the second sight episode 32

THE SECOND
SIGHT

Chapter 32

FLIGHT

Location: JOE BOAT’S RESIDENCE

Boat struggles to his feet, but the room does a crazy swaying act, and he bends quickly to hold his knees and allow it to pas-s.

He zigzags his way to the living room.

He reaches for his mobile phone, but it isn’t in its usual position in his top left br£-$t pocket. Somehow, somewhere in the night I has lost it, probably during the fight.

His vision is a little clear now, and he walks over to the phone on Uncle Samson’s little desk where he does all his fake Bible readings and writes his little biblical dissertations which have all been atrocious blasphemies in view of what the man really is.

The fake …the damn little fake!

Boat lifts the receiver.

There is no dialing tone; the phone is dead.

He traces the cable anxiously.

There is a connecting device that sometimes comes off.

All that nee-ds to be done is to fix the crimped node back into its socket.

But it is intact that night, and as he traces the line he sees that the wire has been cut cleanly, and the pair of scissors he sees on the desk gives him the rest of the story.

Uncle Samson had come in, suspected – or known, somehow – that Boat is no longer the little toast he had been frying, and decided to play it safe and cut him off.

There is no time to lose now.

He has to move, keep moving, and find his father, who is Boat’s only hope now against a future that seems bleaker by the second.

He drops the receiver and turns.

And that is when he sees it.

Terror.

Sheer terror.

He has not been expecting it.

He knows danger is coming in the form of Uncle Samson, or from other deadly things like Hideous and the other minions.

Boat has seen them, and somehow he has come to know them, even though in a brutal manner, and his mind is slowly building a sort of resistance – even if paper-thin – against them.

But Boast isn’t prepared for what he sees now!

It is not as terrible-looking as Hideous or the other demons are.

Really, it is a normal sort of thing, but to see it like Boat is seeing it now almost drives Boat mad.

It is simply the most awful and sickest thing Boat has ever seen!

Uncle Samson’s television is on.

It is tuned to CNN where an anchor is speaking The sound is muted, and Boat can see the anchor just moving his li-ps moving and his hands gesticulating, as the news bar scrolls below the screen.

The plasma television makes the room a whole lot bright, but it isn’t the kind of light that will be able to cast a clear, detailed shadow on the wall, even if someone is standing real close to it. Its light is not strong enough, and any shadow it casts would have been diffused.

But there is a shadow on the wall opposite the television!

A crystal-clear black shadow!

It is shaped like a man, but it is not a man.

It has three hu-ge hairy legs.

The shadow broadens towards its che-st, and its arms are unbelievably thick and stunted. It had three hu-ge fingers on its hands.

Its head is extremely hu-ge, its forehead elongated and thr-ust forward. On top of its head is a long, curved horn. It was a gigantic thing, so big that its head is thrown across the ceiling as it straightens up from its scrutiny of Boat.

Uncle Samson is considered a giant, but this creature is five times that size.

Boat looks at the sp-ot on the carpet where a figure ought to be standing to cast a shadow like that on the wall, but there is absolutely nothing.

But the temperature in the room has dropped several degrees suddenly. It is a warm African night, and Boat isn’t supposed to feel cold – but he is freezing!

There is a smell in the room too – rancid, pungent, stinking – too terrible to breathe.

It is like rotten seaweed, the scent of the dirtiest part of the sea.

What is casting that shadow?

Is it in the room with Boat, looking at and appraising him? Or is that what it is – just a shadow?

What diabolical evil has taken so much interest in Boat?

Trouble is, it is nearer to the main door than Yaw boat is!

His mind is definitely not playing tricks on him!

The horned Shadow is real!

It is that same shadow which has been thrown on the ground in Fairview after the murder of Pastor Geoffrey Sam!

Boat feels his heart thumping so harshly that he is scared his heart will just explode.

His terror is complete, and for several seconds he just gawks at the Shadow-Thing.

Suddenly insanity is knocking on the door of his mind, and he simply cannot take it any longer.

With a sound which is half-cry and half-whimper Boat dashes quickly towards the door. The moment moves he sees the Shadow-Thing’s right hand moving, the three hu-ge fingers curling themselves into a fist.

Boat is five paces from the door, whimpering like a rabid dog, expecting to run into something solid, something enveloping.

He keeps his eyes on that thing on the wall, and when he is just a pace from the door the fist of the monster flashes off the wall, and smashes into Boat’s stomach with such terrible for-ce that he wails, and doubles up on the floor with his bu-ttocks stuck in the air as the most terrible pain he has ever experienced ravages his body!

The pain was paralysing.

Boat cannot breathe for several seconds, and for a terrible moment he has no wish to get off the floor. Even the slightest movement caused him crippling pain.

