Death's Little Angels (24 page)

Drew watched as Mater ran
down the road. She stopped to look back one time to wave at Drew
before breaking off into the woods. Drew turned his attention back
to his grandmother’s home. No sounds of laughter or smells of an
evening’s dinner erupted from the house. He walked up to
Big Thunder
and touched
the hood.
Still warm.
He noticed that the front door to the house was opened and
that his mother must have went on in.

Mee-maw is making my
favorite, peach cobbler, and Jessie is going to finally sit down at
the table and we are going to once and for all have dinner as a
family,
Drew concluded. A big smile made
its way across his face.

Drew walked up to the
front door and into the quiet darkness of the house. The only sound
that could be heard was the ticking from the huge wall clock that
sat over the piano in the corner. He walked over to a light switch
to turn on the lights.
No
electricity.
Drew continued throughout the
living room, and then to the den before taking the stairs up to
where the bedrooms were located. He stopped midway up the stairs
and decided to go investigate the kitchen first then basement. The
kitchen was built over the basement so Drew figured he could kill
two birds with one stone and grab a snack out of the
pantry.

“
Mee-maw? Jessie?” Drew
called as he neared the dining room. Distant sounds hailed from the
area of where the kitchen and basement were located. Drew became
curious as he tried to analyze the muffled sounds.

The closer he got to the kitchen the louder
the sounds became. The sounds were not the kind he wanted to hear.
Drew’s heart started beating so fast that he thought at any moment
it would jump right through his shirt. His stomach began to churn
like he had a bad case of diarrhea. As he stepped into the doorway
of the kitchen, Drew was relieved to see his grandmother and mother
sitting at the dining table. Mee-maw was still dressed in her
camouflage accompanied by her combat boots. Her black bandana that
was tied around her bun earlier was now wrapped around her arm.
Drew studied his grandmother’s droopy hairstyle. Her smoky white
hair that was neatly pulled into that near perfect bun, fell
messily around her shoulders in separate strands.

Drew was so happy to see
his grandmother that he literally knocked her over when he hugged
her tightly. He covered her face with tiny kisses. Mee-maw looked
up at Drew with soft tired eyes and mouthed the words,
I love you
. His
excitement was short lived when his mother started to cry
uncontrollably. He had never seen his mother cry like this.
Never.

Where are my
sisters,
Drew thought as his eyes wandered
back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. A familiar
creepy sound that Drew knew all to well crept into the kitchen once
again.

“
Mee-maw, I’m so glad you
are okay,” Drew said as he hugged his grandmother again. He wiped
away the tiny specks of sweat that glistened on her smooth aged
skin.

He pulled back to study her face. She looked
like she had been through a tug a war battle. The sounds became
louder drowning out his mother’s cries. Drew’s curiosity sparked
him as he cocked his head to the side.

Where is that coming
from?
He thought.

“
I knew you would make it,
my strong…. Sweet…Drew,” Mee-maw struggled to say.

“
Mee-maw? What is wrong?
What are those sounds? Where are Maryann and Grace?” Drew asked all
at once. With the flood of questions his mother cried harder as his
grandmother sadly shook her head.

“
Grace is upstairs in her
room playing with baby dolls and Maryann….” Mee-maw pointed across
the kitchen towards the dark abyss where the sounds grew louder,
“she is down there… in the basement.”

One, two, run, Drew, Drew, Drew

Three, four, better close the door,

Five, six, your blood will boil thick,

Seven, eight, the Eaters have you on a
plate

Nine, ten, never live again….

The growling moans escaped
from the underneath the basement door. Drew brought his hands to
his ears to drown out the awful noise.
How
could it be?
Tears warmed his cool cheeks
as he thought of the last moments he had spent with his sister
earlier. She had hidden his baseball bat causing them to get into a
nasty fight. Drew recalled when he had told her that he hated her
and wished that he never had an annoying sister. He instantly
regretted those comments because he never meant it.

