Site 715 (Hazel/Boo Birthday)

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 Site 715

Hazel/Boo Birthday

1

“Mom, can you hear me?” Brandy whispered through a choppy signal. Hazel whispered something back but even she had no clue what she said. “Mom, Ray’s dead. They’re after me, please help.” Hazel lost the signal then her mind trespasser told Boo that Brandy was just wondering where they were at. She prayed that Brandy would be okay but she had no idea who she was praying to. If there was a God then how did he let this evil woman take over half of Hazel’s mind

“Help her,” Hazel said to the new visitor, the visitor said nothing. Hazel tried to open her mouth so she could tell Boo to turn around. She doubted that Boo would, the family was pretty worried about Hazel after last night. Her mouth wouldn’t move, it was like trying to open a vice with your bare hands. “If you don’t help them I will make us pay.” Hazel couldn’t lie to the witch in her head, “I’ll jump out of this damn car and down that damn cliff.” It wasn’t really a cliff but it was a very steep drop off that would surely kill anyone who fell down it. 

Hazel reached for the door handle while the witch fought against her. The will of the mother is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. She put her hand on the door handle, “Don’t do it,” The witch pleaded in her head, “I need y6u alive, this world needs you alive.”

“I don’t care about any of that,” Hazel snapped back in her mind. “All I care about is my family.” Hazel’s will was so strong, she was able to pull softly on the door handle. “I care about my family. If you need my help then you can give me your help. I need you to swear to me that they will be ok. Not just Brandy and Ray. All of them, Boo, Steve, my husband, and my G-babies. You need to swear. I don’t know who you are but you seem to have some sort of power.” The witch fought Hazel’s will, the witch lost. Hazel had the door nearly opened.  

“Have it your way,” The witch said in Hazel’s head, “step aside and let me handle things.” Hazel decided to trust her so she stepped back in her mind, she didn’t black out but she was a little blanked out. Hazel had little control over her mind, but she was ready to jump forward at the slightest hint of betrayal. As the witch slowly wandered out of Hazel's mind she said three words, “Bella save them.”

Hazel let her mind sleep, this was the first chance she had to realize how exhausted she was. Hazel felt the SUV leave the dirt road onto a paved one. She was alone in her mind for a good long time, long enough that she wondered if the witch had even been there. Then half of Hazel’s body went ice cold and the witch cackled insanely in their shared mind. At least for now Hazel seemed to have company in her brain. 

“Just keep them safe,” Hazel said in her mind and even mumbled it quietly, “If they're not safe then you’re not safe.”

2

“What did you say mom?” Boo asked, she was very worried, “What did Brandy say?” When Hazel didn’t answer she repeated, “What did you say?” It didn’t seem like her mom heard what she said. “Did you hear what she said?” Boo asked her husband but before he could answer the sky exploded yellowish, reddish, orangish. Moments later Boo and Steve were blacked out and the SUV was in a ditch with the engine running.

3

When Hazeel awoke she was in a cave that she knew was pitch black but somehow she could see. Somewhere in the distance a stream musically trickled over stone like an expert pianist playing the perfect melody. The air moved slightly the way it would move on a spring day in a perfect breeze. If it were not the mind stealer this would be the most magical place Hazel had ever been. The light was dim and white which brought out the greens and blues of the stalagmites perfectly, while the reds and oranges of the stalactites glittered like jewels. Hazel sat in the middle of it enchanted by this fairytale cavern. 

From somewhere far away, or maybe it was close by it was very hard to tell, a man screamed in pain. It echoed in the cave for only a few seconds but would echo in Hazel’s mind for the rest of her days. Hazel felt alone in her head. It was weird, but it was even more weird that being alone was weird. The woman from the antique store slowly appeared from the dim light. She looked like a ghost from a cheesy TV show. Next to her was a little girl, maybe Ryan’s age, wearing a pilgrim costume and a hideous mask over her face. It looked like it was stitched together from real skin in the lab of a madman. Her eyes smiled up at Hazel. 

