Otherland

by Almondie Shampine

  “I have to teach you. You have to learn. One day it will no longer hurt, but I have to keep doing this until that day comes and I can know that you have finally learned.”

  The child screeched and tried scrambling away from the knife he began pressing against her stomach. “Leave her alone, leave her alone, leave her alone!” Aliyah screamed, like she herself was possessed. She abruptly dropped Cherise’s hand and started going after him.

  “Aliyah! No!” Cherise yelled. “It’s a trick. Remember?”

  “Never again, never again, you will never ever hurt her ever again.” And just as Aliyah had gotten too close and realized that her child-size and strength wouldn’t allow her to lift the sword, the thing with no face turned, eyes blood-red, and jumped at her.

  Aliyah screamed and cowered. It exploded in mid-jump, just before reaching her, while smoke billowed out of the end of Cherise’s gun. Aliyah had told Cherise not to look at or acknowledge the images, but the child in her torn white nightgown, stained in red, so much blood, so many scars … Cherise lifted her gun as the child’s face turned to her, eyes brilliantly blue and pleading, and shot her.

  “Cherise? What the hell? Why’d you shoot me?” Aliyah picked herself up, no longer a child.

  “It wasn’t you,” Cherise said coldly, feeling like ice inside from what she’d just seen and experienced, remembering the scars all over her Lydia’s body the time she’d been fooling around, trying to see if she had any mother lines. “Let’s keep moving,” she said, grabbing ahold of Aliyah’s hand while avoiding looking at her. They continued their journey in silence, but for the wails and sobs and pleas of tortured children.

  ***

  “Knock, knock, knock. Let me in. Or I’ll blow your house to smithereens!” The tattoo guy pounded loudly at the door. They’d raided a gun shop on their way here, and were loaded with enough ammunition to take out an army.

  Jerome and his four boys were loaded as well, each of them planted at the front door, the back door, and the windows. “Mama, get the kids and get in the basement,” he ordered.

  “I ain’t goin’ down there. Cherise and Lydia down there. I’d lead ‘em right to them.” She cocked a shotgun.

  “Mama, no!”

  “Boy, you don’t tell me what to do. This my house. I know where I’m goin’, but if it my time, I’m goin’ take as many down with me.”

  “Mama, why you got to be so damn stubborn? Me and my boys got dis. Hide the kids.”

  She hid Cherise’s two kids in a pad-locked closet, and the crying baby in a drawer that would muffle its cries from detection. “I’m shuttin’ down the lights,” she told Jerome.

  “Mama, you think that a good idea?”

  “We black, they ain’t see us, but we can see them, take em’ out, just like that, Gerald.”

  “How many times I got to tell you, Mama, it’s Skull. That my name. Stop callin’ me Gerald,” he whined as the rest of them chuckled at him.

  “They six of us, and nine of them, far as I can see. They got damn military weapons, machine guns. On the count o’ three, turn and shoot, then duck and crawl to the kitchen. The other three be blastin’ through the door, and we get ‘em then.”

  “Mama, you act like you done this before,” Jerome said in surprise.

  “Boy, I been on this earth a lot longer than you. Not your cozy upbringing of black rights and equality and affirmative action. Now one, two, THREE!” And shots rang out like the grand finale of the fourth of July fireworks.

  Dwayne left the human body, while beckoning the same of another, and told both humans to stay lying on the ground and play dead until they returned. “Search for the child. I’m going in to find Aliyah. Stay in the darkness,” Dwayne ordered the Dark soul.

  “What’s the child look like?”

  “White, blonde hair, maybe 11-12 years old.”

  Dwayne quickly scoured through the dark two- story house, knowing she was here. He could sense her. He found her in the basement, Cherise lying beside her, like they were having a sleep over. He tried waking her, but she would not wake. Neither of them would, and he moaned and cursed up a fury.

  “What’s wrong?” the other Dark soul floated beside him. “This is perfect. She can’t fight. She can’t run. We can kill her.”

  “I need her soul, you moron, which, at the moment, is not in her body!” he growled. “If I kill her body, I’ll have no way to get to her soul. Did you find the child?”

