Читать книгу Hanky and the Thousandsleeper - Marvin Roth - Страница 9

He screamed, in a voice that no human ear could hear and raced around his dark prison in fury. At first, he had thought it was his lucky day because a potential victim was approaching. He had called out and beckoned it to come closer. Never before had any of them resisted his calling. But this one had put up a fight. He had intended to penetrate the brain of the victim, but all he had found in there was a complete mess and patterns that were absolutely useless to him. All of a sudden he had felt a familiar, much hated presence in the vibrations of the victims. He felt the presence of his last opponent. The one who had caught him off guard back in the day. Yet something was wrong with these vibrational patterns. He could not have been the same person. Other vibrations could be identified and they were unknown ones. This confused him for an instant. At this precise moment he had loosened his spiritual grip on the victim and it had stormed off. Now he was gone, unreachable and he certainly would never come back. So the wait would have to continue. He probably would have to take over one of these stupid animals. While that was not very convenient, he sometimes used one of these creates when he was on the prowl.

Just like back then, when he, having assumed the identity of a mountain lion, had killed this imbecile of a guy. This dude had stumbled through the woods to take a shortcut to his house. The thing had read the guy’s mind. The man had been easy enough to kill. But after the thing had worked off its fury and desire to kill in the body of the puma, another man appeared in the forest and approached him directly.

The cougar creature ducked to the ground to leap at the man, but the latter immediately pointed a rifle at him and shot before the thing could escape. Half of the puma’s head exploded and the animal and its invisible guest fell to the ground, where they both lay motionless. The thing was unaware of the acts that followed and he had been weakened to the point that he soon dozed off. Nonetheless, he had remembered one thing - the spiritual presence - the mental vibrations of the man.

The old man sat in his favorite spot on the wooden porch of his house, which was also beginning to show its age. He had placed a cushion on the bench that sat along the wall of the house. More recently, sitting for any length of time caused his back to ache more and more frequently. Yet he loved to relax out here. He enjoyed the fresh air and the views across the meadows all the way up to the nearby forest. It brought delight to his heart to listen to the chirping of the birds and the rustling of the leaves in the fall.

He spent almost every day outside, if the weather permitted it at all. He never got bored because this was his time to let his thoughts drift and roam with out interruptions. In recent years, more and more memories dating back to his childhood and adolescence returned to him like old friends. He liked that and was sometimes quite astounded as to how much detail he did remember.

He could literally smell the cakes his mother used to serve every Sunday. He was not so fond of his school memories because he actually had not liked school back then. But he frequently basked in the memories of childhood friends. They had pulled of some pretty crazy practical jokes on people and as he reminisced, he frequently had to laugh out loud. If someone had watched him sitting there all by himself and laughing his head off, the secret observer would certainly have had misgivings about the old man’s sanity.

Often, yes very often indeed, he would think of his wife and the life they had shared. How often had he hurt her out false pride or because he insisted on being right instead of taking her into his arms and enjoying every hour they could spend together? She had passed on six years ago - left him as the pastor had put it back then. His world had become darker in the aftermath of her death. He had blamed God and the world. He had cursed his own fate and the fact that he had to continue to live without her.

His children had all gotten married and moved to Prisco into a cute little house. They had told him he should move in with them at the time. Nonetheless, he wanted to stay here, in his familiar surroundings, protected by his own four walls. This was his home and he would never have felt at home anywhere else. Once the children had had their own baby - a son - he was happy for them along with his wife, who was still alive at the time. Since then, almost thirty years had passed and the baby had grown into a man.

Well, he wished that were true. He wished the baby had grown into a man. Yet his grandson was still a child. His body had grown into that of a man, his mind had not caught up with this development. Despite that fact, the old man had always considered his grandson a special gift.

The grandfather always said: “The Lord above must have had a plan when he made him like that. One day you will see.......”

He always let the sentence trail off without finishing it. He had not always been a man of faith. In fact, he’d rarely attended church services, and if he ever did, he did so because his wife demanded he did. All of that had changed the day he had buried his brother-in-law in the woods. This tragedy had lead him to believe. While he was still not a regular church attendee, he did talk to God a whole lot. He talked to Him, told Him stories as if He was an old friend. They had conversations every day. It brought him inner peace and satisfaction.

And so it was on this day, when he sat outside and surveyed the meadows and the forest, just like he did every other day. But today was a different day than the days before. Something made him shudder, although the autumn sun’s warm rays did make the temperature on the porch rather comfortable. He had an uneasy feeling, a premonition that had bothered him for days. At night he continued to wake up exhausted in the middle of a dream and could not remember any of it. Normally, he was a very sound sleeper who awoke refreshed every morning. Something was about to happen, something was wrong. He stared hard at the edge of the forest, but did not recognize anything that would have been strange. Everything appeared to be completely normal.

The thing stretched its mental tentacles invisibly. Searching like a blind person, it felt around in the dark and listened. The creature kept searching and searching. About a quarter of a mile away, a rabbit was gnawing away at a bushel of grass. All of a sudden, its ears shot upright and began to listen. At first, the animal heard an almost inaudible whisper, next a buzzing sound similar to that created by a swarm of bees. Just before the bunny could flee its spirit was brutally forced aside and a cold glimmer appeared in its eyes. The thing had taken control of the animal like a flash of lightning. Initially, the rabbit continued to move as if it were unsure of itself; almost like a drunken rabbit. Its heart raced like crazy. A short while later it turned into the direction of the forest edge and began to run.