Boat watches that Shadow-Thing throu-ghbleary eyes as the darkness slowly closes in on him. The freezing cold is stronger, and the rotten scent is so bad that Boat gags.

The Shadow-Thing is immobile, but its ne-ck is craned, watching Boat.

Suddenly it stands upright and its head whips round towards the doors.

Boat thinks he hears a frantic growl – but he might have been mistaken.

For a brief moment the cold is so terrible that Boat thinks he might turn into a pillar of ice, and the scent is so terrible and nauseating that he stops d breathing and gags on it.

Suddenly the main door opens!

Out of the corner of his eyes Boat sees a brightness filling the doorway, so brilliantly that he has to shut his eyes to slits against it.

A for-ce-field!

Someone wearing that amazing for-ce-field has just entered the room.

Shortly afterwards someone speaks from the doorway, restoring his sanity.

The voice gasps and starts to speak rapidly.

Boat recognizes that voice!

It belongs to JOSIAH NSIAH, one of the security details.

He is a small intense man who is downright serious with his work. He is so time conscious that Uncle Samson has nicknamed him ‘Wristwatch’.

JOSIAH

(horried)

My good God, Mr. Boat! What happend to you?

He is such a devout Christian that there was a little bible tucked away in his clothing somewhere at all times. At the least chance he gets he would take out that bible and begin to read.

Boat has often chastised him over that habit. He has never liked Josiah Nsiah liked him much because he is a Christian freak.

He used to get on Boat’s nerves with his staunch belief, and there had been times he had wanted him replaced for no tangible reason.

But that night Boat could’ve hu-gged him.

JOSIAH

(worried, concerned)

I thought I heard a scream here and came to investigate.

His for-ce-field is brilliant, and when Boat looks over Mr. Nsiah’s shoulder the Shadow-Thing is gone.

It has fled at the sight of Mr. Nsiah’s full incredible for-ce-field!

BOAT

(elated)

Bastard!

He grated out the insult, but his mouth is so wounded and mushy, and his br@in so warbled, that it comes out sounding like ‘Basharl’ or something like that.

JOSIAH

(startled)

What?

BOAT

(tiredly)

Nothing, Josh. Floor sli-ppery. Lost my footing and fell down.

JOSIAH

(concerned)

Oh, I see. Sorry, sir. Please let me help you up. But you’re hurt. On your mouth, and your face seems swollen. Must’ve been a very bad fall.

Boat puts his arm around the man’s shoulder and waits for his breathing to slow down, and the faintness to go away.

BOAT

(hoarsely)

Josh, Uncle Samson is in there in his room. Do you know if he came back with my Dad?

JOSIAH

No, sir. Mr. Basoah informed us that your father is still at the Church. Come, let me help you to the house.

BOAT

(scared)

No, no. It is very urgent that I see my father. Do you have your phone?

The man helps Boat out of the door and tries to stop, but Boat propels him forward, scared that Uncle Samson will be on his tail pretty soon, and he is certain he can’t be able to best him a second time that night.

The man fumbles a well-used Nokia from his pocket.

JOSIAH

Here’s my phone, sir, but surprisingly all the mobile networks seem to be off tonight. When I was leaving home this evening my little boy was not feeling so good. He had a bad temperature. I’ve been trying to reach my wife but can’t get throu-gh. My colleagues on the different networks are also experiencing the same challenges.

He has speaks with a little sigh of exasperation.

Once again Boat senses that it is no coincidence.

The net is drawing ti-ghter, and he knows that dark for-ces are closing in, cutting off all his avenues of escape.

BOAT

(lamely)

Why didn’t you use the phone in the house, Josh?

He already knows the answer that is coming.

The man stares at Boat as if he is from outer space.

JOSIAH

Didn’t you hear the news, sir? The telephone company apologized to residents of the ARA that they are experiencing problems here, and their technicians are working on it. Service will be resto-red as soon as they complete. At the moment, all the land lines are jammed up.

Boat shudders from the sudden horror.

The chase is on, and he knows something worse than death, a most terrible destiny, is just around the corner, waiting for him.

Boat rushes into the main house just long enough to take the keys to his father’s new Mercedes Benz Coupe.

As he gets in he sees a hu-ge hulk labouring up the incline from that evil house below, and he knows Uncle Samson is still in the reckoning.

Boat reverses violently, the tires screeching in protest, and shoots out of the gates with the powerful car almost suspended in the air.

Out on the open road he guns the car, and it responds like a bullet, eating up the miles hungrily.

Boat didn’t care a hoot about police speed patrols.

His life is in danger, and he has to be with his father at any cost!

TBc…