The Vith

The Vith
Part 1
Welcome to Hell

It was two weeks since the five of us had left school forever. At least
that was true for most of us. Kathy was the only one going to college.
She desperately wanted to be a journalist; in fact she yearned for it.
She had had a few articles published in the Clare Champion and they
were pretty good. One was about waste management in small towns, and
although I wasn't exactly intrigued by the subject matter, she really
stuck it to the government, which is something that always guarantees
high praise from me.
Cobie was driving us all to Filkee in his granddads old Ford. All of
us, that being Kathy, Gael (my girlfriend), Frank (we affectionately
call him Joker), myself, my name is Morgan, and of course, Cobie, the
man himself.
We had been planning for months where we would go after the exams for
the ultimate weekend. It had to be the ultimate of course because
pretty soon we would all have been going our separate ways. Kathy to
Dublin to do a degree in Journalism and Media Communications. Joker to
Limerick city to live and work with his brother in a furniture store.
Cobie was going to London to make it as a professional D.J. And of
course there was Gael, my sweet Gael. Her parents had moved to Boston
two weeks before and she was going to join them after the summer break.
Me? I had no plans. I worked in a bar/restaurant in my hometown and as
far as I was concerned that was my future. I was a damn fine barman,
and I'd be damned if I was fine at anything else in my life.
Cobie decided on Filkee as the location for our weekend of excess.
Cobie, Joker and I used to go there every year for the summer holidays
when we were kids. When he suggested Filkee to me and Joker in the pub
one Friday night, we just smiled. Going back to Filkee now that we were
officially free and productive members of society, now that we were old
enough to be taken seriously, I dunno, something about it just felt so
right. The girls didn't understand our enthusiasm for returning to the
small town when we could go anywhere else in Ireland for a three-day
bender. How could they? They hadn't been there. Those days in Filkee
were the best days of our lives. We didn't expect Kathy and Gael to
come, but they did, if only to make sure we go too crazy.

'Jesus, slow down Cobie!'
Kathy was in the back seat between Joker and Gael, being her usual
self, a nervous wreck.
'Damn it woman! I'm barely pushin fifty!'
'It's pissin' rain! The laughable imitation of a road you're ''barely
pushin' fifty'' on is flooding. Do you wanna get us all killed?'
Cobie slammed his fist on the wheel and craned his head around. His
face was red and veins were popping out all over the place.
'Who asked you to come along huh? This was meant to be a male bonding
excursion you know what I mean? White squall, Dead Poet's, that sort of
thing.'
Kathy was trembling, her eyes peeled open.
'Jesus, Jesus look where you're going you fuckin' lunatic!'
Cobie clenched his teeth and closed his eyes to stop them from popping
out of his skull. He turned around and gazed intensely through the
windscreen, his left eye twitching.
'God created woman for man's birthday.' He peered at Kathy's reflection
in the rear view mirror.
'He slapped a gob on her face on April Fools.'
Joker laughed. I tried my best not to, Gael was back there after all
and I just knew she was looking at me.
Kathy smiled and folded her arms.
'Prick!'
Joker covered his face with his hands. He was still laughing. He
thought Cobie was hilarious. Joker thought everything was hilarious,
hence the name.
'Morgan?' Gael asked.
'Yep!'
'How much longer?'
I looked at Cobie.
'Twenty minutes?' I said.
Cobie shrugged.
'Yeah, about that.' Joker said. He had finally composed himself.
He pointed out the window.
'I remember that farmhouse up ahead. You remember it?'
'Oh yeah!' I said 'The Zoo Farm. We went there once when we were kids.
How crap was it? We went there thinking there would be tigers and lions
and shit. Nope. Cows and pigs and chickens. Christ, I wasted a whole
two quid on that! I mean when you're eight that's a lot of
money..'
'Twenty minutes?' Gael said, her legs crossed tightly, one was hopping
up and down like a piston. 'Fuck it anyway!'
Joker was staring at her maniac leg. 'You need to pee?'
'What do you think jackass!'
He laughed.
'Jerkoff!'
'Hey!'
'Lads! Lads!' I interrupted the brewing argument.
'Joker, someone needs to pee, big whoop! And Gael, please?'
'Please what!'
I closed my eyes and sighed.
'Uuuck, you really are some pair you know that?'
My eyes were still closed when I felt a shock wave ripple through my
body.

