by Amy Cross
“Oh my God!” Paula shouted, running to him and dropping to her knees. “What happened?” Looking up, she saw that the blades of the machine were bloodied, and that they seemed to have moved down toward the floor.
“It's okay,” he gasped, trying to get to his feet, “it's just -” Before he could finish, he slumped down against her, and as she lowered him to the ground, she realized that he'd passed out with fresh blood still pouring from a series of thick wounds on his upper arm and torso.
“Dad!” she shouted, slapping the side of his face in a desperate attempt to get him to wake up. “Dad! I'm going to get help! Can you hear me? Dad!”
***
“Paula Ridley?”
Getting to her feet in the hospital corridor, she hurried to the door and shook the doctor's outstretched hand. “How is he?”
“Do you want me to speak in English?”
She nodded.
“He's doing as well as can be expected,” the doctor replied, as he gestured for her to follow him into the next corridor. “He lost a lot of blood, suffered some muscle and nerve damage, and he's going to have to stay in for a while. We have him sedated for now, but that's mainly because of the pain and shock. We'll probably bring him around tomorrow afternoon, if everything goes according to plan.”
“So he's not in danger? I mean, he's not going...” Her voice trailed off for a moment.
“He's lucky. From what the police told us about the accident, it sounds like it could have been much worse.”
“I don't know what he was doing,” she continued, feeling as if she was about to fall apart at any moment, but somehow managing to hold herself together. “There was this machine, and he was fiddling with it, and it's like the blades suddenly just sliced down.”
“You saw the accident?”
“I heard it.”
“I think he'll probably be kept in until next week,” the doctor continued. “With wounds like this, we don't want to take any chances.”
As they reached the intensive care unit where her father was being kept, Paula looked through a glass window and saw a figure in one of the beds, with bandages covering one side of his body and various tubes and wires running to nearby machines. It took a moment before she realized that it was him, that the man in the bed was her father.
“Oh God,” she whispered, suddenly feeling a little faint.
“Do you have someone you can stay with?” the doctor asked.
“Stay with?”
“While your father's here. You indicated earlier that it's just you and him living alone.”
“I...” She paused, staring at her father in the bed. “I'm fine.”
“But if -”
“I'm okay” she replied, turning to the doctor. “Don't worry, I'll be fine.”
“You can go in and see him if you want,” the doctor continued, opening the door, “but not for too long. And don't be worried about the fact that he doesn't answer. Like I told you, he's heavily sedated, so he's not going to respond to any kind of external stimulation.”
“Thank you,” she replied, as she stepped into the quiet, calm room and made her way over to the bed. Up close, the plethora of equipment seemed to make everything worse, as if it was reminding her just how serious her father's injuries had been. There was a moment, back while she was waiting for the ambulance to arrive and the bleeding had just kept going, when she'd wondered for a few horrific seconds whether she was about to lose her second parent in the space of two years.
Stopping by the bed, she looked down at his sleeping face.
“Oh, you idiot,” she whispered, feeling a rush of shock passing through her body. “I told you, I told you that you were messing with something you didn't understand. I knew something like this...” She paused for a moment. “I didn't know it'd be this bad, but I knew you'd get yourself in trouble somehow. What the hell were you thinking? Why did you have to go messing around with all that equipment?”
She stopped suddenly, before reaching down and taking his hand. For a moment, with tears streaming down her face, all she could do was stare at him, as if she was in shock.
“Please don't die,” she added finally, leaning down and kissing his forehead. “Please, you dumbass, don't die.”
Chapter Nineteen
1979
Smiling, Sara reached down and used a fingertip to write her name in the cement that her father had just finished laying in the storeroom at the back of the shed.
“Your turn,” she said, looking up at Elizabeth.
“You can write mine,” her sister replied dourly.
“No, you have to do it!”
Sighing, Elizabeth got down on her knees and quickly added her name, before wiping her finger clean on her apron.
“We should get Kari,” Sara added.
“I don't think Kari's in the mood.”
“It might cheer her up!”
At this, Elizabeth turned and glared at her.
“I'll do her name, then,” Sara continued, reaching down and writing Kari in the cement. “There,” she added, sitting back and admiring her work. She forced a smile, hoping that somehow, if she smiled and acted normal, everything would be okay.
“You don't get it, do you?” Elizabeth asked after a moment.
“Don't get what?” Turning, she saw that her older sister was staring at her with an expression of disgust.
“Come on,” Elizabeth said finally, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the storeroom. “It's time to show you something.”
“I want to play!” Sara shouted.
“Tough! If you won't listen to reason, I'm just going to have to shock you into doing the right thing!”
“I don't want to!”
“Tough!” Elizabeth shouted, dragging her across the yard. “It's time for you to face the truth!”
***
“Hey,” Elizabeth whispered as she led Sara, still by the hand, into Kari's hushed, quiet bedroom. “It's us. Are you awake?”
On the bed, Kari lay with a thick white bandage covering the top half of her face, while there were small plasters and in some cases stitches on the rest of her body. Most of her ravaged flesh had been left bare, so that the cuts could heal, but there were thick bandages around her waist and crotch, and her arms and legs were out at either side, hanging over the edge of the bed.
