Disappearance in the Rain

Brian woke up again to the sound of rain for the third day. Looking out from his second-floor window he frowned at the rain, another gloomy day he thought to himself. Across the street, two people were standing in the rain talking. They both had umbrellas and seemed deep in conversation. Brian felt a sneeze coming on, turned away from the window, and sneezed. When he looked back, he noticed the two people across the street had vanished, and there were two umbrellas still open lying on the ground. Brian looked up and down the street in both directions, but there was no sign of either person. Why did they leave behind their umbrellas, he thought, strange.

It has been raining in the City of Archdale Falls for several days, heavy at times but mostly consistent. Considerable amounts of water have been pooling around the city. The storm drains were struggling with the runoff of the water. The reservoir outside the city limits was nearing capacity. City Officials were growing concerned. There was another issue that was also a growing concern, and unbeknownst to Brian, he soon would be heavily engaged in.

Brian worked as a news reporter for a local television station. Not long out of college with his degree in journalism, he considers himself very lucky to have landed a job at the station in his hometown. It was not lost on him that he had a bit of help in acquiring the job. His uncle has been a long-time on-air news personality for the television station for a couple of decades, he was well-known and respected.

Brian walked into the employee entrance of the Television station at noon today. He had been out late the night before reporting on a large traffic accident just outside of town involving several semi-trucks. There was sadly a death involved as well. There was no doubt the weather and speed played a part in the accident. He didn't arrive home until 3 am. With only a few hours’ sleep, he was back at the station.

"Hey, good job on that story last night, I know it had to be miserable standing out in the rain for all that time." Rob his supervisor remarked as Brian passed him in the hall.

"Thanks, Rob."

The station manager was walking towards Brian.

"Morning Brian, have you talked to your uncle this morning?"

"No, why?"

"We can't get a hold of him and no one has talked to him or heard from him. Just unusual, he normally checks in with us by this time of day to get an update on the day's stories."

"Do you want me to go over to the house and check on him? Brian asked.

" Ya, could you please, something seems wrong. "

Brian drove into the driveway of his uncle's house. Knocking on the front door resulted in no one answering. He walked over and looked in the garage, his uncle's car was not there. He tried calling his cell phone, but the call went straight to voice mail.

Brian drove over to a local diner that he knew his uncle visited almost every day for breakfast. He parked across the street from the diner, grabbed his umbrella, and walked across to the diner using the crosswalk. Not an easy task since most of the streets are becoming flooded with large pools of water. Talking with the diner he was assured his uncle had not been in for breakfast this morning.

Brian walked back out to the corner and waited for the traffic light to change. As he walked up to the corner, a woman was already standing there. While waiting for the traffic light to change, Brian noticed that the large puddle of water in front of him at the corner began to bubble, like it was heating up and beginning to boil.

He watched in amazement when suddenly a grotesque humanoid-looking creature began to crawl out of the water and reached for the leg of the woman standing next to Brian. He reacted quickly and pulled the woman back. This did not deter the creature who quickly turned its focus to an older gentleman that had been standing on the other side of the woman. The gentleman was unable to react fast enough and the creature wrapped its three-fingered hand tightly around his ankle. The man lost his balance and fell to the ground. Brian grabbed the man's arms and began a tug of war with the creature. This creature was incredibly strong and Brian was having difficulty in getting grip with his shoes on the wet concrete. Brian slipped and fell back letting go of the man's arms. The man was quickly pulled into the water and pulled under. The woman began to scream, and Brian sat on the wet concrete in shock.

Back at the television station Brian sat in a chair with a blanket wrapped around him still in a state of shock. People asked him question after question as to what had happened. All Brian could say was he didn't know. He didn't understand what had transpired. Finally, the station manager cleared everyone out except himself and the police chief.

"What do you remember?" The police chief asked.

"I can't describe it, it was horrible, it was some type of grotesque creature. It just crawled up out of the water and grabbed that man's leg. I grabbed him, I tried to save him, I did, I tried, but in a blink, he was gone. That poor man."

Brian put his face in his hands and began to sob uncontrollably.

The next morning a detective from the police department showed up at Brian's home. He talked with Brian again about the incident. Brian found out through the Detective there were several unexplained missing persons over the last couple of days in the city.

Brian arrived at the television station and went straight to his supervisor's office. He was seeking permission to start investigating the missing persons the Detective had mentioned to him. Brian's uncle was among those unexplained disappearances. His supervisor informed him that they had another reporter on it and advised him to talk to her.

Emily was at a desk typing notes on a computer in front of her when Brian approached her. They sat and talked; Brian explained what he had witnessed. They agreed to work together and find out what was going on. They continued to talk when the phone on the desk rang.

