by J. Thorn
“They can’t take me yet,” Drew said to Brian. He reached over and turned the ignition. The engine that had stalled during the collision came back to life with a throaty roar. Brian’s eyes glassed over and a thin line of blood crept from beneath his shaggy hair and crawled down the side of his face.
“If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself,” said Drew. He unbuckled Brian’s seat belt and grabbed the man by his shoulders. Two slender, gray hands slid underneath Brian’s arms and the man shot through the opening between the two seats until he lay across the backseat.
“Go,” said Gaki.
Drew hopped over the gear shift and landed in the bucket seat of the driver side. With a glance in the rearview, he thrust the Jeep into first, dropped the clutch to the floor, and pounded the gas pedal until the tires squealed. The Jeep exploded from the tangle of parked cars and vaulted across traffic to make a right turn into an alley on the opposite side of the street.
The patrol cars passed the entrance to the alley. The drivers slammed on the brakes, threw the cars into reverse, and then turned in pursuit. Drew shifted into second gear, the front grill bursting through boxes and bags of garbage left in the alley for collection. A brick wall faced the Jeep at the end of it. Ten feet before impact, Drew whipped the wheel to the right and burst through a chain-link gate and into the back of a parking lot. He heard the sound of Brian’s body bouncing off the seat, along with the groans of his injury. Drew downshifted to first gear as he maneuvered through the rows of tightly parked cars. He reached the exit, accelerating as much as he could before slamming through the gate. The attendant in the booth leapt from the door as he saw the patrol cars coming through the other end of the lot.
As Drew hopped the Jeep over the curb and turned left to double back toward the park, he heard a voice from the backseat.
“He must die,” said Gaki.
Suddenly, Drew no longer sat in the driver seat of his best friend’s Jeep, being pursued by the police as he raced to a park to murder his wife. He was now in a cave, deep and dark. Drew felt the damp wind as it whistled through, punctuated by the occasional, muffled thump. Gaki stood against the wall next to a pair of shackles. Brian lay on the floor, his wrists and ankles bound.
“Not part of our deal,” said Drew.
“He fucked your wife,” replied Gaki.
“Her for my children, that was the arrangement.”
“I have created time for you to deliver justice to the man who fucked your wife,” replied Gaki.
Drew screamed and pounded a fist against the slimy wall of the cave. He mumbled to himself and looked at Gaki through teary eyes. “He looks dead already.”
Gaki lifted a tubular arm. He waved his hand back and forth with a spindly index finger extended. “Let the jealousy consume you. Feast on the violence.”
Drew shook his head back and forth. He collapsed to the ground with his knees drawn up. Drew rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his own head, squeezing his temples to keep them from exploding.
“A reminder, perhaps?” asked Gaki.
Drew lifted his head, realizing he was no longer in the cave. He sat on a chair in the corner of his own bedroom. The gray light of a winter morning streamed through the blinds. He saw 10:37 displayed on the bedside clock. Drew saw that the door was shut, but movement on the bed caught his attention.
He looked up and saw the blankets and comforters torn from the bed. The tangle of flesh forced him to pause, then dry heave into his sweaty palms. Drew saw the dark, hairy legs of a man. Protruding from underneath those were the white, smooth legs of a woman. He recognized Molly’s groan, the one she uttered as the first hint of orgasm came to her. She was facedown and spread eagle on the bed, her hands grasping handfuls of sheet at its corners. Molly’s dark hair lay splayed across her back and cascading over her breasts, pushing out from her sides. Brian increased his thrusting, his hands grasping her shoulders. Drew closed his eyes and reopened them, hoping to dispel the image Gaki gave him, but it did not disappear. Brian moved faster and Molly’s groans morphed into cries of pleasure.
“Enough,” Drew said.
Gaki laughed and pointed at Brian shackled on the floor of the cave. Drew blinked the last wisp of the late-morning bedroom from his eyes before they readjusted.
“I can’t believe you did that, Bri,” Drew said through an uncontrollable wall of tears. “I can’t believe you fucked Molly while I was at work. We were best friends.”
