The blue palace

December 4th 1984

The dread did not start in 84, it just finally took a new shape.

small town America is a very closed off kind of place in the world, trends take forever to catch on, rumors are like a currency, everyone is always rushing to tell another person’s secret, making up wild lies just to be respected,

For the ones with the rumors about them, it feels like the world around them only exists to shame them.

In every small town, those people find each other, go through the thick and thin together, they find community in people who know how It feels to be different or misunderstood.

Otterlake Colorado was one of those many rumor and gosip filled small towns in the central region of the united states of america.

As the afternoon rolled in, students at Otterlake Middle School finished their last class period. They poured out into the hallways ready to end the school day, the walkway filled with kids excitedly getting ready to attend clubs and grab things from their lockers.

Manny Deangelo was one of these kids. He walked alongside his best friend, William Emerson. They were on their way to their lockers; they had to grab their coats on the way out.

Their other friends couldn’t join them because they had band practice, neither of them minded, they still had each other.

As they sauntered through the busy crowd of children, William was going on and on about recent ufo sightings and how he thought those people were really onto something.

“They said it was these lights flashing over the mountains; it's so amazing ” William exclaimed, he was so out of breath from talking so much, his glasses nearly fell off of his face.

Usually he’d say only a few things about what he liked when it was their other friends but he just got so excited about his favorite topics when he was with Manny.

Manny was content with just listening to him talk, it was calming and drowned out the rest of the loud world, like they were in their own bubble. Sometimes he wished he could just listen to William talk all day, he could spend his whole life like that, if the world was willing to let him.

As they walked through the hallway, some kids were pointing at Manny, and some were laughing. A group of girls were whispering to themselves while staring at him, like he was an animal.

He was no stranger to stares from classmates and adults, but he was always worried when people laughed at him. He wouldn’t do anything about it, but it felt so deeply personal sometimes.

William noticed too, he stopped talking and stood closer to Manny in case these people tried something.

Manny froze when he looked at the row of lockers ahead, some kids were crowded around them, crowded around where his locker was.

It became very clear what was happening as they got closer.

Written clear as day in black ink was “fag” across the middle of his locker. He didn't know how long it was there, he didn't know how many people walked past it that day but he knew it had been seen by at least half the school.

Of the kids crowded, one stood out and it was clear to everyone he was who defiled his locker.

Andrew park was laughing the loudest, his friends were hyping him up for what he did. when he saw manny and William, he smirked confidently thinking they’d make a fuss about it. Manny ignored him completely, he walked past him an just unlocked his locker and grabbed what he was there for.

“don’t cry little girl ” Andrew chuckled out, shaking manny’s arm. He refused to be ignored by someone like him.

Manny turned around, he just couldn’t say anything to him, he didn’t have it in him, his mouth felt like it had been removed, like his body wasn’t his anymore.

William never knew what to do about stuff like this, he was used to defending manny from bullies but he was too afraid, he didn’t know why but he was afraid.

Manny put his jacket on and grabbed the small box at the bottom of his locker, he walked with purpose, he just wanted to get out of everyone’s view, he didn’t want to be a circus animal to them anymore. William trailed after him, desperately trying to get his attention.

“I think they’re wrong about you, they’re just assholes” William muttered out softly. He picked up the pace and put an arm around manny’s shoulder.

Good god, he didn’t want to talk about this, or anything like it, he hoped different, he didnt want to reassured that he wasn’t actually abnormal in the eyes of people him,

“It doesn’t matter, I have to go take this to the church” manny said while smiling at William. He hoped that helped him feel less stressed about everything.

The bitter chilling air outside flowed in from the doors swinging open as kids walked out. Snow covered everything. Manny waved goodbye to William as they walked in opposite directions.

The church was an easy walk from school, it was between childress street and arburman, the snow was shoveled away in the area.