“Hello my sister,” The ghostly woman said with a kind grandmotherly smile. Hazel almost remembered the woman saying something about sisters when she was in the shop but it was fuzzy like a bad station on AM radio. “Let me start by saying how impressed I am with you. You were always so strong. I never imagined you would still be this strong after this much time and all the lives you lived.” Hazel couldn’t begin to know what this woman was talking about. 

“Who are you? Hazel asked, she was confused and frustrated, “What do you want with me?” 

“I’ve already given you that answer,” The ghost witch answered. “Do you not remember?” Hazel’s mind was still fuzzy. She jumped when the man again screamed. It was immediately followed by the laugh of a lunatic. “You are my sister. I am your twin sister, I was once called Z. Now I am called by our shared birth name. They named us both Hazel, but I was Hazel the unwanted. They gave you everything, including my name. We are from Elwood.” Hazel had know idea how any of that could be true, she only had brothers and was born and raised in Bountiful. She never even heard of a place called Elwood.

“That is impossible,” Hazel was firm but still a little frightened by what this could mean. Hazel looked close and did some similar facial features, maybe even more than she wanted to admit. 

“I do not have time to explain our past at this moment,” The ghost woman did look impatient. “Over time you will see the truth.” Hazel opened her mouth to speak but the witch pushed her finger against Hazel’s lips hard. “We must come to an agreement. I swear on my Dragon’s Eye that I will keep your family safe to the best of my ability.” That didn’t sound like much of a promise to Hazel. “In exchange you must not stand in the way of any of my plans.” A wild laugh came from who knows where in the cave system. Hazel thought she could hear the faint sound of a man crying. “Do we have an agreement?”

4

“What the fuck happened?” Boo asked groggily. She opened her eyes then tried to blink out her blurry vision. “Steve? Mom? What happened?”

“Did you wreck the car?” Steve’s voice sounded slow and as confused as Boo felt. 

Boo rubbed her eyes to a darkening evening blue sky. They were on the west side of an eastern mountain range that looked west over a beautiful grass valley. There was only one large farm house and even a larger barn painted black with white stripes painted on the door and around the windows. Between them and the barn was a tall white cross. The car was not running, the radio was silent, and even the dash lights were dark. Boo stepped on the brake and pushed the ignition button. Nothing happened, the battery was dead. Their SUV was in a ditch next to a black with white lettering. WDF Site 715.

5

The sound of echoing footfalls approached then faded away followed by a maniac laugh. “I’m not ready to agree to anything yet,” Hazel told the ghostly woman. “Your promise did nothing to comfort me.” 

“I need to find Lucas,” The ghost Hazel said and moved towards a cavern to the left. The real Hazel followed until she caught up, the girl trailed behind the women. “There is only so much I can do. But I can make you a promise, they will be much safer under my protection than without it. The world has changed drastically and will continue to move on for centuries to come. Her aura was the only thing lighting the way. “I have protected all of them from the catastrophic event and from the scavengers. You must trust me. Everyone in this world is in mortal danger every day from now until they die.”

“Are you talking about the flash?” Hazel was wondering what that sky blast had been. “What the hell was that?”

The witch sighed, then turned right. Hazel could hear footsteps coming from somewhere in that direction. “Please,” A man begged, “No more, I need a break. I can’t take it anymore today. I’m begging you.” The footsteps stopped and the maniac laughed again. The first man screamed in agony. 

“That goes far beyond my ability to explain,” The witch said as she moved in the direction of the screaming man. Hazel guessed that he was Lucas. “The men used a device called a collider, the other set off an EMP or EMV, I really do not understand that part of it. Of course I did my part with my beautiful Dragon's Eyeglass.” Hazel stopped forcing the witch to stop and look towards the real Hazel. The ghost woman still hadn’t answered the question. Reluctantly the witch went on, “We are looking to change not just this world but all the worlds. We needed many different people from many different moments in history. To bring you all together we created a wrinkle in time. Now the board is set and the game begins.”

6

 Boo got out of the SUV on the road side so Steve could also climb out that door because the passenger door was blocked by the ditch. It didn’t matter that the battery on the SUV was dead or the car was out of gas but probably both. The vehicle was stuck until the couple could get a tow truck.

