Hollowborn

1865

-Silas-

“Boys, it’s time for dinner!” Mother calls from the kitchen, her voice carrying with practiced clarity through the house. The scent of a roast lingers in the hallway, rich, savory, and precise, like everything else in our home. My stomach growls as I follow my younger brother down the stairs, our footsteps muffled against the polished wood. We move without speaking, shirts tucked and hair combed, arriving just as the grandfather clock strikes six.

“Eat up,” Mother places a plate in front of me as I take my seat at the dining table.

“Thank you, Mother. It looks delicious,” I kiss her cheek.

Archie picks up his fork to take a bite, but it’s slapped from his hand before he gets a chance.

“Archibald,” Mother warns.

“Sorry,” Archie places his palms together so we can pray.

“O Lord, for all thy mercies for the food that supports our bodies and the grace that sustains our souls, we bless and praise thy holy name, through Jesus Christ our lord. Amen,” Mother says with a soft smile.

“Amen,” we all repeat.

We eat our dinner quietly, with only the occasional noise of the silverware clattering against our plates. The candlelight flickers, casting shadows that dance around the darkened dining room. The venison roast is chewy, but I don’t dare complain about the food Mother cooks.

“How was your day, my darling?” Mother breaks the silence, staring at father with love in her eyes.

“Quiet,” Father answers, wiping his lips with the napkin from his lap. “I’m grateful for a quiet day, though. You never know what tomorrow brings. How were things here?”

“Quiet,” Mother repeats his answer. “Grateful for the quiet. How about you boys?” Mother smiles at me, then at my brother.

“I helped Father fix up Dorothea’s scratch from her cat. She was lucky infection hadn’t set in, or she could have lost her arm.” Mother watches me talk with fascination while Father rolls his eyes. He knows I’m just embellishing to make my story sound more interesting than it was. Mother loves to hear our stories from work, so I try my best to make them a little more exciting for her.

“I see,” Mother smiles at me before her sparkling blue eyes shift to my brother. “Archie?”

“I found a dead coyote out in the field today when I was checking the fence,” Archie answers proudly. “Looked like maybe a mountain lion or something attacked it.”

“Archibald.” Mother rolls her eyes.

“It was dead?” Cora asks in horror. “Oh, the poor thing, we have to bury it!”

Mother rubs my sister’s back soothingly.

“Why would we bury it when we can cook it and eat it?” Archie narrows his eyes at Cora.

“Archie.” Mother warns.

“What? Burying perfectly good meat is wasteful.”

“We will not have this conversation at the dinner table, now enough!” Father’s voice booms.

Silence falls over the dinner table for a moment before the approaching sound of galloping hoofbeats cuts through the dining room.

“Who could that be?” Mother’s brows pinch together in concern.

“I don’t know,” Father answers, grabbing his revolver and tucking it into his belt as he peeks out the window. “Looks like it’s James from the general store,” he visibly relaxes before opening the front door.

“Gordon, we need you in the office, come quick!” James announces, breathlessly. His horse snorts as it skids to a halt. The whites of its eyes show wildly, even in the darkness of a new moon. “It’s Thomas. He needs help right away!”

Father throws on his jacket and hat. “Of course, I’m right behind ya, James.”

“Gordon...” Mother protests hesitantly. “You’re leaving now? You haven’t finished dinner.”

“Yes, my sweet,” Father purses his lips together, “Thomas needs my help. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“This doesn’t feel right,” Mother’s hand trembles slightly. I’ve never seen her so nervous.

“Boys, stay here and take care of things while I’m gone,” Father waves us off, seeing us quickly standing from the dinner table to join him.

“But Father...” I argue. “We can help you.”

“Gordon...” Mother whispers.

