The Changeling Knight: Chapter One

Original
Fantasy /  Horror

Note: Because going on vacation doesn't mean your writing goes on vacation

I

The baby was crying again.
 

“I got him last time.”
 

“And I got him before that.”

“Okay…okay.” Roger sat up and threw the covers off, shuffling to the end of the bed and grunting as his feet hit the cold floor. He started to shove himself up and heard a low whine behind him.

“No. No.” Sydnie slapped his back absently. “You’ve got work in the morning. I’ll get him.”
 

“No baby…”
 

“Shut up. Lay down.” She grabbed her slippers and tugged them on, tripping over the oversized pair of pj bottoms Roger had given her because all of hers were still dirty. Having a new baby meant certain other things just got swept by the wayside. She didn’t think over it too much. Besides, they might be about six inches too long, but they were much more comfortable around the cesarean scar. “I love you.” She moaned over the screaming down the hall.
 

“Hugnurvuh.” Roger managed out before his face was muffled by the pillow. 

The scuffling of the slippers down the wooden hall heralded her arrival as she yawned and opened the door as quietly as possible. Nothing, not one single thing, made the eardrums rattle about in her skull like the high piercing wail of an infant. Sydnie made a rough sound as she tried to emit the small, shushing noises every mother did so naturally to their own offspring. After two kids, one would think it came naturally. Either that or her allergies were acting up. She felt like she had gravel in her throat. “Ouh sweetie. Oh oh oh.”
 

Little Bryce squalled as if someone had stabbed him, the shrieking sound bouncing off the walls and echoing through his room. The little mobile knocked Sydnie in the head as she reached down to scoop him up from his crib and cradle him into her arms. He was a small child, almost underweight despite Sydnie carrying past term. He behaved as though ravenously hungry, and refused to take a bottle. No formula would satisfy, and even when she pumped, Bryce wouldn’t take it if it was more than a few hours old. Pacifiers were a lost cause. He spat them out right away and seemed almost indignant that she had dared to foist them on him in lieu of a real breast.

Sydnie struggle her old t-shirt up and tugged out a nipple to give to the infant. The child latched on greedily, contented only when being fed as they settled into the rocking chair together. The steady creek creek creek of the wood was patient, allowing her to take a breath as she winced from the sharpness of the tug. She didn’t remember Tobias or Evie being like this. Well, Evie had been a fussy, colicky baby, but even then it had only been temporary. And besides, Bryce didn’t behave as if he was having the same issues. Bryce only cried when hungry, which was frequent, but otherwise made very little noise. He was almost eerily quiet, staring out from the bars of his crib with bright grey eyes. 

His eyes were an issue of some interest. Roger had taken one looked and laughed, teasing that he was raising the milkman’s baby. But it was true enough that no one in either family had grey eyes. Roger’s family were mostly blue or occasionally brown while her family was almost all brown with the occasional hazel popping up from time to time. The doctor had even remarked on it, explaining to them in very layman’s terms that grey eyes were in essence blue eyes with excessive collagen deposits which interfered with the Tyndall scattering, et cetera and so on. Sydnie hadn’t been paying very close attention at the point. Sleep deprivation could do that to you. But she did remember the doctor saying that it was somewhat odd that he could have sworn Bryce had brown eyes when he was born. 

Sydnie turned on the forest noise recording and felt the ruthless pull on her nipple lessen. She breathed a sign of relief. Some kids liked the mobiles lullaby tunes, others like the heartbeat machine. This kiddo liked the sound of a forest at night. They had discovered this entirely by chance during the summer when they left the windows open to capture the cross breeze through the old house. It was one of the few nights in which they had been given entirely undisturbed access to sleep. It had been almost unnerving how quiet their usually ravenous child was. But now that fall was setting in, it was too cold to keep the windows open, and Bryce had to be satisfied with the false recordings, which would at least buy her a few hours of sleep while he drained her.

Tak!

