The Trilogy of the Void: The Complete Boxed Set

by Peter Meredith

  He pointed to the far wall. "That way. The last door on that wall." She started to go but he pulled her back in. "Not yet, Bunny. Here's the plan." Will picked up Gayle's dinner tray. "Katie, you go to that room and drop this tray as loud as you can. Then hide in the closet. Can you do that?" She nodded as if it were nothing. "Good. If you're caught just say you dropped the tray and you hid because you were scared. When the orderly goes to check out the noise we slip Talitha out of the bed, Lisa gets in it and we hook her up to the monitors. If any of those beeping alarms go off, we'll say we accidently unplugged them." He paused for questions or concerns, but no one said a word, so he kept going, "Once Talitha is disconnected we put her in the wheelchair and slide her into the closet until the coast is clear."

  William didn’t like the idea of a teenage boy planning the operation and saw glaring holes in his plan. "Two problems: First, Tal and Lisa don’t look anything alike and second, how do we keep her breathing while we do all of this?"

  Lisa responded to the first question, "Look how covered up she is, you can barely see her. I don’t think he'll notice."

  "But the breathing…" Will said almost to himself. He went to Talitha, eyed the little pumping machine closely, and followed the tubing from it to her mouth. Tape held it in place both on her top lip and on her chin. He then went to the small cabinet next to the bed and after rummaging through it, he pulled out some identical tubing, tape, and scissors. "Here we go! The machine is simply pushing air in and pulling it out. I think if we cut the hose and leave the rest in her, we can breathe into it every few seconds. She'll be ok for a while."

  "The extra tubing will go in Lisa's mouth I take it?" William asked.

  "Yes, what do you think?" Will asked nervously, hoping for his father's approval.

  "It's a sound plan. Her low body temperature will decrease her need for oxygen, so keep breathing for her, but make sure you don't overdo it. Will you almost burst my lungs when you saved me, which by the way, I never did thank you for."

  Will went a light pink. "It was nothing."

  "It was stupid to the point of being ridiculously dangerous...but also heroic beyond anything I've ever seen and I thank you." The pink color went into overdrive and Will's cheeks glowed red. "Now let's put your plan into action."

  Brian and Lisa, neither of whom were affected by Talitha's touch, moved her with great care so as not to disrupt the leads right away. They put her in the spare wheelchair that Katie had played with earlier and then Lisa slipped into the bed. They taped the tube into her mouth and when all was ready, Katie glided silently out into the hall on sock-covered feet. She was quick and it was only seconds before they heard a clatter from down the hall. Gayle, who was keeping watch, put her unbroken arm down to signal that it was time to make the switch.

  The monitor sang out, a low sorrowful boooooop when it was unplugged. In four seconds they had Talitha unhooked and Lisa was plugged in five seconds after that. This time the monitor sounded cheery and beeped loudly in happiness. The boys hid Talitha and everyone waited for what felt like a long time before the door swung open. Now was when they would find out if their ruse was going to work, but it was only Katie.

  "Where's everyone? Did it work?" she asked of her mother.

  "I guess so. The orderly never seemed to notice. Let's hope a real emergency doesn't happen up here." Gayle's relief was contagious and everyone stood about smiling, except for Lisa who could only hoot happily through her tube.

  William called them back to the grave task at hand, "We have to go."

  This sobered them up quickly, and instead of standing around smiling, they stood around staring at each other uneasily and no one seemed to want to be the first to say goodbye. Gayle surprised William by being the first. She went to her son, her eyes shining with tears, hugged him and then kissed him. It broke the ice and they all said quick goodbyes and gave each other kisses, all except Brian, who stood with Talitha and breathed into her tube.

  Gayle broke away from William, wiped her glistening face and said, "I'm going to distract the orderly...give me thirty seconds." One more quick kiss and she was gone. William felt a terrible pang in the deepest cellar of his heart, but kept his game face on and swallowed the fear. It was not a fear concerning physical injury, but rather it was the fear that he had looked into those brown eyes for the last time.