Brian lifted his head. His left eye had swelled shut and the bloodshot one on the right could barely keep focus on the sound of the voice. He moaned and shook his head.
“I have to. That son of a bitch is making me, and then I have to keep our deal to save my kids. You wouldn’t understand, you greedy fuck. All you ever cared about was getting your dick wet. You wouldn’t know what it’s like to live for someone else, to be willing to die for them, to love them so much you’d sacrifice yourself for them. It’s probably better this way. No more daughters getting used by you, no more broken homes and wrecked families.”
Brian’s whimpering increased. He moved his mouth but no words came forth. Gaki barked and spat. He dropped Brian’s pants to his ankles, anticipating a feast of feces expelled at the moment of death.
Drew walked forward and stood above his friend. He kicked Brian in the groin and then in the ribs. “This hurts me more than you can imagine, bro. I trusted you with everything and you betrayed me. You’ve got to pay, and Gaki’s gotta eat.”
The smile on Drew’s face brought Brian to tears. He thrashed in his shackles and managed to moan “no” repeatedly through the haze of a broken jaw and concussion.
Gaki danced back and forth and hissed with anticipation. “Do it. Take your vengeance from this worthless wretch.”
Drew knelt down and looked one last time into the broken face of his best friend. He caressed Brian’s cheek and wiped a final tear from his face.
Gaki squealed through his thin mouth and danced amongst the dark walls of the cave. He raised his arms in the air and looked at Drew.
Drew placed both hands around Brian’s neck and saw the blood drain from his face as he increased the pressure on his throat. He squeezed, feeling the spongy flesh in his hands, dispelling the last vestiges of life. Brian gasped. He moved his mouth in a vain attempt to capture a hint of oxygen. His eyes bulged from their sockets and the skin on his face turned blue. Drew’s entire body shook. The convulsions rippled through his arms and legs, and he was unsure if he could finish the gruesome task. As the grip of his hands loosened, he saw Gaki’s hands on top of his. He felt the power of the thin fingers bear down on Brian’s neck, choking the last breath from his lungs. Brian’s movements ceased. His mouth remained open.
“Have at it,” Drew said to Gaki. The creature scuttled to Brian’s waste, where it began consuming the final remains.
Drew flopped backwards, the back of his head striking the wall of the cave with a powerful thump. He lifted forward and then drove it backwards again. Several more attempts made him drowsy, but he was unable to knock himself out. He squeezed his eyes shut and buried his head between his knees in an attempt to block out Gaki’s feast.
“Enough,” he said. “We need to get to the park so I can fulfill my responsibility and free my children.”
Gaki snarled.
“Now!” Drew shouted. He walked toward the creature until Gaki stood to face him. “I let you have Brian. Finish what you must and get me to the park.”
“You are in no position to make demands.”
“I’ll do what I want,” replied Drew.
Gaki kicked at Brian’s leg, rattling the shackles. Drew looked at the pile of flesh that used to be his best friend and forced the bile from his throat.
“I am finished,” said Gaki.
Drew blinked and he was back in the driver’s seat of Brian’s Jeep. He heard sirens, but they sounded distant, moving in the opposite direction. He did not recognize the street they were on and saw no e
vidence of the reckless chase interrupted by Gaki’s morbid feast.
“Where are we?” he asked, looking in the rearview mirror into Gaki’s face. The swirling mixture of blood and feces masked the creature’s gray complexion. It’s thin, serpentine tongue shot out to lick its lips. Drew heaved but managed to keep from vomiting.
“Other side of park. Hide the vehicle. We have only minutes before we are discovered.”
Drew slid the Jeep into gear and moved forward. The residential street wound through turn-of-the-century houses. Ornate ironwork bordered front doors with high-peaked eaves. The street was devoid of pedestrians and other traffic.
“Where is everyone?” he asked. Gaki did not reply.
Drew continued toward the end of the street, where he turned left at the stop sign. The view greeted him with a row of magnificent oak trees wearing a hint of the green buds that would soon sprout. A chain-link fence sat at the base of the trunks. Bars of red and yellow broke through the leafless branches. Drew realized he was at the back end of the park, facing it from the north side.
