There was a screeching outside like the wind through the castles of Hell. I sat straight up, looking out the window. I saw a strobing, flickering cascade of red, orange and yellow hues. For a moment, I thought I was still stuck in some sort of inescapable nightmare. A gaunt, oval face stared in through the window. It didn’t register how bizarre this was for a few seconds, until I remembered I lived on the third floor.
I jumped out of bed. Long, bony fingers curled into a clenched fist tapped lightly on the glass outside, dragging a sharp knuckle across the window. From his eyes there spun a web of luminescent lights, flashing like fire. I looked straight into them for a moment, feeling blinded as if I had looked straight into the Sun. I quickly turned away, seeing shapes streaming past my closed eyelids from the explosion of light they had suffered. Everything looked white with a bare silhouette of the grinning creature with the spiral eyes burned into the back of my retinas.
I stumbled away, blindly hitting the nightstand and sending the lamp smashing to the ground, breaking it. I ran into my father’s room, crying and screaming about the monster outside my window. He got up, sighing, but he grabbed his pistol and went into my room. A few moments later, he called me.
“Come here, Roland,” he said in a gruff, harsh tone. “I want to show you something.” With my heart still hammering, I wandered back into the room.
In the window, I saw melted into the glass two swirling, spiral patterns. Hints of red, yellow and orange still glimmered in the circles, like cinders sparkling above a bonfire.
“Did you fuck up this window?” he asked, clenching his fists. “And you broke your goddamn lamp?” The gun laid at his side.
“No, dad, I swear, there was someone there outside,” I started to say. A stinging slap smacked me across the face.
“Don’t lie to me, you little shit,” he growled. “I work hard for this family, and you have your vapors and little lunatic episodes and wake me up for no reason.” I felt warm rivers of blood stream from my nose. I cringed back, trying to avoid what I knew was coming.
But my father was extremely fast, and he had built up muscles over years of labor- “old man strength,” my friend Frankie called it. I felt a fist smash into my stomach. I doubled over, retching. He elbowed me hard in the back, and I fell to the ground, gasping and crawling away.
“Now don’t fucking wake me up again,” he yelled as he walked out, slamming the door behind him.
***
I couldn’t sleep after that. I kept looking out the window, but that night, the eldritch creature didn’t show his face again. I watched the sun rise a few hours later, totally exhausted. I got up, getting ready to go to the middle school. I felt as if I were walking through water, with everything seeming slow and unreal.
I noticed a lot of kids were missing from our classes. In some of my classes, nearly half of the kids were absent. I asked a couple friends about it. Most of them didn’t know any more than I did, but a few had heard rumors.
“I’ve heard there’s an outbreak of some weird disease going around,” my buddy Frank told me in the hallway. “My brother works as an EMT, and he says 911 was getting flooded with calls. He wouldn’t tell me exactly what was wrong with the people, but he says it was horrible.”
“What made it so horrible?” I asked. He shrugged.
“They kept bleeding from their eyes, their noses, their mouths, everything. I don’t know what the hell causes that. Maybe ebola or some secret Chinese virus. But the doctors at the hospitals couldn’t find anything wrong with the people- besides the fact that they were bleeding to death for no reason.”
“So did they… die?” I asked, horrified. He nodded.
“Yeah, a few. Most of them didn’t, though. I don’t really know the details, man. He was pretty vague about it. He looked more scared than I’ve ever seen him before, though, and he’s dealt with a lot of shit in that job. Lots of dead people, gunshot victims, overdoses, everything. But he said he’s never seen anything like this before.”
***
That night, I fell asleep quickly from exhaustion. I awoke, confused, streams of light flashing in my eyes.
I looked out the window and saw the same creature from before, floating in the air. His face looked stretched out, like a giant egg. Two cyclonic eyes sent out streams of light, spinning like spiral galaxies in the void. The hues of fire that shone from those eyes looked beautiful and hypnotizing, but also blinding.