  Katie cheered him up. In the thirty seconds they had to wait, she gave him an extra hug and said, "I'm tired of this hospital food, can we have pancakes when you get back?"

  He couldn't say no to that and smiled despite his heavy heart. "Anything you want, Katie." With that, he goosed her bottom once, which sent her scampering away smiling. He then turned to his son: "Will, if you would be so kind?"

  Will gave a quick peek out, and in moments they were buzzing down the hall. They would have looked like kids racing each other with the wheelchairs had it not been for the fixed looks of determination on their faces.

  They had barely turned the corner of the first hall when William heard, "Hey! Shtop!" For a second his heart froze but he then realized it was Brian trying to talk around the tube stuck between his lips.

  Turning back, they saw the reason he wanted to stop, Talitha was sliding out of the chair like ice cream down the side of a cone. Will went to him and they tugged her back into position. He then darted into the nearest room and came back with more of the white hospital tape. They wound it about her until she was semi-erect and looked as though she would stay put. It was terrible to see her head hanging to one side. It looked lifeless.

  It made William almost sick to see her like that. "Could you lean the chair back? Her head it..." he couldn't finish the sentence. Brian pulled back and Talitha's head rolled grotesquely and slowly into a better position. Without a monitor telling them she was alive, she appeared a corpse in need of a grave.

  Chapter 12

  Will in the Void

  1

  The front wheels of the chair kept catching on the uneven bricks and this forced Will to lean his father back in order to catch up to the speeding Brian. The street hadn't been smooth, but it felt like glass compared to the washboard of the sidewalk.

  They had slipped out of the nearly deserted hospital without a single challenge and the darkness of the June night swallowed them up whole. It took all of a minute before Will felt the sweat rolling down his back. He was glad for it. He needed the work—the exertion—he needed anything to keep from having to think about what it was they were running so eagerly towards.

  Every few minutes he forced himself to look ahead to see where Brian was. This was a reluctant move on his part because each time the house came into view, it looked larger and each time his chest tightened just a little bit more.

  His father lounging in the wheelchair stretched and yawned widely in an almost bored fashion. Had it been any other man, Will would've thought the display of nonchalance to be an absurd act, but the Commander was fearless. He had literally been killed by the demon just fourteen hours earlier, yet here he was looking like he had just woken from a nap. Will wished he had that kind of bravery; instead he was practically wetting himself, and he regretted not having gone to the bathroom while at the hospital.

  They were midway down the Row when Brian slowed and he was just nearing the Harris house when he came to a stop.

  A low whisper from Brian: "Something moved on the Harris' porch."

  Butterflies exploded to life in Will's stomach at the statement. His eyes grew huge in the night, and it was with huge eyes he scanned the darker gloom of the porch. He could see nothing but shadows, each of which seemed to hold the figure of Mrs. Harris grown huge and bloated with evil. Sweat trickled into his eye and when he lifted his hand to wipe it away, he saw that it shook badly. He slapped it back down onto the wheelchair's rubber grip and used his shoulder to clear the sweat instead.

  "Go slowly past the porch, Brian," William commanded quietly. With his head cocked to the left and his breath barely under control Will follow
ed slowly behind his friend. They were just passing the darkened porch when a voice spoke loud and confident.

  "Kind of an odd night for a stroll, especially with your sick daughter. She doesn't look so good."

  Will jumped, startled by the words, and the wheelchair ground to a halt on the bricks.

  "Get going, Will," his father said in a very low whisper. Then louder, he spoke to the darkness, "Just taking care of a few things. Is that you, Henny?"

  Will got the chair moving again and he followed the sidewalk around to the side of their house. This wasn't easy since it was a narrow path, which Will refused to look at it. Instead he watched as a silhouette drifted down the porch and came toward them across the bricks.

