Harbinger Harry

Excerpt from The Harbinger Valley Tribune (Saturday October 25, 1958)

This morning the small town ofHarbinger Valley was awakened from the comfort of their beds at approximately12:00 AM by a large-scale earthquake. Many homes and local businesses have beenleft in disrepair. Those citizens having sustained injury were rushed to HavenCrest Hospital. As of this morning several local teenagers have been reportedmissing. An investigation into the possible connection between thesedisappearances and a large sinkhole on the outskirts of town believed to becreated by the earthquake is underway. "Searching efforts will continue.Locating those missing and reuniting them with their families is our toppriority." Mayor Scott McPherson said, addressing the public—

There was an all-too-familiar smell in the air. A thicksmokiness clung to the back of Capri Jackson's throat, causing her mouth todry. It was the scent of roasting flesh. It permeated the crimson skies. Athickening smoke spread across the stratosphere.

The town of Harbinger Valley was lost in a chaotic frenzy.Buildings set ablaze came crashing down, cries of agony bellowing,indistinguishable from the orchestra of pain and destruction surrounding her.

Hundreds of corpses lined the streets, some charred soentirely they no longer resembled any human form. Fire engine sirens soundedoff in the distance, seeming so far away they may as well have been a millionmiles away.

She was paralyzed; an all-encompassing dread had taken holdof her.

This isn't real! It's not real!

She repeated it to herself, trying with all her might toforce herself awake from this living nightmare she had relived time and timeagain, but the taste of smog on her teeth offered her no consolation.

That was when she felt something beckon her toward the sky.Flashes of red lightning crackled above, blinding her momentarily. When hereyes had at last adjusted, she saw a boy sitting atop a motorcycle suspended inmidair. He wore a leather jacket, his hair styled in a slick pompadour. He andthe bike were both engulfed in raging flames, but he was floating, unbothered.He smiled down at her with an unsettling grin as two goat-like horns began toprotrude from his temples. His pale, angular face had contorted into somethingotherworldly and demented. Demonic.

His eyes began to glow like vermilion pinpricks, burningand burning. She was now certain she was not the one he was staring at. Shefollowed his gaze to find a strange boy standing at the end of the sidewalk.His eyes were also fixated on the floating man. There was a twinkling light inhis hand, a small, shining red light radiating from it. The strange boy liftedhis hand, and a tracking beam of red light shot up in a thin line toward thefloating man. He then began walking forward. As though being called forth.

"Hey!" she yelled to him, but he kept up histrance-like march forward.

The ground began shaking violently, car alarms going off asseveral buildings came crashing down, throwing clouds of debris into the air.The asphalt had begun to split and crumble underneath her feet. She watched asa large sinkhole appeared, its massive pulling force swallowing multiplevehicles and utility poles.

Undeterred, the boy kept walking. She stuck out her arm,her hand reaching for him in desperation, but it was pointless. Her legsrefused to move. Was it fear that kept her stranded, unable to do anything butwatch helplessly, or had some supernatural force taken hold of her?

In the end, all she could do was watch in horror as theotherworldly force drew him in faster and faster until he was inevitably pulledinto the void.

And all that remained was darkness.

01

October09, 1998

HarbingerValley, USA

It had been a five-and-a-half-hour drive. Harry Hooper hadmanaged to make it the whole way without killing his weasel of a littlebrother, Charlie. He ached and moaned most of the drive, and Harry had just hadto endure his constant whining and complaining since the start of the trip.

"Are we there yet?"

"I need to pee!"

"I'm bored!"

The little weasel was right about that, at the very least,though Harry would never admit it out loud. The drive was unbelievably boring,mostly consisting of long stretches of desert with the occasional house poppingup here and there.

How anyone could live out in the middle of nowhere wasbeyond him. Harry had passed the time with his nose buried in a book, trying tolose himself in the realms of J.R.R. Tolkien. But Harry was finding this hardto do when confined in an enclosed space. Like he was. Along with an irritatinglittle smart-ass. Like he was. Feeling the need to moan about how bored he was,how uncomfortable his seat was, and how the seatbelt kept pinching his armpit.

"Move your arm! It's on my side!" Charlie whined,pushing Harry's arm back over the center console that acted as the invisiblewall evenly dividing Harry's side of the back seat from his.

