by R. W. Ridley
The word ‘mine’ triggered the memory of my latest trip to the Land of the Dead. He was terrified and panicked because he didn’t have his package. “Your property?” I asked.
His face lit up. “That’s right. My property. Do you know where it is? Give it to me.”
I had him. He needed that package. I didn’t know why or for what, but he needed it, and as long as he thought I knew where it was, maybe I could use it to my advantage. “I know where it is,” I said hoping he couldn’t read lies.
He lumbered towards me which didn’t make Ajax happy. Ajax roared and moved between me and the old man.
“Give me my property!” the old man insisted.
“Ask me nicely,” I said.
The old man ground his teeth. I said, “Give me my property!” He kept coming in spite of Ajax blocking his way.
“It’s mine now!” I yelled.
The Flish picked up the pace. Ajax roared! The old man ignored him.
“It’s mine! You have no right! The children need me!”
Ajax charged the Flish and plowed into him with a powerful thud. The old man disintegrated on impact.
“Whoa!” I barked.
Ajax twirled around looking for the Flish, but he was nowhere to be found.
Gordy managed to sit up. His head darted from left to right. “He’s not gone.”
“I know,” I said. “I feel him.” I zoomed the flashlight around looking for the creepy old ghost.
“Give him his property,” April screamed. She was trying to work herself free from Ariabod’s grip.
“It’s not his any more,” I said. “It’s mine.”
A wail echoed through the long room, and we could hear running feet, but it was impossible to tell which direction they were coming from.
“Did you hear me?” I asked. “It’s my property now!”
“Nice going,” Gordy said. “That’s not helping.”
“I know what I’m doing…” the words no sooner left my mouth than I heard a horrible hiss as I was pushed to the ground. The old man’s stinking hot breath struck me in the face as his knees jammed into my chest. His dingy yellow teeth glistened as the old man snarled. “It’s mine. You have no right.” I struggled to get him off me. Ajax roared and the old man groaned with frustration. “You’ll pay for this.”
With that, he was gone.
***
I radioed Lou and asked her to come to the basement without Kimball and the Throwaway version of me. They could stay with Archie and Bobby.
She still wasn’t feeling the effects of the Flish, which meant that she was in less danger than any of us, which also meant that she was going to have to be the go between for all of us until we either figured out a way to lift this curse or ran out of time and ate each other.
She cleaned and dressed Gordy’s wounds. He moaned and complained the whole time. He wanted to know why he was the one who always got injured.
“Karma,” Lou answered.
“I don’t even know what that is,” Gordy replied.
“Means you should try to be nicer in the future,” she said.
“Good luck with that,” I said sarcastically, standing about ten feet away.
“It could happen,” Lou said.
“No,” Gordy said. “He’s right. It’s probably not going to happen.”
“Let me go!” April shouted. Ariabod still had a tight grip on her. I sensed that he was really confused as to why I wouldn’t let him kill April. After all, she had broken the pact by taking a bite out of Gordy.
Lou stood. “What are you going to do with her?”
I thought it over. “I’d put her with you, but I need you to be able move freely among us. She would complicate things for you.”
Lou agreed. “Lock her up.”
“What?” I asked.
“Put her in jail until we figure this thing out.”
“Jail?”
“Saw a utility closet in the Halloween room with a key hanging on a hook next to it. Lock her in the closet and give me the key. That way no one can get to her and she can’t get out and take a bite out of anyone else.”
“No, no,” April said. “You’re not locking me in a closet.”
I smiled at Lou. It was brilliant. “Actually, we are,” I said.
“That’s not fair!” April yelled. “How come no one else has to be locked in a closet?”
“Karma,” Gordy yelled back. He looked at Lou. “Right?”
She walked toward the Halloween room with Ariabod dragging April along. “Basically.”
***
“So,” I said talking to Lou in the stone-walled hallway. “What did Bobby have to say?”
She rolled her eyes. “What didn’t he say? It’s hard to get him to shut up once you get him started.”
“About Fish’s Storyteller? Did you get anything from him about that?”
She smiled. “Connie Robbins. She was the youngest in the group.”
“Did Bobby know her?”
She crossed her fingers and held them up. “They were like this. Bobby couldn’t really cross his fingers, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant.”
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t.
“And?”
She shook her head and rubbed her brow. “Oh, sorry. It’s just a little confusing. I talked about it with… you know… you early this morning,” she pointed up.
“Me?
“Not you,” she said sounding frustrated. “The other you. The Throwaway you. He and I talked. I’m all turned around.” She thumped her head with her index finger.
I was disturbed to hear that she had confused me with the Throwaway version of me. I got angry that he was having my conversations with her.
“Connie was only the second girl in the group,” Lou said. “One of Dr. Bashir’s favorites. Took her longer to master the Hyper Mental Imaging. She didn’t like to draw, so she kept a journal.”
“A journal?”
“Well, an HMI journal. She didn’t write what really happened. She wrote what she wanted to happen. Same principle as the comic books, but without pictures.”