Father presses a kiss to her forehead. “Come on then. No balderdash, though,” He practically shoves us out the door. We quickly hitch our horse, Lady, to the wagon, and we pile in. He gives Lady a switch, and the blue roan Percheron gallops down the dirt path away from our home. Inside the window, I get a brief glimpse of my mother’s worried expression as she holds Cora close. Why was she so worried about us leaving? We’re only going into town. It’s a small, close-knit town. Nothing bad ever happens in Astoria.

Father gets called into the office at odd hours all the time and never thinks twice of it. He’s the only doctor in town. He doesn’t turn away even the nastiest of patients.

Astoria is the only town for miles around, so it’s rare to get any outside visitors. Father wanted to move here to open his practice so that he could teach us to follow in his footsteps. We have the nicest house in town, even though we don’t live exactly in town, but just outside of it. Mother wanted to live on the outskirts, where it’s quiet and we get a better view of the stars at night.

“What’s wrong with Thomas, James?” Father’s voice catches my attention.

“You know Helena was killed in their home the night before last, right?” Thomas frowns.

“Yeah, I heard,” Father sighs. Word travels fast around Astoria. No one has anything better to do than stick their nose in everyone else’s business.

“Well, Sheriff still ain’t found who killed her and Thomas ain’t takin’ it well,” James admits. “He’s hysterical. I know you leave the office door unlocked, so I let him in and told him to sit tight while I came out here to get ya. Sorry for interrupting your dinner, by the way.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright. We were just finishing up anyhow,” Father lies. He hadn’t even eaten half of his plate.

We get to the office and walk through the open door to find Thomas sitting in the candlelight. His normally sparkling eyes are dark and puffy, like he’s been crying. He jumps to his feet as we walk in. “Damnit, James. I told you I need the sheriff,” Thomas snaps, his voice hoarse. “Sorry to interrupt your night, Doc, but I need the sheriff. I need to find the monster that killed my sweet Helena. Y’all ain’t seen nothin’ like it. Fucker hadda be ten foot tall,”

“Language, Thomas,” Father warns, ignoring his ramblings to do his routine checks.

“Sorry, boys,” Thomas nods to my brother and me, but continues anyway. “Doc, I swear. I know how it sounds, but what killed poor Helena... it weren’t human. Not any animal I’ve ever seen,”

Father listens patiently before he speaks. “Thomas, you’re grieving. Grief makes us see things in a different light. Maybe it was a wolf, some of them wolves get pretty big, but when you saw it attack your wife, it may have seemed bigger than it was. Grief tends to alter our memories surrounding the incident.”

Thomas shakes his head and rolls his swollen eyes. “No, no, no doc, you ain’t hearin’ right. You gotta believe me, this thing was no animal. You saw her body, what was left of it.” Thomas shudders at the memory.

“Thomas,” Doc plants his hand on the man’s shoulder. “It was awful what happened to your wife. No doubt about it. When was the last time you slept?”

“I... I don’t know...” Thomas admits.

“Have you eaten? Drank any water? Taken care of yourself at all?” Father continues.

“Well... No, not really, but....” Thomas takes a shaky breath.

“Go home, pray, get some food in your belly. Get some rest,” Father instructs, handing Thomas an apple from behind his desk. “Sheriff Moore is doing his best to look into the incident. Have some faith. Things are gonna be okay, even if it doesn’t seem like it right now. Have faith in our lord and Saviour, He will bring justice upon your wife’s killer, you just gotta have faith.”

Father’s words are soothing. He may just be telling Thomas what he needs to hear so that we can get home faster, but it really seems to work for the widower. He takes the apple and bites out a chunk. Juice splashes out of the corner of his mouth, and he wipes it away with his dirty sleeve.

“Good,” Father nods. “James, will you make sure Thomas gets home safe and has everything he needs? I’ll see you boys in church.”

“Sure, Doc,” James shakes our father’s hand, and we climb back into the wagon to head home.

We ride in silence for a moment before my brother finally speaks up.

“Hey, Pa, you think it was really a monster that killed Mrs. Shaw?”

