14. Home

It was dawn when they finally packed up and backed the Jeep out of the driveway—or at least it should have been. Daylight hadn't come. Those clouds were everywhere now, and as far as Zack could see in every direction the sky was an endless monochrome.

"So…" Zack said as they turned onto the highway. "It sure is a nice day."

"You're telling me." Todd agreed emptily. "Feels just like summer."

Zack couldn't help but laugh.

"Any idea about… you know…all of this?" Zack was gesturing his free hand around at the darkness swirling outside the confines of the Jeep's dim interior. He still wasn't sure if this was just some strange weather phenomenon, but even as he tried to convince himself that was the case, he knew very, very much that it wasn't.

"Like I've said before, I wish I knew what to tell you—but it's all a mystery to me, too."

"But…" Zack continued, glancing at Todd and trying to interpret his silence. He didn't want to press. He didn't want to do this right now, but he knew they had to. It was time.

"I um…I heard your dad talking once about the bridge, about the shadows you described as a boy…are these them?" Zack asked, finally putting into words the terrible truth that had begun to flesh itself out over the past few days.

"What?" Todd shot a paranoid look at him. "Why would you say that?!" His eyes had grown watery at the mention of the bridge, and Zack trod gingerly, knowing the memory contained the mysterious loss of his mother.

"I'm sorry, it's just…I heard your dad telling my mom about it. What he describes you talking about sounds like this." Zack was waving at the coal-black sky. There was nothing natural about it.

"You'd think I was crazy if I told you." Todd started.

"Try me." Zack challenged. It was hard to see out the front of the car, and he tried his best to keep them on the road.

"I…I can't remember it clearly," Todd began. "She was driving me to school, and we were on a bridge when suddenly she screamed out. I was playing a game and didn't even notice whatever she'd seen. She'd warned me about the shadows my whole life, and when they appeared in front of us on that bridge, I immediately knew what they were." Todd was crying now.

"The shadows ripped her away from me. There was a man, and then it all went dark…" Todd drifted off.

"And it looked like this?" Zack asked, terrified.

"This is a thousand times worse." Todd said helplessly. He'd pulled a peculiar trinket out of his pocket, something Zack hadn't noticed him with before…it was familiar…and then he recognized it.

"Hey, where'd you get that!" He snatched it away from Todd, looking at the familiar old key and questioning how his family's heirloom had come into Todd's possession.

The rain was picking up as they drew nearer to the coast, and he couldn't drive as fast as he normally would have.

"My dad mailed it to me. Why? I thought it was supposed to be the house key but…it didn't work." Tood shrugged, seemingly disinterested in the item.

"House key? We have normal-ass keys, Todd. And this…this isn't your dad's." Zack was clenching the carrot key in his fist.

"Okay…?" Todd seemed to imagine there would be more to the story.

There wasn't.

At least not as far as Zack had been informed. The key had always been something his family mentioned in passing, an oddity that had become a possession when they'd first moved into the home all those years before. He'd been young then, and one of Zack's earliest, most vivid memories from that time had been the day they'd bought that grand home. He had run straight through those oaken double doors and out onto the back patio, jumping gleefully into the swimming pool with all his clothes and both shoes still on even though it was mid-winter. His mother had forced him back inside to help unpack, and even as he'd made his way soddenly through the kitchen that very first time, he'd seen it: the carrot key. It was the only thing left behind from the prior owners, and his entire family had spent long hours musing over what it might lead to—what treasure chest it might open.

But they'd never found any treasure. He and Bethany had spent many hours attempting to locate the door it was meant to work on, but to no avail. And so, over time, they'd largely stopped mentioning the key altogether. In fact, Zack couldn't recall clearly the last time he'd seen it—and that it was appearing now, right now, seemed important.

The ground beneath them shook terribly, sending the Jeep nearly tumbling from the roadway. There was a loud, terrible thunderclap, and then, all at once, the sky began to crackle with scintillating energy.

He stuffed the key in his pocket, grabbing the wheel and flooring it toward Kennebunkport.

The shadows were here.

It was happening.