“I don't want to see her,” Sara hissed, pulling on Elizabeth's hand in an attempt to get free. “Let me go!”
“No,” Elizabeth said firmly, pushing the door shut. “You have to see.”
“I don't want to,” Sara continued, her voice becoming a whine as she tried even harder to get out of Elizabeth's grip. Finally, in desperation, she leaned closer and tried to bite Elizabeth's hand, only for her sister to slap the side of her face hard enough to make her recoil in shock.
“Don't be a baby!”
With tears in her eyes, Sara stared up at Elizabeth, unable to believe what had just happened. Her mother had spanked her plenty of times when she was younger, but Elizabeth had never, ever shown any hint of using violence before.
“I can hear you,” Kari said suddenly from the bed, her voice sounding harsh and dry, as if every word was an effort. “Sara, if you want to go, just go. You don't have to be here.”
“See?” Sara said, turning toward the door before stopping as she felt Elizabeth's hand on her shoulder.
“You're staying,” Elizabeth said firmly. “You're seeing what you friend did to our sister. Don't make me force you, because so help me God, I will.”
Turning slowly, Sara looked over at Kari and, for the first time, realized the extent of her middle sister's injuries. For a moment, she thought back to when she'd gone to the barn the previous day and the man had been working on something. She'd heard a squelching sound, and she'd seen blood on his hands, and now it was clear that Kari had been his project at the time. Although she wanted to turn and run, to pretend that none of this had ever happened, she also knew that Elizabeth blamed her, and she'd lea
rned over the years that Elizabeth was usually right about things. Still, this time, Elizabeth didn't know all the things the man had said, so obviously she didn't understand why everything – even pain – was okay.
“Come closer,” Elizabeth whispered, leading a reluctant Sara around to the far side of the bed.
“What are you doing?” Kari asked.
“She needs to see.”
“Why?”
“Because...” Elizabeth paused, as if she was on the verge of telling Kari everything. “Because she's eight years old,” she said finally, “and because I don't think she gets it yet.”
“I get it,” Sara said, trying once again to slip her hand away from Elizabeth's grip. “Can I go now?”
“Let her leave,” Kari continued. “You can both leave, I...” She paused for a moment. “I want to be alone.”
“I need to take the bandage off your face,” Elizabeth told her.
“No!” Sara said firmly, starting to panic.
“Why do you want to do that?” Kari asked.
“To show her,” Elizabeth continued. “Trust me.”
Kari remained silent for a moment. “Okay,” she said finally, her voice trembling slightly.
“Please no,” Sara whimpered, trying to pull back, “I don't want to -”
“Look!” Elizabeth hissed, pushing the girl forward with enough force to slam her into the side of the bed. Grabbing her by the back of the neck, she gripped her tightly for a moment. “I swear to God, Sara Marie Olesun, you are going to see what he did to her!”
“You're hurting me,” the little girl whined, close to tears.
“I'll hurt you more if you try to run,” Elizabeth replied, before letting go and reaching down to start gently unsticking the bandage that was covering Kari's nose, eyes and forehead. “Let me know if it hurts,” she continued. “It'll only be for a moment, okay? I just... I need her to see the truth.”
“Okay,” Kari whispered, her voice barely audible at all.
Without saying another word, Elizabeth worked calmly to unfasten the bandages from the pieces of tape, and finally she lifted it to expose a second, smaller piece of white gauze that had been left to soak up blood from Kari's eye-sockets. Beneath the criss-crossed pattern of the gauze, two dark holes could just about be made out.
“No,” Sara whispered, taking a step back, before turning to run out of the room. “No!”
Grabbing the little girl's arm, Elizabeth yanked her back and then grabbed her head, forcing her to turn and look.
“No!” Sara shouted, biting Elizabeth's arm.
“Look!” her older sister hissed, thrusting her toward the bed again and ignoring the continued bite, even as blood began to dribble down her arm. “For God's sake, Sara, look at what that man did!”
With her teeth still locked around Elizabeth's arm, Sara stared in wide-eyed horror at the two cavernous dark holes that were just about visible beneath the gauze. She froze for a moment, with tears in her eyes, as she tried to comprehend the horror, and as she thought back to the squelching sound that she now realized must have been when the man had been working on Kari's face.
“Keep looking,” Elizabeth continued, holding Sara in place with one arm while reaching over and taking hold of the edge of the gauze. Slowly, she peeled it back to show the full ruination of Kari's face, with black, empty eye-sockets that had been scraped clean of flesh at the edges, revealing bloodied bone, almost as if part of her skull was starting to push through. Her nose had also been cut away, leaving behind just the stump and two air-holes.
Sara's eyes widened even further, as if to let in the horror she was seeing.
“The man you know as Death,” Elizabeth said with a faint tremor in her voice, as if she was struggling to stay strong, “did this to your sister. While she was awake, too. And he did it because he's a monster, a monster that you're helping to protect right now, Sara. The men have been out for hours, but they can't find a trace of him.”
“No,” Sara whimpered, with tears running down her cheeks. “It's not my fault!”
