Chroma

Family living at a light house gets an unexpected visitor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chroma

-by Ryan Shukis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking outside the lighthouse window the rain began to beat on the glass.  The hurricane was hitting the island hard.  A father stared out the window with tired but vigilant eyes.  The storm was a lustful rage hitting the island with its supreme power as it eroded the soil and rock with it blue fingers.  

            Keith Wilkinson scratched his red beard as he stared out the window, brushing back his long blonde hair.  Mostly of Scottish decent Keith had on his mothers side a quarter of French.  A white robe covered his body, it was six in the morning and the storm continued to rage.  Staring out into the ocean he looked for lost ships at sea as he sipped his coffee.  Content he began to turn and head down the winding metal stairs.  Something caught his eye.

            It was small but it was moving from the coastline, he saw it was heading for the tower.  Eyes growing wide he quickly ran back to his bedroom as he threw some boots and a yellow raincoat on.  Hoping not to disturb the wife and kids he ran down the metal staircase. 

            Reaching for the front door he whipped it open, the wind held it as the rain flooded indoors.  Holding a lantern in one hand Keith stepped from the tower looking out into the chaos of the storm searching for the light he saw.  Minutes passed and he saw nothing, staying in the doorway he continued to soak standing in the rain. 

                                                “Help!  Help!”

Keith heard it, the voice screaming help but he couldn’t find the source.  Stepping from the lighthouse he saw on his right the light.  It had stopped only a few feet from the tower.  A woman was knelling over a body lying on the ground, struggling to lift it up.  Keith ran as fast as he could in his yellow rain coat.

                                    “Are you alright?”

            “I am but my husband’s in a great deal of pain.”

Keith saw a tall young blonde woman soaked in a thick sweater she struggled trying to lift her soaked husband from the ground.  It looked to be a large man with dark hair; Keith reached over to help him up.  The face of the man was deathly white covered in the dark stubble of a beard, looking at his chest blood soaked his shirt. 

            “My god, please come inside and I’ll see what I can do.”

Keith and the young woman began to carry the husband to the Light House.  The storm continued to whip at their backs as they struggled to walk back.

            Once through the door Keith shut it quick, it immediately grew quite as the wind and rain was silenced.    

“You can place him on the table here and we can take a look at his wound.”

            Helping the young lady with her dying spouse they lifted the large man onto the table.  Every minute that passed the more he began to look that of a ghost, Keith grabbed a nearby towel attempting to dry the man.  Unbuttoning his shirt Keith saw what looked to be a piece of jagged obsidian rock protruding from his left breast.  Quickly examining the wound Keith reached out and touched the obsidian.  The rock reacted and from underneath its black exterior shell bright blue and red colors glowed casting light on him and the young girl.  They both jumped back in surprise.   

            “My god, what is it in your husbands chest?”

 

            “I don’t know, we washed up on shore only a few minutes ago and that’s when I noticed he was bleeding.”

                        “We may have little time, give me a minute I must wake my wife.  I’ll be right back.”

            With out waiting for an answer Keith ran off to the stairs.  The young blonde woman held her husbands hand as she shivered in her wet clothes. 

           

            Keith returned with his wife, a small woman with uncombed red hair.  White robes obscured her body as she rubbed her tired eyes trying to focus. 

            “Oh my,” she said with a thick Irish accent as she looked at the stone lodged in the young mans chest.  She ran to his throat taking his pulse while taking some towels to soak up some of the blood from the wound. 

            “He’s still alive, but his pulse seems to be slowing.  Keith if you could run up stairs and grab some more towels, I think our best shot is to remove this rock.  I have my sewing kit right here.”  Reaching underneath the cabinets she brought out a small white box full of thread and needles.  “Once we get that thing out Ill sew up the wound and bandage him up.”  Keith’s wife looked at the young woman for a response. 

            Shivering in her wet clothes she nodded her head, Keith ran up stairs and in a few minutes he returned with some more towels. 

            They all stood on each side of the young man; Keith’s wife grasped the black rock with her right hand.  The red and blue and now green colors revisited filling the room with bright color.  It startled her at first but then she squinted her eyes and focused.  Ignoring their hue she gripped the rock a little tighter.  Counting in her head she reached three and ripped the stone out.  Placing it on the table next to them Keith began to soak up the wound as the dying spouse began to bleed onto the table.  While he used the towels to absorb the blood Keith’s wife began to sew the wound.  Her hands were small but quick, it was only a few minutes until the wound was completely sown.  Taking some bandages from their first aid kit she wrapped the wound with some thick cloths and bandages around the young mans chest.   

            Taking a moment they all stood and breathed. 

            “Well I believe that will do it for now.  I’m Maureen this is my husband Keith you look cold and tired.  If you want I’ll take you upstairs and you can get changed, Keith will take care of things for your…”

            “Husband, he’s my husband,” the young lady interrupted desperately.  “I’m Ava and he’s Thomas, Thomas Sinofsky.”