  “I found two, none of them matching the description you provided.”

  “Check again, check everywhere he could possibly hide. Closets, under the bed, in the dryer, cupboards, pantry, everywhere.”

  Dwayne could hear them celebrating upstairs, thinking they had won.

  “More will come. I was gettin’ tired of this ol’ house anyways. Not the same without my Jeffrey. Change is good. Get the kids. I’ll get the lights and check on Cherise,” the mother said.

  Dwayne wailed and quickly fled the house as the lights burned him.

  He re-possessed the body on the ground.

  “I’m sorry. They turned on the lights before I could find the child. Hurts worse than fire,” the other Dark soul returned to him.

  “I know. You’ve done good. Proven your worth. We won’t need to find the child. They’ll bring the child to us. They’re gathering everyone right now and intend on leaving. What they don’t know is they’ll never get the chance,” Dwayne cackled harshly.

  Last time he’d had this much fun – oh, it seemed an eternity ago. “They’ll get the kids first, and Cherise and Aliyah last. I’ll sneak in through the window. You hide behind the vehicle and quietly kill as many as you can. Do not get your body killed before you’ve got the child, understood? That is your main priority. She will come back for the child, and then finally, I will have her, body and soul.”

  “Yes, Dark master.”

  Hmm, Dark master. Had quite a ring to it, something Dwayne could definitely get used to being addressed by. Dark master. Yes, that he was.

  He was easily able to get in without being detected. He went directly to the basement, hoping against all hope that she had returned by now, making his victory a whole lot easier. He kicked her lifeless-looking body. No, nothing in the human world could ever be easy. Looking at her, he groaned in human need, touched her. “Yes,” said the Satan-worshipping voice of the 24-year old body he’d possessed. “Take her. I want her.”

  “She is not yours to have!” Dwayne snarled. “She is mine and forever and always will be. No one else can have her. I will not share her, not even with you.”

  “You’re a spirit. I’m the one with the tools. Don’t you want to feel the pleasure … one last time? It is only through my body that you can have that.” The body trembled in fierce desire and need.

  Dwayne moaned aloud in fierce recall of past memories, touching the scars on her chest, tracing them – the scars that forever united them together. One of his best and fondest days was the jagged scar, still vivid, between her breasts. She’d stared at him, eyes lidded, mouth pursed, and hadn’t even flinched, hadn’t even blinked while he’d given her that scar, and in those eyes that had rebelliously stared at him the entire time, hadn’t been a single sheen of wetness of one trying to withhold the tears.

  He’d finally given her his gift, a precious gift. The ability to not feel pain. It had been the only control, the only power he’d developed in face of his father. When he’d learned how not to feel pain anymore, his father learned an intense dissatisfaction that followed him to his grave. And that is the power he’d selflessly shared with his beloved Aliyah.

  That’s why he knew that there was nothing he could do to her human body that would return her soul, as she wouldn’t feel the pain. But if she’d gone in with Cherise, then there was a way he might be able to return her.

  He was tired of waiting, so he discarded the human’s wants, and wrapped his strong, young fingers around Cherise’s throat.

  CHAPTER 24

  “W
e’re there,” Aliyah said, facing an impossibly small white tunnel. “This is where I must leave you. You won’t be able to get in without someone from their side letting you in. I’m the only human who has ever been able to cross freely.”

  “We won’t know ‘less we try. I’m goin’ wit’ you. If I can’t get in, then we know I can’t.” Suddenly, Cherise grabbed her throat. “I ... can’t … breathe.”

  “It’s another ... trick to get us … to turn back. I can’t … either. Just … keep crawling forward,” Aliyah gasped.

  Cherise began choking and gagging for breath.

  “Hurry,” Aliyah yanked on her hand. “Almost ... there.”

  And then she was falling, and to her surprise, Cherise still had her hand and was falling with her, but something seemed wrong.

  The ground is hard as stone, she remembered, so imagined a mattress, to which they landed on, bounced, and settled.