  It was garbed completely in black, so that it melded with the shadows, and at one moment appeared large and at another small. It moved with the silent graceful ease of the demon and Will, who was close to panicking, kept his head craned around at a near impossible angle so as to keep an eye on it. Suddenly it strode from beneath the tree that grew between the two houses and the moon revealed Mrs. Harris.

  "What sort of things need to be taken care of so close to midnight, William?" she asked with equal parts cockiness and curiosity.

  "This has to do with helping Talitha, you probably wouldn't be interested." His father still sounded calm but he sat up straighter and Will could see he had a grip on the arms of the chair, ready to push himself up if needed.

  The sidewalk strayed even farther to the left, which put Mrs. Harris directly at Will's back. He felt completely exposed to her. His skin began to crawl, and then to twitch along his spine. When she spoke again, from right behind him, he couldn't help it and his shoulders bunched as if he were expecting a blow.

  "You're wrong. I care deeply for Talitha." The sidewalk jogged back to the right for the final short leg to his house and Will was able to see her again. Unbelievably, she was smiling and he stared at her in disbelief.

  "Will!" his father spoke his name, a sharp word of warning and he looked forward just too late to avoid running the wheelchair into the back of Brian's legs. It must have hurt, but the boy only grunted and it was then that Will saw the reason for the abrupt stop.

  Adrina was there. She stood stooped over, looking tiny next to the house. The moonlight cast shadows in her wrinkles, giving her face a craggy appearance. Father Alba then stepped from around the corner of the house and, for just a moment, Will felt relief as if the cavalry had arrived to save him from Mrs. Harris.

  He moved around to the side of the wheelchair so Henny wasn't directly behind him and his relief evaporated when he saw her. Mrs. Harris looked completely composed and utterly without fear of the ridiculous group in front of her. He suddenly saw them as she must have: a shriveled old lady, a priest shaking and sweating through his vestments, a girl who looked more like she belonged in a morgue than a hospital, a man who was a sneeze away from another heart attack, a skinny little boy who looked to be just hitting puberty and Will, who was the worst of the lot.

  He knew he was the weak link in a weak group and the need to pee was badly on him. And just then he remembered his foolish words from earlier; I say we knock her out cold. What a joke that seemed now.

  "You brought a priest and is this his grandmother? Is this what you brought to help Talitha?" There was an edge of mocking cruelty to her voice.

  Adrina turned her head without taking her eyes from Mrs. Harris and spat like a cowboy onto the bricks. "How'd you do it?" she asked. "You summon a beast of this much power not once but twice. Please, I'm dying to find out how."

  Mrs. Harris' haughty demeanor didn't waver for a second. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. William, what sort of people are you getting yourself mixed up with?"

  Will's father turned slightly in his chair to face her. "You can deny it all you wish, but we know it was you who summoned the demon. What kind of deal did you make for the life of my daughter?" She pretended not to understand and only shook her head sadly at him. He continued, "Fine. Play it that way, but you should be happy because when we help Talitha, we'll also be helping you."

  "You're so sweet, William, but I don't need your help. I'm doing just fine on my own."

  The priest spoke, "Mrs. Harris, you don't have anything to fear. We're going to end the connection between you and the demon." He paused and her guilt was solidified in Will's eyes when she waited to hear how this was going to be done. The priest continued, "We're going to perform a simple exorcism on you. It won't..."

  She laughed loudly in the warm muggy night. "Oh my! That's a good one! An exorcism on me! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Let's say there is a demon. How on earth would an exorcism on me, help Talitha?"

  Her laughter was unnerving in its complete lack of fear and everyone cast a questioning look at Adrina who only shook her head ruefully. "I guess there's no fooling you," the old woman said, as if she had been found to be a cheat. "I suppose I'll need this earlier than I thought."