A noise made her jump, both from the sudden startle and the worry that it would disturb the baby now drifting off. Sydnie looked around and blinked at the appearance of the of the glow in the dark stars that had been tacked up on the ceiling. This room had been Evie’s before she decided she needed her ‘own space’ and they’d spent a month redoing the attic to suit her. Sydnie leaned forward in the rocker and picked up the faded green plastic, turning it over in her hand. 

Tak!

She snapped her face around to see one of the planets, Jupiter maybe, now laying on the floor by her foot. For a moment she debated her decision, and in the years to come, there would be many times where she would wonder how things might have gone if she had simply decided that the stickers were losing their adhesive and would need to be scraped off. As it was, she made her choice out of instinct, not forethought. 

A black figure darted out from the corner of her eye, sending multiple tacky stars raining down onto the floor. Sydnie jumped up from the chair and grabbed for whatever was at hand. She had seen, or felt sure that what she had seen, was vaguely human shaped. It had moved so fast! Sydnie raised up the antique lamp as a weapon and launched it at the figure now crouched in the corner. It connected easily and there was a shrill hissing noise, followed by the scent of burning flesh. “What the fuck?” Bryce began to squall again, and Sydnie heard footsteps charging down the hall.

The door opened, light flooding the room, Sydnie turned to see Roger standing there, holding a baseball bat and blinking without his glasses on. “In the corner!” She shouted, pointing with one hand while the other shielded the baby only to have Roger rush forward to the sound of shattering glass. The window had been broken open and whoever had been there was gone, leaving behind a sense of panic and confusion in it’s wake. 

“What the flying fuck was that?”
 

“Roger watch out for the glass!” She started, looking out one of the other windows. She could not see anything out in the easement when she first tried, but at the edge of the forest there was a shadow, now standing quite firmly beyond her ability to discern any details. It stared up at the bedroom before turning and vanishing into the tree line like a breeze through the branches. 

“Dad? What’s going on? Did I heard a crash?”
 

“Evie baby don’t come in here! Get the phone, get your brother and close the attic door behind you. Call 911.” Sydnie ordered sharply. They’d had plans like this back when they still lived in Chicago, what to do if the apartment had ever gotten broken into. She’d never expected something like that to come up out here.
 

“I think we’re past that point.” Roger said sagely and winced. “Whoever that was, they’re gone now. I think we should just go downstairs and call the cops together. Just so everyone feels safe.” He decided and flinched against as he lowered the bat. “Oh Bryce boo. Oh it’s okay buddy. I know that was scary.” He reached out, offering to take the child from Sydnie.
 

She shook her head, gripping him all the tighter. For a moment her mind had gone blank, and everything had faded from through except her desire to clutch onto her baby and protect it. Now that the immediate danger had passed, it didn’t mean her anxiety was gone. Her heart was beating against her chest so hard she could hear it in her ears and Evie’s eyes went wide when she saw her.
 

“Mom your tit is out.”
 

“Sweetie, not now.” Roger warned her and pointed. “Go check on your brother. Come right back.” He wrapped his arms around, Sydie, rubbing her shoulders. “Hey? Hey it’s okay. Take a deep breath. We’re gonna call the cops.”
 

“Yeah. Yeah I know. Just…fuck.” She breathed out, looking down at her grey eyed child and trying to stroke him quiet. “Didn’t think we’d be putting up with that shit out here in the boonies.”

“Do you wanna go to a hotel for the night?” 

“No. Then we’re just leaving the house alone for him to come back.”
 

“Yeah but we wouldn’t be in it then.” He reasoned with a chuckle. 

The cops arrived within the next ten minutes, the blue and red lights flashing in the drive way as they let everyone within a mile know that something was happening. They took down the statements, looked at the baby’s room and took photographs. It all came in such a blur that Sydnie almost didn’t realize Bryce had gone quiet, observing the police officers with dedicated interest. 

“Cute kid.” One of them said, talking in baby talk to the child. Bryce turned his nose up and began to fuss again, squirming in her arms.
 

