Sworded Tales

Lisa Nelson worked part-time as a bank teller for a local branch in Wichita, Kansas.  Living at home with her mother and father, Helen and Glenn, her twin sister, Abbey, two German shepherds, Zeus and Cabal, a cat, Lena, and four goldfish, allowed her to concentrate most of her time on her studies of botany at one of the local colleges.

Alexander Smith was a messenger who happened to befriend Lisa while delivering several packages to the bank.  The two teens hit it off magnificently and began dating soon after.  Two and a half months later, Lisa was pregnant.  Distraught with fear and uncertainty and against her parents’ better judgment, she decided to have the baby.

One Thursday evening about six and a half weeks into Lisa’s third trimester, she was unusually agitated.  Alexander had not arrived at her house to take her to dinner.  She tried calling, but his phone had been disconnected.  She feared the worst.  Standing there in her bedroom, tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared out at the starlit sky, the gibbous moon casting a hollow glow on everything in the back yard.

Had Lisa waited another three seconds before turning from the window, she would have seen the shadows come to life and move towards the back porch of the small ranch house, but she was across the room and out the door on her fleeting gymnast feet heels of her hands wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“Mom!” Lisa shouted as she loped down the stairs.

“Yes, Lisa!  I’m in the kitchen,” her mother answered.

Lisa pivoted at the bottom of the staircase and headed toward the kitchen.

“Where’s Abbey?” she asked as she poked her head into the kitchen.  A fleeting shadow vanished from the window over the sink as the girl’s eyes came to rest there.

“Abbey?  I think she’s in the basement with your father,” her mom responded as Lisa crossed the kitchen staring at the window.  Helen Nelson glanced up from her work.  “Is everything alright, dear?” she asked.

Lisa leaned against the counter and looked both ways out the window.  There was nothing.

“Lisa?  Lisa!” her mother said.

“Huh?  Oh, sorry.  I just thought I saw something.  That’s all,” she said quizzically, “In the basement you said?”

“That’s right,” her mother replied as she watched her daughter turn away, “What was it you saw?”

Lisa stopped and half turned facing the window, “Oh, it was…nothing.”

“Well, have your father come up and check on the dogs anyway.  I haven’t seen Cabal, and you know how he likes to smash his nose up against the glass when someone’s in the kitchen.  I want to make sure they didn’t run off…”

Lisa never heard the rest of what her mother said.  As she approached the basement door, she noticed that there was no light coming out from under it…and what was that smell?!

“Mom.  Mom…”

FWOOM!!!

The entire house erupted with flame, engulfing everything.  The windows exploded outward sending shards of glass raining against the neighboring homes.  The house became a fireball which lit up the entire block.  No one could get near the house until the fire company began to get the blaze under control.

The official report said a gas leak had occurred, although there was no evidence that any of the gas pipes or valves had malfunctioned. All of the bodies were accounted for, although burnt beyond recognition.  Dental records were later used to identify the family.  Glenn Nelson and his daughter Abbey were found in the basement where both of the corpses had been blown to one wall.  Two sets of canine remains were located in the living room in front of the fireplace.  A set of feline remains was located in the dining room.  Laying in the attic next to the remnant of a full length antique mirror was the body of Lisa Nelson, who’s unborn child had been baked alive in her mother’s womb.

Or so they thought…

Moments after the blast, a huge figure hurtled into the inferno, scooped up the pregnant Nelson girl and bounded toward the attic.  Once there, the giant figure cut into the abdomen of the mother corpse and removed the screaming infant.  Without a backward glance, the disparate pair turned and vanished into the mirror.

The child wound up in an intensive care unit of a Louisiana hospital.  Having been declared abandoned, the child was placed into foster care once his medical condition had stabilized.

Adopted parents Leonard and Grace Hobart named their newly adopted son Jason.  For the most part Jason grew up a normal, healthy boy.  Living about an hour’s drive north of Baton Rouge, Jason’s father always commuted to work, teaching at one of the city schools while Grace stayed at home with their boy.

As Jason began to show signs of being disturbed by something as he wrestled with puberty.  Sleepless nights, a drop in academic performance, seclusion and swinging emotional fits all lead the Hobarts to seek family counseling.  A slow deterioration within the family occurred, and there was very little anyone could do to stop it.

About a week after Jason’s seventeenth birthday, he was walking through a wooded path some miles from home.  He usually slipped out at night to walk beneath the moon and stars.  These walks had a way of clearing his mind and helped him sort things out.  He often found himself staring into the sky for hours on end.

Tonight though, things would change beyond his wildest reckoning…