“How?”
“Get out,” Gaki said.
Drew pulled up to the curb, opened the door, and stood on the sidewalk littered with the dirt, garbage, and the dead leaves of a long winter. He kicked a flattened aluminum can into the chain-link fence and turned around to see Gaki standing before him with his thin grin and tubular appendages. The Jeep was gone.
“Where is it?” Drew asked.
“No longer of use,” Gaki replied. The creature motioned toward the fence and the park inside. “Go.”
“I need a guarantee that our deal is good. If I kill her, my kids are free of the curse.”
“Sealed,” Gaki said.
He grabbed Drew’s wrist and turned it to reveal the soft, white underside of his forearm. Gaki slid his hand over Drew’s skin, the thin nail on the creature’s finger slicing a fine wound in Drew’s arm. Bubbles of blood rose from the surface. Gaki lifted the arm and held it over his own. He turned Drew’s upside down. The blood gathered at the lowest point, releasing one drop onto Gaki’s skin, where it sizzled. It opened a black hole and the smell of burning, rotting flesh filled the air. Drew stepped back from the stench as Gaki writhed in pain. The creature fell to the sidewalk and thrashed until the curling smoke from his arm evaporated. Gaki stood and held his arm to Drew, a gaping, ragged hole where his blood had seared through the creature’s flesh.
“Your bloodline burns Gaki. Finish the woman and your children will be free.”
Drew stood and shook his head. He wiped the blood from his arm, climbed over the chain-link fence, and wove through the trunks of the ancient oaks until he passed from Gaki’s view.
Drew felt the branches crack beneath his feet. He had taken Billy and Sara to this park many times, but he had never entered from the north side. It felt like walking through a room in his house where the furniture had been rearranged. He heard sirens in the distance, and wondered where Gaki had placed Brian’s Jeep and how long it would take the police to find him. Drew pushed Brian’s memory from his head and shook the worry of arrest from his mind. He focused on getting to the place in the park where he would meet his wife. He doubled over and collapsed under a tree, turning his head to the side and trying to vomit into a pile of leaves and discarded beer cans. After several seconds of vertigo and a burning sensation in his throat, he stood and grabbed hold of a sapling to keep from falling again.
The park appeared deserted. Drew did not see a jogger, a dog walker, or even a squirrel. The few robins that had returned in late winter fluttered in the bare branches but remained silent. More like a cemetery than a park, he thought.
Drew found the asphalt walking path that meandered through the park, usually full of Rollerbladers and skateboarders. Again, the vast emptiness of life in the park made him shudder. Drew picked up the path going east that would eventually lead to the meeting place. He visualized the cabin in his mind. He thought back to the first time he had been in the park. Drew took a moment to read the placard, the one declaring the cabin a national historic monument. Several pioneers used the structure for three years as they moved across the Midwest toward the ultimate Garden of Eden, California.
As the inscription indicated, four families had used the one-room structure, and they had buried five children during their stay. He felt a tug at his heart and quickly banished it. If he was to save his own he could not become emotional about them. The hearth in the cabin held relics and replicas of the simple tools of survival the pioneers had used. Drew had stood inside it while a man from the local historical society explained the tale. His trip with Billy’s class—his first experience inside the cabin—and all the others melded together into a blurred memory of time and space. Drew shook his head and realized he had not taken a step during the daydream. He shoved his hands into his pockets and continued on the asphalt path leading closer to the cabin.
Chapter 14
Molly looked in the mirror while sitting at the red light. The near side of forty crept around the corners of her eyes. She looked down at the ring finger on her right hand and the glowing, white ring of skin near the knuckle. She held it up to her face as if the ring would reappear. It did not. She fixed her hair and redistributed the lip gloss with a quick pucker. As Molly drove for the park, she replayed the conversation with Brian in her head for the fourth time.
“Shit! It’s not on my finger.”
“I’ve got it in my hand,” Brian said.
“Did I leave it at your place?”
