"I've missed you, my dear," I heard my father say as he held his hand out to my mother. "It's been so long but we need not be apart any longer."
"Let me go get Christopher!" My mother exclaimed. "He will be so happy to see you!"
"No!" my father shouted. He reached forward and took her hand firmly in his and began to walk down the street away from the house. "I've come for you, my dear. We will send for Christopher later!"
My mother stumbled behind my father. She turned her head toward the house and dropped the newspaper as our eyes connected. The joy she had felt upon seeing this thing that looked like my father melted away into fear. Her feet became tangled and she fell to the asphalt but the terrible mirage of my father continued to drag her away.
"No!" She shouted feebly. "No! You let go of me! You're not my husband! Why are you doing this? Let go!"
In my shock I had become frozen in place but watching this thing drag my mother away helped me regain my will. I dashed to the switch for the garage door and punched it. The door opened so slowly that I decided to dive onto the floor and slide through the thin opening. Pushing myself back onto my feet I readied myself to run after my mother.
Before I could take action I saw her. Paige was in the street in front of me. I froze again. Her mother and father were walking with her hand in hand. On the far side of the family, a little girl held tightly to Bruce Cupsworth's hand. It was Margret. I had not seen her in more than three decades but I still recognized her. She wore the same pink flowered dress that had been in the photo at her memorial.
Paige turned her head toward me and my eyes locked with the black sockets in her head. I knew it couldn't be but it looked so much like her. The thing smiled at me and lifted a hand to greet me. My stomach turned to knots and I felt like I would vomit at any moment.
"I'll be back, Christopher," She said and she continued to walk down the street. "I miss you and we can be together soon."
Paige's parents looked in my direction. Their faces, which initially looked joyful, quickly became grimaces of pain and fear. They both began to try to withdraw their hand from the clutches of the things impersonating their children but were unable to break free. The air filled with a sound like snapping twigs and they began to scream.
The things were crushing the bones in their hands.
Ahead of them on the street, the thing mimicking my father turned around and smiled at the noise and terror. It looked at me and lifted its hand in my direction. The thing smiled again revealing rows of black, shining teeth. It crouched to the ground by my mother and began to shake.
All at once, the changeling things began to shake violently. Their limbs began to grow thin and long. The clothing on their bodies began to shred and break away as painfully thin torsos stretched them past their limit. Their skin, which had looked normal moments ago, began to bubble. Pale peach skin curdled into lumpy black and grey flesh.
They all stood at once, stooped over to keep a grip on their victims. At full height, each of the obsidian beasts would have stood as tall as a two-story house. Their spine curled to the side as they hunched over allowing their stick-thin arm to drag my mother and the Cupsworths away.
The three nightmarish creatures sank low on two legs and their free hand and began rapidly moving down the street, pulling their victims behind them. My mother and the Cupsworths screamed and clawed at the ground in a fruitless attempt to slow the creatures as they bolted from sight. I could still hear them wailing in despair long after they vanished from my line of sight.
In the background, the Emergency Alert siren roared endlessly. I stumbled back inside and collapsed onto the kitchen floor. There was no need to hide in the basement. The things had already gotten what they came for.
*****
It has been two weeks since the last emergency warning. A town record I have since found out. The Allister Valley Safety and Protection Board sent a man to my house the day after my mother was taken by those things. He didn't threaten me but there was a subtle undertone that told me declining to go with him to the board's office was not an option.
I rode in the back of a Ford Taurus with tinted windows to the outskirts of town. When we pulled up to the nondescript white building the man who picked me up told me to ring the buzzer on the door and tell them my name. They would let me in and talk to me. When I was done he would drive me home.
Feeling lost and hopeless after the events of the previous day I did as he asked. I pressed the buzzer and a man asked my name. I answered and heard the heavy metal door lock disengage. The man told me to come inside and wait in the lobby.
When I entered I looked around. "Lobby" was a generous term for this stiflingly hot room. There were two folding metal chairs pushed up against the wall and an empty coffee table in the center of the room. A water cooler sat empty in the corner. It smelled of cigarettes and sweat.
The only other door in the room creaked open and a gruff looking man stood in the frame. He was over six feet tall with a bushy beard that hung down onto his pot belly and a mess of brunette hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail. His steel-toed workboots tapped impatiently on the fading linoleum floor. A pair of faded blue jeans and sweat stained white t-shirt seemed like poor work attire.
"You Chris?" The rough man grunted.
"Yeah," I replied flatly. "That would be me"
He waved me in his direction and walked back into the room. I followed without considering what may be on the other side. Having seen my mother dragged away by a horrific creature the day before my sense of self-preservation was low.