  “Oooh, girl,” Cherise breathed excitedly. “For a moment there, I didn’t think I was goin’ to make it. Ooh, it is black as pitch here. Why it so dark?”

  “This is the Darkness. Keep your voice down. Nothing but Dark souls live here, except for the prisoners, which is where I think Jacob is. Come on,” Aliyah went to grab Cherise’s hand, but her hand went right through hers.

  “Cherise?” Aliyah said alarmed. “Match,” she demanded, and a small area lit up, eerily cascaded in flame. Cherise’s physical body was flickering. “Oh my God, Cherise,” Aliyah cried. “We must go back. NOW.”

  “What’s wit’ you? Act like you lookin’ at a ghost again.”

  “You’re – you’re –,” Aliyah sobbed harshly. “You’re dying, Cherise. They must have found us, and thuh-they’re … Oh God, Cherise, they’re killing you. We have to go back. We have to suh-save you. Keep you from dying.”

  “Ooh, this feel nice. Ooh, girl, look at me. I can fly, or float, or whatever I’m doin’.”

  “Cherise, are you listening to me? They are killing you. We need to go back,” Aliyah shouted.

  “Uh-uh, dis a trick.”

  “No, it’s not. The tricks stopped once we got to this side.”

  “No, not like that. A trap. I ain’t goin’ back. They doin’ it to get to you and I ain’t allowin’ that. They probably got a knife to your throat right now, just waitin’ for you to return a moment befo’ they torture you. Uh-uh, I ain’t goin’ back,” she shook her head with finality.

  “Cherise, your – your kids. Jerome. They need you. Please. I don’t want you dying because of me.”

  “Ain’t anyone neva’ told you you worth dyin’ fo’, fool?”

  Aliyah fell to her knees, crying so hard that it wracked her to the very core of her being. “No, I’m not. This was never your mission. This was never your fight. I never should have –.”

  Cherise kneeled down before her, lifted her chin to look into her blue eyes that looked like ocean tides at the moment. “You ain’t know that. Maybe dis my purpose. I’m dyin’, anyway. It’s my time. Not yours. You go back, try to save me, when I’m already dyin’, you be just as dead, and that awful man, that awful beast that did all them things to you, take yo’ childhood away, yo’ innocence, everything, he be roamin’ free to do more damage, more evil. Hurtin’ more children like he hurt you. You gotta protect the babies, Lydia. Yo’ job is to rid the world of that evil, and keep all the children safe, so they ain’t gotta be like you and live like you do. See … it done. My body gone.”

  Aliyah no longer needed the match, as Cherise’s light soul lit up the entire area. “You’re … beautiful, Cherise. You look like an angel,” Aliyah gasped.

  “I’m white,” Cherise said, in a disappointed matter-of-fact tone. They both burst out laughing. “Let’s go kick some black ass and free yo’ Light knight.”

  ***

  Dwayne roared in rage, then agony. It didn’t work, and had taken so long that his back had been turned when Cherise’s mother opened the door, cried out, and emptied her shotgun on his human body. On his way out, he flicked his hand to slam the basement door shut, effectively knocking her down the stairs. He found his other human comrade lying on the ground, against the car, blood pouring out of his mouth and out of the bullet holes in his gut.

  “I gave you one job, and one job only, and you went and got the only human body we got left shot,” he stormed, whipping the winds around them in his fury.

  “I tried. There was no kid. No white kid that age. Only a baby, a white baby. And their two kids. That’s it.”

  He howled. “Do I have to do everything myself?”

  At that, he whipped around and flew into the body of Gerald, who was standing outside the car with his gun, the kids inside the vehicle.

  “Ahh, get out!” Gerald screamed in pain, the same pain that Dwayne was feeling trying to possess a body that rejected him.

  “You either accept me or Jerome and everyone else, including the little kiddies, will die.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I just want the baby, and I promise everyone else will live.”

  “Ahh, what the hell you want the baby fo’?”

  Dwayne painfully controlled Gerald’s arm, and turned the gun toward Jerome, who was standing at the doorway. “That’s my business. Bring the baby where I want it to go, or I’ll make you shoot your buddy, no matter how much you fight. I’m stronger than you, and you know it. Do we have a deal?”

