Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Chapter 29 - Too Familiar

Jake lied on his back and looked at the ceiling as he stretched along the full-size bed. His feet hung off the edge but he had developed grooves over the years so that they provided comfort. Jake sighed. He could use some much-needed sleep for his long trip back.

Looking at his clock he groaned and saw it was only four o'clock in the morning.  He had slept only for a few hours. Just as Jake closed his eyes, he felt someone had come into his bedroom, and was trying to sneak around as quietly as a rabbit looking for hiding places. He opened his eyes but didn't see anyone, nor had he heard the door open. What Jake did quickly notice however that his closet door was open just an inch. Light glowed from the outline of the door.

Irritated that his sister couldn't wait until he woke up to raid his closet, he called out to her. Stacy didn't respond. Wearing only his boxers Jake got out of bed in a huff to slam his closet door shut so it would push his sister into his clothes to teach her a lesson. When he reached the door he immediately saw Stacy wasn't inside the closet at all. He moved it another couple of inches and realized that instead of the light he had focused on, it was now as dark as a tunnel beneath land.

It didn't make any sense at all to Jake. He knew he had seen the light on but as he opened the door to its full extent, the darkness inside widened and pulled at him like the current of the ocean teasing feet at the edges of the sandy beaches. It looked as if someone had painted the inside of his closet jet black. He couldn't even see his clothes, which was strange to him as he didn't have a walk-in closet. But the feeling to step inside was becoming more of a need than an enticement. Jake reached into the darkness and felt a cool gentle breeze whisper through the hairs on his arms. He pulled back and stared at the thick shadowed space inside which was no longer his closet.

Just as he was about to shut the door, which seemed much bigger, a whiff of something wonderful swam past his nose hairs and up into his brain. It was from a sweet flower, but he couldn't be specific as to which kind. Jake was confused why any kind of plant's scent, stronger than what fabric softener or detergent could provide, would emanate from his clothing he had yet to reach with his fingertips. The switch on the wall wasn't turning the light on, but he had a softer light that he could pull the cord to turn on just inside the closet.

He reached up to find the pull-string on the light, but couldn't see it in the dark. Jake heard a noise behind him so he turned around expecting his sister to ask what he was doing, but nobody was there. He intended to turn back around towards his strange black hole of a closet when someone wrapped a hard grip with long fingers on his mouth from behind at the same time he was pulled roughly backwards through the open space. Jake grabbed at the large hand automatically, not caring about his balance, but wasn't warned of the needle like sting that pierced into his neck before he could fight back. Was that a needle or teeth he abstractly wondered as he fell backwards against the cold hardness of someone else's body.

From the darkness, the strong arm around his chest tightened a little bit as he saw his sister Stacy walk into his room just before he was swallowed into complete darkness. Jake's body felt hot and heavy, but his mind felt mushy and unresponsive. The hand tightened on his mouth and he couldn't scream out to warn Stacy, even if he were to have the ability to do so. Jake felt dizzy and the support that held him disappeared, which allowed him to fall backwards into the darkness of space.

Jake landed on a cold hard surface with the force of a cat landing on its feet. Only he didn't have the same agility and was lying on his side. Nothing hurt that he could tell. Jake opened his eyes and looked around. It was bright and green around him, but he couldn't tell what the colors represented. His hands felt sore as he pushed himself into a sitting position. The ground with which he landed was sparkly and gave the impression of a layer of crushed diamonds lying just under the thinnest layer of water, but the ground was not wet. It was crystallized pavement, and he had never seen anything like it. He almost couldn't tear his eyes away from the sparkly goodness.