Original Blood

by Greene, Steve

  “What?” She asked.

  “Nothing.” He replied with a grin. “Just thinking that this is one of those special types of nights that I will never forget.”

  “And why should you forget it?” Virginia asked, reaching across the table and giving his free hand a reassuring pat. “Seriously, Daddy, this is a big deal. A lifetime achievement award? And it’s not like Marquette is the local community college.”

  “She’s right, you know.” Madeline added.

  The awards ceremony had definitely been one of the nicest he had ever attended. The only thing that would have made it better would have been for their youngest daughter to have been able to come as well.

  He had been thankful when Virginia told him that she wanted to study Pre-Med at Marquette. Not so much because he would get a tuition discount, but because it would keep her close to home. Julia was another story, altogether. Jules insisted on attending Northern Illinois University. She was the more adventurous of his two daughters. She never got into any serious trouble, but Philip had always been a protective father. Some would say overprotective. Having Jules one hundred miles away was a bit unnerving for him, to say the least.

  His thoughts returned to the conversation at the table. Ginny still grinned from ear to ear. He had always gotten compliments on how pretty his girls were, a thought that made him all the more uncomfortable with Jules so far away. Now, seeing Ginny’s long, wavy, auburn hair and her big brown eyes, he was reminded of how beautiful Madeline looked when they first met so many wonderful years ago. He glanced down at the plaque sitting on the table with his name scrolled across, underneath the heading, ‘For Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Biology’. He reached across the table and took Ginny’s hand in his. With a grin he said, “Thank you. Both of you. I couldn’t have done it without the support I got from all three of you over the years. Now, I think I’ve had enough hoity-toity stuff for one night. Want to head home? We could get some ice cream on the way.”

  “Dad.” Virginia pretended she had been deeply offended by the comment. “You don’t need to bribe me with ice cream. I’m not twelve anymore.” A fact he was all too aware of.

  “So, you’ll be having the double dip, chocolate cone, I take it?”

  “Yep. The usual.” She smiled again.

  They got up from the table and struggled to the exit, led out of the dining room of the University by a plethora of “Good night, Professor”s and “Congratulations, Dr. Beaumont”s.

  The cool night air was a relief to Philip. His tuxedo had had him uncomfortably warm for much of the night. Not so for his wife and daughter who had chosen spaghetti strapped gowns for the evening. He could already see goose bumps on their exposed shoulders.

  They talked and laughed all the way to the car. The parking lot was still packed tightly with cars and they seemed to be the only ones around. When the conversation lulled, Philip could hear the echo of their footsteps over the stillness.

  Madeline went to the passenger side of the car to get in, Phillip and Ginny to the driver’s side. Philip had sat down in the driver’s seat when he realized Madeline was still fumbling around with the door handle outside the car. He sighed. “Sorry, dear. I meant to get that fixed.” He reached across the passenger seat to open the door from the inside while Ginny climbed in behind him. But before he could open the door, Madeline lurched forward, smashed her face into the glass of the passenger side door with a sickening crunch and crumpled to the ground leaving a pink smear of lipstick and blood down the window pane.

  “Maddie!” Philip rushed to the other side of the car just as Ginny was coming around the rear of the car, but Madeline was nowhere to be found.

  “Oh my God! Dad! Where is she?” Ginny was shaking. It was all he could do to keep from panicking himself. A scream came from a few rows away. “Oh my God! What was that? Was that Mom!”

  “Ginny, lock yourself in the car and call 911!”

  “But Dad…”

  “Now, Ginny!” Philip turned and ran towards the scream without looking back. He darted down the rows of cars. His head was on a swivel, frantically scanning back and forth between cars. “Maddie!” Another scream came from the opposite direction. Still Maddie, but this scream sounded even more terrified than the first. He found it almost impossible that she could’ve moved so far so fast. He ran towards the location of the second scream and heard a third. He began to run and then heard a fourth scream, closer this time. He turned past another car and saw Maddie lying in a heap in the middle of the lane. He ran to her. Even as he approached he could see that her dress had been torn to shreds and what was left of it was streaked with dirt from the pavement. Her arms and shoulders were covered with scratches and scrapes and she lay there, lifeless, face down on the pavement.