I remembered the time I was seven years old and touched my elbow off
the electric fence surrounding my uncle's farm. The sensation was
exactly the same, except it lasted much longer, like I had actually
clasped my hands around the electric wire and not let go. I opened my
eyes. Everything was blue. I could see textures, the interior of the
car, my friends, except everything looked like a photographic negative
doused in blue light. Cobie had his hands over his ears. His face was
stretched out in what could have been a scream, but there was no sound.
Joker, I realised, was not in the back seat. He had disappeared. Kathy
looked like she had just seen her parents shot dead in front of her,
her face was frozen, twisted in shock and fear. Then I noticed Gael,
who had stretched out over the drivers seat and grabbed the steering
wheel. For some reason, none of this seemed strange to me. It felt
perfectly normal, even peaceful. I closed my eyes again and leaned
back. The pulse passed back through my body and seemed to flow out
through my fingers and toes. When I opened my eyes again, the blue hue
and unearthly silence had passed. Everything was back to normal, and we
were about to hit a tree.

Cobie hit the brakes so hard that I had to grab the dashboard to stop
myself from flying through the windscreen. Cobie looked around. Gael
was almost thrown over his seat.

'What in the hell was that?!' Cobie yelled

I rubbed my eyelids hard.

'I don't know.' I said 'Fuckin' weird whatever it was.'

I turned around.

'Everyone okay back there?'

Joker was there, eyes dashing around like he was having a fit.

'Wh-What the hell happened?' he said.

I looked at Gael.

'Are you okay?' I asked. Her mouth hung open like that of an inflatable
sex doll.

'Am I okay? Am I okay?' she laughed. 'Cobie nearly got us all killed
but other than that everything is peachy!'

'Hey! Whatever happened just now was pretty surreal you have to
admit.'

'Yeah you fuckin' bitch!' Cobie said. He spun around in his chair and
made to grab her.

'Hey!' I snagged him by the elbow and pulled him back into his chair.
'Just stop it okay! Both of you, it's over. Whatever happened back
there, it's over, all right?

'Morgan.' Cobie looked at me 'What the hell was that?'

'It was you going loco.' Gael muttered, he ignored her.

'I mean' he continued 'it sounded like hundreds of people, shrieking,
like they were in hell or something.'

'What?' I shook my head 'I didn't hear a thing, not a thing, not you,
the car, the rain, not even my own breath. And everything was blue,
like a gas flame you know?'

He stared at me, smiled on one side of his face.

'Well, I didn't see any of that shit Morgan. I closed my eyes because I
thought they were gonna rupture outta my skull.'

Gael was laughing.

'Are you guys crazy? I mean seriously! All I know is that Cobie let go
of the wheel and we were about to be wrapped around that tree over
there.'

I turned around. 'You didn't see, hear anything?'

She folded her arms. I looked at Joker. 'How about you?'

He groaned and scratched his neck.
'Well, you know its not easy for me to say this but, I'm with Gael.
Nothing happened. All I can remember is me and Gael engaged in a
slaggin' match. I remember blinking. And when my eyes opened after that
spilt second we were here stopped in the middle of the road, like I had
lost time. But I'm with Gael. What you guys just said sounds a
little&;#8230;'

'Oh Shit! Oh fuck!' Gael was shaking Kathy, screaming. 'Oh my God!
Kathy? Kathy stop screwin' around!'

'What?' I grabbed her shoulder 'What is it?'

Joker dropped down in his seat and turned Kathy's face toward his. She
was gagging.

'She can't breath!' Gael yelled through reams of tears.

'Ha-Ha!' Joker laughed ' Very funny Kathy.'

Gael slapped him away. 'What the fuck is wrong with you? She's choking
to death!'

Gael looked at me and the expression on her face was enough to tell me
she wasn't kidding around. I pushed the door open, that is when I
realised just how powerful the wind had become. It was hailing now and
the gale propelled the frozen pellets at me like bullets. I could hear
thunder not too far away. The door banged shut behind me. From outside
I could see that the car was rocking from side to side. I pulled the
handle on the back door. It refused to open. My body was being forced
against the car by the wind. I knocked at the window and I saw Joker
shift in his seat and lean against the door. It opened ever so
slightly, enough for me to jam my hands into the opening and pull the
door open. I climbed inside and closed the door. Joker swept his hand
through my hair to shake off the beads of frozen rain.