Drew’s hand quivered as he reached for the
doorknob. A warm hand gently touched his and moved it away.

“
Let Mee-maw take you,
honey,” Drew’s grandmother said as she slowly opened the door. She
flicked on a high powered lamp and calmly turned around to face her
daughter before heading down into the dark, cold pit. “Are you
coming Jessie?”

Jessie, hesitantly, got up from the kitchen
table and followed her mother along with Drew down into the
basement. With each step they took down the staircase, the moans
and growls became louder. Once they reached the bottom of the
stairs, the cold dampness of the basement along with the smell of
decayed meat hit Drew in the face like a hard slap. Drew’s
grandmother held up the lamp and shined it towards the corner where
the furnace was located. She instructed Jessie to light the two
candles that sat on the end tables near the base of the stairs.
Jessie pulled out her lighter and fumbled a few times dropping it.
She then grasped a hold of her self before accomplishing the
task.

Drew followed Mee-maw towards the figure
that moved near the furnace. Once they came within a safe distance,
Mee-maw sat the lamp down on the basement floor. It illuminated the
entire vast space. Jessie immediately let out a loud gasp before
attempting to run towards her oldest daughter, Maryann. Even though
Drew noticed that his grandmother was beginning to look frail, he
was amazed at the brute strength she possessed once she held Jessie
back.

“
You can’t…. you can’t go
to her,” Mee-maw firmly said.

“
Why? She is my daughter!”
Jessie shrieked as she fought against her mother’s firm
hold.

Mee-maw reached back and
slapped Jessie hard across the face. “You look!
Look
at her! Look at your
daughter
, Maryann! If
you would have been there…. None of this would have ever
happened!”

The hard, cold truth set in as the chains
that bound Maryann to the wall made clanging noises. The pretty all
around fourth grader, sister, friend, and daughter was now a raging
hungry machine. She stood there, leaning to one side, growling and
moaning gnashing her small teeth. Her once full, dark brown hair
was matted to her forehead. The pink bow that was neatly placed in
her hair before school dangled by a thread and was stained with
blood. She had severe gaping wounds all over legs and thighs. The
right leg was so badly disfigured that it seemed like her bones had
been repeatedly broken in the same spot. Maryann extended her jaws
so wide that the corners of her mouth split open, releasing
blood.

A chain, big enough to
hold a large size dog, was wrapped tightly around Maryann’s neck. A
chain as such would have weighed the heftiest of men down but the
small body of Maryann was fueled by something more sinister than
death itself
. Hunger.

Mee-maw cleared the air. “I thank God that
Grace was out sick today or I would have surely lost them both. By
the time I got to Maryann….” Mee-maw squeezed her eyes shut tightly
reminiscent of the horrible events that took place, “The children
were biting into each other in unimaginable places… chewing those
poor kid’s faces off. The agony in the screams is unbearable to me
now just thinking of it. “

Maryann continued to growl and moan. She
slowly waved her hands at them like she was blindly reaching for a
hug.

“
Zombies….
The dead that lives amongst us and feeds from
us.
I knew the time was coming but never
in my lifetime did I think I would see it. I heard my poor Maryann
screaming from down the hallway. I found her in the classroom with
three children eating away at her legs. I could tell she tried to
escape the classroom with the others but fell in the process and
was trampled, which cost her, her life. I couldn’t just leave my
grandbaby there to die alone. So, I brought her back here to die
with me.”

“
What do you mean by that,
momma?” Jessie asked. Her eyes were almost swollen shut from
crying. Drew had never seen his mother this way.

“
Maryann did not die at
the school. She was gravely injured. Maryann died in my arms
underneath the swing by the big oak tree out there. You know that
was her favorite place to play, right?” Mee-maw looked at Jessie
who turned away. “Death had finally arrived to take my little
angel.”