  “Someone! Help me, please!” He screamed as he knelt down beside her. He was thankful to see her eyes were open and alert when he rolled her over onto his lap. “Maddie, baby, what happened?” Even as the words came out, he saw the gaping wound in her neck. He shed his jacket and used the sleeve to apply pressure to the wound. She gurgled and spat blood from her mouth and began to breath. Her teeth chattering, she reached up and grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him close. The tears were rolling from his eyes now. He held the love of his life as tightly as he ever had before. Her body, broken and brutalized by whom, he did not know. He heard sirens in the distance and could only pray that they would arrive in time.

  When the police pulled up with the ambulance close behind, the EMTs had to pry Philip away from Madeline so they could treat her wounds and hastily load her onto the stretcher.

  After what seemed like hours, Ginny burst past the police officer and threw her arms around her father. “What happened, Daddy? Is she going to be okay? Tell me she’s going to be okay!”

  No matter how old she was, Virginia would always be his little girl. Now, that little girl was scared. And worse, so was he.

  The EMTs were busily monitoring Madeline’s status and wrestling with different tubes and needles. He tried to get into the ambulance but was met with the stiff arm of one of the medics. “Sorry, sir. There’s no room. You’ll have to follow with the police officer.”

  Scared beyond belief and feeling rejected, Philip sank back and watched as the EMT pulled the doors of the ambulance shut. The siren blared and the big truck took off down the road. He climbed into the backseat of a patrol car with Ginny. He wasn’t sure if he chose not to sit up front for her comfort or for his. He put his arms around his sobbing daughter and tried to calm her to no avail. Officer Vasquez, the officer whose patrol car they had gotten into, drove fast enough to nearly catch up to the ambulance that left a minute or two sooner than they had but when they arrived at the ER, Madeline had already been rushed to surgery.

  It took all the courage he could muster to call Julia and tell her what was happening. He had just gotten off of the phone with her when the surgeon entered the waiting room. Philip saw the expression on the doctor’s face and the whole world seemed to stop. His body went numb and he heard the plastic clatter of his cell phone hitting the floor. He was floating outside of his body watching the surgeon tell him that his wife was gone. His Maddie, his world, was no longer of this world. “No.” He told the man in the doctor’s scrubs. “That’s not possible.” And to him it truly seemed impossible. To him, it was impossible that less than two hours ago they had been drinking, laughing, and smiling together without a care in the world. And now she was gone.

  He was pulled back into his body by the sensation of Ginny throwing herself into his arms again, her tear-soaked face pressed tightly against his neck. Still in shock, he realized that he was crying, too. They stood there and held each other in the waiting room of the hospital for an eternity. The whole time Philip reached for the courage to pick up his cell phone and call Julia back one more time.

  Chapter 4

  She looked at her watch again and rubbed her eyes. She stared down at the thick book in front of her. The pictures of pai
ntings and architecture blended together and blurred. After a while, the entire page looked the same. She was so tired. It was only nine-thirty at night but she felt like she could go to bed and sleep for days. But sleeping meant dreaming and that was something Julia Beaumont was not looking forward to. She had been having the most horrible dreams over the past couple of months. They felt more like prophecy than imagination. And they were gruesome.

  She pried her eyes away from the book and looked around the library. She was surprised to see how thin the crowd had become while she had been engrossed in her studies. Or had she been dozing with her eyes open again? It was getting harder and harder to tell these days. But she could only see two students still working in the dim light.

