Halcyon's Wake: Faith
Chapter 23

Pinhole to Hades

Isabella wanted Scary Lizard Man to go away.

He didn’t look at her the same way the nice man dressed up like a character from Braveheart did.

Her brother Enrico loved Braveheart — Isabella only watched the parts with the French Princess - so she could see all the beautiful dresses and the pretty ribbons and braids in the Princess’ hair; otherwise it was full of boy stuff. Swords and blood and a lot of yelling. Enrico said the men in the movie were brave and fought for freedom - maybe the nice man would help her get home - free from the scary Lizard people and Scorpion monsters and big hairy Monkey monsters - if that’s what freedom meant, anyways.

But Braveheart Man couldn’t help Enrico, the Scorpion monsters killed him when they took Isabella and Mommy away.

Isabella didn’t want to think about that.

Braveheart Man said they’d all get to see their Mommy’s real soon, then go home, but the little boy holding Isabella’s hand - the only boy - must not have believed it because he kept crying loudly, rubbing his nose on the sleeve of the soft white robe all of the children now wore; his soft golden curls bouncing with each rapid sniffle.

Isabella liked her white robe. It was pretty and smelled like flowers and was as soft as the belly of her cat Mister Binx, not itchy like the sweater GrandPa Smoky gave her when she turned five just a few days ago. Braveheart Man and Monkey Lady had given them the robes after a long, hot bath in a giant tub carved out of red rock that looked like GrandPa Smoky’s cave house. Monkey Lady rubbed tingly lotion on all their tummies that smelled like cough syrup, the red kind that tasted like cherries. She wished her and Mommy had stayed at the cave instead of going to Grasshopper Point to throw rocks - but that shouldn’t matter since she’d soon get to see her Mommy and go home.

Monkey lady stood behind them and herded them down a long, wide corridor lit by pretty lamps the same blue color of her Aunt Lisa’s favorite earrings. The lizard man was far in front, his green and gold robes shimmering silently in the soft light, but there was still the screaming and wails of women coming from somewhere and everywhere. Always the screaming that never stopped, and it was getting louder. Braveheart Man and Big Monkey Man were following, Big Monkey Man looking back with an ugly face and laughing.

The little boy gripped Isabella’s hand tighter, almost hurting her but she pulled him along with the group, a brighter light ahead opening up into what looked to be a vast room.

Maybe this was where they would get to see their Mommies. Isabella couldn’t wait to show her the new robe, and her tummy was starting to get really hot from Monkey Lady’s lotion.

They exited the smooth tunnel into a wide open field, and Isabella learned where all the screaming came from.

Mommies were nailed naked to X-shaped crosses everywhere Isabella looked, and their cries swelled when the little ones came into view. More lizard people scurried about on all fours, but they weren’t green and brown like Scary Lizard Man. They had people skin in all colors, and people hair and private parts - but on a lizard body with mean yellow eyes like Mister Binx before he would bite you.

The naked Lizard People all turned and sniffed the air when the group approached the field, but some of them were standing in front of the Mommies doing what Isabella once saw the man from Circle K doing with Aunt Lisa behind the grocery store.

Scary Lizard Man swooped into the group quicker than Isabella could blink and snatched the little boy up by his neck with one brightly polished, four-fingered claw. The little boy was silent but shook violently, and had an accident on the shiny robes of Lizard Man, who didn’t seem to notice or care. Lizard Man sniffed at the little boy’s tummy, and saliva dripped from razor sharp teeth as it made a sound like Mister Binx when you rubbed his back. But way louder and way scarier.

A sticky, red wetness blinded Isabella as something hot spread across her face. She tried to wipe the hot goo from her eyes and saw through a red mist her beautiful robe splattered with blood and gore, then saw Scary Lizard Man throw what was left of the little boy over his shoulder to the Lizard People behind him, some of what Isabella guessed was the little boy’s inside parts clinging to Lizard Man’s teeth like overlong strips of oily, raw bacon. He licked razor sharp teeth with a thick, barbed tongue and cruel, slanted eyes of radiant yellow mocked Isabella and the others, then hissed louder than Mister Binx did when Enrico held him by the tail.

"Take them to their bitches, Brood! My new children grow hungry!” it roared, and Isabella tried to slip away to a happy place in her mind.

The people-skinned lizards swarmed into the children like a pack of zombie wolves; clicking, snarling and whisking them away in human-like, webbed hands bristling with broad, flat claws and razor-thin little hairs across the back of their hands and arms; shaded in rows like pristine, porcupine needles.

Time stopped for Isabella as the cream-colored Lizard man stretched her out in front of him like a corn on the cob, one massive hand under her chin, the other grasping both her legs and pulling as if to slowly rip her apart, sniffing roughly and long at her tummy, saliva gushing from his mouth in a hissy spray as it raised its long-bridged, flat snout to the air, hunting for the kindred scent and bellowing when it caught it.

Isabella again feebly tried to slip into a realm beyond fear and touch as the lizard man darted off on two legs quickly through the sea of crucifixion, scrambling in a steady gait like the chimpanzees she saw on one of her animal DVD’s.

Isabella knew she wasn’t going home, but Isabella was already far away from this scary place that couldn’t be real. She saw Braveheart Man laughing with Big Monkey Man, and she hoped Scary Lizard Man would eat him, too - and Monkey Lady.

Mommy’s that didn’t hang limply from the backward tilted, railroad-tie crosses cried out as Isabella and the lizard man sped by. All the Mommy’s had giant swollen bellies that wiggled under blood-caked skin, pulled so tight it looked like they would pop at the slightest touch. Their screams were only a distant sound to Isabella now, her placid face immune to the surreal horrors around her.

The monster came to a stop and viciously twisted her to face forward, releasing one claw to let her dangle inches in front of her mother’s beaten and bloody face. Her mother didn’t cry out like the others, and a warmth flooded Isabella’s soul as she lost herself in her Mommy″s strong eyes. Isabella was pulled back and the beast stabbed a claw precisely above her Mommy’s bulging tummy and between her greatly swollen breasts. Fluid and blood escaped in a little fountain, ignored by Isabella who remained rapt in her Mommy’s unwavering stare, glistening pink heads beginning to emerge in a writhing slither of steaming twitters and hungry cries, beneath her and yet a world away.

"Drakos Basmakka Bealmaa!! Drakos Feast Forever!!" shouted the beasts as one, holding each of the children above the squirming abominations springing to life, Isabella somewhere in the farthest reaches of her mind feeling an abrupt sting and tug as the monster rent the little girl’s tummy open, hatchlings leaping upward to their first taste of flesh... Isabella felt sad for the poor little girl, but there was nothing she could do for her now... it was time for her and Mommy to go home.

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