Drew stared at his sister. She had the
classic look of death. Her eyes were rolled upwards as if she had
suffered a seizure. Black spidery veins ran through her ashen,
dusky skin. He remembered the vivacious curls that Maryann had wore
in her hair earlier before school. She had gone to school with her
mane styled different because she had planned to add her name to
the ballet for student council. All those dreams and goals of
Maryann Jacks would never happen.

Drew walked closer to Maryann but was
stopped by his grandmother. Maryann continued to moan and grit her
teeth at Drew. He slowly but carefully reached out his hand towards
his sister.

“
Maryann…. I am sorry
about this morning and all of the other times you and I argued. I
wish I could take back, what I said to you but I know it’s too
late. I hope that you can forgive me. Please don’t get mad and try
to eat me. Remember, I am your brother and I love you no matter
what.”

The scent of Drew caused Maryann to go wild.
She started flailing her arms wildly like she was swatting at
wasps. Drew jumped back as Maryann tried to lunge for him. Jessie
walked towards Maryann and sobbed again.

“
Maryann, I am so sorry
that I was not the mother you needed. Please forgive me for missing
your birthday parties and school events…. Please baby…. If there is
any chance that you are still in there, please forgive your
mother.” Jessie could no longer bare her shame. She left the
basement crying.

Mee-maw glanced at Maryann
and mouthed the words
I love
you
. She motioned for Drew to go back up
into the house. Drew took one last look at his sister before
heading back up the stairs. He stopped midway up the staircase when
he noticed that his grandmother did not pick up the lamp nor blow
out the candles.

“
Are you going to get the
lamp or blow out the candles?” Drew asked.

“
I will be back later for
it. It won’t be long…” Mee-maw slowly said with quick short
breaths. She hobbled up the stairs cautiously until she met up face
to face with Drew. Drew noticed that his grandmother’s pupils were
dilated and were as big as dimes.

“
Are you okay,
Mee-maw?”

“
Yes, Drew. Had a rough
day baby. This old body isn’t as strong as it use to be,” Mee-maw
nervously laughed. She pointed towards the door that led out of the
basement.

**********

“
Drew, go upstairs and get
Grace. Be sure to get the black backpack that I set aside for the
both of you,” Mee-maw said. Drew could tell that his grandmother’s
breathing had picked up rapidly. The dampness on her face glistened
slightly as the rays from behind the bleak clouds snuck
in.

“
Yes ma’am,” Drew said as
made his way up the stairs.

There were four bedrooms upstairs in the
massive house. Drew and his siblings stayed with their grandmother
a many of night to escape the varmints that would seep through the
holes in the floor of the trailer. Each of the Jack children had
claimed their own respective rooms and enjoyed the fruits of their
grandmother’s labor. Drew walked down the hallway towards Grace’s
room. He knew he was getting closer to his sister when he heard the
child’s play coming from outside the bright pink room on the right.
He quietly walked in and blushed when he saw Grace playing house
with her baby dolls. She was stilled dressed in her khaki uniform
dress.

Grace’s golden strands were bright enough to
add sparkle to the dimming room. She had a male and female baby
doll in her hand. He watched as Grace changed her voice to angry
when the male baby doll spoke to the female baby doll. It was then
Drew realized that Grace was reliving the fight that he had with
Maryann earlier in the morning before going to school.

“
Hey Grace….” Drew said
kneeling down beside his baby sister, “what are you
doing?”

Grace looked up at her brother with
sparkling blue eyes that mirrored his own. “Playing with my
babies…. See?” She held the dolls up high. The female doll was a
missing a leg. “This one is my sissy.”

Drew observed a white 4 X 4 gauze taped to
Grace’s right upper forearm.

“
What happened to your
arm, Grace?” Drew asked as he knelt down to inspect the makeshift
bandage. No blood was visible.

Grace frowned as she continued playing with
her dolls with her free arm. “Maryann was being mean to me. After
Mee-maw picked her up from school. She would not play house with
me. She bit my arm. I have a boo boo.”