The Gambales

I wrote this last night briefly in the spirit of Halloween!...But I feel asleep before I could post it so it's a bit late...I did write it in one night so it won't be perfect, but enjoy it anyway!

The Gambale twins were well known and well liked in the sleepy village of Stavage and why wouldn’t they be? They were two very charming, funny and exceedingly handsome young men whom attended a respectable college no more than three miles from the village. Nobody, not even their parents could tell the boys apart because they were identical to the very last pink blemish.

Isaac and Skylar however knew exactly how outsiders could tell them apart; although the pair were ambidextrous Skylar favoured biting down the nails of his right hand, this meant that his nails were always harsh and raw on one hand. Isaac too had a habit that he did not share with his twin, Isaac did everything in fours, when walking he counted his steps in fours, when he was drinking he made sure to swallow four times before putting down his cup and even when kissing a girl he made sure to change the pressure of his touch four times, in short anything that Isaac could apply sums to he pertained obsessively to the rule of four.   

Aside from habitual differences, Skylar and Isaac found it very droll to comply with the twin stereotype. It was because of this that the Gambale boys found themselves slogging down Dawn Road at half past eleven at night, pushing with them two motorbikes.

Buying two very old Harley Davidson’s because they were being sold as a pair had seemed incredibly funny at the time, riding them out of Stavage to meet their college friends in the local pub for Halloween drinks had also left the boys merry. But, after one flooded engine and another broken spark plug the boys had gloomily accepted that in future they really ought to view a vehicle before buying and not just go off the pictures on eBay.

“We gave him a good customer review as well,” carped Skylar who was scowling at the tarnished handlebars of his Harley looking disgruntled.

“He probably knew they were dodgy and deleted his account already,” Isaac sighed breathlessly and looked up when his brother made a furious spluttering sound.

“Oil all over my jeans!” Livid, Skylar gave the bike’s frame a violent shake as if to punish it but the result being Skylar spilling yet more oil over himself.

Isaac looked away from his brother and down the moonlit street, the moon’s pearly glow hung over the tops of topiary bushes giving the leafy dears and birds eerie opaline halos, especially unnerving as the night had paled the green of the leaves so that the bushes resembled shadows more than shrubs.

“We can’t push these for another two miles,” Isaac announced and stopped pushing.

“So what, we ditch them?” Skylar panted as he came to a stop alongside Isaac, squinting as he blinked sweat out of his eyes.

“Yeah,” Isaac huffed, “but not here, hide them in the woods over there and cut through the marshes, we’ll be home by twelve that way.”

So, the boys steered their bikes into the woodland that bordered the road and jettisoned them into a cluster of ivy growing thick on the ground. The bikes disappeared beneath the silky leaves with the same slow groaning grace as a ship disappearing beneath the head of the sea.

“There,” Isaac wiped his hands on the knees of his jeans four times whilst Skylar stood flexing his fingers and wincing.

“It feels a bit like we’re hiding a body, doesn’t it?” Skylar observed dispassionately as he gazed down at the thicket of ivy.

“Don’t say that,” Isaac groaned, sweeping his dark hair out of his eyes.

“Why not?” But Isaac did not want to answer ‘because it’s Halloween’, they were already about to take a risk as there had been an unusual amount of sudden torrential rain over the past fortnight and that meant the possibility that the marshes might have flooded somewhat and Isaac did not want to tempt fate further.

“Let’s go,” Isaac straightened up to his full height and made for the slip of light ahead, using his foot in front of him like an antenna to test for possible walkways.

Isaac had been right about crossing the marshes; they had reached no further than the centre of the marshy field when one of the mounds sunk beneath Isaac’s foot, like a great hairy blister full of liquid.

“Isaac?” Skylar had tugged on Isaacs arm but Isaac shook him off, too preoccupied with trying to find a route out of the marshes that did not run the risk of sucking them beneath the earth the same way the bikes had disappeared beneath the ivy.

“Isaac, loo-”

“Skylar will you please shut up for a minute?” Isaac snapped but Skylar pulled on his arm again.

“What!?” He seethed, rounding on Skylar but he fell silent at the look on his brother’s face. Skylar was staring out across the marshes into the fog, the kind of thick white fog that only seemed to hang over marshy areas, Skylar’s expression was searching and frozen with a kind of alertness.

“Sky?” Isaac whispered but Skylar did not reply for a moment, his eyebrows puckering in the middle before he brought his arm up slowly as if his wrist were weighted down and pointed limply into the dense vapour.