“He’s had a rough night.” She explained quickly and rushed off to the kitchen for a moment of peace and quiet. Dawn was coming up over the horizon, the geese from the pond flying overhead on their way to warmer pasture for the cold months. She decided to fix herself a cup of coffee, seeing as how she wasn’t likely to get any more sleep tonight. There was too much nervous energy in herself and in the house. Sydnie found her hands shaking around the mug as she tried to manage one handed. 

She could hear the officers trying to console Roger’s concerns in the living room. This was a quiet town. At worst they might get some occasional underage drinking, maybe a few pranks around Halloween and Christmas. Their current explanation was a vagrant, maybe one of the occasional hitchhikers that came through town on their way to bigger cities. The cops promised to do a thorough investigation and keep them informed of any real leads. It was a sign of just how close knit this town was that one of the officers promised to add this house to his route for a few weeks, just in case something were to happen again.
 

“Mom? Do I still have to go to school today?” Tobias came in, the only one to have slept through the whole thing.
 

Sydnie started to say yes, then sighed. “No. Not if you don’t want to, okay? Tell your sister she doesn’t have to go either if she doesn’t want to.” Hell, if she wasn’t on maternity leave she wouldn’t have gone in. Not after this mess. She sat there in the kitchen for a while as Tobias and Evie came back in, numbly making them cereal. She watched the cop cars pull off down the road and Roger popped in behind her, hugging her around the waist.
 

“You okay?”
 

“Yeah. No. Yeah I’m…I’m fine just. Shook up.” She let him kiss her cheek and mumbled something about letting the kids stay home from school today.
 

“You sure? That’s extra on you.”
 

“On me? You’re not staying home today?”
 

Roger groaned, rubbing the back of his neck as she made him a cup of coffee. “I can’t. There’s too much on my plate today. I’ve got the Selitzier twins coming in for adjustments. I’ve got two root canals and extractions. I can’t cancel a whole days’ worth of appointments.” He looked at her clenched lips and all the things she wasn’t saying. Clearly she’d let the kids stay home based off the assumption that he wouldn’t be going in after a night like that. “I’ll see what I can do to get off early. What’s the point of having partners if you can’t hand a patient off to them occasionally?”
 

“Okay. Thanks.” Sydnie kissed him back and nudged him. “You’d better get going then. It’s already 6:00.”
 

“Crap. Okay.” He started to bustle off, mug in hand, then stopped to look back at her. “Are you gonna be okay?”
 

“You know me. I’ll be fine.” She smiled bravely, trying to convince him of this.
 

“That’s my warrior.” Roger winked and headed up the stairs, his footsteps echoing on the wood. 

“Mom I’m gonna go to school today.” Evie decided, shoveling her food down.
 

~Shit.~ “Are you sure, sweetie? You don’t have to if you don’t feel up to it.” Sydie was quickly losing allies against exhaustion. She’d been hoping Roger would stave off the ravenous Bryce with a fresh bottle while she caught an hour of sleep. Evie could usually be relied on to keep Tobias busy outside… though now that she thought about it, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted the kids outside without an adult anymore. The image of the watching figure vanishing into the dense rows of the pine forest lingered at the forefront of her mind.
 

“Nah, this is like, the most interesting thing that’s happened since we got here. Besides, Susan’s dad is a cop and he’s gonna tell her.” Evie had the thrill of being the center of attention to look forward to. She’d made a neat little circle of friends within a few weeks of moving, and Sydnie was glad to see that she had adjusted well. Chicago hadn’t been a good town for her. Fourteen and open to every experience without consequence, Sydnie had correctly guessed that the ‘friends’ at her school back in the city would easily abandon her when they moved, looking for easier prey. She hadn’t even been that mad about the pot she’d found stashed in the back of her daughter’s underwear drawer. It was just pot and Sydnie had done her fair share back in college. Actually, up until she’d found out she was pregnant with Evie she and Roger had both smoked. But when confronted, Evie had displayed way too much comfort with the concept that ‘at least it wasn’t heroine’ and ‘she could be stealing pills to sell like some of the kids at school’ for Sydnie to feel okay. They’d been planning on moving soon anyhow, but that had been the final nail in the coffin. 