“It's not,” Kari whispered. “It...” She paused for a moment. “Every time someone takes off the bandage, I expect to be able to see at least some light, but... It's just darkness. There's never going to be anything but darkness ever again, is there?”
“Do you remember it all?” Elizabeth asked. “When he was doing it to you, I mean.”
At first, no answer came.
“Some of it,” Kari said finally.
“Tell her,” Elizabeth continued. “Sara needs to know.”
“I remember...” Kari paused for a moment. “He talked a lot, but I'm not sure what he said. All the words faded away, but I remember the way he...”
Waiting for Kari to continue, Sara stared with tear-filled eyes.
“His breath was hot,” Kari said finally, “and it stank. I felt his breath all over my body. It was like he was examining me. Later I felt...” Another pause, as her empty sockets stared up at the ceiling. “I felt a blade against my skin,” she continued, her voice starting to crack a little, “at first just rubbing gently, but then he began to push it harder and I felt it slicing into me. It stung, and then he went deeper and deeper with every pass, just taking pieces...” She reached down and ran her hands over her bare belly, letting her fingertips brush against the stitches and bandages. “I thought he was going to take all my skin.”
“Are you listening?” Elizabeth whispered in Sara's ear. “Are you listening to every word she says?”
Without replying, Sara stared at Kari's face, unable to stop looking at her empty eye-sockets.
“It lasted hours,” Kari continued. “He didn't stop, he just kept finding new ways to...” She paused. “He cut me. He cut things off, he sliced, he gouged and dug -”
“It's okay,” Elizabeth said, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder, “if it's too much, we can finish another time.”
“I felt blood running down what was left of my skin,” Kari continued, as if she was barely even aware of the others now and was lost in her own memories. “I felt his hot breath against my skin still, snorting as if he was laughing. I wanted him to end it, I wanted to die, I know that's wrong and that God must hate me, but I was just begging the man to get it over with. I don't know if I was saying it out loud or if it was just in my head, but I wanted to be released from all the pain. And then...”
She fell silent for a moment.
“And then what?” Elizabeth whispered.
Sara stayed frozen, staring at Kari's face.
“And then...” Kari continued. “He only stopped once. There was something else, another voice...”
“Someone else was there?” Elizabeth asked, shocked by the idea.
“He was talking to her,” Kari replied. “I heard him, and I heard her too. They were saying...”
Slowly, Sara began to shake her head.
“You're a child,” Kari whispered. “He told her she had to understand, and then I heard him telling her that he knew about the farm.” She paused. “That's what he said to her.”
“To who?” Elizabeth asked.
“Please,” Sara whispered, with tears streaming down her face. “Please, no...”
“And she left,” Kari added, with a hint of anger rising in her voice.
“Who left?” Elizabeth asked. “Kari, if there was someone else -”
Suddenly Kari turned her head until she was facing Sara.
“No,” Sara whimpered, trying to pull away but held in place by Elizabeth's hands on her shoulders.
“Why did you leave me there?” Kari asked, as blood ran from her empty eye-sockets. “I heard you! I remember now, you were there!”
“Sara,” Elizabeth continued, looking down at her little sister with an expression of utter shock, “is that true?”
“No,” Sara replied, “I mean, I -”
“Why didn't you help me?” Kari shouted, suddenly lurching off the bed and lunging at Sara, landing against her and
pushing her down to the wooden floor before landing on top of her. Leaning her bloodied face closer as Sara began to scream, Kari seemed to be staring straight into the little girl's eyes with her large, empty sockets. “Why didn't you help me?” she screamed. “Why didn't you do anything?”
“Get off her,” Elizabeth begged, trying to pull Kari up.
“Why did you leave me there?” Kari shouted, putting her hands on Sara's throat as she leaned so close that the exposed parts of her skull were pressing against the little girl's face. “Look at me! Look what he did!”
Screaming, Sara started trying to push away, punching at Kari's chest in a desperate attempt to get free. Reaching up, she put a hand on her face and tried to force her back, but after a moment her fingertips slipped into the empty eye-sockets.
“Leave her alone!” Elizabeth shouted, slipping her hands under Kari's arms and hauling her back onto the bed. “She's just a child!” she added, pushing Kari firmly back down onto the sheets.
“She was there!” Kari hissed, her whole body trembling with rage as her voice began to break into a series of sobs. “She didn't help me! Why didn't she help me?”
Turning to see that Sara had run out of the room, Elizabeth climbed off the bed. “I'll be back to put your bandages on again,” she replied, before hurrying after Sara.
“What is going on in here?” their mother shouted, hurrying in from the garden.
Ignoring her, Elizabeth raced to the hallway and then out to the yard, where she saw Sara running past the barn. Hurrying to catch up to her, Elizabeth finally caught up and then pulled her back, forcing the terrified little girl to face her.
“Now do you see?” she asked firmly, crouching down to look Sara in the eyes, as they both heard Kari screaming from the farmhouse. “Do you get it now? Do you understand why you have to tell us where we can find this monster before someone else ends up like Kari?”
Chapter Twenty
Today