“Nah, son. He didn’t mean it was an actual monster that killed her,” Father explains. “When someone kills another person, they’re often labeled as a monster, but they don’t mean an actual monster like you’re thinking of.”

“Oh. Okay,” Archie mutters quietly.

“Don’t worry, boys. God is always with us. God has a plan.”

“Yes, sir.” Archie nods.

As we ride in silence, listening to the clomping of Lady’s hooves in the dirt, I notice not even crickets are chirping. I don’t feel a breeze in the late summer air, but I see the leaves flickering in the trees above as if they’re shivering. It’s darker than usual tonight, and the forest is even darker, tricking my mind into seeing flashes of glowing eyes watching us. I know this road and these woods like the back of my hand, but tonight it feels like the trees are watching me too. I feel chills up my spine and tell myself there might just be a storm brewing. There’s a stench in the air that smells like a dead animal, but it’s probably just the rotting corpse of the coyote Archie found earlier. I try my best not to think about what could have killed it, though.

When we arrive home, we park the wagon and unhitch Lady, putting her back into her pasture where she’s happiest. My father and brother follow me as I walk up the steps of the porch, and I open the front door. What I find inside nearly knocks me over. In the dim light of one flickering candle on our dining table, I see a massive creature with thin, bony features and strange glowing eyes, standing over the mutilated body of what looks like my mother, but can’t be my mother. The creature has to be over seven feet tall, and its bony legs are bent in a way that seems impossible. Its skin looks like melted cheese stuck to bones, and it smells like rotten eggs even from across the room. It reaches into my mother’s chest with a horrific squelching sound and rips out her heart, blood pouring from its bony hand. It makes a guttural clicking noise when it notices us.

“Mother?” I whisper.

“Mama!” Archie cries, and I hold onto him to keep him from running to our mother’s side. The creature looms over the bodies of our mother and sister.

“What the hell...” the words leave my father’s lips as he grabs his shotgun and quickly aims it at the creature and pulls the trigger. The blast is so loud I fall to the floor, losing my grip on Archie’s arms. My ears ring painfully, and I am unable to hear anything else as the creature effortlessly grabs the lifeless bodies of my mother and sister and escapes out the back window. Father chases it out, firing more shots that I barely hear over the high-pitched ringing sound.

This can’t be real. My family was just sitting down to enjoy our dinner an hour ago. My mother and sister can’t be dead. What was that creature? I see Archie cry as he follows Father out into the woods, chasing after the monster.

I sit in the now silent home that has always been filled with life and bright energy, with family dinners and neighbors who always came to visit with baked goods and wine.

My mother and sister are dead. Not only are they dead and killed by an inhuman monster, but their bodies are gone along with it. We won’t get to give them a proper funeral. How will they make it to heaven without a funeral? My mind races and I can barely hear over the ringing in my ears.

I sit like this for a while, processing what just happened, begging with each blink that this is only a nightmare and willing myself to wake up. But every time I blink and open my eyes, I see the amount of blood that no human should ever see outside the body. Blood that was still pumping through my mother’s and sister’s veins less than an hour ago. This can’t be real. It simply can’t be.

I sit in a daze for a moment, but when I blink my eyes and look around, sunlight shines through the windows like a beacon calling my attention to the bloody aftermath. I then realize hours have passed, even though it only felt like a few moments. I numbly decide to stand and go outside. I find my brother sitting in the grass at the edge of the woods. He jumps into my arms when he sees me and nearly knocks me over because my legs feel so numb. He sobs into my shoulder, and I stare blankly into the trees, looking for my father.

I’m not sure what to do, but I set my brother in the grass closer to the house before heading into the woods to find my father.

As I run through the trees, my mind races. The woods are eerily silent. Birds that are normally chirping away at this hour in the morning are silent. There isn’t even a breeze. There’s an odd metallic ringing noise that seems to get louder the further into the trees I go. It gets so loud that I am holding my ears, screaming for it to stop, until I slam into my father. He turns and glares at me with reddened eyes. I look around us and realize we’re right in the middle of a perfect circle of blackened, dead grass deep within the forest.