I saw a massive grinning mouth that constantly chattered and two small reptilian holes for a nose. His teeth looked very small and straight, like a child’s teeth- but he had far too many of them. Hundreds of the small, white pearls shone in that grin, embedded in sickly yellow gums marked with black spots.
From his back, two black, raggedy wings stretched out, filled with holes and rippling slowly in the breeze. They reminded me of a bat’s wings, jet-black with sores that leaked dark fluid down to the grass far below. I watched this inhuman blood drip off the sharp angles of the wings, thick like oil and glistening with rainbows. They ended in a point like a scalpel.
“Don’t be afraid, Roland. My name is Mr. Welcome,” the creature said in a voice like thunder, “and I am your guardian angel. I am here to help protect you from the evil that now invades your town. For without my help, you will most surely die.”
***
Mr. Welcome told me many things. His booming voice seemed to shake the floor, and I wondered if he would wake my father up. But Mr. Welcome assured me that only the person he spoke to would hear him.
“Our communication occurs in your mind and my mind. Though it may sound like it comes from outside of you, it is within you. You might hear your heart beating in your ears, after all, but that heart is still inside you. And I am the same, for you and I are one. In a way, I am closer to you than your own heartbeat. I can see all the dark pits in your soul where black, twisted things grow in the shadows. And we all have that, Roland. It should be embraced, not shunned.
“But also as your guardian angel,” he said, “I have to tell you some bad news. There is an outbreak of Satan’s Leprosy in your town.” I repressed an urge to laugh.
“Satan’s Leprosy?” I asked, bemused. “Is that an actual disease?” The more I stared into Mr. Welcome’s eyes, the more I felt myself trusting him, opening up to him. I couldn’t believe how scared I had been before. In an alien kind of way, he looked beautiful, and the more I watched him, the more I felt myself accepting his presence.
And yet, a small piece of my mind locked away far in the back still questioned many things he claimed, including being my guardian angel. But the more he spoke, the more I felt myself slipping away and falling under his spell.
“Oh yes, Roland, yes,” he said slowly. “Satan’s Leprosy is the worst disease. The Mark of Cain. The touch of the Devil.” His eyes flickered and strobed, sending shadows like black, grasping hands dancing across the room. Everything seemed dreamy and unreal.
“I will do all I can to protect you, Roland,” Mr. Welcome said, “but soon, you may have to start fighting on the side of the Good. You may have to prove your skill in killing demons. Do you think you can kill some evil, filthy demons, Roland?” A series of visions ran through my mind- knights on a holy crusade, saints sending out evil spirits, priests burning witches.
“I can try,” I said, giving Mr. Welcome a friendly smile.
***
The next day, school got canceled. Things began to grow strange in my town, and not just because of Mr. Welcome. I started seeing suspicious black SUVs with tinted windows hanging around the borders of the town that morning. And then my friend Frankie ran over to my house, knocking frantically on the door. My dad was a mechanic who owned his own shop, and he had already left for work, so with school now canceled, I found myself home alone for the day.
Frankie’s dark brown eyes looked excited and wild. They gleamed with terror and adrenaline.
“My parents,” he said breathlessly. “There’s something wrong with my family. They won’t stop bleeding, and their eyes… their faces… they’re all wrong, Roland. Something bad is happening.” I thought back to Mr. Welcome’s warning about the Satan Leprosy, and my stomach churned with anxiety.
“What do you mean, their eyes, their faces?” I asked, taking a step back. He had sweat running down his chubby face. His long hair hung over his forehead in wet clumps. He was breathing fast, bent slightly over.
“It’s like their eyes slid half-way off their face during the night. When they woke up, their faces were… sideways. Their mouths drooped down to the right and their noses looked like stretched-out worms. Their bodies were just turning into jelly, and the blood would not stop coming out of their eyes and mouths and noses. It soaked the floor…” He began to cry, hyperventilating. I thought he might pass out.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I said, a sense of disgust and nausea rising in my abdomen. “No disease does that to a human body. That’s physically impossible.” He shook his head.