The neighborhood wasn't at allhow they'd left it. The street was pitch black and lined by dozens, no hundreds of cars. They were parked bumper to bumper as far as Zack could see up and down the block—all empty. And when the Jeep finally returned to the stone manor's driveway, they were both dismayed to see that Snail was nowhere to be found.

"Someone's having an end-of-the-world party," Todd said darkly. A distant sound, not unlike music, reached their ears. It vaulted over the house, grasping out to them from either side of its imperious walls, beckoning them to investigate.

And so they did. Todd and Zack picked their way quietly around the side of the house. Zack led them to the wrought-iron gate, and the two slid into the backyard.

"Are you sure about this?" Zack asked.

"What choice do we have?" Todd said.

HOO-AH!

CLAP!

The call erupted in singular unity, thousands of voices joining in simultaneously as it thundered around them. Zack heard a series of car alarms go off, and the distant boom of an explosion as the ground shook with renewed violence. Huge waves splashed up into the yard.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me," Todd said, pulling at Zack's arm frantically, snapping him out of his terror fugue.

"What's going on!?" Zack shrieked, finally too terrified to hold it in any longer.

But Todd was directing Zack's face away from the unseen origin of the sounds and out toward where the ocean should have been, hidden by the endless darkness. But then…

Flames.

Thousands of smoldering orbs had erupted across the heavens, slowly falling all around them, crashing into homes across the neighborhood and setting them ablaze.

The men ran, clambering out onto the back patio, only to come to a halt, stunned by the crowd assembled there. An enormous bonfire had been erected in the center of the patio. The crowd fell immediately silent as the pair emerged from the path, all turning in singular focus toward the two boys with a quiet hush settling across them. The music halted with a screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech.

Zack's heart was pounding as he scanned the crowd for a familiar face, someone to beg for help. But he found no one he recognized amongst the sea of faces. Explosions were rocketing out from the darkness all around them, distant screams curdling into the night as great winged beasts flapped overhead, and the heinous roar of some infernal monster lanced out from the shadows, causing him to tremble in fear.

Zack stared incredulously at the crowd; none of them were reacting. If anything, they seemed perfectly happy with whatever was going on, toasting one another before donning…animal masks.

Zack almost fainted as the ground trembled raucously. The crowd applauded, all howling and catcalling, oinking and yelping up at the sky as an enormous fireball smashed into the neighbor's Cape, blowing it to smithereens.

HOO-AH! They chanted.

"There you are." Bethany called out. She'd pushed her way out from between the wall of partygoers.

"Bethany, what is all this!?" Zack shrieked in terror.

Fighter jets tore through the sky overhead, followed by the roar of something colossal flapping after them. There was an explosion as whatever it was caught one of them, and Zack ducked instinctively as debris splashed out in the ocean.

Bethany was giggling.

"You know, when he first appeared to me, I thought about telling you." She began.

"But then I realized you'd never make the deal I took. You were always a goody-goody." Bethanny quipped, drawing nearer and menacing him with a snarl. She donned a mask—a wicked-looking hyena—before continuing.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to our brother?" She toyed.

Zack flinched, glancing nervously at Todd, who remained silent.

"I assume one of you has the key?" She demanded. "Hand it over, and I promise I'll make him go easy on you. Apparently, there are worse things there than death."

Zack gaped at her. She'd always been harsh but never cruel.

"Are you for fucking real Bethany?" He spat. His thoughts went nervously to the key in his pocket.

"Oh, I'm for real, little brother. I made a deal with the devil and don't plan to let him down with my side of the bargain." Bethany purred.

Danver had appeared at her side. Shirtless and rippling. He wrapped an arm around Bethany.

"I assume you've met Danny by now?" She said.

Zack felt like his head might explode. The ground was really about to open up and swallow him whole, finally. He was about to be sundered completely by it.

"Don't worry. You weren't ever part of the plan." Bethany continued airily.

"Him on the other hand…" She nodded at Todd. "Grab him!" She screamed.

The crowd had closed behind them like an ocean reconsolidating itself after a miracle, and the silence was the most menacing quiet Zack had ever imagined.

Bethany raised a hand up near her head and snapped her fingers in a swift, artful command. The crowd erupted as one:

HOO-AH!

CLAP!