            “Thomas Sinofsky?  Isn’t he the very engineer who assisted in creating The Cestovatel?”

            “Yes he was, unfortunately.”

            Maureen immediately read the sad expression on Ava’s face.  “No need to go on, please Ava lets get you changed.”  They walked upstairs while Keith attempted to carry Tom to their couch.  Checking his pulse it seemed a little stronger.  Wrapping his body in many warm blankets Keith continued s wiping the rain off of his face and body.  Color began to return to his face, it might be possible they saved him in the nick of time.  After the labor of moving and covering him with blankets Keith took a moment to rest.  Lying back in his wooden rocking chair he relaxed his muscles, brushing his wet blonde hair out of his face.  Youth wasn’t with him anymore, but youth hadn’t left him yet.

            Taking a moment he looked back at the table.  Wet blood covered towels rested on its wooden exterior.  Keith immediately got up, thinking “it’d be better if the kids didn’t see the blood covered towels when they woke up.”

            Walking over he gathered the wet towels his eyes caught a glimpse at the obsidian-jagged rock.  It was fascinating, how on earth did this large thing end up in Thomas’s chest.  It was so much to take in.

            Keith took a step back and simply said, “It’s too early, and how could all of this happen so early?”

            Looking at the ticking clock the hour hand had reached seven, and the minute hand pointed to twenty-five.

            Keith took the towels and disposed them into their wastebasket, looking out the window the storm continued to rage.  The rain and the wind continued to beat at the windows.             

            As Keith cleaned the table his fingers brushed the black obsidian stone, the colors glowed before him once again, they seemed to shine upon his consciousness realizing endorphins he had never experience before.  Reaching out he grabbed ahold of the obsidian rock, firmly grasping it in his hand.  As he tightened his grip the lights began to flash much more rapidly through a spectrum of color. 

            Keith’s eyes began to flutter as they rolled up into his head, losing the strength in his legs he toppled to the ground as his muscles tensed.  Drool escaped his mouth as his head turned like a rooster with a twisted neck. 

 

            “You pollute our seas, you kill our families, and you have upset the balance of this world.  We are coming, for you!”

 

            Keith’s eyes spun back forward as he wiped the drool from his mouth.

            “What the hell was that voice?”

Keith looked to the floor; the black obsidian rock stared at him.  There was a hunger behind the object, as if a mouth snarled at him behind the black exterior.  Standing back up to his feet Keith took a towel and placed the rock back on the table.  Feeling his head he had a fresh lump at the back of his skull, only some slight pain at the touch.  Running back into the living room he checked on Tom.  The color had fully returned to his face, checking his pulse Keith noticed Tom’s heart was beating at a regular tempo.  Checking the wound, it still looked clean and had stopped bleeding.

            Maureen and Ava returned down stairs.  Ava looked clean, she was dressed in a warm sweater with her wet blonde hair braided.

            “The kids are still asleep, I’m going to make some breakfast.  How is Thomas?”  Maureen said as she looked at Keith.

            “Looking much better, the wound has stopped bleeding and his heart is beating much faster.”

            “That’s good to here, Ava please have a seat and Ill make you something to eat.”  Maureen walked to the kitchen counter opening a cabinet. 

“I’m going to head to the top of the tower, check on the weather.  Do me a favor honey; none of you touch the obsidian we pulled out of Tom’s chest.  I think something has tampered with it.”

            “I’m going to wrap it up in this towel and put it under the sink, when your done checking on the weather could you wake the kids.  It might be best for us to introduce them to Tom and Ava sooner the better.”

            Ava was in the living other room holding Thomas’s hand, a sad but hopeful look on her face. 

            Keith quickly ran up the spiral staircase to the top, passing 7 floors.  Taking a moment when he reached the top to quickly catch his breath.  It wasn’t that he was out of shape; more tired from everything that has already occurred.  Looking out next to the lighthouse spotlight Keith saw the storm had begun to calm.  Although the rain continued to hit the windowpanes, it was still hard to see.  Keith looked at the coast; the waves were tall and crashing with an impossible strength. 

            Something caught his eye, there was a light moving at the edge of the coast.  It was blinking; it went from green, to yellow, to blue.  Something felt wrong; a bad feeling began to grow in Keith’s stomach.  Something was moving from the ocean to the lighthouse blinking in the same color and rhythm as the black obsidian rock they just removed from Thomas’s chest.

            The fingers on Keith’s hands began to tremble.  Something was coming; something was heading straight for the Light House.

            “I’ve got to wake the kids,” Keith said as he quickly jumped back to the stairs climbing down.