“It wasn’t just my family. My neighbors, too, their kids got sick. I tried calling Angela and Mike and a few other people, and none of them are answering their phones.” At that moment, I heard the revving of many engines. I saw the black SUVs with the tinted windows driving slowly down every street. They began to play a pre-recorded robotic speech from some hidden speakers.
“A 24-hour curfew is now in effect for this area,” a cold, robotic female voice said. “This town is now quarantined. Anyone found on the streets will be subject to immediate arrest. Return to your homes and stay inside. Do not leave for any reason. Agents will soon come to talk to you and explain everything. Please remain calm. Return to your homes and stay inside. Do not leave for any reason…”
I pulled Frankie inside, slamming the door and locking the deadbolt. I had a feeling my father would not be coming home today.
***
The sun set early that day, sending red streaks like blood from a crime scene across the clouds. Frankie and I sat at the table in the kitchen. The cable had gone down, so there was no TV. Moreover, our phones no longer worked. But the electricity kept running.
We were eating the perishable foods first, in case it also went out. I had a package of sliced turkey, mayo, cheddar, lettuce, bread and milk. We kept eating and drinking as much as we could while we waited, not knowing how long we could end up trapped here or whether food would come in.
While we ate, I told Frankie about Mr. Welcome.
“He has eyes like an angel,” I told him. “At first, I was scared, but after he talked to me and explained everything… well, I don’t feel scared anymore.” Frankie gave me a weird look.
“I thought angels had white wings and swords and looked like Leonardo DiCaprio,” Frankie said, frowning. “Your ‘angel’ sounds like some sort of monster. No offense.” I laughed.
“That’s all Hollywood crap,” I said. “Mr. Welcome says all the angels look like him. Maybe you will see your own guardian angel before all this is over.” Frankie shuddered.
“If he looks anything like your guardian angel, I really hope not,” he said. “And what did he mean by ‘killing evil, filthy…’” A loud slam at the door made us both jump. I got up from the table and ran over to the peephole.
Standing in front of the door, I saw Frankie’s older brother, Jesse. He stood in his medic’s uniform still, splotches of blood staining the white cloth. Tiny splatters covered his hands and feet. His dark eyes shone with fear and excitement. He ran a blood-stained hand over his freshly-shaved head. I ripped the door open, noticing how black and empty the sky looked behind him.
“Jesse? What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised. He pushed past me.
“Is my brother here? Where’s Frankie?” he said, a note of panic in his voice. Frankie came out of the kitchen, a half-eaten sandwich still clutched in one hand. “Oh, thank God, Frankie! You’re still alive!”
“Yeah…” Frankie said through a mouthful of turkey, chewing slowly and raising an eyebrow. “So far, so good. My goal is to live forever, after all, and I’ve done a pretty good job up to now.”
“Stop fucking around,” Jesse yelled, making us both jump. “Do you two idiots not know what is going on outside? Everyone is dying! We need to get out of town immediately. Look, the roads are blocked off, but I don’t think they’ve blocked off the woods yet. At least, I hope not. The government agents or whatever they are are still organizing, and we need to get out before the town gets fully surrounded. There’s a deer trail next to Witt School that leads to the highway. It’s probably eight or nine miles, but we don’t have a goddamned choice. We need to follow it and get out of town before everyone gets locked in and slaughtered like pigs.”
“What do you mean, everyone is dying? How’s mom and dad?” Frankie asked, his eyes growing wet. Jesse just shook his head, his earring of a snake fang jumping back and forth.
“We need to go, right now. Hurry up, both of you, grab food and water and anything else you need. Are there any guns in this house? We really need guns and ammo, as much as possible. I have my .38 on me,” he said, raising his shirt to show a holstered pistol, “but I only have one spare magazine. That’s not gonna cut the mustard.” I nodded.
