Coralline pressed the gas pedal and driving above the speed limit dared the police to do something about it. She was mad as hell and prepared to take down as many people as she could into the next life with her. What she wasn’t prepared for, was the sudden appearance of what looked like a little douen in the middle of the unpaved road.
It was about five in the evening when the farmers gather at the only pub in the village for a drink before getting home. The douens generally stay away from the adults, that’s why it was strange to see this one, there in the middle of the unpaved road. They also stick to the thick brush and the lonely tracks. She slammed the brakes and pulled the length of chain from under the drivers’ seat.
“Coralline! Get in here. Fast!” In response to the shout, she got out and ran into the pub without bothering to close the car door.
The big hard backed men were all huddled in a corner like frightened chickens. Coralline stifled a giggle.
“What’s going on.” She asked the bartender who’d called out to her.
“The douens have brought company.” He pulled her down behind the bar and Coralline waited for an explanation.
“Haven’t you read the news? They say the cell phones have gone haywire and opened up a portal and things from another world have been pouring into ours. That is not a douen. It’s something else.”
“Manuel, what on earth are you talking about? What other world?” She enquired perplexed.
“Look.” She gazed in the direction he indicated and was shocked into silence.
There, appearing from a crack like a lightening bolt were some strange beings. They were quite little, just like the douens, but unlike them, their feet were right side forward. Some kind of heat emanated from them and with their horns quivering it was definitely terrifying.
“Looks like hell is spring cleaning. What did the news say? And when did all this start happening?”
“About a month ago. It started in Port-of-Spain. First they said it was criminals disguising themselves to escape the law after committing their dastardly acts.” Manuel informed her.
“They thought they were getting creative? Hmm. Makes sense I suppose. Go on.” Coralline thought it a good time to be sarcastic.
“Well after a number of gruesome deaths whereby the victims appeared to have been eaten alive, or parts of them anyway the priests were called in for consultation.”
“The priests you say? Well I’ll be…Then what?”
“Well Father Michael the official exorcist, recognized the work of one whom he’d exorcised from a pilgrim some years ago. Well by him recognizing the culprit, worked as some sort of mechanism whereby the culprit heard him, got his address and came and finished him off. He ate the priest. Right there in front of everybody. Of course they all scattered like when you throw corn on the ground for the fowls. Since then there’s been no police, it’s every man jack for himself.” Manuel concluded.
“So we are here, twenty miles from the city, and we have to protect and defend ourselves?”
“That’s the gist of it.”
“And there I was getting ready to leave this world. I thought I had problems.”
“Wait a minute. That thing stopped when you got here. Why?”
“I don’t know that it did.”
“Yes. You have something on you. Protecting you.”
“Or maybe he saw a compatriot.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Let me go out and prove you either wrong or right.”
Coralline went out to face the things which stopped the moment she appeared.
“You’re right. Well I did have suicide on my mind. Maybe I’m already one of them. Look! They aren’t fighting each other. Come stand next to me.”
Although they didn’t attempt to approach, they fidgeted showing their desire.
“Any of you have your cutlasses or swipers with you?” She asked the men who still crouched silently in a corner.
“I’ve got my swiper. I used it today. It’s not too very sharp, but it did do the job. The tall grass to the back of the lot with the cabbage and tomatoes are there no more.” Answered one of them.
“No problem. Let’s see how many of those things get cut down to size.”
Coralline went out to them, but they didn’t put up a fight and she had an easy job of it. She swiped and sliced and used that swiper like a pro. About a dozen of them were torn limb from limb. Gaining courage, two men went out to help but the things weren’t so gracious towards them and made up for it by eating them slowly, torturing them dreadfully in the process. The screams were unbearable so Coralline, covering her ears went back into the pub.
“Come and see Coralline. They are leaving.” Manuel said to her.
“No no. They can’t leave yet. We must know how to destroy them. We already know they won’t fight me. But we don’t know why. Besides if they are all over town, there’d be no work and no food. So we’ll have to find a way to make a living through them. Go out there and stop them.” Manuel jaw dropped and he looked at Coralline as though to say, ‘have you gone mad?’
“No they aren’t going to hurt you.” She reassured him. “They’ll come back when they see you, then I’ll come out and try to figure out where we go from there.”
That done, Coralline and Manuel soon realised the things weakness.
It was the string of green pearls around her neck.
Coralline paced the roadway for a few hours while the three monsters stood there ground unable to move.
“Manuel? What are they doing?”
“Ask them. They’ve learnt to talk our language. Listen.” He said.
“You’re right.”
“Coralline? Looks like they’re using the roadway as a toilet. Are they shitting gold bullions!”
“Good! Now to make that ours.”