"Power, Zack. It's what I've always wanted. And now it's mine. Now fuck off and die." She said.

"Come with me." Todd said beside him, calmer than Zack would have imagined him to be; his voice sounded different somehow, colder. But he was grabbing Zack now and tugging him along, dragging him away from the approaching crowd and toward the dubious safety of the laundry room.

"Where are we going?" Zack mumbled, totally disoriented by everything going on around them.

"You're going to need to trust me now," Todd said, still not sounding very familiar.

"Todd what's with your voice..." Zack asked, looking around as though he couldn't trust anyone or anything anymore.

"Look, jockboy, just shut the fuck up and follow me." Todd said, dropping any kindness he'd been faking previously.

Zack decided that this was his best option, and he followed Todd as he passed out into the house and sprinted off down one of the hallways.

"It's around here somewhere…" He muttered. "Here!"

Todd was flipping the cushion of one of the window seats over and smashing through the wooden plywood below with his leg.

"Hey!" Zack protested stupidly, more out of habit than anything else. He'd just watched his neighbor's house get blown to bits by a smoldering asteroid but somehow still recoiled at the idea of damaging the old house.

"Not now, idiot." Todd hissed. Come." He signaled. Zack peered into the opening he'd created, and to his shock and dismay, he saw a narrow stone passageway extending deep underneath the house. It was vertical, with a primitive ladder built into one side.

He heard the partygoers smashing through one of the windows behind them, screaming for Todd to join them.

"Look, give me that fucking key and get your ass in the tunnel." Todd said. For whatever reason, Zack did as he was told, handing him the key before hurrying onto the rickety ladder and lowering himself down into the tunnel.

It was mank, and every so often, the ground still shook. Todd had clambered in above him, and the two were rapidly descending now as the echo of voices spilled in from above.

"Hurry!" Todd hissed.

"Where are we even going?!" Zack cried.

"The only place left to go." Todd said cryptically. "Now keep going! They're coming!" He urged.

Zack continued on, climbing down and down and down until he thought his arms would fail him. But then, at long last, he reached the surety of the ground.

Zack stepped back from the ladder, pulled out his iPhone, and used the light from the device to gain his bearings: They were in a chamber, maybe twenty yards across. In its center, an enormous glittering archway filled the room.

"Oh, great, Todd! It's an underground prison cell. Not the escape I was hoping for," Zack said defeatedly, unable to control his temper or spare Todd from it anymore.

"Look, I'm doing the best I can." Todd said absently, searching around the base of the stone archway. "Bring me that light."

"There," Todd gasped. Zack squinted, noticing a small inset in the arch where Todd was inserting the carrot key even now. He twisted it ever so gently, a faint click echoing about the still of the chamber. But then…

"Do you fucks know how hard it is to climb a ladder in heels?" Bethany blustered.

Click… click… click…

Zack and Todd turned in unison to face Bethany and Danver again, the pair moving to confront them under the apex of that huge stone archway.

The ground was vibrating now in a constant rumble.

Dust and pebbles fell down in whirls from far above, a horrible noise echoing around the stone-walled space growing louder all the while.

"What the fuck is this?!" Zack tried to yell above the din.

"Later!" Todd commanded.

"You have no idea what you fucks are getting yourselves into," Bethany boomed, taking a single click forward. "Don't you dare use that archway. This is my fucking world, do you hear me!? I've worked my ass off for this. Now give me the fucking key!" She shrieked, reaching out toward the archway only to be knocked off her feet as the rumbling intensified.

Zack stared bewildered as a strange, flickering light appeared along the edges of the stones, neon pink and electric blue whirling and whizzing out of them like tiny motes of vaporwave magic. A beautiful noise began to drown out the ugly one now. It ramped up, resounding louder and faster as the ethereal lights intensified in number and brightness. Zack noted that for all her precocity, even Bethanylooked around in wild-eyed wonder at the color and light erupting back into the world in this strange, subterranean space.

The light grew brighter, the sound louder, and Zack's fear reached a zenith he hadn't believed possible. He reached out for Todd, grasping for a hand that was willingly given.

The light became blinding, the sound all-consuming, and then there was nothing.