Emily picked up the receiver, "This is Emily Swanson."

She listened to the person on the phone, “Okay, thank you for the information." She looked at Brian.

"Come on let's go, the caller said there is a group of people over at Oakdale and Sixth that witnessed what you had just described to me."

They arrived at the location and began to talk to some of the people. While Brian was talking to a woman he noticed over her shoulder a very large congregation of cats in the park across the street. After finishing the conversation with the woman, he walked towards the park avoiding the large pools of water as best he could. It was still raining, not heavy but consistent.

All the cats seem to be sitting and looking in the same direction at a single cat sitting on a bench. There must be at least two hundred cats he thought as he approached them. When he approached the cats, they ignored him. He stopped behind them and scanned around trying to figure out what they were doing. Brian noticed the cat sitting on the bench was staring directly at him. As soon as he locked eyes with the cat it jumped down off the bench and moved through the congregation of cats directly to him, stopping at his feet the cat looked up at Brian.

"Hello, Brian." The cat spoke.

Brian stumbled backward a few steps in shocked surprise.

"Yes Brian I can talk in your language, we all can, we chose not to under normal circumstances."

Still in a state of shock, "How do you know who I am?" Noticing all the other cats were now staring at him.

"Relax Brian I know your name in two ways, 1) you have a cat - Socks, which by the way hates the name, his true Egyptian name is Kosey, which means Lion. You might consider changing his name to fit him appropriately, he is a warrior through and through. 2) I have been in contact with your uncle. My actual Egyptian name is Maat. Its meaning is Goddess of Justice and Order.

"My uncle? Where is he?"

"Your uncle is safe for the moment but won't be too much longer if we don't act soon. He is being held deep underground by the cursed humanoid mutants. You see Brian all the cats here and myself belong to a society of warriors known as the Society of Bastet, or Goddess of Protection. We date back to the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs, during the 18th Dynasty around 1400 BCE. King Thutmose III became angry with a large group of slaves. He placed a curse on them that would deform their bodies and had them killed. Their bodies were burned in the desert. Their spirits and ashes were left to the elements of the wind and sky. Now when conditions are right their spirits fall with the rain in the form of microscopic molecules, they grow quickly, and they must feed."

"What must we do to stop these...things?"

"You can do nothing, Brian, neither can the rest of the people here. It is solely up to the Society of Bastet. We have been specifically trained over the centuries to deal with the mutants and return their spirits to where they belong."

Emily had joined Brian at the park. Brian tried his best to explain the events that had been described to him, Maat sat next to him. They watched as the cats lined up in pairs, jumped into a large pool of water formed by the non-stop rain in the center of the park, and disappeared.

"I thought cats didn't like getting their feet wet or water in general"? Emily asked out loud.

" We do but we like to make you think we don't," Maat replied.

After the last pair of cats jumped in, Maat stood up and followed them.

Several days had gone by since Brian’s conversation with Maat and he watched the cats jump into the water at the park. There didn't seem to be any more people disappearing, but it was still raining consistently. Brian showed up at the station for work. As he walked in, he heard a commotion in the newsroom. When he walked in there was his uncle standing and talking with everyone.

"You're safe, good to see you," Brian said as he walked up to him.

"Thanks to the Society of Bastet. By the way, Maat wants you to meet her in the park as soon as possible."

Brian stepped outside to his car. He looked up, the rain had stopped, the clouds had broken up and the sky was a brilliant blue.

Arriving at the park he walked towards the bench he first saw Maat sitting on. He stopped for a moment looking around and thought, how nice it was not having to stand in the rain.

 He approached Maat.

"Hello, Maat."

"Hello, Brian."

"It appears you were successful in stopping the, um...things."

"We were yes. Was there any doubt, Brian? We have been at this for many centuries, we have learned a few things."

"I guess not, well I don't know, I have never witnessed this before. So how did you do it?"

"We, the Society of Bastet, are very experienced with this issue. As far as how we do it, I’m sorry Brian that is a carefully guarded society secret. Let's just say it is not for the squeamish. A few of my warriors lost a couple of lives, but that is why we have nine."

"So, what now, where do you go from here?"

"Back to a normal cat until another large rain event with the right conditions. We are a very large society all over the world. We are prepared."

“That is good to know, Maat.”

“By the way Brian this whole conversation we have had did not happen, understood? We are not to speak again, and you are not to report on what has taken place. Lastly, be gentle with Kosey (Socks) he fought hard and lost a couple of lives so he will be weak for a while.”

With that, Maat jumped off the bench and Brian watched her vanish out of site.