“Do you remember what happened?” Boo asked as he looked back and forth up and down the road. “Where the hell did mom go?” Steve didn’t have an answer for either question.

They both pulled out their phones, neither had power. “How long were we out for?” Steve asked, not really expecting an answer. “I feel like I haven’t moved in weeks. What the fuck happened?”

Boo had no idea, “Do you think we should walk to that house? Beyond the barn was as field as the eye could see. The long grass waved lazily in the light breeze. Everything in the world seemed to be slightly different. “What does WDF mean? I’ve never seen a sign that said that.” Steve also hadn’t seen a sign like that. He agreed with Boo that they seemed to be walking through the world next door. The two made the short walk to the dirt road which led to the barn and the farm house. 

“I’ll bet that’s where mom ran off to,” Steve said, “She’s probably got a cold beer or a glass of wine right now.” Both laughed, it was not very convincing. The couple made the short walk to the Y in the dirt road then turned left towards the house.

7

“I don’t know what you mean,” Hazel said to the witch floating beside her. Hazel heard a footstep, turned, then jumped when she saw the little girl. She had forgotten about her. “What are you trying to accomplish? I won’t agree to anything until I know your end game.” 

The mind intruder walking next to her became irritated again, footsteps echoed from somewhere. A man screamed followed immediately by the maniac laugh. That made the witch smile, “I will answer all your questions,” Witch Hazel said, “But remember while we are talking your precious family is wandering unprotected in the new deadly world.” The tortured man screamed and the maniac laughed, Hazel hated the pain in the man’s voice. The witch spoke again, “The plan is very complex and would take weeks at minimum for me to explain. Basically there is an empty throne in the world next door.” The witch paused, “I want to sit in it.”

“What throne?” Hazel asked, she found herself becoming more and more interested. Maybe she really was talking to a mythical woman, a real life witch. 

“Do you really want to keep asking questions?” The witch was clearly agitated, “Brandy and Ray are safe, Bella made sure of that.” The little girl giggled. “I can not say the same for the two from the car. They are at Site 715 getting ready to meet Hugo. They are in desperate need of help.”

8

Boo knocked on the door and waited. There was not a squeak or a creak. Nothing stirred. Boo knocked again. Something grunted then growled from the barn. It sounded large and not the least bit friendly. Something banged on the barn doors making them shake on the hinges. 

“What the fuck was that?” Steve asked. Because of their location he was thinking maybe a bull, or possibly a horse. The door banged hard again and the left one flew open and banged against the barn. 

Time seemed to stand still. The leg of something giant came out of the door. It was wearing old black boots and faded jeans. A man as giant as Andre stepped out wearing overalls with the left strap undone leaving the flap hanging across his chest. The chest exposed had deep bruises, dark veins, and even deeper scars. Bandages hung loosely on his head showing only part of his face, like a badly wrapped mummy. In his hand was a very large sledgehammer. His eyes locked on Boo and Steve. Boo tried to twist the doorknob frantically but it was securely locked. The knob hardly twisted at all. Steve banged hard on the door as the monster lumbered towards the house. Its bald head had deep ridges or maybe they were scars as well. His eyes were blood red and full of a hate that could only have come from the depths of hell. Boo had never seen eyes filled with that much evil. It was terrifying. The knob still would not turn and the door was made of a thick wood that neither Boo nor Steve would be able to barge through. The giant approached them slowly and full of confidence. The left corner of its mouth twitched up in a smile. 

“Steve, what do we do?” The monster was getting much too close for comfort. Steve shouldered the door with every bit of strength he had. The door opened so easily that Steve almost fell flat on his face. 

The door opened on an empty living room painted a white so bright that it almost hurt Boo’s eyes. Directly in front of them was a hallway that had four doors, two on either side. At the end of the hall was a staircase. Standing on the bottom step was a little girl in a pilgrim costume and a hideous mask on her face. Boo would not want to meet the maker of that mask or see what they made it out of. It looked like human skin. 

“La la la la la la,” the little girl sang in an adorable voice then vanished into thin air. 

9

“We need to find Lucas,” The witch said. The little girl appeared making Hazel jump. She didn’t even realize the little girl left. “Hugo is closing in on the others. He will have them within minutes.” The ghost witch looked impatiently at Hazel, “Give me control so I can find him and save them. 

