The Lights Over Jupiter Point: Book 1

  Chapter 1: The Stranger Arrives

  There wasn’t anyone around when the stranger entered the town. As he came up the empty road, the sun had almost entirely set. Its last rays distorted the visitor’s silhouette, making it dance in the heat of the hot pavement.

  The tall man was the sole traveler on the road. A black Fedora hat shadowed his face from the harshness of the sun. The clothes he wore were unassuming; a red and black plaid shirt, faded jeans, and black canvass shoes. There was no luggage. The only item he carried was an oddly shaped cloth water bottle slung over his shoulder.

  As he turned to enter a steep road that went uphill, the traveler began to smile. A street sign stood before him indicating the distance to his destination:

  Jupiter Point ---- 10 Miles

  The traveler opened his water bottle and drank. After returning the container to his shoulder, he stepped off onto the final leg of his journey.

  Chapter 2: The Souls of Kelly and Johnny

  “If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?” Kelly asked, her naked body stretched out on the dewy grass. She stared at the sky, breathing in the sweetness of the summer night as the stars danced before them like sparkling diamonds.

  “What would I do? I don’t know. Drink another beer?” Johnny joked. Kelly poked him in the ribs with her index finger.

  “Stop being silly. I’m serious. If you could go anywhere, do anything, what would you choose?”

  Johnny raised himself onto his elbow. He leaned closer to her face and kissed her lips gently. Kelly liked him. He was the most handsome man at her husband's law firm. His round spectacles complimented his strong jawline, making his appearance masculine and nerdy all at once. His chest was too hairy for her taste, yet she didn’t mind it too much. His chiseled six-pack abs more than made up for it. She’d known for some time that he liked her. She just needed to wait until her husband had left town before making her move.

  “What would I do? I would die with you,” he stated with sincerity. Kelly was taken by surprise with his answer. She knew he liked her, but this was their first time together. The statement seemed out of place.

  “You’re willing to die for a married woman with two kids?” she asked with a hint of sarcasm. He knew her situation. Her husband worked at the same law firm that he did. So why would he say such a thing?

  “If you didn’t want the answer, why’d you ask?” Johnny snapped as he pulled another beer from the cooler.

  Kelly started giggling. Here she thought that she’d get a quick fuck while her husband traveled out of town on business. Instead, Kelly got Mr. Romance. She was too old for this high school shit. Forty-plus wives didn’t have romances; they had affairs. Or maybe a fuck session or two.

  “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment. I do. But I thought you’d respond with something like a romantic getaway or maybe becoming a famous movie star. Not something so Shakespearean. I mean, dying with an unfaithful wife? Come on.” She mocked.

  Kelly had cheated on her husband a dozen times in their ten years of marriage. Most of them had been faceless distractions from her dull home life. Being married to a lawyer was tough, but being married to a limp-dicked 320-pound lawyer who couldn’t get it up? That was hell on earth. Although she was in her forties, her body was as ripe as a strawberry patch in spring. Most teens dreamed of the body she had - even after popping out two kids for a thankless slob.

  Johnny took a big swig of his beer.

  “For some reason, you keep telling me you’re married. Like I have a tuxedo in my pickup truck or something. Look, you asked. I told. End of story. I’m okay with how things are.” He said as he stared at the stars. Out of all the men she’d cheated with, Johnny was the first man to mention something different.

  Kelly could sense that maybe she had gone too far with her complaint. She didn’t want to waste this moment arguing over silly things. When at home, Kelly was horny enough to lay a doorknob – and came very close to it too. She’d gone through three electric toys in one month. She’d be a fool to let this live-action toy escape.

  “But you’d be happier if we did it again, right?” she asked naughtily. A dirty smile flickered on Johnny's face.

  “Hell yeah,” he exclaimed as she climbed on top of him. The two locked in a passionate kiss.

  The two lovers never noticed the shadowy figure approaching from the road. His movements were unnaturally silent, and his stride was deliberate. The sun was gone now. His mysterious silhouette was just another irrelevant shape competing against the beauty of the night sky.

