Absence of Faith

A
bsence of
F
aith

Anthony Samuel Policastro

Absence of Faith. Copyright

2009 by Anthony Samuel Policastro. All
rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America by
Smashwords. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information contact Anthony
Samuel Policastro at
[email protected]
or visit the author’s blog at
http://aspnovelist.blogspot.com

All of the characters and events in
this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual events or
actual persons living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition

April 2009

Cover illustration by Emily E.
Policastro

For Joann, my loving wife,
soul
mate and best friend, who has
always supported me.

In memory of my father,
Samuel Anthony Policastro, who gave me a hands-on approach to life
and the inspiration to always reach for the stars.
1925-1999

Many thanks to Marion
McBride,
my beloved Mother-in-law
for her invaluable editing and
insight.

1933-2006

H
e was tired
and looking forward to sleeping late the next morning. He and his
wife, Linda, had just left an annual reunion with his fellow
classmates from medical school. They had become close and vowed to
get together once a year to refresh their friendship no matter how
far the winds of their careers had carried them. It seemed like
only yesterday that they made that vow and now two years had
slipped between that evening before graduation, and the night of
this particular get together.

Carson and Linda approached the
aging Red River Bridge; a forgotten wooden structure built in the
1920s and scheduled to be torn down in the summer. Carson enjoyed
the clanking of the loose boards as the car went over them; Linda
hated when he took this way home; she believed the bridge would
collapse any day now and most likely it would be their car that
caused the collapse. Below them, the river moved steadily marking
their passage - a point in time captured like the click of a camera
captures a split second of realty. Carson wondered what mysteries
lay beneath the escaping, fouled water. He wondered how much
history the river had seen - he knew that the river was old, very
old. He knew that the river once flourished with crabs and oysters
- the older men spoke of those days when they were children and the
river teemed with edible sea life. It's hard to look at an old man
and imagine that he was once a child - fresh, new and naive to the
world he inhabited. The river could have been here since the early
beginnings of the earth, but today no one cared about such
meaningless things. They regarded the river as a means to get out
to the ocean or illegally dump unwanted chemicals or sewage. No one
cared about the river - no one defended the river. His thoughts
seemed to melt into others like a dream that progresses with random
happenings all unrelated and all illogical.

* * *

The tiny orange light grew brighter
as he was pulled downward at an ever-increasing speed. Shadows at
the sides of the tunnel came to life and thrust out thin, spiny
arms that grabbed at him. When the arms made contact, they were
transparent and they transmitted an electrical-like pain through
his skin that sliced his arms and legs into shredded raw flesh. He
tried to avoid them but he couldn’t. He fell faster and fear washed
over him like the wind in his face as he thought of his impending
doom. Suddenly he stopped falling as if he landed on a pillow of
soft air. He was eased down on his back and he felt the back of his
head sink into something soft, something familiar. He was in his
bedroom lying in his bed, wondering how he got there. The curtains
on the window were moving and he could see there was something
outside pushing against the glass trying to get in. He tried to get
up, but he couldn't feel his arms. The window shattered and a black
entity resembling a long black scarf snaked into the room, stopped
at the foot of the bed, and metamorphosed into a giant, angry dog
with an over sized head and mouth. The dog jumped up on the bed and
bit into Carson’s left thigh violently shaking its head from side
to side ripping the leg from Carson’s body. Within seconds, the dog
bit into Carson’s other leg tearing it off with several quick turns
of its violent head. Carson screamed in pain and tried desperately
to move away kicking and pushing with a virgin terror that scared
him more than the dog. The dog hovered over Carson its long pointy
teeth dripping with Carson’s blood and pieces of his skin and
sinew. The beast opened its mouth wider and thrust its disfigured
head towards Carson and Carson knew a new terror more intense, more
frightening than all the others. This dog was familiar! Instantly,
his mind reeled back to when houses were still being built in his
neighborhood and he played in the wooded lot next door. The lot had
a narrow dirt path that was well worn by all the neighborhood kids,
and on this day, Carson, his friend Georgie, who lived across the
street and tiny Sara from the house next door were on an adventure.
The threesome walked down the path, Carson in the lead, Georgie
behind him and Sara trailing when there was a rustling in the bush
ahead. Suddenly, a large black dog appeared on the path with its
teeth drawn and a low growl in its throat. A gold tag hung from its
black collar ringed in silver studs. Sara immediately turned and
ran screaming; Carson and Georgie stood there paralyzed in
fear.

"Nice, doggie," Carson said putting
up his hand and slowly backing away.

The growl intensified and turned
into a loud bark and then the dog lunged towards Carson knocking
him to the ground. Georgie ran as fast as he could, screaming and
crying down the path. The dog bit into Carson’s thigh and dragged
him into the bush where it was hiding earlier. The dog released
Carson, then bit into his foot, and violently shook its head back
and forth. Carson kicked the dog in the head and the dog released
his foot and then moved on top of Carson. He stood there a few
seconds growling and spewing its hot, acrid breath onto Carson’s
face, its eyes filled with hatred and evil. Then the dog opened his
mouth wider and moved towards Carson’s neck. Carson screamed and
pushed the dog’s head away.

"Crack!"