'You know, you could have climbed into the back between the two front
seats.'

I rubbed my together and blew on them.' Shut up Joker! Didn't think it
had gotten so bad.' I pushed his face away and knelt down on the
floor.

'Kathy!' I clasped my hands around her shoulders.
'She's not choking!' Gael said 'She's not gagging she's trying to
speak!'

'What?!' I looked at Kathy. She was shaking. Her lips were trembling as
she tried to form words. I took her hands in mine. 'I don't
understand.'

'She's mute' Gael said 'I think she might be in shock.'

'Or whatever happened back there took her voice.'

'Oh shut the fuck up will you! Nothing happened back there. She's
temporarily lost her voice because Cobie here scared the shit out of
her.'

Cobie just slumped in his seat, said nothing.

'I hope you're right' I said. 'I hope we're all crazy.'

Gael took a strand of hair between her fingers and placed it between
her lips. It was an annoying habit I had come to tolerate.

'Guys.' Cobie said in the gentlest voice I had ever heard come out of
his mouth. 'I know we'd all like to sit here for a while and try and
figure out just what the hell is going on. But there's a storm brewing
up out there and if I didn't know any better I'd say it was a
hurricane. We have to get into town fast before that bitch out there
sweeps us off the road.'

'He's right' Joker climbed into the front seat. 'Just look at that sky.
It's like something out of National Geographic.'

I sat beside Kathy, lay my arm around her shoulders and looked up at
the sky. The clouds were black and rumbling and flashing bolts of
electric light. The hale was really letting us have it, and for a
moment I was sure they were going to puncture the roof of the car and
tear the flesh from our bones.

I nodded. 'Lets get the fuck outta here!'

Gael touched my hand, pleading for me to take it. I reached over
Kathy's lap and held it as tightly as I could short of snapping it.
Kathy leaned her head on my shoulder and burst into tears.

'Okay you guys, fasten your seat belts!' Cobie stared the engine.
'Seriously you guys, belt up.' He peered up at the monster in the sky.
'I have a feeling this ain't gonna be a leisurely drive through the
countryside.'

Joker laughed, but in a solemn, disheartened way that disturbed me
greatly.

* * *

I loved Gael's lime green eyes. I loved her soft black hair and the
smell of orange grove scented shampoo that always lingered around her.
I loved her hands, so small and fragile. I loved everything about Gael,
with the exception of her lightening quick temper. Gael always seemed
to be strung out. I thought it was cute, until now.

'Just shut up Gael!' I kicked the back of Joker's seat. 'We'll get
there Okay?!'

'Oh yeah Morgan!' she growled 'When? Huh? We've been on the road for
almost an hour, you said it would be twenty minutes!'

'Well, yeah, Gael, but I forget, was that before or after an
inexplicable monsoon appeared out of nowhere and started raining hell
down on us like the ninth plague of the apocalypse?! I said we'll get
there and we'll get there, Ok?'

Gael kicked the back of the drivers seat and clenched her teeth.

'I'm sorry Morgan. I'm sorry that I'm worried about my best friend who
has lost her voice. I'm sorry I want to be in a warm motel watching
shitty cable T.V. I'm sorry I was ever born all right? Happy?'

There was no point in arguing any further. There wasn't even much point
in trying to reason with her, not when she was like this. I heard Cobie
laugh.

'Woo-Hoo! Welcome to Filkee everybody!'
He pointed at a sign on the right side of the road. It was barely
visible through the thickening blanket of hail. I tried to read it but
it was still too far away.

'Hear that Kathy?' I whispered 'We're here. We're going to take you to
a doctor and everything's going to be okay.' I kissed her forehead. I
looked up at Gael. She smiled. I smiled back.

'What the- what the fuck!' Cobie craned his neck around as we sped past
the sign.

'What is it?' Gael asked.

'Yeah' I added 'What's going on?'

Cobie was shaking his head, laughing. 'No no, no way!'

Joker turned around 'I-I think. Cobie?'

'Yeah-yeah you saw it, I saw it too.'

'What?' Gael demanded, half laughing 'Can someone please tell me what's
going on?'

'That sign.' Cobie said 'That sign didn't say welcome to Filkee. I
could see his eyes looking back at me in the rear-view mirror.
'It said welcome to Hell!'

To be continued&;#8230;.