  The stranger stood and watched the two have sex for a moment. Perversion didn't motivate him. He didn’t seem interested in the sexual act at all. Instead, he analyzed their thoughts and emotions. He was interested in their value. An emerald light glowed from underneath his Fedora as his eyes widened; he became fixated on the feelings of the two lovers. Finally, he smiled, pointed a long finger towards the sky, and silently walked into the dark forest.

  Not soon after, Johnny screamed. His moment of pleasure was the biggest he’d experienced of his life. Kelly sat watching him convulse through ecstasy for five minutes. Goosebumps covered his skin. Beads of sweat appeared all over his body. Each of his muscles flexed like he was at a gym. Kelly was amazed at the performance.

  “Holy shit. I’ve never had one like that before,” Johnny exclaimed. He sat up, embarrassed by his display of passion. Kelly’s eyes shimmered in awe. She had never been so excited. Maybe there was something special between the two of them. After all, they’ve known each other for several years. Although they had never spoken, perhaps they shared some emotional chemistry. Kelly couldn’t understand why, but now she felt closer to him. It felt like they were a couple. His earlier comments about dying together didn’t seem so out of place now. Romance filled Kelly’s heart with warmness.

  Suddenly Johnny stood and stared into the stars. His eyes moved through the heavens with the amazement of a child. Kelly gazed into the night sky as she reached out and grabbed Johnny’s hand.

  “What is it?” she asked. Johnny’s brown eyes remained focused on the stars.

  “The sky looks beautiful tonight. Being here with you is special for me.”

  Kelly pulled him back down next to her. She wanted his naked body close. As she rested her head on his sweaty chest, the crickets began singing their nocturnal song. The magnificence of nature was all around them. She was drowning in the romance of it all.

  “I feel safe in your arms,” Kelly whispered. After the two stared into the sky for a few more moments, Kelly confessed to him.

  “Hey, your words weren’t dumb,” she whispered. Kelly’s previous statement now seemed unusually cruel. Sure, the two of them were doing something that they both would be in trouble for with almost every religion. But the fact of the matter was simple: Johnny was with her now. Her husband wasn’t. It wasn’t right for her to dim his feelings with her dull attitude.

  “I’ve just never had someone care about me like that. Not for a long time. Maybe I’m just getting used to the quiet noise of marriage.”

  Johnny smiled.

  “Let’s make a wish on the next falling star,” he recommended. Johnny lay down on the grass and pulled Kelly down with him. They both watched the stars.

  “Let’s make a wish that all of our problems go away.”

  Kelly turned to him with a look of disappointment on her face.

  “No. Let’s keep the same answer that you gave me. Let’s wish that we will die together. Two lovers without a problem in the world.”

  Johnny shook his head in agreement.

  “Like Romeo and Juliet, right?” he asked. Kelly shook her h
ead in agreement.

  “Okay. On the next star.”

  The two looked up into the night sky, waiting for the gift of summertime lovers. Finally, the two saw a shooting star peel away from the others.

  “Wow. I’ve never seen the beginning of a shooting star before,” Kelly whispered. The star streaked across the sky. Johnny and Kelly both closed their eyes and made their wishes in silence. After a few moments, they both opened their eyes. Kelly’s heart was racing. As they stared romantically into each other's eyes, something seemed different about their connection. She wanted him in every way. For once, nothing else mattered. Not the husband or the kids’ soccer practice. It was only the two of them. They bonded through the majesty of this particular night.

  After what seemed like an eternity, they both returned their eyes to the sky.

  “Shit!” exclaimed Johnny.

  “It’s still falling.”

  The star had gotten much more prominent as it fell. Instead of streaking across the sky, it seemed to be on a direct path to earth. The mystic beauty of the falling star was gone. In its place was the harshness of proximity. It had become a sizeable glowing space rock full of fire.

  Kelly pulled Johnny close.