“A bear,” was all he said and Isaac gazed at his brother disbelievingly, he might’ve believed that his brother had thought he’d seen a bear if they’d been drinking but they hadn’t been because they’d thought they were riding home, unless his brother’s coke had been spiked Skylar was acting unusually strange.

“Sky, this is England mate,” Isaac tried to reason with his brother a little impatiently, it had been brisk enough but the fog around their knees made the cold somehow wet and he was quite keen to get home.

“I’m not lying, I saw a bear,” Skylar insisted still pointing ahead of him.

Isaac rolled his eyes; huffing irritably he turned to stare in the direction Skylar was pointing. He stopped very suddenly, Skylar wasn’t lying, there certainly was something ahead of them but it wasn’t definite that it was a bear, it was a great black hulking thing schlepping over the mounds.

“It’s a dog,” Isaac hissed as he saw a protrusion from the end of the creature’s spine that must have been a long tail, but it wasn’t like any dog Isaac had seen before, it was twice the size of a fully grown great dane and it couldn’t be a great dane anyway; its coat was too shaggy.

“Here boy,” Skylar called and began to whistle.

“What are you doing? Don’t call the damn thing over!” Isaac gave his brother a sharp dig in the ribs, but it was too late, the creature stopped moving but it did not quiver with inquisition as is a dog’s nature, it just seemed to stop.  

There was a long suspended pause before the beast turned its head very slowly, fixing Skylar and Isaac with two eyes which were nothing but the reflection of the moon set in a blunt, heavy skull. There was another icy moment before the animal began to drag itself towards them, moving as if the water were nothing.

“Sky, come on,” Isaac dragged on his brother’s arm feeling a little desperate, but Skylar did not budge he was transfixed with the animal advancing on them, now only a few meters away.

The foul stench of something like stale urine carried to Isaac, filling his nostrils and touching somehow the back of his throat making him gag.

“Sky?” He tried but when he looked up he saw that his brother was still paralyzed, staring cataleptic at the creature. Without knowing why Isaac reached out and locked his fingers with his brother’s, something the boys had not done in years.

When Isaac chanced a glance at the animal he couldn’t stop himself moaning softly. The dog was the same height as Isaac, but he was not sure he could even call the monster a dog. The animal’s eyes were lucent pools, lidless set in sockets far too large, so large in fact that Isaac wondered why the eyes did not just roll out; they were like yolks in a horrible leathery, fleshy darkness. The beasts head was an awful heavy thing, the shape of every feature was crude and sickeningly deformed, Isaac was reminded dimly of a fox that had once lain in the gutter for weeks after being hit by a car, its skull caved in greasy grey mire leaking from holes in its head. But no car could have done that to this brutes head, not even a bus. Most disturbing about the demon’s head was the way in which it moved, not in the laborious way expected of something so weighty, instead the animal twitched its head from side to side with the same manic swivelling and twitching of an owl spinning its head.

It was so close now that Isaac could feel its hot breath heavy with the rich festering stink of old carrion and the harsh sawing as the creature wheezed was perfectly audible.

The demon without a doubt had murdered, it was almost as if Isaac could feel the tickle of discarnate fingers scrabbling at his chest as the souls that had snared on the creatures jaws reached out to him.  This animal had not killed to feed, it had attacked and savaged, it had not created a meal but victims.

Suddenly Skylar dropped down beside Isaac and Isaac was forced to tear his gaze away from the monster. Skylar was twisting, his limbs contorting unnaturally as he gurgled, writhing and convulsing as if threatened by invisible torturers. He was making harsh sounds, halfway between a snarl and a high scream as scarlet spit rose and boiled at his lips, creating a pinkish froth which poured over his cheeks. Isaac did not understand, Skylar had never had a seizure in his life he had not so much been tested for any form of epilepsy, but it was undeniable that Isaac was watching Skylar fitting on the floor.

“What have you done to him?” Isaac whimpered but when he turned his head he screamed, the demon was an inch from his face, the steam rising from its nostrils coasting over Isaac’s lips. Isaac took a terrified step backwards, a big mistake, Skylar whom was deadweight on the end of Isaac’s arm slid into the water and immediately began to sink. Isaac only had a second in which to gasp before he too was pulled backwards into the bog. He flailed for a moment, clawing at the grass unsuccessfully, it was too late, the boy’s were definitely fated to die and Isaac ceased to struggle. Looking at his still fitting brother whose eyes had rolled far back into his head, he took a deep breath, he could feel the dog still standing over him, if they were going to die then there was no way Isaac was going to let Skylar face being mauled to death if he could help it.