“Why Fish?”
“That’s a little unclear. Bobby didn’t think it was her idea. She didn’t like making up monsters. Didn’t have it in her.”
“Who gave her the idea?”
“Well,” Lou said. “That’s what we… Throwaway you and I were talking about this morning. It’s got to be Bashir. Like you said, what are the chances she’d know about this creep? He had to plant this stuff in her head, which kind of confirms what I already thought about Bashir.”
I wanted to cringe at the notion that she talked to Throwaway me about this already, but I didn’t. “Which is?”
“He’s not a nice guy. I mean Bobby already told us he hit some of the members in the group, but this takes things to a whole new level. He planted a real life monster in Connie’s head. What kind of sick freak would do that?”
“One we need to find out more about,” I said. I told her about the Nathan Bashir who used to work at the mansion in the ‘30s. It was too much of a coincidence. There had to be a connection.
“Can’t be the same guy,” she said.
“Maybe not the same guy, but it might be the same family.” I told her about Fish’s time at the mansion, the termination form, and the notes written by a man named Bashir.
“So, what do you think?” she asked. “This is all because Fish did something to a relative of Dr. Bashir?”
“I don’t know what to think. I’m just trying to talk it out.” I smiled. “It actually feels good to have someone to talk to that I don’t want to… you know, eat.”
She bowed her head. “I’m honored.”
“Not sure why you didn’t get infected by Fish, but I’m glad you didn’t.”
She nodded but her brow furrowed, and she tried to hide it from me.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said.
“No, come on. Something’s
bothering you.”
She rolled her eyes as if to warn me she was about to say something really crazy. “Why wasn’t I infected?”
Not knowing what to say, I just blurted out, “Because you’re stronger than the rest of us.”
“Stronger?”
“Inside,” I said. “You’ve got will power or faith or conviction or something like that.”
She considered my theory and then said, “That explains why I don’t want to eat you guys, but how come you guys don’t want to eat me?”
“Who cares?” I asked. “Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
She cleared her throat. “I just know nothing’s free around here.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
“You will?”
“Well, all of us,” I said nervously. “The others, too.”
There was a second of uncomfortable silence between us. She broke it by asking, “What next?”
“We still need to know more from Bobby. Tarek said the Flish consumed the Creyshaw, but we still don’t know anything about the Keeper. And, what does Fish’s package have to do with this?”
“Package?”
“His property. It’s a metal box wrapped in a canvas cloth.”
“What’s in it?”
I hesitated. “Knives, bone saw. Run of the mill tools of torture.”
“Nice,” she groaned and took a step back towards the Halloween room.
“Hey,” I said.
She stopped and looked at me. “Yeah?”
“If day nine comes around, and we’re no closer to solving this thing, you need to leave with Archie and Bobby. Take the gorillas and Kimball, too.”
She stared at me stone-faced.
“I need to hear you say you’ll leave.”
“It won’t come to that.”
“It might,” I said. “And Bobby is the priority. Tarek will put up a fight, but you can wear him down. He’ll take Bobby and stand in for his Keeper.”
She started to walk away again, but I grabbed her by the arm. “Say it.”
She hung her head. “I’ll take care of it.”
“You’ll leave?”
“Yes, I’ll leave. Happy?”
“No,” I said letting her go. “But I’m satisfied.”
***
Lou checked on Gordy one last time before she left the basement. I hated to see her go. Beyond being the only person I knew that I didn’t want to eat, I just felt better around her. I had been away from her for a long time living in the facility. Now I was under the same roof with her, but the Flish was keeping us apart. It was almost too much to take.
I was in a crazy, twisted world, full of all kinds of bad guys and monsters fighting for my life, but if it wasn’t for this world, I would never have met Lou. That made it hard to completely hate the way things had turned out. I suppose it’s bad for me to say, but if I hadn’t treated Stevie so badly, I wouldn’t know Lou at all. I never would have known how good she smells or how her nose twitches like a rabbit when she laughs. I wouldn’t have known that there was someone I could count on one hundred percent of the time.
“What are you thinking about, boss man?” Gordy asked from the other side of the room. He was propped up on one elbow, sipping from a bottle of water. With Ajax and Ariabod in close proximity, there was no danger of us trying to eat each other. Even if they weren’t around, there was no chance he was coming after me. He couldn’t move after what April did to him. His face was getting puffy. I had seen my aunt in the hospital after she had a car accident. Her face had the same kind of red and swollen look that Gordy’s face had. I remember a nurse saying something about antibodies and infection. Whatever that meant, it looked like Gordy had the same thing.
“I thought I told you not to call me that?”
“Did you?” His eyes rolled to the left as he tried to remember that conversation. “I’ll stop then. Don’t know why you don’t like it anyway?”
“Because I’m not your boss man.”
He nodded. “You’re right, you’re not my boss man.”
I half smiled to thank him for the confirmation.
“You’re THE boss man. The big cheese. The man with the plan.”