  “We might see it enter the atmosphere. What an awesome night,” she exclaimed. The two sat on the fresh grass and watched as the fireball got closer and closer. There was a loud boom that shook the ground. Now Kelly and Johnny could see intense fire and smoke peeling off the surface of the star. Internally the lovers began to worry; neither was brave enough to admit their desire to run. Kelly pulled her knees next to her chest, biting them in fear. Johnny leaned back on his hands, pulling up handfuls of grass. After a while, he couldn’t hide his anxiety any further.

  “Hey, maybe we need to book. This situation is getting too weird,” said Johnny. But Kelly had already begun dressing. Her thoughts were now on her kids. She’d left them at her in-law’s home for a few hours. If a citywide emergency were to happen, she was sure her seventy-year-old mother-in-law couldn’t handle it. The old hag could barely take the fact that her whale-of-a-son had married her.

  “Yeah, I should get home to the kids. This thing doesn’t look good.”

  As the two turned from the open field to walk through the forest, Johnny wiped the sweat from his brow.

  “Have you noticed how hot it’s getting?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Let’s hurry,” responded Kelly. The two began to walk quickly through the woods towards their cars. The heat was really upon them. Kelly’s underarms began to drip sweat.

  “Shit! I just bought this blouse. Now I’m sweating like a pig,” she complained. The two looked up into the sky and were surprised to see how close the star appeared to be. The orange light emitting from the star colored the sky an autumn maple color, making the trees' tops look like pumpkins.

  Kelly could barely breathe. She struggled to keep up with Johnny as her words turned into struggles for breath.

  Suddenly, all the trees in the forest burst into flames.

  “Johnny!” Kelly screamed. Everything was on fire now. The forest was a raging inferno as the two lovers ran towards their destination. Suddenly, Johnny stopped and took off his shirt.

  “It’s too hot,” he whispered as he turned to face Kelly. Suddenly his chest hairs began to burn. After a while, his whole body was ablaze. Kelly shrieked in terror as she watched him fall to the ground, burning. Soon her cries were those of pain. Her hair caught fire like a dry leaf as she swung wildly to put it out. She fell to the ground, consumed by the inferno.

  After a few moments, a dark shadow appeared in the center of the inferno. The man stood in the center of the fire, untouched and unfazed. His green eyes lit up underneath his hat like unearthly plutonium. Soon he was standing above the two burning corpses, an evil smile on his face. He extended one of his hands above their burning corpses. Round balls filled with powerful green energy rose from the bodies towards his hand. He grabbed them and put the two balls into his water bottle. The fire raged as he walked out of the forest and into the night.

  Chapter 3: The Souls of Alexander and Samuel

  “Now get the fuck out.”

  Alexander’s eyes widened in fear as he swung open the car door. Was Mike serious? Was he going to do this? His little brother, Samuel, started crying softly. Mike whipped around to the child in the back seat.

  “You shut your goddamned trap!” he yelled. Next, he turned and pointed to Alexander.

  “And you, get the fuck out of my car!”

  Apprehensively, Alexander looked back into the old car at his scared little brother. Mike was the middle-aged man who had started dating their mom. The two boys hated him. Their young minds couldn’t grasp the reason their mom had made such a wrong choice.

  From what Alexander and Samuel had witnessed, he was only there for three reasons: cursing, heavy drinking, and screwing their mom. A few weeks after their real dad had died in a car accident, Mike came over. It started as just keeping Alexander’s mom company. Then it moved to him sleeping on their sofa. When Alexander saw Mike’s boots underneath his mom’s bed, it was over. Mike was a permanent fixture in their home.

  Not long after that, Mike began bossing his mom around. Next came the random thefts from his mom’s purse and Alexander’s and Samuel’s piggybanks. One day Mike went on his holier-than-thou rant about women not being suited for corporate America and the importance of wives staying at home supporting their husbands. When their mom voiced her disagreement with him, Mike broke her jaw with a glass ashtray. After that, his mom quit her job at the real estate firm and never left the house.

  Mike sat in the driver’s seat, arrogantly rubbing his patchy graying beard. Alexander grabbed his garbage bag full of clothes and climbed out of the car.

  “Alex, you’re just going to leave me?” his brother asked from the back seat.