  The book made a heavy thump as she swung the cover closed and she sighed. Her dad would probably have gotten his award by now. She felt terribly guilty that she had to stay at school and not be there for him, but who has an awards ceremony on a Monday night? She had a huge test in Art History in the morning and simply couldn’t afford to be at home right now. But she realized that studying in this state of fatigue was counterproductive. She would forget more than she would learn at this rate. She decided she’d be better off trying to get some sleep and cram a little in the morning before class.

  She pushed back from the table and stood up, taking the book she had been studying from and returning it to the front desk. The librarian gave her a sour look as if to say, ‘Thanks for making more work for me.’ But Julia had learned the hard way her Freshman year when she had returned a book to its shelf and received a stern scolding from the head librarian. It seemed they didn’t trust students to put the books back in the right place, so she had brought her study materials up to the front desk ever since.

  Once outside, the cool night air slapped her awake like a shot of smelling salts. She shivered and pulled her coat on over her shoulders, tugging her long red locks out over the collar. Her breath came out in smoky trails behind her as she moved through the courtyard. The air was still and her boot heels clicked on the sidewalk and echoed off of the tall red brick buildings that bracketed her on either side. Spatters of light and the muttered drum of music came from busy dorm rooms in a few of them. Aside from herself, the courtyard was remarkably devoid of life. A sudden chill crept up her spine and she pulled her jacket tighter, trying to shrug it off. But it wasn’t a chill from the cool air. It was the chill of being alone but knowing you’re not. It was the chill of being watched by someone or something… sinister.

  She turned to look behind her, hoping to catch whoever it was out in the open, but she saw nothing behind her. Then it suddenly came to her. A memory from a dream she had had the night before. It was almost déjà vu. She turned to look back at the roof of the library building she had just left hoping that she wouldn’t see what she thought she’d see, but they were there.

  Two dark silhouettes stood atop the corner of the roof of the building looking down at her, one shorter than the other. They were too far away now for her to make out any detail. But they were staring at her. She could feel them staring at her.

  She quickened her pace. Her breath became more rapid, fearful. She turned the corner towards her dorm and glanced back at the library again. The silhouettes were gone. Did they leave or were they in pursuit? Were they lurking somewhere nearby? She had to make it to her dormitory. It was just up ahead. She got to the door and rushed to flick her card through the scanner. The scanner gave a quiet groan and a red light lit up. No! No! Not now! She thought as she flicked the card through the scanner again. She could hear footsteps behind her now, not far away, but she was too afraid to turn around. The scanner made the same terrible groan and the red light flashed again. No! No! Please! She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as if brushed by some subtle static shock. As though some ghostly hand were reaching out for her, only inches away. She ran her card through the scanner a third time, forcing herself to flick it through at a reasonable speed, despite her panicked state. This time the green light lit up and she heard the click of the latch opening. She snuck inside and pulled the door shut behind her with a loud bang. She looked out the door for whoever was making the approaching footsteps but didn’t see anyone.

  It was then that she sensed the presence behind her. She turned and screamed, as did Belinda, the Resident Assistant.

  “Girl, you ’bout scared the dickens out of me!” Belinda held a hand over her heart as though to slow it down. “What’s wrong with you, runnin’ in here like you bein’ chased?”

  “Oh.” Julia took a deep breath. Her chest was heaving for air. “I’m sorry.” Another breath. “I thought I saw something.”

  Belinda craned her neck to look out the glass entrance door behind Julia. “Ain’t nobody out there, girl.” Belinda’s eyes narrowed in a concerned grimace. “You look tired, honey. Why don’t you go on upstairs and get yourself some sleep?”

  “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Julia trudged to the elevator lost in thought. The silhouettes on the roof had been the first part of her dream, but she was trying to remember the rest of it. She had had dreams since she was a child. As she got older, she could tell which dreams were dreams and which were premonitions of a sort. But lately, they had become less solid. Some situations would occur the same way they had in her dream, and others seemed to be cryptic warnings of what could happen, as though some things could be changed and others couldn’t.