  She slid her thick scarf from off her shoulders and with a hypnotizing slowness, pulled from her purse a gun that looked gigantic in her small hands. Still slow and deliberate she wrapped the gun with the scarf and pointed it in Henny's direction. Henny had eyed the gun silently, everyone had eyed the gun silently, and when the scarf wrapped it, they eyed that as well.

  2

  The silence stretched out and Henny was just beginning to shake her head to say something, when Adrina spoke, "Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been one day since my last confession. I lied today. I told a group of people that the witch would be glad to have the connection with the demon ended. I said this even though I knew she would never do it unless she knew I would shoot her in the liver and drag her inside by her hair if she didn't go in voluntarily. I beg your forgiveness."

  No one spoke.

  Henny's eyes had been huge at the sight of the gun but at the words shoot her in the liver, they grew bigger still and her mouth came open and hung slack.

  Adrina gave the priest a little nudge to remind him of his duty. He started as if coming awake from a dream. "Oh yes, oh yes." Without taking his eyes from the scarf, he mumbled, "May God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost."

  "Amen," agreed Adrina, the gun never wavering from Henny's midsection. "Over to the garage, witch. Brian, please open the door."

  Henny came suddenly alive. "Commander Jern, you can't be serious! Don't you see..."

  "Shut it, witch!" Adrina spoke sharply, her face alight with inner fire. "With the scarf no one will hear the gun and I think we'll have just enough time to do the exorcism before you bleed to death."

  Everyone, including Henny, fully believed that Adrina would pull the trigger. "Ok, ok, don't shoot, ok?" Henny walked crab like in a sideways motion to the garage and Adrina shooed her to the rear.

  The old lady then began to bark orders: "Father, Baptisms first, then Communion, and please be quick about it, no sermons! Everyone get inside the garage. Will, there's a box just outside, its heavy. Don't go spilling it! Brian, please put Talitha on the hood of the car." They all scurried about doing as they were told and Father Alba mumbled prayers almost continuously.

  William, who had nothing to do, sat near to Henny and glowered at her with intense hatred. "How could you?"

  "I don't..."

  "Stop lying or I'll have the old lady shoot you. I think she'll do it if I ask nicely."

  Adrina who was helping the Priest prepare the sacramental wine heard this. "Only if you say please, Commander. Wait, who am I kidding? I'd shoot her even if you didn't say please."

  "But..." Henny glanced around for some sympathy, but saw only hard looks. "Ok. You don't understand how it was. The demon haunted me day and night, until I was forced to...you know with that other girl... "

  Adrina interrupted and her eyes were black as jet and oozed hate, "Emily! Her name was Emily!"

  "Yes, I forgot. Emily was what
it needed, you know a virgin. This was back when I was just a teenager. I was just a kid; it wasn't my fault." She looked up at Adrina and quickly looked away again. "The demon was always at me, threatening and promising. So..." she paused searching in desperation for the right words.

  "You gave her to the demon, right?" William's words were ice.

  "Yes," Henny replied weakly. "I had to. It was driving me insane."

  "Stop it with that crap! You received something in the bargain, but it screwed you over didn't it?" The man's voice had become more hoarse and Will hoped his father wasn't exerting himself too much, too early.

  "Yes...it tricked me! It lied to me."

  Just then Father Alba cleared his throat loudly, and pronounced them ready to begin.

  He started with a quick prayer and then breathed on each of them in an exaggerated fashion. He then made the sign of the cross on their foreheads and chests. Something salty was next placed in their mouths and for some reason the priest took off his stole and slid it across them. This Will thought was odd but when the priest spat on his fingers and touched Will's ears and nose with it, Will glanced around in confusion. He had thought Baptism was about running water over you or being dunked in a pool, not about spit.

  "Do you reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises?" he asked of them.

  Adrina spoke loudly, "I do." The others followed suit, including Henny, which Will found ironic.

  The priest moved to each and dabbed oil on their chest and between the backbone.

  He then said: "Please repeat after me, I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen."