Descended from Darkness: Vol II Read online

  "Well, not if you grew up in the 80s," Billy said.

  "Or you've been in a coma since then," Margot replied.

  "Touché."

  The road ahead divided and Billy veered toward the right fork. The Camry bounced as it crossed the tracks of the truck in front and then fishtailed as he turned onto the road and started up a steep incline. Margot grabbed his shoulder and let out a faint squeal.

  "Trust me," Billy said. "I've been driving in this stuff for nearly fifteen years." He peeled her hand off of his shoulder, rested it on his lap. "I'm a professional."

  "Uh-huh," Margot said. She felt the tingling in her stomach again. She squeezed Billy's thigh.

  The road curved sharply, and the car slid again as Billy took yet another sudden turn, this time up a narrow road hardly wider than the Camry. Gone was the yellow pall of the street lamps; beyond the swirling snow now lay nothing but inky blackness.

  "The secret," Billy said, "is to steer into the skid."

  "Okay, how much fucking farther, Billy? I'm seriously freaking out, now." Margot tugged on the shoulder belt until she felt it lock into place.

  "Relax. "Billy laughed.

  The car lunged forward up one final incline before coming to a stop a few feet from the bumper of a snow covered Land Rover. He shut off the headlights and, once Margot's eyes had adjusted, she could see two shafts of warm, sparkling light emanating from the windows of a small chalet at the top of the hill.

  Billy smiled and gave her a peck on the cheek. "We're already here."

  2

  Dinner was waiting on the table just as Billy had expected---a small pre-cooked Chicken, a bowl of mashed potatoes, baby carrots, and a salad. Billy could sense his brother, Rob's, displeasure at their late arrival, but they both loosened up after a couple of glasses of wine. They ate quickly and Rob's wife, Linda, took Margot up to the loft to show her their room while the couple's daughters, eight-year-old Maxie and five-year-old Quinn, rushed back to their handheld video games in the living room.

  "This snow's something, huh?" Rob asked. "Must've been a bitch to drive in."

  Billy shrugged and poured himself another glass of wine, and then slid the bottle down the table to his brother. "I've seen worse. Didn't get too bad until we got up past Concord. It's the wind, mostly. I didn't want to get Margot worried, but, man, it was like a whiteout once we hit the mountains."

  "This her first snow?" Billy asked.

  "Her first real snow. I mean, she's lived in Manhattan for a couple of years, now, so she's seen the stuff, but nothing like this."

  "Yeah." Rob took a sip of his wine. "She's a good girl. Mom would have liked her."

  "Yeah, she is." Billy smiled. "She's a lot like her, you know? I mean, not in a Freudian way or anything; just her attitude. She's a tough chick. Has a mouth like a sailor sometimes." He laughed.

  "So how's it lookin'," Rob asked.

  "How's what...? The relationship?" Billy shrugged. "I don't know, I mean, it's good. It's great, actually. But it's only been nine months, so..."

  Rob smiled. "You'll marry her," he said. "I can tell."

  "Oh, and how's that?" Billy asked.

  "I just can, is all," Rob grinned. "I see it in the way you look at each other. I got a gift for that sort of thing, you know?"

  Billy finished the rest of his wine. Rob slid the bottle back to him. As he poured himself another, Margot walked into the kitchen and rested her hands on his shoulders. She kissed Billy on the top of his head; her long, curly hair, still damp from the shower, draped over his face. It smelled of lilac and citrus. Billy leaned his head back and gave her a kiss. Her lips were soft and inviting and, in that moment, he knew his brother was right. This was the girl he would marry.

  "Am I interrupting boy talk?" She asked.

  Billy sighed. "Well, my brother was asking me if we could swap women tonight, and I told him you'd be up for it."

  "Oh really?" Margot asked. "Sounds kinky!"

  "Count me in." Linda shuffled into the kitchen, wearing a pink robe and matching slippers. She had a towel draped around her neck and three different bottles of shampoo and conditioner tucked under her arm. "God knows, I could use a change."

  "That's nice," Rob said. "Real class acts, the lot of ya." He swigged down the rest of his wine and washed his glass out in the sink. "I'm gonna go get some firewood."

  Rob left the kitchen and returned a couple of minutes later in a bulky, white, down jacket and white knit hat. Billy burst out laughing, and that set off Margot and Linda.