The room I entered was much cooler than the waiting area. Black and white monitors covered two of the walls flickering between different views of Allister Valley. I watched them in a trance as they transitioned to dozens of places around town that I recognized and a few I was less familiar with.
In the center of a room sat a semicircle desk with a comfortable-looking rolling chair behind it. The burly man sat at the desk looking at the monitors. Without looking at me he motioned to his left to a folding metal chair beside him.
"Have a seat," he said. "We need to talk."
I sat next to him and continued to look at the screens.
"My name is Harlen Matthews," the man said. "Been working for the board for about fifteen years give or take. Used to work the night shift but I'm on days now."
I nodded but said nothing.
"So I understand you saw our visitors," he stated. "Sad business. I'm sorry for your loss. I understand it ain't your first go-round with losing someone to this."
"Yeah," I muttered. "Paige Cupsworth a long time ago. My mother yesterday."
He nodded and took a long drag off of a cigarette that had been smoldering in an ashtray on the desk.
"Chris," he started. "I'm gonna give you the same brief sliver of information that I and the other board members share when someone loses a family member. I know you and Paige were close but we only talk with immediate family members. Now that your mother passed you'll get to hear it too."
Harlen smoked the last of his cigarette and crushed it out into the ashtray before immediately lighting another one.
"First of all, we have no clue what the things are. They've been around since the town has. From what we know they try to mimic people you were close to and draw you out. Must be some kind of mind-reading or something. Not like we've been able to ask them or anything. Anyway, anyone dumb enough to listen to the things gets dragged away and never returns."
I nodded again and Harlen pounded a hand on my back in what I assume was a gesture of comfort.
"Not many people see them and live to tell the tale," he grunted. "You have, and it comes with a price?"
"What price?" I blurted
"Whatever they looked like to you yesterday is what they'll always look like to you," he said as he made the first real eye contact of the entire conversation. "And you'll start seeing them more often. You've seen them and that makes them want you. It ain't like they hunt you, but they take some kind of special interest in the people who see them and live."
Harlen pulled a drawer out of the desk and fished a card out. He handed it to me. I turned it over in my hand. One side was blank but the other held a local phone number. Underneath the number was printed For Emergencies Only.
"You ever heard a Level One or Two warning?" he asked. "Of course you have. You were born here. You see any of the people who you saw yesterday, you call us. We sound the alarm. People live. You do your duty. I do mine. Understand?"
"Yeah," I said as I bobbed my head up and down. "Just call the number if I see them."
"Good man," Harlen said, adding another brutal comfort swat on my right shoulder. "We've got a memorial together for your maw down at the community center tonight at 7:00 PM. Sorry for your loss."
"Yesterday before those things… changed, they looked like my father, Paige, and her sister, Margret," I said to Harlen. "Is that what they looked like to you on the screen?"
Harlen sat silent for a moment and smoked his cigarette.
"No," he said without emotion. "Don't much want to talk about what I see. You said you saw your dad?"
I nodded. Harlen pulled a notebook from the desk and began jotting notes.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"Yeah," he replied as he continued writing. "No one ever said the things looked like someone that the things hadn't before. It's worth sharing with the others. Change ain't a good thing with these critters."
Harlen walked me out of the building and sent me to the car. Once I got home I sat and thought about everything the man had told me. The grief and discovery were an overwhelming combination that left my head swimming.
I did what any son would do and stood in a receiving line later that night at a memorial service the Safety and Protection Board set up. Next to me was a framed photo of my mother, before dementia, lined with flowers. Eternally happy. Eternally herself. I shook the hand of just about every person in town. It was no comfort but I think it made them feel better.
Since that day I've seen my mother, father, and all of the Cupworths multiple times. They are usually standing in tall grass or leaning out from behind trees. Sometimes they are in my backyard and others follow me down the aisles at the supermarket.
If you live in Allister Valley then I'm certainly the origination point of one of the many Emergency Alerts you hear. I'm sorry but I'm also not. It keeps you safe.
And if you wonder why I don't leave to get away from all of this, I ran the idea by Harlen once. He explained to me that the risk that these things would leave Allister Valley to follow me and spread to other places was too great. It was similar to when the man picked me up to go see him. No threat of violence was issued, but there was an understanding that leaving now that I've seen the things wasn't an option.
I'll be haunted by my family and the woman I loved until I'm dead. For better or worse, I've accepted this. My hope is you won't have to live in the same hell that I do.
Paige and my mother speak to me most often through the cellar door during the alerts. I don't cry anymore. In fact, hearing their voices is comforting sometimes. It should be but I miss them. One day, I'm almost certain, I will go with them just to end all of this.
Anyhow, I have to go make a call. I can see Paige sitting on a bench across the street from my house through the living room window. Harlen or one of the others needs to sound the alarm.