“Father,” I jump, breathlessly, holding onto a tree while I gasp for air. “What was that monster? Was that the thing that killed Mrs. Shaw?”

“Demons,” Father growls. “They’re demons, son, come from Hell itself.”

“What about Mother?” I question. “Cora... It took them both.”

Father doesn’t say a word as he storms back toward the house.

“Father... What do you mean demons? It’s Mother and Cora. Why would it take them? Why would it do this? Why would God let such a thing happen? Father?” I almost have to run to keep up with him. Why won’t he answer me?

Archie jumps back to his feet when he sees us, and we follow Father as he walks through the house, grabs his bible, and walks back out to the wagon. He hitches Lady up, and he nearly leaves without us. We have to jump to make it into the wagon so we don’t get left behind. “Where are we going?” Archie asks me.

“I don’t know, Brother,” I answer honestly.

“What was that thing?” he questions quietly.

“I don’t know,” I snap. I don’t mean to snap at him, but I also have all the same questions he does.

“Father?” I ask for his attention again. “Will you at least tell us where you’re going?”

“To talk to Thomas Shaw,” Father answers.

“So you do think it was the same monster that killed Mrs. Shaw.” I almost yell.

Father again doesn’t answer, and we ride in silence through Astoria, all the way to the little old white house near the eastern side of town. We follow Father up the porch, and he knocks loudly on the front door. “Thomas, you awake?”

No answer.

“Thomas!” Father yells loudly, pounding his fist on the front door. “I know you’re home, let me in!”

Still silent.

Father turns the doorknob and lets himself in. “Thomas?” He calls out again. “I’m coming in. I need to talk to ya.” He turns his attention back to us, “Stay here.”

I wait back a moment with Archie, but quickly decide to follow him into the house anyway. Archie stays put.

I follow Father up the stairs to the bedroom, but when he opens the door, he turns his head away and closes his eyes a moment before looking at me. “I told you to stay put,” He mutters quietly.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, trying to look over his shoulder, seeing splashes of red around the walls.

“Thomas took his own life,” He explains.

“What?” I gasp, trying to get a better look before Father ushers me back down the stairs. “Why would he do that? Because he was sad about his wife?”

“Silas.” Father sighs. “Stop asking questions.”

“Sorry, I’m just trying to understand what the hell is going on!” I glare at him.

“Watch your mouth,” He scolds me.

“You said it,” I point out.

Father whips his hand across my face so hard my cheek burns. I hold my face, staring at him in shock.

“Let’s go see the sheriff,” He stomps back out the front door, not even checking to make sure Archie and I get back into the wagon alright before it lurches forward.

We park outside the sheriff’s office, and Father storms in through the front door. “Sheriff, there are demons in this town. I told you what would happen if this town didn’t start showing its faith. I told you this was gonna happen. Now Thomas, Helena, Mary, and Cora are all dead.”

“Gordon, calm down a moment, will ya?” Sheriff Moore takes a puff of his cigar.

“I will not be calmed, Sheriff.” My father barks in his face. “You need to do something about this! My poor wife, my poor daughter, they were taken by that demon! We’re all doomed! Any number of us could be next, our wives, our daughters, they’ll all be damned, Sheriff!”

Archie stands behind me like I’m a shield, protecting him from the chaos unfolding before our eyes.

“Doctor Hawthorn, I will ask that you calm down and back up.” Sheriff Moore demands.

“I will not be ignored, God will not be ignored!” My father howls, jabbing his finger into the sheriff’s chest.

“Gordon, I will not ask again. Calm down!” Sheriff tries to de-escalate the situation, but my Father only continues his rampage, throwing papers off the desk, slamming chairs over onto the floor.

“You boys should get out of here.” The deputy tells us.

“What’s wrong with him?” Another officer asks me.

“Our Mother and Sister were just killed, show some respect!” I snap at the deputy while Archie continues to cower behind me.

