Midknight, p.1
Midknight, page 1
Midknight: The Possession
Edwin J. Stokirmas
Published by Edwin J. Stokirmas, 2024.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
MIDKNIGHT: THE POSSESSION
First edition. September 30, 2024.
Copyright © 2024 Edwin J. Stokirmas.
ISBN: 979-8227068149
Written by Edwin J. Stokirmas.
Also by Edwin J. Stokirmas
When Death Comes to Call
Demon Town
The Dream Warrior
The Black Widow's Affairs
Midknight: The Possession
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Also By Edwin J. Stokirmas
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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About the Author
To all the dreamers who refuse to listen to the naysayers.
CHAPTER ONE
The world as we knew it ended on a Tuesday. It was a rather pleasant spring day for that time of the year when it occurred. There were no fiery comets streaking across the heavens signaling the mass destruction of our world. The nuclear Armageddon that many feared would wipe out mankind's existence when the Doomsday Clock struck midnight never came. The machines didn't rise up and take over as many predicted they would when AI grew beyond the control of its creators. What exactly happened was debated at great length by those struggling to survive because when the end was upon us, no one was quite sure of what really took place. There were various recollections of several minor events that unfolded beforehand, but in the end, chaos and confusion ran rampant everywhere when the unthinkable happened.
Beau Sittler hated driving in the city. He preferred the wide-open spaces over the congested hustle and bustle that Southby presented. The three-hour drive from Paradise Flats had been uneventful, but the moment that Beau spotted Southby’s skyscape in the distance, his pulse started to race and his grip tightened on the steering wheel. He managed to navigate his way through the city traffic with the aid of the GPS and Lauren’s gentle co-piloting. With little Michael sitting in his car seat in the rear of the vehicle, Beau did his best to keep his outbursts to himself when the slow-moving traffic started to get the better of him.
Michael’s dental appointment was right in the heart of the downtown area of the city, which further added to Beau’s displeasure. He found the streets here to be too narrow, there was road construction everywhere to contend with and parking was impossible to find. He finally started to breathe easy when they found the Fox Dental Clinic and parked in a nearby lot. It was just before 10:00 in the morning and Beau shook his head at the fee that he was going to have to pay for a two-hour parking spot.
It was good to get out of the vehicle and stretch after the long drive and let the nerves settle down. As they made their way on foot to the clinic, Beau wondered how people could live here in the city with all the constant noise, the steady traffic and the strange smells that filled the air. Southby had always been too big and too busy for his liking. He preferred the small-town life that Paradise Flats provided over anything that the big city had to offer.
Michael required some fillings in four of his teeth and Beau still didn't understand why Doctor Jones back home couldn't take care of the job himself. Lauren did her best to explain that because Michael was only three and that the fillings were in a tricky spot, a specialist was required. Beau reluctantly agreed with their dentist's referral and it was decided that the three of them would make a day of it in Southby after Michael's appointment. Shopping in the city wasn't Beau’s idea of a relaxing day off work, but there were a couple of sports stores up here that he wouldn't mind checking out.
“With your coverage, this is the remainder of the invoice that is due and must be paid in advance of the procedure for Michael.” The receptionist slid some papers towards Lauren and she did a double take at the figure.
“Pardon?”
“All dental work must be paid for in advance. Did your dentist not inform you of this?”
“No, they did not.” Lauren replied coolly as she dug a credit card out of her purse. “Is there anything else that we need to be aware of?”
“Just that Michael will have to be sedated for the procedure and that it will take about 45 minutes before you can see him again.”
“We can't go in with him?” Lauren gave the receptionist an icy glare.
“No. Doctor Fox's policy. Your dentist really should have filled you in on this.”
Lauren was normally quite patient and understanding, but Beau could tell by her tense body language that she was not impressed with this turn of events or the receptionist's attitude. “Well, they didn’t.”
Lauren was a protective mama bear when it came to Michael and didn't like the idea of being separated from her cub. Beau was feeling uncomfortable with the growing tension between the two women, but also wasn't pleased about Michael having to be by himself for something like this with total strangers. The situation looked like it had the makings of becoming very nasty if cooler heads didn't prevail. Beau could see that Lauren was fuming, but she kept her thoughts to herself and paid the fee with no further comment.
“If you want to take a seat in the waiting room, someone will be out for Michael shortly.”
Beau made his way over to a couch and sat down and Lauren and Michael joined him after a quick visit to the washroom. She set her son on her lap and held him tightly while Beau made funny faces at Michael to lighten up the mood. Before long, one of Doctor Fox's assistants appeared from around the corner.
“Michael Taylor.”
Lauren nodded and stood her son up in front of her. “Mommy has to wait out here with Beau while they work on your teeth, honey. Are you going to be okay without us?”
