in a small taste of air, and then releasing a high pitched scream that was unparalleled to anything any of them had ever heard. It was then, at that very moment, when fear took on a new face and changed the essence of what fear had now become to each and every one of them, including Shane, who had since taken his mother’s place and moved into the doorway between his grandparents, awestruck by his little sister’s appearance. He couldn’t have imagined anything worse than what he had witnessed earlier… until now.

Corey snatched up a towel and moved to cover and comfort her, when Alley jumped to her feet and plastered her bare back tight to the shower wall, never losing her cold distant gaze. Corey silenced her own scream with the help of her palm, rising to her feet and stepping back, terrified, and yet mesmerized by the shocking transformation that was her little girl.

“What’s going on?” Alley’s grandmother screamed hysterically from the doorway behind, when Corey lifted her hand to silence the moment. The quiet became awkward and nerve bending, with only the sound of Alley’s breath, panting in close intervals, resembling the behavior of a winded dog, while she took on the semblance of a wild animal that had been cornered; blind and scared.

“Alley, come back to us honey. Come back to me. Can you hear me, Alley?” Corey became methodical in her endeavor to somehow find some sort of reason for what was happening to her daughter. For the moment, at least, she would shut down every frenzied tendency she was feeling, in a dire effort to somehow reach her little girl. “Alley!” her mother shouted.

The timid and trembling girl jerked her head toward her mother and the glare of light, dislodging a drop of blood from her left nostril. It ran freely down and over her lips, leaving her chin.

“Enough of this,” Shane spoke out. He rushed past his mother and to his sister, grabbing hold of her shoulders and shaking her. “Alley, wake up dammit. Wake up!”

His mother and grandfather quickly moved to intervene, fighting to pull him off and away from his sister. He screamed “No! You don’t understand! It worked before. She’ll come out of it, you have to shake her–-you have to shake her!”

Their struggle moved away from the tub as Corey and her father continued their efforts to calm and contain her son, when coughing, followed by a small girls cry, silenced everyone.

They turned to see Alley weeping heavily in tears as she made every effort to cover her naked body in embarrassment, sliding down the wall and into the tub, wiping away the tears and blood from her face. It wasn’t until she became aware of the bright red smears over the top of her hand and down her wrist, that her blood smudged face took on a look of frightened puzzlement. “Mommy!” she screamed with wide and bewildered eyes.

Corey finally came to her daughter’s aid, wrapping her in the large beach towel she had dropped during her struggle with Shane. “Mother, get me a warm wash cloth!” she commanded, as she pulled Alley close, helping her from the tub. Her Mother moved frantically to accommodate her request. Corey placed a free hand on the door. “Guys,” she announced, as she moved to close it and gain privacy from the two males of the house.

As the door closed, before there was final separation, Shane became the recipient of his mother’s intense stare. He’d seen that look before. He knew she would be coming for him, angry with questions, hungry for answers… If only he knew them.