"Please, no fighting. We've made it this far withoutyou two going at it," Harry's mother begged. Donna Hooper was usually apatient woman, but the long stretch of desert road had begun to take its tollon her as well.

"Yeah, knock it off, both of you. Don't think for aminute I won't turn this car back around," Joseph, their mother'sboyfriend, said with a chuckle.

"How much farther, Mom? I need to pee again,"Charlie said, leaning over and trying to whisper into his mom's ear.

"Again? Geez Weez! We already stopped twice!"Harry said, agitated.

"Shut up! I was talking to Mom!"

Harry looked out the window as they passed a large,clumsy-looking sign with the words Harbinger Valley crossed out and the word"Doom!" scrawled over it in sloppy red paint.

They drove down East Enders Street and turned left ontoBeverly Boulevard. Their house was on the corner, a large Cape Cod-style housewith silver-blue shutters and granite-colored shingles. A billowing birch stoodout front, casting its shadow across the front lawn. The movers had alreadystarted unpacking when they arrived.

"We're here, everybody," Joseph said gleefully.

"Home sweet home," Harry repeated under hisbreath with a sigh.

They proceeded to unload the moving truck. Joseph hadsuggested ordering pizza as their first dinner in their new home; Charlie wasover the moon.

Harry missed the days when something as simple as pizza fordinner would have been all it took to ignite that much excitement in him. Thismove altogether was so exciting to his kid brother. Not so much for him. He hadbegun to realize that sort of excitement was harder to come by nowadays.

Harry ate dinner in his new room that night. He satcross-legged on the floor, rifling through boxes, spending most of the nightemptying them, putting his bed frame together, and helping his mother set upthe furniture in the living room.

The sun had begun to set, and beams of light peeked throughhis bedroom window. Being the older brother, he had been given first choice ofrooms and had chosen the room on the far end of the second floor of the house.A window facing west gave him an incredible view of the desert sunset, when thesky would break into a kaleidoscope of oranges, pinks, and blues.

He loved the idea of being able to simply look out hisbedroom window on any given evening and get the chance to see it.

By Saturday, he had managed to set up a couple of woodenshelves in his room and had begun organizing his collection of books by genre.

Sunday night, he had decided to finish up the smallerdetails, hanging a couple of posters on his bedroom walls, mostly of late-'80sto current-'90s punk, grunge, and rock bands, when he heard a knock on hisbedroom door.

"How's it coming along, bud?" Joseph asked as hewalked in.

"It's going," Harry replied, taping a SmashingPumpkins poster to his closet door.

"Very cool. Rock on!" shouted Joseph, pumping hisfist in the air and shaping his hand into horns, sticking his tongue out in hisbest Gene Simmons impression. Harry looked at him and smiled awkwardly.

He walked over to his bed, reached down for another box ofbooks lying on the floor near the bedside table, picked it up, and placed it onthe bed.

"I see you have most of your books already filling upthose shelves. Very cool."

Harry looked up momentarily, gave him another half-smirk,and turned his attention back to unpacking.

"So, first day of school tomorrow. New school. Newtown. New home. That's a lot of new. How're you holding up?"

"I'm holding up all right, I guess," Harryreplied, avoiding eye contact.

"I know it's a lot to take in all at once, and I'mgrateful you and your brother gave me this chance."

Harry said nothing, continuing to shuffle through his box.

"I just want us all to be happy here. Together."

Harry sat on the end of his bed.

"I know, Joe, and it's cool." Joseph hadencouraged both him and Charlie to call him "Joe."

"This place doesn't look too bad, and it's not like Ihad a lot I had to leave behind." He patted the top of the box nervouslywith the palm of his hand. "Got all the friends I need right here,"he said in a solemn tone, flashing Joseph a tired smile.

Joseph took a seat beside Harry.

"That's just it, Harry. This is a new town. This isyour chance to make some new moves, make friends, try out for some sports, andjoin school clubs! Whatever you want! Just get out there! You can't live yourwhole life with your nose buried in those books of yours."

He gave Harry three heavy-handed pats on the back andsmiled a cheesy grin.

Joseph was a good man. Harry could see that. He lovedHarry's mother and loved the hell out of his kid brother, Charlie. He tried to bond with Harry, but with neither of them having anything in common, no matterhow hard Joseph tried, it always felt forced. At times, Harry wished he would stop trying.