“Shut up or I’ll let April out of the closet.”
He chuckled. “Let her out. What do I care? Better yet, I’ll give you the first bite. Come on over here. I hear the rump is the best part.”
My stomach practically roared at the thought. I very much wanted to take him up on his offer. I envied April for getting to rip off a chunk of meat and eat it. “I’ll pass,” I struggled to say.
A few seconds passed before either one of us spoke again. The theme of the conversation had become too tempting, and both of us seemed to know not to push our luck.
“You never did tell me what you were thinking?”
“What?”
“You had what my dad used to call a Mars face. As in, you were on a different planet there for a second. What’s up?”
“What’s not up?” I asked with a yawn.
“True, but you looked like you had something specific on your mind.”
“No…”
“It’s Lou, ain’t it?”
I went slack jawed. How did he know?
“You’re wondering the same thing I am.”
“Which is?”
“Why isn’t she infected by the old man?”
“You’re wondering that?” I asked perplexed.
“Sure. You’re not?”
I shook my head. “She’s immune.”
“I got a theory,” he said. “You want to hear it?”
“I don’t know. Do I?”
“C’mon, I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with it.”
I sighed. “Okay, go ahead.”
“Well,” he said “I figure she’s dead.”
The world slowed to a crawl. I could hear every breath I took. The vein in my neck began to throb. I felt the world dim like I was about to pass out, but I snapped myself back to the present. “You figured wrong,” I said just above a whisper.
“Hear me out,” he said. “The old guy, he ain’t got much use for the dead. You should hear the way he talks about your dead friend and the other little buggers running around here. He hates them. Doesn’t want anything to do with them. Lou must be dead. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Dead people don’t…” I stopped myself before I said something I knew wasn’t true, but he knew exactly what I was going to say.
“Dead people don’t walk around, talk to you like nothing’s wrong? You forget where we are, my friend. This is the end of the friggin’ world. There’s dead people all around us.”
“Not Lou,” my voice was louder. I could feel the ice moving through my veins. The Délon in me wanted out, but Gordy was clueless. He pushed the issue.
“Ten bucks says she’s in one of them rooms upstairs, half the meat stripped from her bones. I can even guess who caught her and is eating her. Want to know who?”
“Stop,” I growled.
Ajax hooted at me while he knuckle-walked in our direction. If he could talk, he would be telling me to settle down and get a hold of myself.
“Wes. That fat redneck is having him a regular Lou picnic right now. I know it as sure as I know you want to kill me right now.”
I looked at my hands. They were covered with purple blotches. It was happening. “I am going to kill you.”
“Good,” he yelled. “Do it!”
I pounded the floor with my fist and wasn’t surprised when the solid surface crumbled from the blow. If I wanted to eat him, why didn’t I? What was holding me back? Why did I value human life so much? It seemed ridiculous. I stood with every intention of ripping the flesh from his bones, but I was knocked to the ground before I could take a step.
“Let him go,” Gordy cried. “Let him do it!”
I stared into the grimacing face of Ajax. He was huffing and howling and
doing everything in his power without actually touching me to keep me from charging Gordy. He didn’t want to physically restrain me because he understood that would just frustrate me more and drive me even further into a Délon frenzy. The others didn’t know how lucky they were. They only had to deal with being possessed by the old man. I was dealing with two demons inside of me.
“Get out of his way, you big dumb ape. I want this!”
I paced in half circles in front of Ajax and fought to suppress all the evil that was trying to take hold of me. I started repeating my name over and over again. I just had to remind myself who I was.
“I can’t take this any more,” he shouted. “Don’t you understand? I’m begging you to put me out of my misery.”
Ariabod sauntered over to Gordy and sat on his haunches next to him. His massive head turned from me and back to Gordy three or four times. He flashed a gnarled grin. Gordy wouldn’t shut up, and I was growing more and more agitated by the minute. Ariabod scooted around and put his butt to Gordy’s face. He nodded his massive head several times. Ajax grinned and nodded back. Ariabod leaned forward and passed gas… loudly.
I was startled. My mouth fell open as I stared in disbelief at what he had just done.
Gordy screamed as if he’d been lit on fire. “He farted! He farted!”
I burst out laughing. It was completely absurd. I had been on the verge of tearing Gordy limb from limb. Gordy was begging me to kill him. I was going mad with frustration. In an instant, the frustration was gone. I was laughing like I had not laughed in years. My belly started to ache I was laughing so hard.
“Oh my God!” Gordy said, crawling away backwards. “A huge friggin’ gorilla just farted on me.”
I held on to my sides and bent over. “That is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Funny? I smell like gorilla fart now!”
“You should have seen your face,” I said.
Gordy looked surprised that I was enjoying myself so much. He frowned, but I could see him fighting a smile.
“It’s not funny.”
“It is totally funny,” I said between waves of snorting laughter.
He couldn’t hold it back any longer. He slapped the floor and started laughing along with me. “That was so sick,” he screamed.