  "What?" Rob asked, his arms hanging stiffly by his side.

  "Need a hand, Michelin Man?" Billy asked.

  "Yeah, real funny," Rob said. "We'll see who's laughing on the slopes."

  "I'm pretty sure it'll still be me, Frosty," Billy said.

  Rob flipped him off as he cracked open the back door and slipped on his gloves. A sudden strong gust shook the house and blew the door wide open. Rob took a step back as an avalanche of snow poured into the kitchen. "Woah!" He laughed, and tried to close the door. "Will you look at this?"

  "Oh my God." Linda grabbed a broom from the closet and handed it to Rob. "There's got to be two feet out there already!"

  "It's just a drift," Rob grumbled, as he swept the snow over the threshold.

  "Still, you said we were only going to get a few inches!" Linda looked panicked. "If I knew it was going to be this bad...I mean, shit, the roads...we only picked up a few things from the store. I knew we should have gone to Stop & Shop! We don't have any milk or bread or..."

  "Linda, it's fine," Rob barked. "I'll hit the grocery store first thing in the morning, just like I said I would. The Land Rover will roll right over this shit. Believe me, we'll be fine."

  Margot's fingers dug into Billy's shoulders. "I told you we should have stopped," she whispered.

  "Babe, relax," Billy said. He got up and slipped on his leather coat. "Rob, let's go get that firewood."

  His brother heaved a sigh, leaned the broom up against the wall, and threw up his hands as he stepped over the drift and out the door. Billy followed, slamming the door behind him. Rob had already been swallowed up by the squall.

  "For fuck's sake, wait up, Rob!" Billy took two steps forward and sank into a thigh-deep drift. He pulled himself free and followed his brother's tracks around to the front of the chalet. Rob stood at the top of the stairs that led down into the sunken driveway. The light from the chalet windows cut a swath through the night, making the snow that danced around them look like a luminescent swarm of fluttering moths.

  Billy looked down into the driveway. The Land Rover was buried up to its headlights, with huge, windswept domes of snow on its hood and roof. Billy's Camry was completely covered, reduced to a smooth white mound.

  Billy turned to his brother. "What are you thinking?"

  Rob stood silently for a moment, his eyes shimmering, his face caked with snow and rivulets of snot and frozen tears.

  "What am I thinking, little brother?" He asked, his voice nearly lost to the wind. "I'm thinking we're good and truly fucked."

  3

  The weatherman danced in front of a map of the northeast with a mixture of excitement and sheer panic. He pointed at New England---at least what little of it that could be seen beneath the massive animated cloud---and then ran his finger down the entire east coast, stopping at the Carolinas.

  "Folks, I can safely say that this is something we've never seen before," he said breathlessly. "This massive system literally came out of nowhere and, in the past few hours, has absorbed several smaller systems riding the jet stream, forming a 'super storm' that is now blanketing the northeast. We're talking hurricane force winds, and snowfall at a rate of several inches per hour; in higher elevations, we could see as much as a foot or more an hour, with no sign of slowing ..."

  "Yeah, tell us something we don't know," Billy muttered. He cradled Margot in his arms. She snored softly, long ago surrendering to the valium Linda had given her. Linda sat next to Bi
lly, equally as doped, but working on her fifth glass of wine nonetheless. Maxie and Quinn lay curled up on the floor beside Rob, who sat Indian style in front of the small television.

  The weather-map had changed and now depicted the entire United States. The Great Lakes were obscured by a swirling mass of clouds the size of Texas, while two huge tropical storms book-ended Florida, one in the Atlantic, and one moving up toward the pan handle from the Gulf.

  "This is unprecedented stuff, folks. Completely unprecedented. And they're no better off across the pond, where, we're told, much of northern and central Europe is experiencing blizzard conditions, with London reporting more than two feet of snow fall in the last three hours." The weatherman took a deep breath and shook his head and laughed. "This is...it's a little scary, is what it is." He looked at his watch and laughed again. "Here we are, thirty minutes away from December 21st 2012. I don't have to remind most of you what that date signifies. It's got to make you wonder, right? I mean..."

