After Death (31 page)

“What we saw was impossible, Frank…” She began, renewed fear creeping in and making her voice rise… He met her gaze and nodded.

I need to sound very calm, steady as a rock.
He thought.
She needs to feel safe… She needs to know that she has me to depend on…

“I know…” he agreed and then said it again more firmly. “I know.”

She paused for a long moment, searching his face, reason seeming to be slowly returning.

“What can we do?’ She finally asked. “If we tell someone, they’d never believe us — just like when you told me…”

She glanced at him apologetically, resumed —

“…The missing kids… The story you told me…” She stopped, almost breaking down but quickly forcing it back. “Jesus, Frank, now we know who’s doing this…”

He nodded again.

Say something, you idiot! She needs to hear something reassuring from you — She’s on the verge of cracking!

He slid his hand under the comforter and took her hand. He stroked her fingers with his.

“It’ll be okay, honey. We’ll figure this out together…”

Lame! He didn’t sound convincing at all!

She began again, more desperation seeping in: “We could tell the police there’s a psychopath on the loose —”

“— But then there’d be a lot of questions…” He interrupted. “None of which we’d be able to answer. Besides… I’ll be honest… I don’t think there’s anything they can do about this… guy…”

He shouldn’t have said that — Why did he say that? She was having enough trouble as it was without him sowing doubt..!

She nodded, seeming to wilt before his eyes.

“So what now, Frank? What do we do?”

It was the inevitable question — the one he’d asked himself a hundred times over since realizing the truth. She stared at him, counting on him… He was her protector — the man of the house. He had to sound like he had a plan — that he knew of something that would work. Without that, terror would take over and she’d slip over the edge…

He cleared his throat and spoke in an authoritative tone he did anything but feel.

“We need to put everything we know about him together and see what comes out. There has to be some point of weakness… Nothing is invulnerable. How did he come back? Was it just the promise or — was there something more? It might not be a logical situation but that doesn’t mean logic can’t help us solve it…”

He hadn’t sounded strong enough and he could see the results clearly as she clutched his hand.

“Frank…”

Her tone was so
plaintive
— So totally desperate…

“Frank, you say nothing’s invulnerable but we don’t know that anymore. Maybe it’s the old “We’re fucked” scenario like when I read your vampire story, remember..? How does the hero kill what’s already dead? Answer — he doesn’t — He’s fucked.”

She turned to the side and buried her face in the pillow. She had seen their doom and now seemed to view it as inevitable. All her strength was gone. All that was left in its place was raw, mind-numbing, fear.

Tears poured out of her, her body heaving with long, deep sobs that made him feel totally useless.

He had failed her. He had inflicted all this on his darling wife and it was he who had brought her to this pathetic state. And now what could he really do? Any lies he might tell were transparent. It was clear that Eli was beyond any harm mere mortals could inflict. He had been toying with Frank first and now he had decided to play with both of them.

He lifted her swaddled form up against him, pulled her close, and cradled her head against his shoulder. He felt as forlorn as she was but he would not give up. There must be something they could do — there must be! This was beyond religion, he no longer hoped for some miraculous rescue from heaven. When he thought about the fact that he had dared to seek this, he was embarrassed. And yet, he somehow still had hope. Was it delusion? A last groping grasp at a buoyant life raft? Or was it that he felt that life always sought its own equilibrium? Nothing in the realm of existence was allowed complete sway for too long — there were always checks and balances that caused the middle ground to once again win out. And if something as powerful as Eli were to be allowed free reign for too long, that equilibrium would no doubt be annihilated. Somehow he knew that could not happen. He didn’t know how, but he knew.

He squeezed Jackie against him reassuringly and spoke in a voice he now genuinely felt.

“Honey, we will be all right. I promise you, we will be all right.”

And he meant it. With every ounce of his being he meant it and would honor it. He would protect his love from the creature he had unleashed. He would do anything necessary to keep her safe. There was nothing that would get between him and his love — Nothing!

Her body was pressed so tightly against him, he could feel her chest vibrate when she spoke.

“You shouldn’t make promises… you can’t keep,
Franklin
.”

Something was wrong — Her voice sounded hollow and false! And she never called him Franklin..!

He pulled away to look into her eyes — to see what was wrong and reassure her again that —

— but the comforter collapsed in his hands! There was nothing but foul air that billowed from the hollow space and clogged his nostrils making him gag!

He spun and searched the room —
How could this be! She had been there, they had been talking, and then suddenly —

His eye caught movement on the ceiling — in the large mirror over the bed — Just at the edge, almost gone —
a dark pant leg and scuffed dress shoe
— walking out of the mirror frame
upside down!

Eli! It could only be Eli!

As if in answer to this unspoken query, a hat fell
upwards
to the top corner of the mirror’s reflection and rested there, as if on flat ground —
Eli’s hat!

Frank waited, breath held for what he knew had to follow — It had to. And then —

A wrinkled and long-fingered hand reached
up
to retrieve the hat.

A moment and the fiend’s now horribly rotted and partially transparent face leaned into view from
below
. He turned and flashed a gummy smile down at Frank and pretended surprise at being seen.

“Oh! — Excuse me, Franklin — pardon the intrusion — and in my present condition, no less.”

He placed the hat on his head and flashed a jagged grin — and a black tooth fell upwards from his mouth.