I hardly recognize the man in front of me, the man who raised me to find the good in everyone. My father has always handled even the most difficult situations with such ease. I’ve never seen him act this way. His eyes are dark, almost hollow, as if there is no soul behind them. He looks as if he’s aged another ten years in a matter of hours.

“Demons are in this town!” Father shrieks, praying hysterically while making a disaster of the sheriff’s office.“O Lord almighty, consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins!” He prays at the top of his lungs again and again while the sheriff tries his best to calm him down.

“He’s a madman.” The deputy shakes his head.

“Do something already, Sheriff!” I yell at him.

“Gordon Hawthorn, if you do not calm down, I will be forced to use extreme measures to get you to stop this nonsense! Don’t you make me do this in front of your boys, Doc.” The sheriff warns, a hint of fear in his eyes. His hand hovers over the pistol on his hip.

“Go ahead, sheriff, shoot me so I may be with our Lord and Savior, I pray I do not succumb to the demons of this town! I will not be dragged to hell with my wife and daughter!”

“Father!” I yell desperately.

The sheriff pulls his weapon from its holster and aims it at my father’s chest.

“Yes, sheriff!” Father cries, the only time in my life I’ve ever seen this man cry. My father is tough as nails, but this isn’t my father in front of me who storms around the sheriff’s office, making a fool of himself. “Go on and send me to our Lord, Sheriff!” He takes the sheriff’s hand in his, the pistol shining between them as my father brings the barrel to his head.

There’s a deafeningPOP,and my father falls to the floor.

No one speaks for a moment.

In a matter of hours, I went from enjoying a mundane but happy dinner with my family to being orphaned, with only my brother left beside me.

What sort of God lets two young men witness their family’s gruesome deaths like this?

“I’ll get the undertaker over here, you get the boy in a cell, we’ll send him to a foster home later,” the sheriff orders his deputy.

“A foster home? Are you insane, Sheriff?” I almost laugh. “We’re going home.”

“You can’t take your brother with you, Silas. He’s just a boy. We can’t tell you what to do, but as long as Archie is still a boy and he don’t have parents, he will need to be taken into foster care. He’ll be able to continue getting an education, and you’ll be able to visit. I’m sorry, this is the way it has to be.”

“No!” Archie cries. “I wanna stay with my brother!”

“Silas, if you take Archie with you, you’ll be arrested for kidnapping. You don’t wanna do this. You’re not thinking straight.”

I rip my dad’s revolver off his belt and point it at the sheriff. “Archie, let’s go.”

“Silas, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” The sheriff warns.

“We’re leaving,” I shove my brother out the door, into the wagon, and quickly give Lady a switch, and she gallops down the muddy road.

The sheriff and his deputies try to chase after us, but they seem to give up once we’re out of town.

“Silas, what are we gonna do?” Archie panics. “I’m scared.”

“It’ll be fine, Arch. I’ll get us out of here, and we’ll be okay. We just can’t stick around here, not after everything that just happened.

“What about the demon? What if it comes after us?”

“It won’t.”

“You don’t know that,” Archie argues.

“You’re right, but I’m doing my best, brother. We’re going to pack up what we can and get out of here. Father had some money stashed away in the floorboards in their bedroom. I’ll grab it while you pack up some food and clothes, then we’ll leave town.”

I park the wagon out front so we can run into our house and pack what little belongings we can carry: clothes, food, water, and I notice Archie grabbing the family portrait off the fireplace. I shake my head, but I don’t say anything about it. I lift the floorboard under the rug in my parents’ bedroom and pull out a small stack of dollar bills and a pouch of coins. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get us a few supplies and a hotel room for a few nights. We say goodbye to the home my siblings and I were all born and raised in for the last time before we hit the road.

I don’t know where I’m going or what we’ll do when we get there, but for now we’re safe. As long as I keep the two of us safe and together, everything will be fine. It has to be, because I can’t lose him, too.