  The ding of the elevator stopping on the sixth floor dragged her thoughts back to the present moment. The hallway to her room was dim and as uninviting as ever, but nothing seemed odd or out of place.

  She stepped into her room and what felt like a photo perfectly transferred from her memory. The room was exactly how she remembered it from the dream. Her roommate’s books were haphazardly scattered across the lower bunk. A pair of jeans lay in a heap under the bed with one leg turned inside out. A bowl of half-eaten Ramen noodles sat precariously close to the edge of the desk under the window. She knew what was coming next. She stood in the doorway in stunned silence. She heard the thud of her book bag dropping to the ground. Her cell phone began to ring and she took it from her coat pocket. Without looking at who was calling, she flipped it open and put it to her ear. She already knew who would be at the other end of the line. “Hi, Daddy.”

  Her eyes began to water as he told her what had happened to her mother. Was she sad because of what happened to her mom or sad because she knew it was going to happen but didn’t remember in time to do anything about it? She wasn’t sure. What she was sure of was that she needed to get home quickly.

  She grabbed a duffle bag from the closet and hastily threw clothes in it, hoping she’d have all she needed. She knew of a bus that ran to Milwaukee every couple of hours. If she moved quickly, she could be at the bus stop in time to catch it.

  The air outside was as cold as it had been earlier, but this time she didn’t care. Even the silhouettes she had seen earlier were far from her mind. Let them come. She thought. She had a pouch on her key chain that held a small can of pepper spray and she had spent most of her first year of college taking judo and self-defense classes at the behest of her father. If they wanted her, they were going to get more fight than they had bargained for. Tears blurred her eyes now. And she began to step faster and faster until she was at a dead run towards the bus depot.

  When the bus depot came into view, there was already a long line of students loading onto the bus with overnight bags tossed over their shoulders. She kept running until she was sure she’d be able to make it and even then, she only slowed to a fast walk.

  The mood on the bus was somber. Nearly every face on the bus looked like they were highly agitated or on their way to a funeral. Their moods didn’t make hers any better.

  Most of the seats were taken so she pushed all the way to the rear of the bus.

  When she caught the gaze of a tall man in dark clothing near the middle of the bus, her blood ran cold. His eyes were very
near black. His jet black hair, slicked back and hanging down to just above his shoulders, mirrored the expression on his face. If not for the situation with her mother, she would’ve gotten off the bus right then, but she needed to get home. She eyed the man warily as she passed him to move towards the back.

  She had been so preoccupied with the first man that until she sat down, she hadn’t seen the other man sitting on the opposite side of the bus, watching her. His eyes were an icy blue that cut her to the bone. Judging from his height in the seat, he was a short man, but wider than the first. He had a broad, flat nose with a scar across the bridge and his hair was clipped close to the scalp. He allowed his gaze to meet hers for only a second before returning to read from the small book he held. His huge hands engulfed the book to the point that he appeared to be reading his own palms.

  She began to sweat. Could these two be the ones that were on top of the building watching me? She thought. Her heart began to beat faster as the lights went out in the bus and it lurched into motion. Neither of the men moved. She was beginning to feel comfortable again. Maybe her imagination had just gotten the best of her.

  The college was well away from the city and the bus had been tooling down the road for quite a while. It was winding its way through miles of open cornfields and dense forest when the taller man stood and turned to move towards the rear of the bus. Fear began to tighten around her throat. She looked back and forth and everywhere she looked, she saw full seats except the one next to her. He wouldn’t try something on a bus full of people, would he? She thought. The man never stopped looking at her with those dead, black eyes as he moved to the rear of the bus. She was frozen, paralyzed with fear. She didn’t know whether she should scream, attack, or just get up and move.

  The tall man walked to the seat next to her and sat down. Her hands began to tremble. She was now pinned between him and the window! She fumbled absentmindedly through her purse and found the pepper spray. He leaned over and whispered quietly, “I assure you, you have no need of that.”