  The resistance broke, and he fully took the body. “Why you pointin’ that thing at me, Nigga?” Jerome yelled.

  “Just makin’ sure you wasn’t possessed, dog. I know what they after.”

  “I already know. They after Lydia. I told Cherise I didn’t want her comin’ here.”

  “No, they after the baby.”

  “What they want the baby fo’?”

  “That’s what I said. You gotta protect your own, dog. Your own babies. I’m goin’ take the white baby. I’ll take Lydia’s car. Bring it somewhere safe, away from your kids, so dey won’t be hurt.”

  “You crazy, Nigga? Cherise kill me. You ain’t married. You ain’t know what it like, get kicked outta my own bed, be sleepin’ on the couch for a month, uh-uh.”

  “Jerome, Cherise is dead,” Dwayne said in Gerald’s voice, but instead of looking somberly humbled, he smiled as Jerome turned back into the house, calling for Mama and Cherise.

  He felt the pain of the resistance again. “You killed Cherise?”

  “No, Aliyah did.”

  “Who’s Aliyah?”

  “You’ll find out. She’ll come for the baby, and then we’ll kill her. You and me. We’ll avenge Cherise.”

  Again, the resistance faded. He grabbed the baby, pulled the blanket away from its face, and looked into big green eyes. Yep, this was the child. The same one from Otherland. Except … a baby. Knowing Aliyah, she’d left the keys in the ignition in order to make a fast getaway if she had to, and he was right.

  Tossing the baby into the passenger seat, he reversed hard out of the driveway and screeched a 45 degree turn, just as Jerome and his remaining boy came barreling out of the house with their guns. More shots rang out into the night, but he gassed the white LeMans forward, squealing a good 100 feet down the road.

  Chapter 25

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” Cherise asked.

  “Well, first, we need to do something about the fact that you stand out like day against night,” Aliyah whispered. She conjured up a black cloak, tossed it around Cherise’s head and body, but it went right through her and fell to the ground.

  “I got dis,” Cherise said, lifting her smoke-hand and floating the black cloak around her. Instantly, they returned to darkness.

  “You act like you’ve been this way your whole life, Cherise,” Aliyah said appreciatively.

  “It feels that way. It’s … different. I feel mo’ free than I ever felt in my entire human life. Neva’ recognized how uncomfortable my human body was. How they with diversity here?”

  “You’ll be fine bein
g who you are. It’s humans they’re prejudiced against, so now you’ll fit right in. Things feel different now. You hear those sounds, the cries of the Lost souls. It never used to be like that here. The Darkness was always one of silence. Something is very, very wrong, and I wonder if that’s why you still have your memories.”

  “Why shouldn’t I?” Cherise asked.

  “You’re Light. Typically, those that cross over Light lose the burden of their memories from the human world. The Darks retain the memories as a type of punishment.”

  “Well, somethin’ keep pullin’ at me, like I’m s’pposed to go somewhere.”

  “Is it telling you to go toward the light?” Aliyah jested.

  “How you know?”

  “Must be the Orientation ritual I’ve heard about. Perhaps that’s where you’re cleansed of your memories.”

  “I ain’t goin’.”

  Aliyah inhaled and said playfully, “You’re going to defy the High master? What wrong wit’ you?” she mocked their earlier conversation.

  “Well I ain’t die for nothin’. He can wait. I know what to do. Stay behind me, keep yo’ head down.” And Cherise just pranced, or rather floated, into the place of imprisonment, as though she belonged there. “I want to see the prisoner Light knight,” she demanded of a Dark prison guardian.

  “Who’s asking?”

  She lifted her hand sharply and flung him across the room. “Don’t you know a elder when you see one, fool?” Aliyah tried covering up her laughter, to little avail.

  “Sorry, Dark elder,” he bowed. “I did not recognize you. What happened to -?”

  “All us black things look the same, stupid. Question me again and I’ll strip you of yo’ duties, and you be the incarcerated one.”

  “That’s what I always said about black people,” Aliyah whispered in laughter.