“I know! Crazy, right? I had no idea the ring was yours when I found it in the bowling alley.”
“What’s going on, Brian?”
“I was about to call the desk manager, but then I recognized the engraving on the inside. It had to be yours.”
“He’s there, isn’t he? Drew is with you.”
“Of course,” Brian said. “I always take East 112th Street home from the alley.”
“Are you in trouble? Has he lost his mind?”
“Right! People lose things all the time. How about I meet you at Centennial Park?”
“Is he going to be with you? Does he know about us?”
“I’m pretty sure it will,” replied Brian. “So you might want to bring an umbrella.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she said.
“Great. See you there in about thirty minutes.”
Molly turned right. She flipped the windshield wipers up to medium speed as the early spring rain pelted the window with teardrops. She turned on her headlights, which cast a glimmer off the wet road like a sheet of fresh ice. At the next stoplight, Molly opened her purse. She had her wallet, a container of tissues, her makeup, and her phone. She hit the button on the trunk release and flung the door open. Her foot slid on the slick pavement and she held a hand over her head to prevent the rain from completely destroying her hair. As she reached the rear of the vehicle, she shuffled through the papers and empty bottles of windshield-washer fluid until she spotted the tire iron nestled in the corner, sitting on the flap that hid the spare tire. Molly grabbed the cold, metallic wrench and looked at it.
“If it comes to that,” she mumbled as her left hand slammed the trunk closed.
The light turned green as she stepped into the car and the line of vehicles nudged her with blaring car horns. Molly’s purse came alive with the sound of “It’s a Small World.” Drew hated that ringtone. She fished a hand inside, flipping the phone open and putting it to her ear in one motion.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, Moll.”
“Hi, Mom. You got the kids?”
“Yes, hon. What’s this all about? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Mom. I’m fine. What are Billy and Sara doing?”
“Well,” said Molly’s mother, her voice trailing as her mouth moved away from the phone for a second. “Billy is doing his homework and Sara is watching television.”
“Thirty minutes. That’s all. Any more and she starts living in h
er own fantasy world.”
“Stop worrying, Moll. They’re fine.”
“And no cookies. It’ll spoil their dinner.” Molly waited, hearing her mother breathing but not responding.
“Mom!”
“I just gave them a small plate. What are grandmothers good for if they can’t spoil the grandkids?”
Molly hissed and shook her head. “Mom, if I’m not there in an hour, call the police. Tell them I was at Centennial Park.”
“You’re worrying me. I’m calling your father—”
“Listen! I can handle this. Don’t get Dad involved. You know somebody would end up with a bullet hole in the chest. Please, do this for me.”
Molly’s mother paused. Molly could hear the cartoons coming from the television in the background.
“She gets one more episode of SpongeBob. That’s it.”
“Are you sure you’re not in trouble, Moll?”
“I’m fine. I’ll be there in an hour or less. Tell the kids I love them and I’ll see you soon.”
“Is it Drew? If you’re going to meet him I’m calling the police. The news is saying he’s killed three people and that he’s dangerous.”
Molly swallowed. “I’m not meeting Drew. I need to get something from a friend. If Drew shows up at the house, call the police. Don’t let the kids out of your sight.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’ll dial nine and a one and wait for him to show up.”
“That was not funny,” Molly said while smiling, “when Chris Rock said it fifteen years ago. And Drew’s not black.”
“Get here quickly, sweetie. The whole situation has everyone jittery.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you too, Molls.”
The line went dead. Molly flipped the phone shut with one hand and tossed it back into her purse. She had made three turns during the conversation and could see the wrought-iron fence of Centennial Park at the end of the block.
The rain turned from a pelting storm to a consistent, miserable downpour. She looked at the cars parked at the curb. Two sat with white papers flittering underneath windshield wipers, probably heading to the impound lot soon. Another pulled away from the curb and reentered traffic. No sign of Brian’s Jeep. Molly saw the gate open on one side, the other side still locked in place. She zipped up her purse and pulled her hoodie over the top of her head. So much for the hair, she thought, angry that she still cared how she looked for Brian.
