The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Chapter 14

Late afternoon, the following day

Isaac didn't lie when he told Lynnette that he would be going job hunting. He had been up since five a.m. racing from one end of Cypress to the other in his father's car in search of employment.

If it wasn't Dairy Queen then it was other shops or even the local car wash scene. When he had exhausted every ounce of patience and ink in his pen from filling out countless job applications, he fled town.

It took him well over an hour to reach Summit County. His slow timing wasn't due to the snow covered roads, the city cleanup crews did a fairly decent job in removing a lot of the snow that had fallen overnight, it was his fear that caused a lackadaisical right foot to barely touch the gas. The brooding expression on his exhausted face would have suggested that he would have rather been anywhere else in the world at that stage than to be on the long road that he found himself traveling upon.

The bright sun caused its rays to glare off the white blanket of snow that covered the vast farmland he was passing by. The strong shimmer would have caused anyone else to pull down the visor to shield their eyes, but instead, Isaac chose to allow the warmness to soothe his emotionally battered skin, hoping to gain a measure of calm from the breath of God in the process.

Just up ahead, a few yards to the left, Isaac caught sight of a small diner with a rotating sign on top of the roof that read 'Scats'. Right then, Isaac's stomach began to grumble all over again, just as it had been doing all day, off and on.

He pulled his father's car into the full parking lot, parked and glanced over to his right to see the same green Monte Carlo sitting only two spaces down. He turned off the vehicle's ignition and listened as it putted and sputtered for at least a minute before finally shutting down. Then, with about as much determination as he could assemble, Isaac loosened his black Sunday tie, climbed out and marched towards the diner's front door as though he were heading straight for an old west showdown of sorts.

He unzipped his stuffy coat and snatched out the bottom half of his white, button down dress shirt for more comfort.

The instant he opened the door, The Eagles', 'Hotel California' could be heard playing on the cheap stereo system that was mounted on a table in a corner behind the lunch counter. The aromas of French fries and eggs pleasantly filled the entire restaurant.

"Just go ahead and have a seat anywhere, sweetheart, and I'll be with you in a moment!" A perky, young white woman said while carrying hot plates of food from one end of the diner to the other.

Isaac wasn't in search of a seat; his eyes were transfixed on the hungry characters that inhabited the busy establishment. From left to right sat nothing but white people of different ages, sexes and sizes, not one minority face could be found.

As Isaac began to lurch deeper into the diner it suddenly donned on him to look towards the women's bathroom. She was there; her car was still parked outside. She was the only person in the world that Isaac knew that drove a bright green Monte Carlo.

He stood at the counter, only a few feet away from the women's restroom. The young man patiently watched as two young white girls came out, laughing and giggling about a boy they both liked from school. The longer he waited, the more some of the patrons started to gawk his way, wondering just what the peculiar black man was doing leaning near the women's bathroom.

Suddenly, after watching three more women step out, from behind the door a dark skinned black woman appeared, wiping her hands dry with a paper towel.

At the snap of a finger, Isaac snatched her by her right arm and harshly whispered, "We need to talk."

The startled woman dropped her wet towel to the floor while looking up at Isaac as though he were bigger than life itself. Isaac could tell that she no more wanted to see him than he did her; but even she

had to realize that their meeting was as inevitable as the coming of another day.

"I didn't know you were still here, Karyn." The young waitress smiled as she walked behind the counter. "Were you two going to have supper together?"

"Yeah, we're gonna have a seat for a moment." Isaac adamantly replied before practically dragging Karyn over to an empty booth and sitting down.

The two of them sat and stared each other down with cold, steel glares in their amber eyes, as if they wanted to explode all over the other at any second. Karyn pressed her quivering lips together as tight as she could. In a disgraceful manner, she cut her eyes away from Isaac's firm face.

"Well," the waitress said as she approached the table with a pencil and pad in hand, "what can I get for you two?"

Without even looking in her direction, Isaac sternly responded, "Give us a moment. We still gotta think about it."

The waitress turned up her nose and simply walked away, leaving two frightened individuals awaiting the other's words to exit their throats.

"How did you find me?" Karyn stuttered in a raspy, Jamaican dialect while rapidly blinking her eyelids.

"I remembered that you lived in Cuyahoga Falls. I don't know, somehow I knew that you would be right here, at this place. Or did you forget about our little night together?"

"Don't sit dere and give me dat smug tone, Isaac." Karyn snapped before taking off her winter hat and slamming it down onto the table. "What do you want?"