“If you need to come home early call me, ok?” She could hear the bus coming down the street.
 

“If you need something call me.” Evie said back. “I’m gonna get off the bus early with Susan and Derek and go to the corner market.”
 

“Are you sure? That’s a mile walk from here.”
 

“Derek’s brother works there. He’s gonna give us a ride home after.” After meaning they’d probably go out to the overlook for a few hours, sit in the back of the truck eating chips and probably smoking pot because who the hell didn’t have an older brother who had pot? 

“Be home before dark. Evie…” Sydnie looked at her with the eyes of someone who’d done the same dumb shit when she was a teenager and wasn’t about to have it put past her now. “Evie I need you home before dark.”
 

“I will be.” Evie promised and paused before she left. She turned and gave her mom a hug. “You’re okay, right?”
 

“Mom’s are supposed to ask that question to their kids, not the other way around.” But she hugged her back. Bryce fussed between them, stirring to demand her exclusive attention with those disturbingly grey eyes. He watched Evie leave, then nuzzled close to Sydnie’s breast, clearly trying to aggravate her into giving him something. “Boy, I am empty!” she warned him but began to shuffle everything over to get him to her other side. 

“Why does he eat all the time?” Tobias said, peering over his bowl at Bryce. The infant eyed him with suspicion and began to howl now in earnest.

“Well he’s a baby. Babies need to eat.” 

“But he’s always eating.” Tobias noticed.

~And don’t I know it.~ Sydnie had nothing to say to this, she just took him with one hand and gathered up the dishes with the other, tumbling them into the sink and turning on the water. She started her list in her head of what all she had to get done today. Dishes needed finished, laundry was down to her last pair of pre-natal panties, there was likely dusting to do. And of course, all of it would have to be done between watching Tobias and Bryce’s feeding schedule. Sydnie stood up and set the child down in the playpen, turning on a 10 hour video of forest sounds so she could get started. Bryce fussed for a moment but settled into it quickly enough. “Tobias honey, can I get you to play in your room for a few hours? Quietly?”
 

“I don’t wanna go upstairs.” He said, fussing with his spoon and watching the now vaguely teal milk spill back into the multi-colored flakes remaining.

She pinched her lips, coming up to her second child. “Is it because of what happened last night?”
 

Tobias nodded and looked through the kitchen door. For a moment, Sydnie was quite certain she could see Bryce staring intently through the mesh siding of his pen, his grey eyes unwavering. The moment she turned her head he babbled and squirmed, staring up at the mobile. 

Tobias continued playing with his cereal bowl. “I saw something in Bryce’s room last night. I was up using the potty and I heard someone singing. I went to go see if it was you, but the voice sounded weird.”
 

“Weird how?”
 

“It was like the wind chimes at grandmom’s house. The big bamboo ones. But it was like somebody was singing with them. I went up to the door and when I opened it, I saw someone holding Bryce. I think I made a noise, and when she looked at me, she had eyes like the people in that ghost movie.” He grabbed his own eyes with his fingers and made big circles around them, staring at his mother as if he were an actor in a hammer horror flick. “Like that. Then she made a nasty sound and said something I didn’t understand and slammed the door shut. I ran back to my room and got under the covers. And then I heard you go to the room.” His bottom lip poked out, his big brown eyes full of guilt. “I’m sorry. I should have stopped you. I was too scared to get out of bed again.”
 

Sydnie let out a shaky breath, pulling the six-year-old into her arms and giving him a big hug. “Oh sweetheart. Toby. Toby baby, look at me. Come on now I’m not mad at you. I’m not.” She held him tighter. “It’s not your job to try to protect mommy okay. It’s my job to protect you.”
 

“There was a big crash and I thought you got hurt and it was gonna be all my fault!” The boy sniffled. He had been so quiet all morning, and now this outburst explained why. Sydnie had simply thought he had been frightened after the break in, and really who could blame him? 