“Ooops.” He raised a hand to his lips and spoke in a muffled voice through his fingers. “The by-product of being dead, I suppose.”

Frank was immediately apoplectic. He screamed up at the mirror.

“Where is she, you fuck?!? Where’s Jackie?!?”

Eli scrunched up his partially see-through face and rubbed his chin in mock contemplation. His voice was teasingly soft and melodic — the same voice as in life — with that characteristically sing-song lilt.

“I believe, as the expression goes, Franklin — that is for me to know and you to find out.”

He flashed a nasty grin once more, spun on his heel, and exited the mirror’s reflected view without a second glance.

Fernando leaned against the rusty door of his old Ford Pinto, discreetly smoking a joint in the parking lot and trying to make sure he stayed out of the invading light from the hospital windows. He’d taken a double-shift since he wanted to buy Rosa something nice for her birthday and wasn’t used to working so long or so late. His feet felt like bricks and his shoulder muscles hurt from huddling over the stove so many hours — A few puffs was the perfect way to take the edge off.

He held the warm smoke in his lungs, then slowly let it out in one even plume as he stared off down the street at the evenly placed row of street lamps that created perfect light circles on the recently rained on pavement beneath.

He took another hit, telling himself this was the last one. He already felt good — nice and relaxed — except for that paranoia that tried to poke its way in every few minutes. He knew it was artificially induced but still couldn’t help a glance in both directions down the street and back across the parking lot. It was probably the tenth time he’d checked in less than five minutes — although he couldn’t be sure since he felt so dreamily slowed in this state and had trouble keeping track of time.

For a moment he again felt warmly content — His thoughts couldn’t keep on a single track any longer — and the lack of focus gave a temporary reprieve from the daily grind and a feeling of peace. Then the intrusive nudge returned and along with it the paranoid concern about who might be watching out a door or window or whether he would lose his job or get arrested if he were seen. He again surveyed the parking lot for signs of anyone watching and again looked up and down the wet street.

Something dark moved fast towards him under one of the streetlamps at the far end of the street and then passed out of its light circle into darkness. It was small, insignificant, and he languidly scratched his head and watched for more movement with a detached smile. He was loose now and his movements felt slow, as if he were underwater… He grinned to himself at a thought he suddenly couldn’t remember, then chuckled at the fact he couldn’t remember it. He absently raised the joint to his lips for one last puff and almost burned his clumsy fingers with the ember. Meanwhile, the shape moved inexorably towards him and swept rapidly under another street lamp then vanished back into the cloaking darkness. He stared at its progress without concern —
whatever it was, it was on its way and would be here soon enough for him to see.

The object again passed quickly under and out of the glare of a closer streetlamp, this time much larger. He simply watched and waited — he wondered if this was all some after-effect of the ganja, and whether he would be disappointed when he saw what it really turned out to be.

When it passed under the final streetlamp, he realized what it was — a dog loping rapidly towards him — its long forelegs flying soundlessly forward, stretching for distance, its hind legs pulling up close, lightly touching the ground, then launching it into the next agile leap.

He watched this ballet of incredibly coordinated movement for several more seconds, totally absorbed, until the awareness that the animal was a ragged, dark, and extremely large wolf-hybrid caused a small bolt of energy to shoot through him as he realized he was in danger. He instantly snapped out of his languorous pot malaise and dove into his car and slammed the door shut faster than he thought he was able.

It was not a moment too soon. He thought he heard the light touch of paws on pavement outside and a shadow passed soundlessly over the car and vanished into the darkness.

His paranoia was now in full force.
Was this real? Was he really in danger?
His heart was pumping away in double-time and he was trying to force himself calm… and then he realized with another jolt that the passenger window was completely rolled down. He jumped across the seat with maniacal speed and spun the handle wildly — it was half-way up when a deep guttural growl sounded nearby and a black blur and glint of teeth came charging in fast.

There was no time to get the window the rest of the way up. Fernando flinched back against the driver’s side door waiting for the worst — His only hope was that the creature couldn’t clear the window or that he’d be able to kick it in the head and pin it against the ceiling of the car with his legs or —

— The creature leapt — directly on target — soaring for the window with mouth wide.

Fernando braced for impact — In that split instant he knew — if it entered, he was done for.

Instead, it veered off in mid-air and again passed easily over the car without a sound.

He sprawled across the cab and lost no time finishing raising the window. For several minutes he peered wildly through all the windows in every direction. It was so quiet now, so dark and still, it was as if he’d imagined it.

Slowly, as the minutes passed, his anxious state began to diminish.
Could he have imagined it?
He again did his 360-degree surveillance and saw nothing out of the ordinary except for the joint that he’d been smoking lying on the asphalt outside his door.

He didn’t want to leave it there — it was too close to the hospital — and he didn’t want to arouse suspicion should anyone find it. On the other hand, that wild creature was still out there… (
maybe
).

He waited another ten minutes (which felt like hours in his current state) and finally unlocked his door. He slowly pressed down on the door release but couldn’t get himself to open the door yet — something held him back — some instinct of self-preservation…

The dog’s head suddenly smashed against the door glass, growling and scratching and scrabbling in a wild flurry of yellow eyes, gnashing teeth, and foaming saliva. Startled, Fernando almost let go of the door handle in fright but instead clung to it for dear life — the thin glass the only thing separating him from the crazed beast and certain death.

And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it ducked back out of sight and was gone.