Hazel was worried, she didn’t trust her. If she was right then what choice did she have. She didn’t know who Hugo was but it didn’t sound like a friendly name. Hazel let go of her mind and the witch disappeared in a puff of smoke. Hazel’s mind was full of a blue fog and nightmarish echoes that sounded like the inside of a haunted house. Chains echoed in the smoke, monsters growled, people screamed, and a single jester laughed joyfully. Hazel wondered if this is what the witch heard in her mind all the time. If it were her Hazel thought she would go insane also. She did have to admit that taking a break from life and floating through her mind was very relaxing. For this brief time she had no concern for her job, her home, hell even her family was on the back burner. She hadn’t felt this level of peace in years, maybe even a decade or two. 

The cave illuminated a dim greenish white bringing Hazel back to the moment, she wondered how long she was out of it. She was in a large dome shaped room with entrances in every direction to who knows where. A beaten man in tattered clothes and bleeding from too many places to count layed on the floor whimpering. Standing over him was a wild west cowboy straight out of a hellish nightmare. His face was missing skin in patches exposing tendons and teeth. He was lanky with wiry muscles which were covered in gray skin with a slight green tint, or maybe it was the light. His jeans were blue and his button up shirt was the color of a gloomy gray sky. On the man's head was a dirty cowpuncher fedora hat.

“Thank you Sundown,” The witch said and the terrifying cowboy took a step back but still looked down on the man. “I think Lucas is going to take a break from you for now.” The man and the ground looked relieved, “I think it’s time for a new friend. The cowboy’s scary face looked disappointed but he turned to walk down a tunnel to nowhere, or maybe it led everywhere.

10

Boo blinked and the little girl was gone, she wondered if that hideous little thing had even been there. The man-thing bellowed like an ogre. Steve pushed Boo in the house, down the hall, and up the stairs. In a matter of seconds the front door was out of sight. That was a good thing because the door exploded inward from the kick from an enormous boot. Splinters the size of Steve's forearms down to the size of a fingernail pelted the living room. The monster bellowed again. Its shoulders were so wide that it had to turn partially sideways to get in the door. The floorboards shook under the giant creature.

“We gotta hide,” Boo was terrified and so was her husband Steve. What the fuck was going on in this world. Half her mom’s body aged a hundred years and now she was being chased by a real life ogre monster. “Steve what do we fuckin do?”

Steve pushed her into a child’s bedroom that was somehow in perfect condition. So good in fact that it looked like a movie set. The bed was perfectly made with a pink blanket covered in blue unicorns with a golden eye. The walls were painted sky blue with white puffy clouds, the resemblance to the actual sky was remarkable. Boo looked close, the clouds were moving just like in the real sky. The desk chair, closet doors, dresser, and TV stand were painted pearl white and accented with strategically painted pink lines. 

The couple listened to the thing stomping around the main level of the house. The house shook all four times the thing slammed the doors. The thing bellowed again then something banged against the wall making the house shake again. Boo’s heart was pounding. Steve was holding her hand, he was trying to stop it from shaking. The thing lumbered around, two more doors slammed, then the thing bellowed again. The thing was snorting like a massive bull, Boo thought a more accurate comparison would be the mythic minotaur. This guy had to be at least the size of what a minotaur would be. It walked slowly. Boo wanted to scream when she heard the thing stepped heavily on the bottom stair. 

11

“Oh Lucas,” Hazel watched her hand reach out and touch the crying man. The man flinched away like an abused dog. It was a bit surreal seeing her hand being controlled by a force that was not her.  “I know you’re in pain now, but remember nothing lasts forever.” The witch cackled inside Hazel’s head but it somehow echoed away through the caverns. Hazel wished she could help the man but this witch was supposedly helping her family. Hazel didn’t want to jeopardize that. 