            The metal stairs echoed with every footstep he made, he could hear the wind screaming as it whipped on the side of the Light House.  Making it down to the fourth floor he stepped off the stairs.  Two daughters and one son, the girls were Astrid and Morgan with the youngest boy named Terrance.  The two girls had blonde hair and blue eyes while Terrance had dark hair with brown eyes.  Waking the kids up from their beds Keith held young Terrance in his arms while the two girls held each of his hands.  Taking his time Keith was making sure he didn’t slip as they descended the stairs, every limp had a child strapped to it.

            Once they arrived at the bottom floor there were some pancakes on the table prepared for the kids.  Maureen and Ava had already eaten; they sat in the living room next to Tom.  Thomas was awake, sitting upright on the couch; his dark hair was drooped in his face.

            Setting Terrance to the ground all three kids ran to the table gobbling up their breakfast chirping and giggling to each other as they wiggled with energy.  Keith opened the cabinet underneath the sink to see the obsidian rock wrapped in a towel underneath.   Taking a moment Keith stepped into the living room.

            “Hello Thomas I’m Keith, Keith Wilkinson.  How are you feeling?”

The large young man looked up at Keith with scared worried eyes, he looked at the children in the kitchen and his expression seemed to worsen. 

            “I’m feeling much better, thank you very much Mr. Wilkinson for helping us.”

            “It’s no problem, I can make some breakfast for you if you’d like,” Maureen said standing up to go to the kitchen.

            “That would be nice thank you,” Thomas said with Ava wrapped around him.

            “Thomas I must say, is anyone currently looking for you?”  Keith started to stare at their front door; the wind was beating against it with its screams.

            “I’m sorry, I don’t believe I understand the question.”

            “Is it possible that you were followed?”

Thomas and Ava simply looked at each other then back at Keith stroking his red beard nervously.

            “I don’t believe we were, why do you ask?”  Ava said as she held Thomas a little tighter.

            “Well its just that looking out the window just a few minutes ago, I saw a light down by the coast.  It was heading toward….”

                                    BANG! BANG! BANG!

Everyone jumped at the sound interrupting Keith’s sentence.

            “Speak of the devil,” Keith said to himself as he stared at the front door.  The children stopped eating and looked to their mother, of whom turned to Keith. 

                                    BANG! BANG! BANG!

 

“ARE YOU SURE YOU WEREN’T FOLLOWED?” Keith raised his voice to Thomas and Ava who trembled on the couch. 

            “No, it was just us no one else,” Thomas looked to Ava holding her hand. 

            Keith ran to the back room where everyone’s coats and shoes were neatly organized, he opened a closet.  There were some hammers, tools, and wrenches and there behind an axe was his double-barreled rifle, a family heirloom.  Grabbing ahold of the axe and the rifle he returned to the front door.

            “Maureen please take the kids to the living room with Thomas and Ava and lock the door.”

            “I’ll move the kids but I’m standing right by your side,” Maureen stared up at Keith with stern solemn Irish eyes.  Keith merrily nodded and handed her the axe he carried.  Thomas was still feeling weak, he stayed on the couch while Ava gestured the children to the living room.  They began to wine scared at the noises coming from the door.  That was when Keith noticed it, the colors.

            Red, blue, and green all flashing underneath the front door.  

“Maureen do you see it?”  Keith gestured to the door; she took one looked and saw the colors.  Quickly moving the scared children to the living room.  She bent down on a knee and spoke to all three of them.

            “Now these two people are Ava and Thomas, they’ll be staying with us for a bit.  But be nice okay, they’re going to look after you only for a few minutes while mom and Dad find out who’s at the door, okay?”

            The children nodded solemnly while tears began to fill their scared eyes.  Maureen kissed them all on the head and looked to Ava.

“It will only be a few minutes, I promise,” Maureen said before she closed the door. 

“Do you guys want to come and snuggle with me and my husband Tom?”  The three scared little toddlers looked at the door and with out hesitation climbed on the couch wrapping their little limbs intertwined with Tom and Ava.

            The banging had stopped; Keith loaded the rifle and cocked it aiming at the door.  The colors continued to glow underneath the doorframe. 

            “You have ten seconds to reveal who you are and what you want.  Or I promise you Ill pump you full of lead!”  Keith said in a deep voice aiming his rifle at the door.  

            Nothing happened, utter silence.  There was creepiness in the room, nothing but the sound of rain hitting the tower.  Something wasn’t right, what was happening?

           BANG!

            All at once a black obsidian rock plunged itself through their wooden door, the rock began to glow in colors filling the room with red, blues, and greens. 

            The children along with Tom and Ava saw the glow of the color underneath their living room door, they held each other tighter.