  “It’ll be okay, Sam. Mom will take care of you,” he lied. Inside, Alexander was boiling. Alexander knew his little brother would be hurt badly. There was no way his mom could handle taking care of the five-year-old. On top of being just as scared as the two boys were, his mom had developed a severe opioid addiction. Eighty percent of the time, she lay passed out in her bedroom. The other twenty percent of her time, Alexander’s mom was being beaten, having sex, and begging Alexander and Samuel to find her more drugs.

  “Mike, I’m sorry. Please don’t leave me out here,” Alexander begged. He was only eight years old. With the howling winds, Jupiter Point was scary at night. Wild animals stalked the forest at night, making strange unearthly sounds in pursuit of their prey. And then there were the ghost stories he’d heard from his friends.

  “Oh, now you want to beg me? Fuck you,” the man snapped. Mike reached underneath the passenger seat and pulled out an empty bottle of bourbon.

  “Shit.” He whispered as he stuck his tongue in the bottle, searching for any remaining liquor. There was none.

  “But mom…” Alexander tried to bring up the fact that his mom would be worried.

  “Your mom doesn’t know where you are.” He said while tossing the empty bottle out of the car. Earlier, Mike had picked the two boys up from school. He’d said their mom was sick. Mike explained that there had been an accident and she was in a hospital out of town. Worried, the two boys climbed into the car.

  Alexander was immediately suspicious when he saw the bag of clothes. Mike claimed that the clothing was for the two boys to stay overnight with their mother at the hospital. But Alexander knew it was a lie. He just felt it. Alcoholics aren’t thoughtful enough to remember stuff like that. It hadn’t made sense to him. When Alexander looked in the bag and saw his mother’s sheets, blankets, dresses, and socks, it confirmed the scam. Mike had been up to something. But Alexander played along anyway. Mike had picked Samuel up from his class first before walking over to Alexander’s. If he didn’t play along as Mike had demanded, Samuel might have gotten hurt. After Mike pulled them both out of class, they all climbed into the
car together and drove to Jupiter Point.

  “Look, you’re useless. Your mom doesn’t love you, and you know I never gave a damn. All you do is eat, sleep, and shit. The both of you. A permanent bill we can never pay off,” Mike continued.

  “In fact…” Mike got out of the car and snatched open the rear passenger door.

  “You get the fuck out too. Both of you can stay out here as far as I’m concerned. Fewer mouths to feed.” He barked while climbing back into the car. Alexander could see the happiness dancing in his little brother’s eyes.

  “I’m just glad you’re not my fucking sons. I hope the two of you fucking die tonight,” he hissed. Alexander could tell Mike’s drinking hunger was taking over. The thick ring of saliva was crusting around his mouth. As Mike licked his dry lips, the man’s foul breath revealed he hadn’t brushed his teeth for days. His eyes bounced from one item to the next, partly searching for anything of value that could get him his next bottle and partly probing for the police.

  Alexander looked away from Mike into the dark forest. People said there had been a forest fire at Jupiter Point a few days ago. If there was, he couldn’t tell. The only smells in the air were vegetation and the dirty exhaust from Mike’s old car. Alexander gripped his little brother’s hand tight.

  “You been to Jupiter Point before?” Mike asked the boys suddenly. Alexander shook his head.

  “If you walk for two miles up that-a-way, there’s a park where everybody goes to fuck. Make it there, and you can get away from the animals around here. If you don’t, a wolf will get you,” he sneered. Mike burst into a full laugh that seemed to echo through the woods. Samuel clung tightly to Alexander’s waste. They were both afraid of Mike.

  “Either way, I don’t give a shit. You’re on your own now. And if you tell the cops what I did, I’ll find you and put a bullet between your eyes, worthless pieces of shit.”

  Alexander pulled Samuel away from the vehicle.

  “A thick head makes a soft ass, shit birds. Get lost.” Mike revved the engine and sped away from the two boys. The two children watched in silence as the old car’s rear lights became smaller and smaller. When they couldn’t see the taillights anymore, Samuel spoke.