The Lurking Man (3 page)

“No, don't. You're right. There's not a single picture throughout the entire house and it is time we added some life to it. I think I'm a little sensitive right now and I'm taking my frustrations out on you. It's just that Wilson and Beau . . .”

She fell into a silence filled with a hundred different possibilities.

“Ah, just forget it, it really doesn't matter,” she said.

“Yes it does! You need to talk about what you're feeling and stop bottling everything up.”

“No I really don't. I said to forget it.”

“Well, for the record he is a pain in the ass, Cailean. You know that?”

She glared at Emerson.

“I'm talking about Wilson,” he said. “Beau is a great kid.”

Cailean smiled. “Yeah, he is a great kid, and Wilson
is
a pain in the ass.” She laughed but quickly turned serious. “I suppose there is nothing more frustrating than finding out that you're the inadequate parent over and over again.”
 

“You're not inadequate and he is no better than you.”

“I know why you're saying that and I can even appreciate it, but the truth is Wilson is the better parent. I don't trust myself with Beau anymore than I would some stranger off the streets. There is no denying that I've caused him a lot of harm.”

Emerson scooted to the edge of the bed and sat close to Cailean.

“Why do you allow him to do this to you?”

Cailean shrugged and a tear fell from her eye. Maybe she was giving in to Wilson's manipulation and needed assistance. She looked at the nightstand and stared at the bottle of wine. Just one drink could go a long way in helping taking some of the edge off.

“I guess some truths are hard to accept,” she said. “Especially when you're hung over and slinging any excuse you can find because it's the easy thing to do.” She shook her head. “I don't know, but seeing that picture right afterwards was like a dagger to my heart.”

“I'm sorry, that's not why I put it there. I'll take it away.”

“And I said not to! I need you to listen to me. Wilson never did and that drove me absolutely nuts.”

“OK, I heard you. I'm sorry.”

“I think I need to see that picture, and as strange as it might sound right now, I think I needed to hear what Wilson had to say. You know as well as I do that there is a whole bunch of truth in his words.”

“You're allowing him to do it again,” Emerson said and put his arm around her. “You're better than that. And I put that frame out there to bring you joy—not to hurt you in any way.”

Cailean bobbed her head and wiped her eyes. She slithered out of his grasp. “I know, and I appreciate that.” She patted his thick, calloused hand and stood. “It was really nice of you to do that, thank you.”

She picked her jeans up off the floor, shook them out, and started to dress.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“I have to get Beau. It's the right thing for me to do.”

“I don't think it's a good idea. It's really bad out there, Cailean.”

“I know it is, and I've already told Wilson that. It doesn't matter to him in the least.”

“It does to me and I think you should call him back and let him know you're going to have to change it to next weekend.”

“I've done that for the past three weekends.” She paused and tried to remember the last time she saw Beau. “No, it has probably been a lot longer than that. Maybe like five or six weekends.”

“Regardless, you can't control the weather.”

“I said that, too.”

Emerson got up and started to dress. “Well, the least I can do is drive you.”

Cailean smiled. “Very noble, but no.” She pulled a shirt over her head and fixed it properly around her waist. “Things are still too fresh between Wilson and me. It's bad enough Beau blames me for what's going on already. I don't need to add insult to injury by bringing my boyfriend with me. Especially you.”

“Especially me? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like, Emerson. Can you really blame Wilson for not liking you?”

“I didn't do anything to him. And besides, it's not like Wilson doesn't know about us.”

“Of course he knows, but Beau doesn't and I would prefer it to stay that way. Besides, like it or not, Wilson and I are still married.”

Emerson scowled.

Cailean squared her shoulders and fixed Emerson with a stern look. “We are still married, and there is a young boy caught in the middle of this mess. I think he's been through enough, don't you?”

Emerson rolled his eyes and looked away.

“Oh please, Emerson, it's time to grow up.”

His eyes went wide. “I don't know why you let him get inside your head.” He tapped his temple and took a drink. “He crawls around inside there and rearranges things on you. I swear he makes you crazy.”

“I feel like that's what you're doing to me right now!”

“Yeah, sure.” He reinforced his position with a chuckle. “The problem is that you don't let me inside. I've been
knocking on a closed door and begging you to let me in. But you've got every barrel, bolt, and hasp securely locked and there's no way you're going to let me in.”
 

“If you're alluding to my past again, I want you to know that I really don't appreciate it. I've already told you that it is something I don't want to talk about.”

Emerson shook his head and looked away, his voice barely above a whisper. “You told me you were just a kid when it happened. That had to be thirty years ago. I don't understand what could be so bad.”

She buttoned and zipped her jeans with attitude. “You're right. Having grown up with a silver spoon in your mouth you couldn't possibly begin to understand. Sometimes you act like a goddamn baby, you know that?”

Emerson pointed at himself. “Why are you calling me a baby?”

She pushed her feet into her dirty, worn sneakers. “Because sometimes you should just shut up and listen. Not everything I say requires a response.”

He placed his drink down on a nearby dresser and pulled on his pants. “I'm sorry, maybe you're right.”

“There is no maybe about it. I'm right and you're an ass.”

“I just can't stand the way Wilson constantly tries to make you feel bad.”

Cailean laughed and pointed at Emerson. “So, what, are you my protector or something?”

Emerson crossed his hairy arms across his flabby chest. “No, I'm not.”

“Good, because I am more than capable of taking care of myself.”

“Yeah, I know, you remind me of that every time you hang up the phone with him. This is really starting to get old and I'm beginning to wonder what I'm doing here.”