Michael nodded. “I'll be okay, mommy.”
“Okay. We'll be right here if you need us. Just holler and we’ll come running.”
“Okay.”
Lauren gave Michael a hug and did her best to smile. Beau held out a fist for the youngster to bump with his tiny fist. Upon contact, Beau gave a thumbs up and Michael followed suit.
“Go get ‘em, Mikey!”
The assistant took the child's hand and led him around the corner and out of sight from his mother. Lauren wiped at the corner of her eyes and checked the time on her cell phone before leaning up against Beau where he sat beside her. He wrapped an arm around her and kissed Lauren on the top of the head.
“He'll be fine. Doctor Jones wouldn't have sent us up here otherwise.”
“I know. I just wish that everything would have been explained a little better.”
While they waited, Beau and Lauren turned their attention to the news on the TV hanging from the waiting room wall, but it did little to brighten their mood. More war and conflict around the world, homeless shelter issues, drive by shootings and a family of four found dead in their own home.
“I honestly don't know what this world is coming to anymore.” Beau muttered as he dug out his cell phone and turned his attention to it.
“I know. I really worry about what type of world we're leaving behind for Michael.”
When he finally emerged around the corner sometime later, Michael ran straight to his mom with a big toothy grin. He looked like he had just woken up.
“How does your mouth feel, honey?”
“Kind of tingly. It tastes funny.”
“Everything went smoothly. Michael was a really good boy for us. Doctor Fox put in four fillings, so his teeth are as good as new!”
“Let's see what they look like, Mikey!” Beau said.
Michael opened his mouth wide, but neither Beau nor Lauren could see any of the fillings.
“We're good to go, then?” Lauren asked as she hugged her son.
“Yes, but maybe wait for about an hour before giving Michael anything to eat. Otherwise, you're good to go.”
“Okay, thank you.”
They exited the building and Beau gave Lauren a puzzled look. “I didn’t see the fillings. Did you?”
Lauren shook her head. “No, let it go. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ll talk to Doctor Jones’s office tomorrow.”
After they loaded Michael up in the vehicle, Beau prepared himself mentally for the next leg of their journey. “Where to now?”
“Find one of your sporting goods stores if you want. There's one about ten minutes from here. We could kill an hour there and by that time Michael should be ready for lunch.”
“I like the way you think, Miss Taylor!” Beau winked at Lauren and then turned back towards Michael. “Do you want to go look at baseball bats and gloves, Mikey?”
“Yeah!”
“Awesome!” Beau grinned and reached back to give the youngster a high five. “Point me in the right direction, Laur.”
As they headed eastward, the morning sun was slowly breaking through the cloud cover. There was still a chill in the air, but winter looked to be finally on its way out. There were some remnant s of snow that lingered along the side of the streets, but for the most part spring had arrived. The temperatures continued to rise daily and with a little luck, Beau thought to himself, the golf courses would be open again in a few weeks.
Traffic was still busier than Beau would have liked, but he did his best to maintain his composure. He was moving along at a decent pace but cursed out loud when the light changed color from green to orange. “Shit!”
From the back seat, Michael giggled.
“Sorry, buddy!” Beau said as he looked back in the rearview mirror.
“It's okay, Boo.”
Up ahead standing on a street corner was a man wearing a homemade cardboard sign that hung over his shoulders. Scrawled in black marker were the words, ‘Rejoice for the End is Near!’ In one hand, the man held what Beau presumed was a Bible and in the other hand he held a megaphone. His hair was greased back and he wore an old, outlandish green suit with a yellow shirt beneath it as he stood on an overturned plastic milk crate.
“I didn't think that there were still any soap box preachers around.” Beau pointed out.
“I didn't think so either.” Lauren replied with a slight smirk on her face.
They could hear the preacher ranting over the music playing on the car radio, but Beau and Lauren couldn't make out exactly what he was saying from where they sat in traffic. Pedestrians passing by him made a wide berth around the preacher as he continued his sermon. A couple of vehicles honked their horns in protest, but he carried on regardless. When the traffic light turned green, Beau proceeded slowly forward and did his best to avoid eye contact with the strange looking speaker standing on the milk crate.
“What's that man?” Michael asked.
“Just some crackpot with nothing better to do.” Beau replied.
“What's a crack.... pot?” The youngster wondered out loud.
The traffic was crawling along at a snail's pace and as it slowly inched forward, Beau and Lauren found themselves directly beside the strange looking man in the green suit and he focused all his attention on them as he rambled on with the megaphone.
“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath!”
“Please go faster, Beau.” Lauren pleaded as she diverted her eyes away from the street corner preacher.
“I'm going as fast as I can.”