The street and sidewalk were mostly empty, just a few people with pets or older folk crossing the road. Manny scanned the view ahead of him for the pointed shiny cross ontop of the church, Eventually he saw it.

The church came into view, the sign out front said “Otterlake baptist church” in beautiful letters, the building was wooden and painted white with some small damages on its outside, it looked like it was begging to be repaired.

The doors were swung open, some classical music was playing, there wasn’t much people there but some church volunteers and a few others cleaning inside.

The donation bin was inside, it was blue with a flap on the front with an arrow that said “donations here” as if someone couldn’t put two and two together about where donations go.

The box manny held was filled with a few toys, a dinosaur, some Barbies and some toy trains. All stuff from him, his brother and his cousin when they were smaller. He debated putting his old dragon toys in the box, but he couldn’t possibly give those up, he felt like a baby for not being able to move on from toys.

Manny lightly pushed the box through the flap, it made a small thud as the flap swung before gently closing.

He turned to leave, not wanted to be seen or bothered by crazy church goers, but be stopped right at the door. Something felt almost wrong in the building, every door was closed except for the door to the storage room on the other side of the building.

It led behind the stage, from what manny could see it had a mop and some rolls of toilet paper on a shelf back there, completely ordinary stuff for a church to have.

All he figured was that he’d peek back there, and if saw nothing he’d leave.

He grabbed the door knob and pushed the door all the way open, it was dark and seemed almost endless. As he looked inside, his ears hurt like they never had before, like a noise so quiet yet so loud. The room glowed with a blueish tint to it.

It was so odd yet captivating, he couldn’t look away it was so good yet so disgusting.

He looked around hoping someone else in there could see this, but there was nobody. It was liked they all cleared out when he opened the door.

The building had changed on the inside, it was older looking, it looked like it had been through a lot. It was turning blue by the minute, just like the storage room.

Manny turned back to the storage room, the darkness had filled it up by the minute, it was seemingly alive, it formed an arm that grabbed outward.

He ran, the arm seemingly didn’t have an end, it extended towards him as he ran to the church doors trying to pull them open, it was like they had been boarded up. He threw his weight against it, that just wasn’t enough, he wasn’t that tall or heavy.

The arm had formed a body and legs, they made no sense together, like a vile gross void that was ripped out of a child’s drawing.

It had one arm, it was too long for its body, its legs were perfect but as it formed a head, it looked like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to appear as.

Manny screamed hoping someone would hear.

He gave the door another push, it finally opened and he felt outside onto the stoop. He got crawled and pushed himself back up, the creature, he didn’t understand what to call, was hobbling around clearing looking for manny, it just couldn’t see yet.

everything beyond the church was just blue disgusting fog and heavy snow from a raging blizzard, somewhat of a road existed, but it didn’t exist in certain parts almost like it was trying to form but was using a faulty system.

There was nowhere to hide, there were no people, no cars, the world he was from was missing beyond the church. Everything was gone and it was cold in a way manny had never experienced before.

Manny ran behind the church, hoping he could open the cellar and hide in there. He pulled the handles, his heart raced, he was never all that religious, but he prayed like god would hear a kid like and actually save him.

The creature by now had finally made its way out of the church, it had a face, nearly a face,

Not in the way a person had a face. It trudged along following manny’s footprints in the deep snow, it was making gutteral noises like if you got closer to it, you’d actually hear it say something

The creature came around the side of the building and grabbed manny roughly, tossing him into the broken fence.

Manny vomited from the force, he laid there on the ground as it , his brain couldn’t work fast enough to give it a name, held him down by his chest, it pushed hard restricting his breathing, his lungs felt like they had been set on fire.

His Fear was paralyzing, it was taking hold of his body. He didn’t understand what it was trying to do to him, he didn’t know why it wouldn’t just leave him alone.

A scratching otherworldly voice came from the creature, it sounded like it hurt to talk.

“Stay still and it will hurt less” it whispered into his ears, everything faded around him.