“No. No the only person to blame is the person who got inside. Okay? Remember Chicago? Remember when we came home and all of our stuff had been broke all over the place? And daddy and mommy got really scared and we went to stay with your grandmom for the weekend? Okay well this…this is like that time.” The full meaning of his words seemed to click over in her mind through her exhaustion and Sydnie pulled Tobias’s face up to meet her own. “Toby, did you say someone was holding Bryce?” Tobias opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes darted towards the playpen. 

Bryce suddenly let out a fierce screech, demanding his mother’s attention once more. 

Sydnie felt a sharp pain in her breast and hissed as she began to leak, staining through the front of her top and looking down with pained astonishment. “We’ll talk about this later okay? When I’ve got Bryce down for a nap.” She promised him with a kiss and rushed to get the ravenous infant fed. Tobias walked past the two of them, his eyes never leaving Bryce’s tiny, helpless figure as he walked up the stairs to play in his room. Sydnie promised herself that she would go up there later and continue their conversation. The suggestion that someone had been in that room for a long time, possibly doing something to her baby, was earth shattering. At the same time, she wondered if maybe Tobias had been making up something out of fear, trying to contextualize the incident somehow. Children’s minds worked in odd ways sometimes. But she wanted to hear him out none the less. She made up her mind to move Bryce’s crib into their bedroom for now, at least until they could get the window fixed. 

When she got the baby down for a nap around 1:00, Sydnie walked upstairs and found Tobias had crashed as well, probably still exhausted. She debated taking advantage of the situation and crashing down on the couch while she could, but instead she found herself turning towards the baby’s room, turning the brass door knob and swinging the door open. The hinges squeaked in irritation as she entered, staring at the broken window, the pile of shattered glass on the floor. The whole room smelled of autumn air, crisp and comforting despite everything. She looked out towards the pine trees as if by reflex and was almost relieved to see nothing there. 

A little bit of glass had fallen into the crib, and as she peered down at it she felt a jolt of horror. There were streaks, muddy brown streaks at the edged of the fitted sheet by the foot of the bed. She tucked her hands around them and pulled the sheet up off the mattress, shaking as she did so. It felt as if the crib had been profaned, blighted by this touch. Her logical mind knew she should call the police and let them take another look at the evidence, but her instinctual mind continued yanking up the sheets, bundling them to go into the washer. 

As she gathered it up, a fluttering caught her attention. A long, black feather was lying on the floor by the side of the crib, twitching slightly in the breeze. Sydnie knelt down to pick it up and caught sight of something sticking out from under the mattress. There was a sense of incorrectness about this moment. As if something beyond her understanding was occurring, and she was going to be forced to grasp at it regardless. Sydnie reached at the jutting objects and pulled at it. The objects prickled against her palm, and there was an earthy crunching sound as she tugged it loose. A wad of pine needled, old leaves, moss and feathers stared up at her, and Sydnie got down on her belly, squirming under the bed. 

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and shook it to turn on the flashlight. A large gash had been torn into the mattress, and someone had pulled out all the factory flame-retardant foam to make room for this new filling. As she continued to pull it out, a pile gathered at her side. Sydnie fumbled with the camera setting, wanting some kind of picture to prove to herself this was really happening. 

“Mom?”
 

WHUMP! “Shit!” Sydnie jumped and smacked the crap out of her head on the wooden slats. She turned to see Tobias’s feet at the door and shoved the mess of pine needles and leaves back so he wouldn’t see them. “I’m sorry. I thought you were sleeping.”
 

“I was having bad dreams.” Tobias stayed at the entry, looking all around the room, especially in the corners. 

“Yeah. I don’t blame you.” She stood up with a grunt and went to hold him. Another screech erupted from downstairs before she could reach for Tobias and Sydnie clasped a hand to her brow. Bryce was awake. “Toby do me a favor okay? Just…don’t go into this room anymore. At least not until we get the glass cleaned up and the window replaced.” She didn’t think that would be a problem, not with as quickly as Tobias nodded a yes and ran down the hallway. She looked back at the mattress with a sense of distaste, her upper lip curling. 

   !