Cailean stared at his naked chest and looked away in disgust. He had bigger boobs than she did. The things she had to do to get by were humiliating. She walked to Emerson and pointed a finger in his face. “And if you're not smart enough to figure out what you're doing here, then that sounds to me like you have a problem.”

“Get your finger outta my face.”

“Or what?” She slapped him hard and followed up with a shove.

Surprise caught Emerson off balance, and he backpedaled and slammed into the wall. His eyes opened wide and he brought his finger to his lip.

“You hit me!”

“You're damn right I hit you! You crowd me and say stupid things that provoke me. What do you expect me to do?”

“Not this!” He showed her the blood on his finger and licked his lips.

“I don't feel an ounce of regret because you deserved that,” she said. “Now I want you to get out of my house before things get any worse between us.”

Chapter 3

 

 

THE SEED WITHIN

 

 

Present day.

 

“Cailean?” Sariel said.

The terrible voice that beckoned her from deep within the beyond distracted her. She resisted its call and tried to remain within the moment when she had told Emerson to leave.

“The events you saw, are they familiar to you?”

She nodded and tried to keep her concentration.

“Good, your awareness is much keener than I anticipated, especially this early on.”

She struggled to put the pieces of her past together. The possibility that the moment she had just experienced may have very well been the last of her life troubled her.

“Why can't I remember anything further?”

“The transition from that side to this one can be difficult, especially if it comes unexpectedly.”

“Did I die at that time? Was it a heart attack?”

“No, you didn't die there, and what killed you was something far worse than a heart attack.”

Physically, she felt fine and had heard that when you die you don't keep any of your bodily ailments.

“What was it then?”

“You and what you were.”

“I don't understand.”

“In time, you will.”

“What I saw then,” she said, “the phone call with Wilson and the argument with Emerson, when did that happen?”

“Yesterday.”

She looked upon the ebon wall, perplexed, and her care to understand anything further about the interaction she had with Emerson was simply abandoned.

“How is that possible?”

“How is it possible you have died and yet I can talk to you?”

The question dizzied her head. Her gaze drifted around the snow filled room and swept over the black veil. She tried to comprehend the idea that a full day had passed since those events had transpired when she believed it had all happened only a few seconds ago.

“Inside, that doesn't make sense to me,” she said. “It just can't be right. How long have I been dead?”

“A little under a minute.”

Stunned by the reply, she felt displaced. All sense of time had escaped her and she was a million miles away from knowing who she was and why she was here.

“Did you say under a minute?”

“As you measure time, yes.”

Her body trembled and she felt sick.

“Don't try to fight it,” he said. “The understanding of your condition and the transformation of your body will come regardless. Accept that things are different here and the only control you have now is what I give you.”

“Please, I need to get out of here right now!”

“If you allow your fear to control you it will only hamper your ability to understand the things you must know about yourself in order to move on.”

A powerful yearning stirred within her and validated Sariel's words. The desire to know was sudden and insatiable and it made her whimper.

“Does Wilson have anything to do with this?” she said.

A deep, diabolical giggle sent a chill down her spine and filled her with a fear so intense that it paralyzed her.

“Even in your first moments of death you still look to blame Wilson? He tried for years to save you from this because he knew whatever was inside of you was stronger than you and he feared you would never be able to escape its grasp.”

The words were powerful enough to bring her to her knees. “Please,” she said. “I am begging you to let me go. You're scaring me!”

The groan of the wind and the guttural sounds that accompanied Sariel's nearness distressed her.

“I'm not the bad one here, Cailean, you are. I'm the one who should be afraid of you.”

“You're not the one trapped underneath a light being studied like a lab rat.”

“You did that to everyone you knew. Wilson, Beau, and even Emerson were merely pieces to a complex puzzle you fit together to help justify your lies and feed your addictions. The first tragedy in your life combined with the second made the outcome of the third unavoidable. That is what brought you here.”

Her head hurt and everything about the moment didn't seem real. She wanted to wake up from this dreadful dream, but the overhead light and snow remained firmly in place.

“I want to get out of here in the worst way, but I can't.”

“Why?”

“I don't know!”

“It may not make any sense to you, but you know.”

“I have a need to understand what those events were.”

He tittered. “I told you that you knew. What you find, the things you will unearth, it is going to change you in ways you could never imagine.”

A shiver rocked her body and she brushed at something unseen on her arms.

“Who is there with you?” she said, and looked here and there to try to figure things out. “I feel judging eyes on me like bugs crawling on my skin.”

“There is no one else here. I am alone with you.”

She worked harder to escape the feeling, frantic in her every movement.

“Why do I doubt what you are saying to me is the truth? There have to be more people with you, I can feel them.”

“Cailean?”

His beckoning chased the sensation away and she focused on his voice.

“It is just us here,” he said.

The lurid tone was something out of a nightmare.

The snow filled the air again, but oddly it defied all sense of logic and lifted from the ground and went upwards. She watched the bizarre happening and it helped
draw her attention away from all the things that troubled her only a moment ago.
 

Up above, past the light, a thick black canopy loomed overhead and threatened to press down on her. She felt pathetic and small and she imagined being an ant underneath the treads of a shoe.

The sensation of a thousand pinpricks consumed the flesh on her hands and she growled at the sudden strange feelings. She flexed her fingers and studied them with intense scrutiny. They were losing their normal fleshy tone and turning white.

“You are shedding the senses of your human body and you're in the beginning stages of adapting to your new form. The doctors are delaying this as they try and save your life. Your body goes into full cardiac arrest on the other side and they bring you back.”