  The camera panned violently and then cut back to the news desk. The anchors---a meticulously coiffed silver-haired man and an overly made-up middle-aged woman---stared slack-jawed at a commotion off camera. After a few seconds of silence, the male anchor regained his composure, looked into the camera, and smiled unconvincingly.

  "Dan...Dan is obviously joking, folks," he said. The reporter paused, his smile wavering, as he held his finger to his ear. "We, here at WCTV, want...to...assure you that...okay, hold on a minute folks. We're getting some news out of...I can't make this out. Is somebody going to throw this on the prompt...?"

  The image on the screen froze and flickered before giving way to color bars and a droning, high-pitched tone. Rob flipped through the stations and, after nothing but static, test patterns, or no picture at all, switched off the television.

  "Satellite dish is probably buried," Rob said. "With that wind, I'm surprised we had reception as long as we did." He threw the remote onto the sofa and grabbed his beer off of the coffee table. "I'll get up there and clean it off in the morning."

  "What if he's right?" Linda asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  "What? What if who's right?" Rob asked.

  Linda's eyelids fluttered and her head bobbed forward. "The fucking weatherman." She practically spat out the words. "What if this is it? I mean...you know...it?"

  Rob sighed. "Jesus, Linda, you're half in the bag. Use your head, for Chrissake," he said. "That's all tinfoil-hat-wearing bullshit." He took a hearty swig from his beer and set the empty bottle back down. "A fucking Aztec fairy tale."

  "Mayan," Billy said.

  Rob waved his hands in the air. "Who gives a rat's ass? Mayan? Aztec? They could be fucking Oompa Loompas for all I care. It's a bunch of goddamn nonsense that I don't want to hear about. End of story."

  Rob knelt down and scooped up the girls, one in each arm, and then carried them off to bed. Linda cursed him under her breath, and took another sip of wine. She looked at Billy and offered him a weak smile.

  "I'm not stupid, you know," she said.

  Billy nodded. "Yeah, I know."

  "It's just...why the fuck not, you know? Why is it so impossible?" She reached for the bottle of wine, started to pour herself another glass, and spilt most of it on her wrist. "I mean...it's happened before...so... what makes us so fucking special, you know?"

  Billy steadied the bottle for her.

  "Thanks." She laughed. "I guess I'm just a little...I probably should go to bed."

  "That sounds like a good idea," Billy said, setting down the bottle and wine glass for her. He helped her up from the couch and started to walk her toward her and Rob's bedroom.

  "I'm okay, I'm okay." She tapped him on the wrist and pulled away. "I'll see you in the morning, Billy." Linda gave him a peck on the cheek. "We'll probably be laughing about this tomorrow."

  Billy nodded and smiled, and wished he could believe it.

  4

  Margot awoke to cold blackness and throbbing inside her head, blissfully unaware of her surroundings until she sat up and her feet touched the frigid hardwood floor. With the realization came panic. She frantically patted the bed, hoping to find Billy sleeping next to her, but nothing lay beside her save for the sweater and damp jeans she'd worn on the ride up. She felt for the lamp on the night table and turned the switch, eliciting a loud click and nothing more. She turned the switch again, and again, the anxiety swelling within her.

  "Billy?" she called.

  There was no reply, just a distant penetrating whine, and a rhythmic, muffled crunch that came from below. Margot stood and fumbled through the darkness toward the dim light that bled in from beneath the door. She wrapped herself in her robe and stepped out into the loft. She could see Linda down in the living room, sitting on the couch and flanked on either side by her daughters. A Coleman propane lamp burned on the table in front of them; the source of the high-pitched drone Margot had heard from the bedroom. She hurried down the stairs and along the hall into the living room.

  "Did we lose power?" Margot asked, her breath hanging in the air before her.

  Linda nodded and offered Margot a tight, quivering smile. Rob sat on the ottoman, sweat-slicked and breathless, and cradling his head in his hands. His overstuffed jacket lay drying in front of the fireplace; a single log smoldered within it.

  The front door was ajar and, through the gap, a pile of slush and snow spilled into the room. The two large windows above and on either side of the door, however, were grey and opaque.

  "Where's Billy?" Margot asked.

  Rob didn't look up. He just pointed at the door. She went to it, the snow crunching beneath her bare feet.