Stunned by the very question itself, Isaac leaned forward and frowned, "What do I want? Bitch, look at my fuckin' eyes! Ever since you and I fucked, I've been going out of my damn mind. And don't you sit

there and look at me like I'm crazy. Your ass never stuck around after that night at your friends' house."

Karyn sat back and lowered her sullen eyes as though she were distressed. "Isaac, do you really know what took place dat night?"

"Hell yeah I know! You turned into a—

"Stop," Karyn forcefully pointed. "Before you even say another word, just stop, and listen to yourself. How do you know for sure what you saw dat night? How do you know dat same something is inside of you?"

It got under the young man's already burning skin to sit and listen as Karyn played everything off as paranoid delusion.

Isaac hopelessly giggled and said, "I figured it was all in my head at first. My own father sent me to a mental hospital because I was acting like fuckin' fool. Everyone, from my psychiatrist to my dad, convinced me that it was all in my head, and I believed it, too. That is until I ran into your ass yesterday. Now...now I know what happened was for real. I know what I felt that night. It took weeks for my body to heal. I know there is something inside of me, I can feel it moving around, like it's trying to claw its way out."

Karyn dropped her hands to the side and looked out the window to her right at the blue sky and fading sun that was beginning its timely descent. In a downtrodden tone, Karyn said, "I came to America three years ago, hoping to find some way to...rid myself of this. But, it only seemed like it became worse once I got here. I never meant to pass it along to you, Isaac."

Isaac balled up his fists while his dark face took on a more sinister, disgruntled expression. "You don't forget that kind of pain that I went through that night."

Karyn twisted her head around and said, "Don't talk to me about pain, Isaac. I've had to live with dis for fourteen years. Do you know how many times I've thought about killing myself? Or wishing someone would do it for me?"

"There has to be a cure, dammit!" Isaac angrily said out loud. "There has to be someone out there that can help the both of us! Why didn't you tell me about this before we laid down?"

Karyn eyeballed Isaac with a confused contort on her face before slowly asking, "Would you have believed me? You don't just go around telling people dat sort of ting, Isaac, lest I too end up in a mental institution. Besides, I'm not de one who chose to cheat on my girlfriend. Dat was you."

Out of a sense of both anxiety and frustration, Isaac covered his face with his gloved hands and wiped tears away from his eyes. With every passing moment he could see both Lynnette and Isaiah slip away from him.

"You don't know what it's like, man." He openly wept. "I'm supposed to be getting married soon. I got a kid. I'm trying to keep myself together, but it's getting harder every day. Sometimes...I don't even know what day it is. Everything just keeps running all together. When I got home the other day, I looked in the mirror and there was blood and feathers all over my mouth and teeth. I keep having these damn blackouts. I can't remember shit!"

"Wait a minute." Karyn hastily interrupted. "When was the last time you had a blackout, Isaac?" She nervously inquired.

Shaking his head from side to side, Isaac replied, "I don't know, I think I had one yesterday in church. One minute my father was preaching, then...there's this wide gap in my brain. It happened a few days before that too, I think."

Karyn's entire face grew a shade lighter right there. It was expressionless, as if she had seen her own existence shatter into a million pieces in mere seconds. "Isaac," she stammered, "de blackouts mean

dat de cycle is beginning all over again."

"Cycle, what the fuck is a cycle? What are you talkin' about?" Isaac helplessly threw his hands into the air.

Karyn's hands trembled on the table. "It wants to feed again, Isaac. It's trying to come back again."

"No...no," Isaac loudly resisted with huge tears falling from his eyes. "Do you mean that I'm gonna...change again?"

With tears forming in her own eyes, Karyn leaned forward, took Isaac's shaking hands into hers and carefully stated, "The demon has lain dormant inside of you for de past few months. It has been resting, and it will continue to do so until it is ready to feed again. Sometimes it will hibernate for weeks, months or even years. I went a full four years without changing before. I figured dat maybe it went away, dat is until de blackouts. It's like de demon takes over for a little bit. Sometimes anger, spilled blood or even pain will arouse it. Isaac...when it is ready to feed, it will emerge, whether you are ready or not."

Slowly, Karyn began to slide out of her seat, all the while keeping a cautious eye on Isaac. "Stay away from people, Isaac. Don't go back home." She sobbed as she stood up and started for the door.

Isaac, too, rose and grabbed Karyn by the arm." You need to tell me how to stop this!" He yelled into her face.

Everyone in the diner stopped what they were doing to watch in amazement the unfolding events before them all.

"Let go of me!" Karyn barked while snatching her arm away.

Isaac watched the woman storm out of the diner before following in behind her in the hopes of grabbing her once again.

