The Visitors

Even just having the fireplace lit that night was risky. The dim, flickering glow would give the hint that someone was inside the solitary stone manor. But it was cold. And Elio knew that all he could do was sit there and wait, huddled on the floor between the crackling flames and the tattered old reclining chair, a bucket filled to the brim with ice water ready at his feet, and pray they wouldn’t come for it tonight. The house was groaning at the wind that blew and howled angrily; a chill jolted up his spine. He shuddered.

‘The snow must be over a foot high by now,’ he thought trivially.

It was hidden. Even if they did come, they would never find the package. He was sure of that. Particular care had been taken to ensure that it would never enter their possession.

They would probably kill him for his refusal to reveal its hiding place. He was sure of that, too.

Minutes passed. He couldn’t have guessed how many. And when thunderous banging echoed through the halls, he startled at the abrupt sound. His time was up. He reached for the bucket and doused the fire in a hurry. Pitch blackness filled the room, penetrated only by a thin ray of moonlight peeking in from a single window, illuminating the tendrils of smoke that now drifted weightlessly towards the ceiling. He scrambled to a darkened corner and pulled his knees against his chest, trying to make himself as small as possible against the stone; wishing he could meld into it. Closing his eyes, he listened as a pair of faint, muffled voices spoke in a language he did not recognize. Then, more pounding, this time on the fragile glass panes in a distant room, followed by a shatter… a crash… heavy footfalls exploring the house… furniture being overturned… his own heartbeat thump-thump-thumping…

When they finally reached the small room at the back of the house, the intruders were livid and shouting. Each of the two men were fully cloaked, their faces obscured in the shadows cast by their hoods. One was very tall; the other, positively towering, his height rivaling that of the doorway through which he’d come.

In the midst of their outrage, one of the men made a noise like a sharp shush, and the voices stopped at once. Breaking the sudden silence was a sniffing sound.

“Ibi!” snapped the shorter of the pair, arm raised and finger pointed knifelike at the corner where Elio was cowering.

His companion’s neck twisted in Elio’s direction. With a singular laugh, he moved across the room, the unnatural points of his teeth catching briefly in the moonbeam as he grinned maliciously. Reaching a long arm down, he lifted Elio off the floor by the collar and shoved him hard against the very solid wall. His skull met the masonry with a crack. Stars danced in his vision and he felt something hot and sticky trickling down the nape of his neck.

“Vere is it,” the tall one growled, his raspy voice lined with a strange accent.

False daring seized Elio. “You will never find it,” he spat, adding as much disgust to his tone as he could manage.

The tall one’s grasp tightened around Elio’s windpipe so that he gagged and thrashed, gouging at the man’s arm with stubby fingertips. Tilting his head back, the man dropped his hood to his shoulders. Despite the darkness Elio could make out a map of striking blue veins against the pallor of the nearly colorless skin that covered the man’s hairless head. His eyes, framed by browless bones, began to shine with a silvery light and with his free hand he gripped Elio’s forehead, pressing a thumb into one temple and an index finger into the other.

“SHOW ME,” the tall one growled. Elio wailed as white-hot fire seemed to sear through his skull between the man’s fingertips. He tried to resist the images that surfaced from his memories, uninvited: the box, no larger than his palm, wrapped in unassuming tan paper…

“NO!” Elio wailed, forcefully shoving the thoughts out of his mind. He would not be weak… he could not reveal it’s hiding place. The tall one’s throat vibrated with a guttural sound that built until it escaped his mouth in a roar, and he squeezed Elio’s temples harder and harder until they were both screaming synchronous screams, Elio’s brain blazing and rupturing and the man’s eyes growing brighter and whiter.

And then, with a final flare of blinding light, everything went black.