            Keith unloaded three shots at the door, the obsidian rock retracted and four holes now stood letting the rain in.  No response, no scream in pain no shout for mercy, as if some mechanical monster impervious to pain stood on the other side.  Keith took a moment and reloaded his rifle as he heard a thud on the other side of the door.  It was odd; the door itself began to cave outwards.  The hinges burst off their frames, Keith and Maureen ducted as they dodged flying screws.  Within just a few seconds the door was ripped off the tower itself and tossed aside.  Startled Keith let out another round, to his surprise he accidentally hit the wiring the lights.   All the lights went out in the tower leaving them in a darkness only lit with the morning storm of the front door.

  Rain poured inside as the wind blew Maureen and Keith up against the wall.  A silhouette of a crustacean creature filled the doorway.  It reeked of the ocean, a strong waft of salt water poured in stinging their nostrils.  It had a long tail with fins on it, underneath were eight legs holding its body.  It stepped through the doorway surpassing it in height; it was so dark in the room it was hard to make out.  All they could truly see was there were claws instead of hands, and there were others.  

            It gave a deep low grunt as hot hair escaped the tentacles surrounding its mouth.  Keith took the opportunity and shot four more rounds at the creature, the bullets bounced off of its shell as it lunged forward.  It wrapped its claw around the rifle and snapped it in half.  The metal pieces and gun powered dropped to the floor in pieces.  Maureen lunged forward bringing down the axe on the creatures arm.  Once it made contact with the thick black shell the axe rebounded off and flew behind hitting the wall.  The creature turned one of its lobster eyes to Maureen and nocked her on her feet with one swipe of its claw while it held Keith up against the wall with the other.

            “Maureen!”  Keith screamed as he looked at his wife bleeding on the kitchen floor, she wasn’t moving.  The creature turned back to Keith making sure he stayed in place.  It raised its left claw and gave it an odd twitch; the claw began to glow in spots with color.  It blinked with blue, red, and green.  The lights illuminated the creature showing the ugly details of its body. It was more frightening then Keith imagined as it was held up in a black crustacean shell for of appendages, tentacles and claws.

              It was using the colors to communicate with the others.  As the colors blinked two other crustacean creatures popped in through the empty doorway, their black shells dripping with water.  Keith struggled against the wall as he looked at one of them; its claw was missing a piece as if someone took a chunk out of it.  The creature twitched its whiskers and sniffed the air, then its head moved toward the kitchen.  It came to the sink; using interior hands it opened the bottom cabinet doors and found the obsidian rock they had wrapped in a towel.  Removing the towel and lifting the rock from underneath the sink the creature raised it to its claw.  Moving it toward the empty chunk small digits connected it to the obsidian rock.  The digits attached to the claw and only seconds later the obsidian rock filled the gap, the claw was whole again.  Twitching its arm the creature’s now full claw glowed in color, the other creatures responded with glowing claws. 

            The crustacean holding Keith stepped back releasing him.  Keith fell to the ground and quickly ran to Maureen, holding her head as blood poured from her noes. The crustaceans stood in the doorway glowing to each other as they stared at Keith and Maureen.

            The crustaceans eyes looked upon the living room door, they began to move toward it.  Keith quickly grabbed the axe from the floor and swung at full force at the nearest crustacean.  The axe rebounded again and flew behind him.  The creature turned and threw Keith to the wall.  Pain erupted in his back and fell to the floor in pain.  Looking back to the living room door the crustacean shoved its claws within the wooden frame and ripped the door from its hinges.  The children screamed as the creature stepped inside.  Keith rolled in pain as he tried getting to his feet but failed, he held his wife’s head as she bled unconscious on the floor.  The crustacean returned with Thomas struggling in its hold.  Ava held onto to Thomas’s hand as the other Crustaceans separated her and pushed her aside.  Thomas fought but was too weak, still recovering from his wound.

            It was all dark accept for the light of the doorway, the storm grew worse rain and wind filled the air.  The blinking colored lights resonated through out the tower as the creatures walked back into the storm.  Ava stood and ran after them shouting and screaming.  The three toddlers with tears in their eyes returned to the doorway holding each other as they looked for their parents.  Running to their father all three children wrapped their arms around him as he held Maureen, her face had grown pale.  The floor was covered in blood and her eyes were shut, the storm continued showering over them. 

           

            “The last thing I remembered was hearing Ava’s screams as she ran after Thomas in the storm.  I Terrance Wilkinson am concluding my thesis paper on the possibilities of intelligent life beyond human comprehension.”

            Terrance was 23 studying at Cambridge University double majoring in English and Archeology.  As he made the final notes to his paper he stared out at his window at the beautiful summer day.  College kids were either running to classes or lounging about outside enjoying the beautiful day.  Terrance turned back to his typewriter and wrote the last sentence to his paper. 

“The only proof I have to bring to life my beliefs in these supernatural beings is the fact that I lost my mother that day almost fifteen years ago.   You can choose to believe or not, but I plan on spending my life in the pursuit of the unknown.  For I believe we are not alone in this world.”

            Cambridge University-April 21^st 1934