“My dad keeps a few guns here,” I said. “He always keeps his Colt on him, though. But I think we have a 12-gauge shotgun and a crappy little .22 rifle upstairs. He usually keeps a box or two of buckshot and .22 bullets for target shooting.” I shrugged. “I guess that’s better than nothing.” Jesse groaned.
“A .22?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “Really? Well, go grab it.” I got the guns from my father’s closet, bringing down all the ammo I could find, which only amounted to two partially-empty boxes. Jesse groaned even louder when he saw that.
“OK, which one of you is a better shot?” he asked me and Frankie. We looked at each other.
“I guess I am, at least with a BB gun,” Frankie said. Jesse shoved the .22 and ammo in his direction, giving me the shotgun and remaining buckshot.
“Then you should take the shotgun,” Jesse said to me. “You only need to point in the general direction and shoot. It will spray pellets that will rip through skin like butter.”
“Why do we need guns?” I asked, feeling anxious. “You haven’t even told us what’s happening.” Jesse looked up sharply.
“Haven’t I? Well, there’s not much time. We need to go now. I can tell you on the way.”
***
We walked out into the dark, moonless night. I saw the glinting of many teeth in the shadows of the backyard.
“Mr. Welcome!” I cried, relieved. Jesse and Frankie spun to look at the creature. He stepped out of a hidden alcove next to the chimney, his emaciated body standing ten feet tall. His eyes started spinning with their hypnotizing light. His bat-like wings lazily writhed up and down in the light breeze. “I am so happy to see you!” Jesse and Frankie backed up slowly, their eyes filled with horror.
“Roland,” Mr. Welcome said. “I would never leave your side, Roland. I am here to protect you.” I walked forward, as if sleepwalking, putting my arms out to hug Mr. Welcome. He put his hands on my neck, pulling me forwards. They felt like cold melting gloves of candle wax pressed against my skin.
As I hugged his flesh tightly, I felt blood draining from his rotting skin like soapy water from a wrung-out sponge. I sensed the dark, oily fluid running down my bare hands and arms, smelled the rancid odor like rotting meat, but still, I only felt total love for Mr. Welcome.
“Roland!” a deep, growling voice said from behind me. I turned, seeing my father scaling the back fence. He looked at Jesse and Frankie, dismissing them with his eyes. Then he turned to me and Mr. Welcome. He had his Colt revolver in one trembling hand. “Step back from the demon.”
I looked closely at my father. Blood streamed from his eyes and ears, his nose and mouth. His eyes had begun to slant, as if the skin had melted at an angle off his face. His words came out slurred, his lips swollen and asymmetrical.
“Don’t you see what it is, Roland?!” my father cried louder. “Look at it! Look at the goddamned thing! It’s not your friend!” He fired a shot, but his trembling hand couldn’t aim for shit. I saw Frankie’s chest explode in a blossoming flower of blood. Frankie grabbed at the bullet hole, surprise coming over his face. He fell back.
“Now is the time, Roland,” Mr. Welcome’s voice roared through my mind. “Kill the demons. Kill these evil, filthy, disgusting demons. Shoot them dead. Both of them.” I raised the shotgun and fired twice.
***
Mr. Welcome and I walked down the deer trail, hand in hand. Love filled my heart, and I felt a sense of peace. I knew I was protected.
We had found a couple agents in the forest, trying to monitor the trail. When they saw us, they raised guns and shouted. But Mr. Welcome flew forwards, his wings beating the air like mini-cyclones. He grabbed both of their heads and twisted. I heard a sound like the snapping of tree branches during an ice storm, and they fell down, their faces backwards.
I know Mr. Welcome comes from God. I have resolved myself to follow him, like a holy knight on a crusade. Mr. Welcome is my guardian angel, and his voice always guides me to safety- a voice like rushing water.