“Well, go faster anyway. You're going to need to get into the left lane before the next set of lights.” Lauren took out her cell phone to divert her attention away from the soapbox preacher and started to scroll through her messages.
Beau put his signal light on and waited for an opening in the lane beside him. The traffic was still creeping along and he did his best to maintain his self-control as he drove and noticed several people across the street standing at a bus stop, most of them on their cell phones as they waited. In the vehicle to his left, a teenage boy in the passenger seat was also glued to his cell phone, oblivious to the world around him. Beau shoulder checked to see if he had room to maneuver into the left lane when he noticed the teenager's phone began to flash brightly.
“What the...?” He saw out of the corner of his eye that Lauren’s phone was also doing the same thing. Bizarre images appeared on her phone followed by a strange cryptic message before the screen went blank. “What did that say?”
“I don't know.” Lauren answered as she pressed the screen with her finger. “Something about the time is upon us, I think. My phone’s acting up. I think the battery just went dead.”
The opening in traffic that Beau was looking for finally materialized and he changed lanes. As he did so, he noticed that a fight had broken out between some of the people at the bus stop and that the teenager in the vehicle in front of him was now wildly punching the driver.
“Holy shit! Look at this!” Beau pointed to the vehicle in front of him as it started to swerve into the right lane. Across the meridian, the oncoming traffic erupted into chaos as vehicles began to smash into one another. A car veered off the street and drove into a group of people standing at the next intersection and another vehicle struck the cement meridian and flipped over before landing on its roof.
“What's going on?” Lauren cried out.
“I don't know.” Beau answered as he tried to weave his way through the traffic in front of him and escape the insanity unfolding around them. The car with the teenager was behind him now and pulled over to the side of the street. In his rearview mirror, Beau could see the teenager still attacking the driver, who looked to be an older lady, perhaps his mother. In front of him, a half ton truck was ramming the back end of a little car in front of it. On the sidewalk to his right, Beau witnessed a number of other skirmishes as pedestrians began to clash with one another.
“Call 9-1-1! This is crazy!”
“I'm trying,” Lauren replied frantically, “but my phone isn't working!”
As Beau approached the upcoming intersection, he saw that all of the traffic lights were out. Already a number of vehicles had smashed into one another and had begun to clog up the traffic flow even more. Several of the occupants of the vehicles were now climbing out and attacking anyone close to them, forcing Beau to make a hard right to get past the skirmish. The madness continued as they carried on through the streets of Southby. Vehicles were piling up on both sides of the road and more people were fighting with each other. Windows were being smashed out of storefronts and anything that wasn’t fastened down was knocked over. It looked like something out of a war zone, but this couldn't really be happening here, Beau thought to himself.
“We need to get out of here.... now.” Lauren pointed out absentmindedly, transfixed by the chaos taking place around them. “Michael, cover your eyes!”
Beau took a quick glance back to where Michael sat. The three-year old had a frightened look on his face as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
“It's going to be okay, Mikey.” Beau turned his attention back to the street in front of him. “I'll get us out of here.”
As they continued to drive out of the downtown area of the city, the traffic became lighter, but the madness continued to unfold around them. The tail end of a car was all that was visible after it had plowed into a building. People were running and screaming, pursued by others carrying crude looking weapons. A man in a business suit with a deranged look on his face hurled a rock at their vehicle as Beau drove by. It struck the rear quarter panel and making a loud bang causing everyone to jump.
“Mommy!” Michael cried out.
Lauren immediately undid her seat belt and climbed into the back seat with her son to try and console him. “Please get us out of here, Beau!”
“I'm trying the best I can.” Beau fought hard to control his emotions. He knew how scared Lauren and Mikey were. He was afraid, too. None of this made any sense. There was no way that any of this could really be happening.
Ahead of him, Beau saw a woman scrambling to get away from a group of men as they chased after her. She was able to reach the safety of her car and started to drive off before her vehicle was struck by another car, bringing it to an immediate halt. Instantly, the group of men surrounded the woman's car and began beating on the windows.
“Shit!” Beau exclaimed and shook his head as he drove by them. He knew that he should stop and help the woman, but he continued onward and didn't look back. His responsibility right now was to get the two passengers in the back seat to safety as soon as possible.
There were several more vehicles on the road that Beau encountered and was forced to weave around. They were either abandoned or too badly damaged to drive and he wondered how many people never even got a chance to reach their vehicles and flee for safety before this insanity started. Now safely out of the downtown area, Beau started to breathe a little easier. The traffic that he was encountering now was minimal compared to what he had just come through. Judging by the frightened looks on the faces of those that he saw in those vehicles as he passed by them, it suggested that they were looking for safety, as well.
As he checked through the various radio stations to see if he could find out what was going on, Beau couldn't understand why there was only a distorted signal.