The dog’s head flew to the left and
the dog fell to the ground howling in pain. Carson looked up and
saw the angry face of his father holding a baseball bat. The dog
got up, shook its head and growled at Carson’s dad. Carson’s father
hit the dog again on top of its head and it slumped down onto the
ground whimpering. He hit the dog several times and the whimpering
stopped. Carson only remembered riding in an ambulance and then
waking up in the hospital, his mom and dad looking down at him his
leg and foot in pain.

* * *

Carson could feel the pointy teeth
pierce his neck and throat and his warm blood quickly squirt out
over his chest. He screamed again, but there was no sound and he
sensed his mind melt into the nothingness, into the darkness. He
woke up standing in front of a dark figure surrounded by intense
and wild fire. The flames burned behind the dark hooded figure so
that Carson could not see its face. Then the figure
spoke.

"You have been doomed to Hell! Your
punishment will go on endlessly and each time you will have no
memory that it occurred before."

Carson's throat burned and he
couldn't breathe, but he could move again. He was crying, but there
were no tears and fear thundered through his body again. He moved
farther away from the dark figure and ran, but his legs moved as if
they were in a thick sludge. Then he saw Linda trying to reach for
him under water! A golden light washed over them casting warm
streams of light into the darkness. It was a light filled with love
and familiarity, and it was the most beautiful light he had ever
seen. A tiny voice told him to go towards the light, but he didn't
want to - he wanted to go with Linda. He began to swim towards her
and when he was close enough he grabbed her hand and a coldness he
had never known rushed through his body. The cold blackened his
mind and there was nothing.

* * *

Linda was jarred out her sleep by
the clanking of the loose boards on the Red River Bridge as the car
started over the quarter mile structure. She looked over at Carson
and noticed his unmoving, glassy eyes.

"Carson!" she screamed as the car
drifted towards the bridge's railing.

She lunged toward the wheel, but it
was too late - the car crashed through the wood railing and plunged
downward into the river about twenty feet below. Instantly, her
world went black except for the dim, green hue of the dashboard
lights. The car moved downward, scraped on some submerge tree
branches, and slowly stopped. She could see a faint outline of the
branches pushed against the windshield. She gasped when the icy
cold water reached her ankles and numbed her feet.

"Get out! Get out! Get out
now!"
the voice screamed in her head.

She rolled the window down, but
stopped after a few inches when the cold water sprayed in like
hurricane rain. She gulped in a huge amount of air in anticipation
of a scream, but before she could let it out, the cold shock of the
water hit and she nearly passed out. She watched in horror as the
water filled the car covering her legs, her stomach, and her
breasts. She could no longer feel her body.

"GET OUT! GOTTA GET OUT!"
a
voice screamed in her head nonstop like a broken record skipping
and playing the same message over and over. Within seconds, the
water covered her face and she instantly thrust her head up and saw
a large air bubble forming in the ceiling of the car. She tilted
her head up, let out her breath of death and gulped the sparse air
like a hungry animal. Renewed with the life sustaining air, she put
her head under and groped for Carson finding it more difficult as
the ethereal light from the dashboard faded into the cold
death.

"GOTTA GET OUT! GOTTA GET CARSON
OUT! GET OUT!"
screamed in her head again. She found his limp
arm and pulled, but he wouldn't move. She panicked and then as if
something was thrust into her brain like a bullet piercing her
skull she had a revelation - the seat belt! Carson still had his
seat belt on! She groped again in the icy blackness to what seemed
like hours trying to find the belt, and then her hand touched
something smooth and long. She thought an hour had passed when only
a few seconds had elapsed. Everything was moving in slow motion.
She ran her hand down along the belt's length, found the buckling
device, and pushed on it. She pulled on the belt to get it off
Carson, but it would not give. She panicked again and pushed all
over the buckling device trying to find the release button. Her
face hurt, her hands were numb and she could not feel her fingers
touch the buckling device.

"GOTTA GET OUT! MUST GET OUT
BEFORE THE BATTERY GOES DEAD! GOTTA GET OUT!"

Instantly, the belt broke loose and
she pulled Carson towards her. Then she went limp. The pain in her
chest increased and she tasted death for the first time. It was
swallowing her, licking her, consuming her from within. She raised
her head and saw a faint outline of what appeared to be a bubble of
air. With little energy she had left, she raised her head and
sucked in the elixir of life and was born again. She pushed the
door open with her right leg, but it only moved several inches.
Bubbling sounds filled the darkness as more air escaped from under
the roof and rose up to freedom and life.

"OH NO! NO! NO!"
screamed in
her head.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!"
The voice seemed to be someone
else shouting at her from inside her head - a being motivated only
by fear and the will to live. The voice was alien to her as if she
were watching everything happen as an observer.

She placed her back against the
seat and used her legs to push the door open like a human wedge.
The door slowly opened, but only enough for her to squeeze out. She
looked up and saw another tiny bubble of air still trapped in the
ceiling and thought she should go for it, but decided Carson was
more important. She squeezed out of the car holding Carson’s hand.
Then she realized that she no longer had Carson’s hand! She
struggled to pull the door open and finally wedged her leg between
the door. She could barely see, but Carson was on his back floating
across the front seats like a watery corpse. She grabbed his ankle
and pulled him towards her. His legs spread apart as she pulled and
she reluctantly let go his ankle to grab his other foot. She
finally pulled him through the tiny space. Then something touched
her leg in the black darkness.
"The tree branches,"
she
thought with a new adrenaline fix.