Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 6: Strangers In The Dark

"OUCH," Laz complained.

"Shut it," Grandpa Chu replied, walking back behind the counter.

Laughing out load, Uncle Chu grabbed Laz and dragged him behind the counter and motioned for him to go turn on the TV. Flipping it on, it immediately popped up on a news channel with a live report from a beach in Florida.

"As you can see in the distance, the vague outline of the object that appears to be a giant tree can be seen out on the horizon. People are baffled as no one remembers seeing anything like this before the sun went down last night. Government officials are refusing to make any sort of comment about what this is or what happened, only stating that the anomaly is being looked into. Reports from inside have said that many major countries are arguing as to what course of action should be taken, but many agree that the U.N. should send out some sort of scientific research team to investigate. Many are also putting support behind getting some sort of joint military presence in the area although no one can really say what they would have to worry about from a tree. No ships are being allowed to sail through the area as quite a few U.N. members have already started moving ships into the area to set up a blockade. It has also become a no fly zone and anyone caught flying in will be shot down if warnings are not followed. A fishing vessel, the Elliot Ness, went missing last night, their last location ping being right around this coordinate. With no further information being available, we will keep you up to date on this strange scientific phenomenon as it develops."

"Wow," Laz uttered, totally bewildered.

"What is this?"

"No idea," Grandpa Chu said, looking over.

"But it has nothing to do with us. Go get washed up Laz, Uncle needs to go in the back and start cooking for the dinner orders. I will go back to help him once you are up here and set."

"You got it Grandpa Chu," Laz saluted and ran over to the sink to was up and put on his "uniform."

It wasn't an overly busy night, but there were still many orders that came in. Laz took orders on the front counter and answered the phone in a swift and practiced manner. After having worked here for a year, he liked this sort of work. With his hat and jacket, he felt like he was basically in a mask. No one would recognize him and he was able to interact with people in a calm and cool manner. He didn't have the chance to take out any orders but that wasn't a problem. He just enjoyed the feeling of doing something.

As the dinner rush wrapped up, Grandpa Chu walked up from the back and putting his hand down on Laz's shoulder, said "Hey, that should be it for tonight. Thanks for the help again little Laz."

"No problem Grandpa. I should be heading home to do up what homework I have."

"Sure, sure. It gets dark earlier now and it's a bit cold. You want Uncle to give you a ride back?" Grandpa Chu asked with care in his voice.

"No, it's fine. It's not that far and it's not too cold yet."

"Alright, don't forget you bag then and we will see you tomorrow."

"Bye Grandpa, bye Uncle."

"Be safe and go straight home Laz, no peeking in windows," Uncle laughed while sticking his head out from the back.

"There's not much to see in this town anyway, knowing my luck, it would probably be some old guy watching TV or some granny practicing yoga," Laz laughed while running out the door.

The night was dark and chilly, with a only a sliver of a new moon appearing overhead. Without a cloud in sight, the little bit of moon and star light was draped over the town like a blanket with only the strong torches of the street lamps illuminating the way.

Passing by the four-way, Laz made his was across the street while avoiding traffic and started down the side walk towards the Shack. Passing by a few empty lots, Laz couldn't help but get goosebumps like someone was looking at him. Even with cars running up and down the street, when your walking at night, they just feel like lifeless shells of metal. You could fall down dead and no one would even stop if they weren't paying attention so it wasn't possible to get this feeling from a car.

Looking over towards one heavily wooded lot, Laz squinted his eyes in an attempt to see what was over there, thinking he heard something, but nothing came into view. Scratching his head for a moment, he started walking again. It was only about 10 minutes to his place from here, but he started picking up the pace a bit, feeling very weird under the street lamps..

As a chill ran down his spine, Laz paused again and looked over at another empty lot, wondering just why he was getting this feeling. Laz was not dumb enough to not know that he should just hurry home and forget looking for the cause of this feeling. He had seen enough slasher movies to know that the ones who hesitate die first, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. This wasn't a feeling of wild animal not right, this was a feeling of the universe was twisting not right.

His curious nature towards weird things and his innate lack of a sense of danger did not help to dispel his thoughts of wanting to see what this was.

He started to move closer to the lot from the side walk to get out of the blinding light from the street lamp and squatted down, hoping to make himself seem smaller and less dangerous to whatever it was. He then focused his breathing to settle down his racing heart, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

Up ahead, in the dark, he finally saw something he didn't expect. It was two floating greenish lights, kind of like fireflies, just hovering underneath a tree, behind some overgrown bush. They were somewhat small but strangely bright when reflecting some of the little moon light in the area. At an even distance apart, they remained motionless, almost like they were just painted on something. Staring at them, Laz got an eerie feeling. Something wasn't right. If these were just fireflies, why didn't they move? And why would fireflies give him a feeling of wrongness.

Without an answer to his question, he didn't move and just looked ahead, stupidly unafraid.

Seconds ticked by until almost a minute of time had passed.

Laz finally figured out where the problem was as the lights flickered a few times.

He realized they were blinking.