  Beyond the door lay a long, ice-blue trench that ascended at least six feet before meeting a roiling dark sky. At the peak, Billy, caked in snow and a shovel hanging over his shoulder, stood screaming silently into the wind.

  5

  A box of Cheerios, six bagels, a small package of frozen chicken nuggets, five cans of Spaghetti-O's, and two bags of salt and vinegar potato chips. Those, along with the plate of leftovers from the night before, various sweeteners and condiments left behind by previous tenants, and an energy bar Rob had stashed into his overnight bag, were laid out on the kitchen table before them.

  "That's it?" Billy asked.

  "That's it," Rob said. "We figured we'd do groceries with you this morning. This was just...stuff from home. Stuff for the kids..." His voice trailed off and tears welled in his eyes.

  Billy peered back into the living room. Linda was sleeping on the couch, and Maxie and Quinn were sitting in front of the fire bickering over whose turn it was with the Nintendo DS, and Margot was standing at the front door, holding her cell phone aloft trying to get a signal.

  "So what the hell do we do, Rob?" Billy whispered.

  Rob raked his hands down his face and sighed. "I'm gonna go for help," he said. "I've got my skis. I can bushwalk back down to the main road. I don't know; maybe it's not as bad as the mountain."

  "No," Billy shook his head. "Fuck that. We should wait..."

  "Wait for what, Billy?" Rob asked. "For help? You saw it out there. No one knows we're here. No one is coming. We've got, like, three logs left. After that, we'll have to start burning the fucking furniture. And this..." Rob motioned toward the table. "This won't last more than a few days. A week at most."

  "At least wait for the weather to clear," Billy pleaded.

  "We don't know when that will happen, Billy. It could get a lot worse before it gets better. I...can't take that chance. Not...not with the girls."

  "Fine. Then I'll go," Billy said.

  Rob laughed. "Don't be ridiculous."

  "What? I'm younger, and I'm in better shape than you," Billy said.

  "Younger, yes. Better shape?" Rob smirked. "That's debatable. Either way, I'm the better skier. It just makes more sense this way."

  Billy sighed. His brother was right. He hadn't tackled anything more challenging than the bunny slope since he was a teenager. Sk
iing had always been Rob's forte.

  "Look. It's only a few miles to the main road." Rob said. "I'll go; I'll see what I see and, if I don't find help, I'll turn right around. If I leave now, I can be back before nightfall."

  Billy ground his fists into his eyes and groaned.

  "Trust me, little brother. I've got to do this." Rob rested his beefy hands on Billy's shoulders. "C'mon. I want to show you something."

  Billy followed Rob down the hall to his bedroom. They stepped inside, and Rob closed the door behind them. He moved to the other side of the bed and knelt behind it. When he resurfaced, he held a square plastic case, which he placed on the bed. He pulled a small key off of his key ring, opened the box, and turned it toward Billy.

  "Jesus, Rob!"

  "It's a beauty, ain't it?" Rob pulled the Khar 9mm out of its case and handed it to Billy. "Don't worry. It's not loaded."

  "Yeah, famous last words," Billy muttered, as he took the weapon. It was surprisingly light, not that Billy had much experience with guns. "When did you get this? Fuck. Why did you get this?"

  "It's not mine," Rob said. "It's Linda's."

  Billy shot him a quizzical look. "Why the hell would Linda need a gun?"

  "There was an incident a few months ago. Nothing major. Just some punks. Made off with her purse, and... well...it shook her up pretty good. We thought..." Rob waved his hands. "It's not important. I wanted you to know that it's here. You know; just in case."

  "In case of what?" Billy asked, handing the gun back to him. "In case you don't come back?"

  Rob shrugged. "I don't know, Billy. Just...just know it's here." Rob locked the gun back in the box and put the key in the nightstand drawer. "If push comes to shove, Linda will know what to do. Hell, she's a better shot than I am." Rob laughed and slipped the box back under the bed.

  "All right," he said. "I'm going to get ready."

  Rob stomped through the living room, his ski boots gouging the tile floor. Billy carried his brother's skis and poles and Maxie's Dora the Explorer backpack. Margot helped Rob slip into his coat, and Maxie handed him his gloves. Quinn held his hat. Linda was still in the bedroom, crying hysterically, as she had been ever since Rob had told her he was going.