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The Glistening

Allan Onik

    The two stepped into the house from the front door, wearing their black attire.
    “I can’t believe grandma’s gone,” James said, lighting a cig.
    “What are we gonna do with all her stuff?” Ada took off her shoes. “I feel just like I did when grandpa died ten years ago. Like they haven’t gone anywhere, really. Strange, isn’t it?”
    “You watch too many horror movies. You know, I visited Grandma Lily at the hospital. There’s something I have to show you.”
    James walked into the living room and took an old, leather book off the shelf. It had blackened brass trimmings on the cover and spine. He opened it and the pages were blank. Flipping through it carefully, he ripped one of the pages out and lit it with his cigarette, then blew out the flame. A diagram shaped like an oval appeared on the page, with the face of a daemon in the lower left area.
    “In her delirium at the hospital, Grandma kept talking about a school. I thought it might have been the one she attended in Massachusetts just before moving here to Providence. It was a school for the arts, and I couldn’t recall the name or understand her in her last hours. But I do remember one thing I heard when I was just a tot. Rumor had it the school had been built near an old cemetery, and that one of the gravesites was occupied by an ancient Warlock named Belle. Belle collected diamonds his whole life because he believed they contained magical properties enhancing abundance, prosperity, courage, and overall well-being. With his collected diamonds he would meditate and tune with nearby spirits. Well, the children knew this and one night they joined, dug the grave, and lo and behold, they discovered the stones. And when I heard her say something about a book, I knew the only book on the shelf that wasn’t either Lovecraft, Poe, or King had the map of the buried chest. She doesn’t just want to leave her house to mom, she wants US to get the stones!”
    The two rushed out to the shed in the backyard and grabbed a pick and shovel. From the map point they began to dig, and soon the moon was out—red and crescent. Lily’s black cat sat at the edge of the crater. “It has to be here!” Ada cried. On the next strike the pick hit something hard.

    They dragged the chest onto the grass and opened it. “There’s at least 60 cut diamonds in there!” James said. He picked one up and let it glisten in the light. “We’re looking at a least 2 million dollars.” The cat’s eyes began to glow, and it hissed. A nearby tree burst into flames, and a fog lifted.

    The sheriff reentered his car and fought the urge to vomit.
    “Have you ever seen anything like this?” Asked the deputy in shotgun.
    “Never. Poor Lily dies and now both of Meredith’s children look like splatter in the kitchen. I didn’t realize that’s what a gut looks like cut out raw. Thought they might be fighting over inheritance or somethin’. Guess I’ll take the little pet over to their mom’s house in the hills.”
    The cat curled up on front lawn.

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