Headlights(118)

VOOM.

The creature will show the other humans its territory. The boy’s territory that the creature shares, that other animals share. It will tell the humans not to concrete and metal and asphalt it. Not to choke the land. More.

It will use pain, violence, fear to ask them. To show the lines of its boundary. It will show the territory belongs to the boy. It will use his genetic material to show it.

Hair. Mark its territory with its genetic material. Show the others. The boy’s mother left blood behind in the motel, and her scent has never left it. The creature can use blood. It can use violence, pain, fear. It can enter the bodies of the people, and it can make its need known, in a way they might finally understand.

VOOM.

Then …

Another light.

Not so bright, not so loud. But … something new in their territory.

A girl. She also shines. She also thinks Pain, Violence, Fear. She also is hungry.

The creature has food. It wants and needs. It can feed her. It gives her what she needs.

And …

The land choking stops. The building stops. The animals feel less fear. The girl does not need to feed again. She is happy.

But the boy is not happy.

The creature thinks …

He needs to know. Understand. It is the boy’s job, his life work, to find answers, to know why. The creature doesn’t know why he doesn’t understand. It tries to show him.

But the boy won’t listen. Does not want to see anything outside this plane, even though things cross over from both sides. Even though he sees these things all the time. He cannot look past Pain, Violence, Fear. Does not want to.

His new parents die, cross the plane. He loses his mate. And the creature feels his Pain, sees the shining light and hears his scream, and it doesn’t know what to do. Its need intensifies. Its want nearly blinding.

The light, the light, the light.

The boy leaves again, and the creature waits, despairs. Wants and needs. But it knows the boy left before, and he came back. It knows that animals migrate.

Then the building, choking starts again. And they have no space here, the animals. The creature. It can’t leave this world. It wants to look out for them. The boy, the girl, the animals. It needs to stay.

It feels want, need, for …

Its children. The boy. The girl. All the creatures in its territory.

Must protect them. Need, NEED to protect.

It tries to call its children back. Needs their help. Pain Violence Fear. It offers the girl food. She won’t take it this time. The boy will not return.

It does it again. Pain, Violence, Fear. Mark territory.

But the girl will not eat. The boy will not return.

The building, choking.

The need that woke it from its slumber, the pain that ripped through worlds.

Protect. Stop light, stop pain. Protect the boy who shines so bright. Who hurts. Who fears. Who is alone.

The creature needs to protect the boy. Needs to make him safe.

It thinks … maybe …

Maybe if the boy and the girl meet, they will understand. If the boy and the girl meet they will see.

Maybe if they meet, they will help it defend their territory.

Their home. New mate for him.

Mates. The girl and boy. The same. Bright light. Shine. Pain.

She will explain. She knows. She does not fight it like the boy does.

Maybe …

VOOM.



* * *



I fall to my knees.

In the dark, in the swirling snow.

Static, crackling. Black all around, snow falling in slow motion.

The motel suspended in the dark. The cubbyholes of light.

Room 6 is now illuminated. I can see it. Jack and Father Sky are there.

Josie and Tillman in another one. He found her.

I don’t see Hannah.

I call for her. But I—

The creature stands between the motel and me. The creature who I can barely see, camouflaged in the night. The light catching off its iridescent black bones from the motel.

From me.

I look down. Faint light emanates from my body.

I try to understand. Everything I was just shown. Everything …

This creature. The Witchwalker.

It heard me screaming that night, here. At the Happy Inn. It heard me, and— I suddenly see the posterboard in Jack’s garage. His daughter’s project.

Wolves adopt orphaned or abandoned young.

The moment in the bathroom at the Stanley with Hannah when I thought … animals. Ecosystems. Something I was supposed to understand.

This thing. This creature in front of me. This … Witchwalker, as we’ve labeled it.

It heard my cry, and it came to answer. It came to …

My children.

We thought it fed on fear and pain. We thought it wanted the fear, the pain, the light for itself. We thought it liked them, needed them.

We were wrong.

And …

After the hotel, Hannah and me. After we were together, after we opened ourselves up to each other. We could see the ghosts, not just their shadows. Hear the Witchwalker more clearly. The two of us. We opened ourselves up to it, to the frequency or station.

The Witchwalker was right. Putting Hannah and me together …

Mates.

The creature stands upright again, and I can’t see its face. This creature who crossed galaxies to come to me. To try to protect me.