Being careful not to slip and fall in the snow, Isaac chased after Karyn, only to miss her by inches before she was able to jump into her car.

"Stop the car, bitch!" Isaac insanely yelled as he pounded on the driver side window. "Please help me!"

But rather than stop, Karyn only put the car in drive and tore out of the parking lot and onto the road.

Frantically, Isaac whipped out the keys from his pocket, ran to his father's car and tried to start the engine. He repeatedly twisted the key, but all the vehicle wanted to do was sputter and whine. It had been behaving irrationally all day long. The old, worn down car wasn't equipped to handle a long haul to Cuyahoga Falls.

Isaac pulled the hood's release lever, got out of the vehicle and inspected the supposed dilemma. Desperately, he pulled a few hoses here and there while examining the warm engine.

"Looks like you got yourself some car trouble." A heavy, velvety voice said from behind. Isaac spun around to see a stocky, middle-aged white man dressed in a fancy coffee colored long winter coat, a smoke grey fedora and a pair of tight blue jeans and brown cowboy boots. The man stood in the middle of the lot holding a Styrofoam cup full of steaming coffee.

"Uh, yeah, I think it's the carburetor." Isaac grunted as he lifted his body out from underneath the hood.

"Well, I can tell you right now that this is no place to be stranded after dark, my friend, especially when all the truckers get here. I have a shop right down the road from here. I could get your car looked at if you want." The man kindly smiled while sipping away at his coffee.

Isaac was too enthralled with catching Karyn, who by then was at least a mile away, to think twice about taking a ride from a total stranger. At that juncture, he would have accepted help from Satan if he had offered.

"Sure." He carelessly shrugged. "How far down the road is your shop?" Isaac questioned while slamming the hood shut.

"About six miles," the man said. "C'mon, it's getting dark out." The man limped back to his blue, 1974 BMW 3.0 CS that was parked clear on the other side of the lot. Isaac ran after the generous gentleman and got in on the passenger's side.

The smell of cigarettes, coffee and fading perfume stunk up the entire vehicle. Isaac looked around, from front to back out of curiosity at how well kept the vehicle appeared.

"Was that your girlfriend you were chasing after?" The man asked before putting his cup down into the holder in front of him and cutting on the ignition.

Isaac blew heat back into his hands before saying, "Uh, no. Just someone I happened to know."

"Are you cold?" The man inquired as he pulled onto the open road.

"Not really, man, I'm just really upset at that woman."

"That's a woman for you." The man laughed. "They're always good at making a man upset. So, I saw the tag on your plates. You're from Arkin County. What are you doing all the way out here?"

"I just came to see her, that's all." Isaac nervously chuckled while keeping his eyes on the passing farmland outside the window.

"Yeah, I've been to Cypress a few times myself over the past few months. It used to be a real nice city years ago."

Isaac could hear the gregarious man chatter on, but his thoughts were lights years away. Even if he could get the car fixed, Karyn was long gone. It was dumb luck that he found her at the diner to begin with.

"Did you hear me?" The man glanced over.

"Huh?" Isaac stuttered as he turned towards the man. "My fault, I didn't hear you."

"I said, I like your eyes. You don't see too many black guys with eyes like yours."

To hear a man comment on how alluring his eyes were was unsettling to him, but it was all just meaningless words.

"Yep, it was sure a pretty snowstorm we got last night."

Isaac said nothing. His eyes started to water up as they passed by an all-white church that sat alone in a valley. Every so often he would glance over at the man and see only his lips moving. Isaac seemed unfazed by all the incessant babbling.

All he could ponder was the look on Karyn's flushed face as she explained cycles and hibernating demons. It was all foreign to him. But the one thing that brought the most fear out was being told not to go back home. Lynnette's trusting image flashed before his eyes.

Isaac shut his eyes and exhaled before opening them to see a white man and four little girls climb out of a brown station wagon and walk towards a red and white brick house.

His eyes rolled upwards to the orange sky that was growing darker with every passing minute. Isaac tried in earnest to recall one of his father's strong sermons, anything that had something in it

concerning God's forgiveness and unconditional love for people, no matter what sins they committed.

"Hey, man, does this shop of yours have a phone? Because I— Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

At that very split second, Isaac felt an incredible sting of blazing heat surge throughout his entire body. Almost immediately his head hit the window beside him. He was slipping in and out of unconsciousness. Isaac couldn't lift a single finger or even open his mouth to mutter a word. He could feel his body jerk from side to side as drool lazily dripped out and down from his mouth.

"Do you like music, sweetie?" Isaac heard a deep voice ask.

He could hear a song, but only for a few scant seconds before his warm ears could no longer pick up anything more.