The cuts on the man’s face first stopped bleeding then closed up completely. It was like watching a cut in reverse. The blood on his face and arms dried up before disappearing without a trace. His scalp stopped bleeding and Hazel watched his hair regrow in the patches where it had been torn out. Missing teeth regrew in the man’s mouth. Finally his skin regained a natural color. He was actually a handsome man. The witch closed their eyes and whispered in their shared mind. When their eyes reopened there was a fire. Over the fire was a pan cooking sizzling meat. Hazel’s stomach did a somersault, she just now realized how hungry she was. 

The man sat before the fire looking more broken than anyone Hazel had ever seen. “Now Lucas,” The witch was unsuccessfully trying to hide a laugh. “I know you hate me but you do need to eat. You're going to need your strength for who’s coming to meet you.” She paused and Lucas still didn’t move. “Remember I’m not the one that took the bottle,” Hazel gasped in her mind. Could she be talking about Hazel’s bottle? If so, what was she in for?

12

The thing stepped on the second step, then the third, then another. The thing was huge and getting closer. Boo hoped that it wasn’t smart. It clomped its heavy body up the staircase, those stairs must have been hanging on for dear life. So far the thing hadn’t shown too much intelligence. It bellowed again, this time loud enough to shake the house a little. Boo’s hand was shaking intensely in Steve’s hand. Stomp, stomp, stomp. The thing was closing in. 

“What are we going to do?” Boo was not crying but her heart was pounding like a madman on a bass drum. 

“We need to get out that window,” Steve said and quietly walked to it. Luckily he was light so the floorboards didn’t squeak. The window didn’t budge. “Fuck,” Steve muttered as Boo made her way to the window. The thing was now stomping around the second floor and getting closer. 

Something pounded on a nearby wall, things that sounded like shotgun pellets pelted into a wall. The thing bellowed again, this close it was more like a roar. Boo was yanking on the window. Steve grabbed the desk chair, told Boo to move, then threw it as hard as he could towards the glass. Thankfully it shattered. Unfortunately now the monster knew precisely where they were. Steve used the curtain to clear the glass from the window frame. Boo climbed in the window and looked down. It was high, she didn’t want to jump, but she had no other choice. She let herself down like she was doing a chin-up so she would be as close to the ground as possible. She took a deep breath then let go.

She hit the ground and her left ankle flashed bright with pain. She rolled to the side and only seconds later Steve hit the ground next to her. Luckily he jumped quickly back to his feet then pulled her up. Boo put her arm over his shoulder and hobbled away from the house as fast as she could. The thing bellowed again. She looked over her shoulder to see the thing’s massive head hanging out the window watching the couple. They moved a little faster. It pushed its shoulders through the wall like a cartoon. It jumped out the window and the ground shook when it landed. It ran, the couple tried to move faster.

13

Hazel’s whole world went black like her mind was inside of a shadow. 

14

The beast was closing in much too quickly, running on her gimp leg wasn’t going to work. The couple stopped to face it. Steve put himself between it and Boo. Boo appreciated the gesture but they both knew this thing would kill them both without even trying. 

“La la la la la la,” That was the little girl from the house. The monster looked over its shoulder at her as it moved forward slowly. 

His chest was heaving and his sledgehammer was being drug behind him in the tall wild grass. He didn’t notice the shadow, that Boo thought looked like her mom, appeared in front of it. The beast walked straight through the shadow woman. It collapsed immediately and howled, not in anger this time. That was a howl of pain. Boo couldn’t believe what she was seeing. 

“La la la la la la,” That was the little girl again, this time from behind Boo and Steve. Boo looked to see the little girl in the hideous mask. She blinked and the girl was gone. She turned back to the monster. Not only was the shadow woman gone, the monster was also.

15

Hazel felt a moment of extreme pressure inside her body like something ran through her shadow self. In the next second she was back in the cave. Lucas was now eating. On the floor across the fire was a monstrous beast that appeared to be groaning in pain. 

“This is your new friend Lucas,” Witch Hazel said out of Hazel’s mouth. Hazel could hear the subtle difference in the voice between the two women. “His name is Hugo. You have an hourglass headstart.” A beautiful golden hourglass appeared filled with blue sand that was somehow floating from the bottom to the top. “I will give you the same advice as I did before,” Hazel could feel the laugh building up in her throat. “Run.” Then the witch laughed.