“Sorry,” he breathed, his eyes burning not only with bog water but with tears, “I’m sorry, Sky,” but Isaac knew he was doing the right thing, even though he was beyond disgusted with himself as he placed a hand on his brothers shoulder and pushed him beneath the water. Isaac could not tell if Skylar was still fitting or was struggling against Isaac, but Isaac knew that Skylar would rather be drowned than the ghastly alternative above land. Isaac held Skylar beneath the velveteen water, pushing him so far under that he was only visible as a whitish smear somewhere below, he counted the seconds in fours until finally Skylar went still and bubbles ceased to permeate the smooth water’s surface. Skylar was dead.  

Letting out a painful and raw sob Isaac removed his hand from his brother’s body and Skylar floated to the surface but Isaac refused to look at him. Isaac turned preparing to take one last look at their demonic assailant before he knocked himself unconscious so that biological avarice would not prevent him from drowning himself.

But, when Isaac looked up he froze because what he was seeing was not possible.

“No,” he breathed, his voice far away as the cheery black Labrador leant it’s snout down towards Isaac’s cheek.

“No,” Isaac repeated, horrified as the black Labrador began to whistle and whine enthusiastically as he nuzzled Isaac’s cheek and somewhere in the distance the black labs owner was calling him back. The small domestic dog lay down and began to roll about happily in the muddy grass, wagging his stubby tail.

The news spread fast through Stavage that Isaac Gambale had taken his twin out to the marshes and drowned him. Villagers had not believed it at first, the boys were so close it was almost unbelievable that they could have turned on one another, but then it was leaked that Isaac Gambale had given a full account to the police of how exactly he had pushed his brother under the water and counted until he was dead.  There had only been a small piece in the obituaries in the newspaper stating that Skylar Gambale had died, there was nothing mentioned about his brother to save Mr and Mrs Gambale the shame and pain. There had been a tiny piece in the Parish newsletter about the farmer and his Labrador Ruby that had discovered Skylar and Isaac too late. Nobody knew why Isaac Gambale would have wanted to murder his twin, jealousy maybe, some of the boy’s friends had revealed that Isaac was known to be obsessive but most simply came to the conclusion that did anybody really know what exactly went on in a teenagers head?  

Author's Note

I'm quite young so I don't expect my grammar is up to scratch so I fully expect anybody to point that out! Please review it though!

Reviews

[ToneWolf]

" The animal’s eyes were lucent pools, lidless set in sockets far too large, so large in fact that Isaac wondered why the eyes did not just roll out; they were like yolks in a horrible leathery, fleshy darkness. This is awesome. I love the way you describe everything in such graphic detail. You have got a future in writing.

[C.A Phipps]

Oh thank you very much! It's really nice that you picked out a sentence, thank you!!

[Avidreader]

I read a great deal and can usually guess where the storyline is going. This one kept me guessing ! Thanks for a well devised and well written tale. I'll keep a lookout for your next one.

[C.A Phipps]

Thank you very much! As for the ending, I had two endings in mind and chose one last minute so it kept me guessing a bit too! XD

[dw817]

Not to sound too much like Bartok from Anastasia but, "Wow I tell you. Wow !"

Now =THIS= is a horror story. With all the correct elements and wording with what I've seen so far. This was excellent ! I'm normally not one for giving out ribbons or congratulations to horror films or stories for that matter, but this one is a keeper. Definitely. Intelligently written, cleverly worded, and deadly in meaning.

It puts you right there in the face of danger and the moment of action.

http://bit.ly/HBEXhJ
⊰ƑƛƔƠƦƖƬЄƊ⊱

[C.A Phipps]

Oh my goodness, thank you so much!! This has made my day YAAAY!

[dw817]

Your writing is well worth it. You are a writer. Embrace it. And I will definitely see you around. :7

[dw817]

And umm - yah, it probably should be 18+ as you have such ostensibly graphic violence in here and you don't need that for the kids in here, use your best judgment. Other than that, an outstanding write.

[Ames]

Wow, so good, and really gripping!

[C.A Phipps]

Thank you! :D

[Laminators Dubai]

Its awesome...you made it to the end and I enjoyed.

Thanks for sharing^^

[C.A Phipps]

Thank you, that's really nice! :)

[zainul]

Very interesting work over a night.
Enjoyed it.
Keep up the good endeavor.

[C.A Phipps]

Thank you very much!

[zainul]

You are most welcome!