Will gave them a questioning look, one that was hard to read in the dark. "Can you two keep quiet? This is technically illegal you know," he admonished them. They were serious for a second until he turned his back on them bending to the lock and then Jim shared a look with the girl.
"Sorry Mom, we'll be good," Talitha said quietly with a mischievousness in her voice.
Will popped back up, fear and anger in his eyes and he looked hard at his sister. "Talitha?"
"Yes?" she replied. "Oh, you think I'm the other Talitha! No it's me," she patted her chest which did nothing to convince him.
"This is the good Talitha, don't worry," Jim reassured him.
"How do you know, she very tricky." Will grabbed his sister roughly by the arms pinning them to her sides.
"Will please," Jim put his hand on the man's shoulder in a friendly manner. "I know, because she'd have called me ugly and stupid ten times by now."
Oddly, Jim felt a little insulted when Will agreed with him. "You're right, she would've. But what's with you two? You're both acting...a little drunk, and there's a serial killer out there."
"Sorry Will," Jim mumbled, feeling like a kid again after being rebuked by a nun.
"I'm sorry as well...we know our situation," Talitha said, still with her arms pinned. "We know death could strike at any time, it's just we want our time left to be as happy as possible."
With the explanation, he seemed to sag and his anger melted away. "Oh. I'm sorry...for jumping down your throats. I'm just stressed, there's so much going on to worry about." He pursed his swollen lips and blew out heavily. "Lisa. She isn't happy about me staying and she doesn't even know about all of this," he waved his hand in front of his mangled and bruised face. "Who knows, if I die, maybe she'll never have to know." He gave them a grin, but with the dim light and heavy bruising, his face looked demonic.
"How about you join us and put on a happy face?" Talitha asked her brother, just as the key finally found its way into the lock. The door swung open revealing a room in complete shambles and a fearful smell billowed out of it. It was similar, but not as strong as the one from beneath the church.
Will coughed at the odor and looked back at his sister, his face now looking even more wretched; with green showing beneath the bruises. "Sure sounds great...I'm gonna throw up!" He didn't, but it was a near thing. He walked about for a bit in the parking lot, breathing heavily for few minutes before trying again to enter the place.
Jim was similarly affected, but he remained stoic trying to impress Talitha who only wrinkled her nose at the smell. "At least we don't have to worry about putting things back where we found them."
Her attempt at lifting their spirits failed miserably and they spent the next two hours sifting through the remains of Luke's belongings. There wasn't much left or hadn't been much to begin with, but either way they found nothing that would hint at where he was now. Dejected they made their way back to the car, where Talitha began a conversation with her brother by raising an eyebrow.
Will caught the look and with an angry sigh, glared out the front window for a moment, but then said, "I can't."
"Actually you can," Talitha responded.
"Ok, I won't." Will gripped the steering wheel hard enough to turn his knuckles white.
"Will, it's our only hope."
"What's our only hope?" Jim asked confused and getting upset at being left out of the conversation.
Will gave him a sharp, slightly irritated look, but spoke again to his sister, "People will die if I do."
Talitha still ignoring Jim, said, "People will die if you don't, probably more people."
"Who's going to die?" Jim asked, real anger slipping into the deep growl of his voice.
Will kept his eyes on his sister. "You may die."
"I'm ok with that," she responded evenly and it was clear she meant it, despite in Jim's opinion, having the most to lose. Jim hoped he'd be as tough as her, if it came down to sacrificing himself.
"Jim could die," Will added, refusing to budge his eyes back to where Jim sat.
"What? Hold on..." Jim felt flustered. Talitha finally looked back at him and gave him a large wonderfully fake smile, which in no way touched the worry in her eyes.
"I'm trying to convince my brother to look into the future," she explained.
Jim's mind replayed the conversation and he nodded with understanding. "Do you know which one of us is going to die?" This he asked and then took a large deep breath, preparing himself for the inevitable answer. He figured it would be him. After all, the brother and sister both had amazing powers, both were intelligent, and both had survived worse. While he pictured himself as a very large target that only a legally blind person could possibly miss.
"I...I..." Will couldn't seem to go on and the rain, which had picked up slightly, kept a steady beat. It added tension to Jim until he thought he was about to explode all over the inside of the car.
"I don't know, what I know," Will replied and the answer was hardly satisfactory to Jim, who felt his insides caving. Will obviously couldn't bring himself to tell Jim about his upcoming death.
"Why don't you just tell us what you saw?" Talitha asked, her lips pulled in, so much so they were hidden completely.
"It wasn't a vision exactly...I sometimes just know things."
"And what sort of things do you know?" She sounded like a perturbed mother coaxing a child. She'd said she would be ok with dying, but there was nervousness to her. Talitha was trying to appear outwardly calm, only Jim had been staring at her all day and saw small telltale signs. Her jaw clenching, the movement of the muscles now visible beneath the skin; her fingers worrying over an errant piece of thread, sticking out of the car's seat; her head nodding almost imperceptibly while she waited for Will to answer.
Now, Will looked back at Jim, but it was a quick guilty look. "I know that two of us will die...soon."
There was sudden white static, a roaring of blood in his ears, but Jim could still hear his own voice ask as if from far away. "Two? Which two of us?"
"I don't know...there were seven of us in that room and that's when I knew three of us would die. Father John was the first but I don't know who will be next, however I do know," Will paused and shook his head with a sad smile, "That Sean Shay, isn't going to die. I don't know why, but he lives."
A pang of jealousy startled Jim with its fierceness, but then Talitha, for no obvious reason held his hand, rubbing his fingers gently and at that moment, he wouldn't trade places with Sean for anything. He was going to miss him however.
Will wasn't the only one who knew things. The touch of Talitha's hand, still caressing his fingers made Jim realize that his crush on her, his puppy love, his fiction, was a lie. He did love her, completely. It didn't matter to him that she didn't love him back, he loved her unconditionally and perhaps stupidly, but love was love. It couldn't be helped.
There were two other things that he knew with absolute certainty. First, was that he loved her enough that he'd die for her and second, that he would kill for her as well.
"I'm going to make sure that damned Luke is one of the two of us that dies," he said harshly making tremendous fists of his great hands.
Will gave him a look that was both sweet and sad. "If it were that easy, I would've looked into the future already. There's no saying we'll win out in the end. Two of us could die and the other might live out his life as a quadriplegic or as a vegetable in a coma. You see why I'm not jumping at this great chance? It's my fault Father Alba is in the hospital and that Father John is dead—what did we get out of that?"
Talitha riled at this. "First off, Luke is the reason Father John is dead and I'm the reason Father Alba is blind, not you. Secondly, we stopped Luke from doing whatever he was up to and I am sure that was a very good thing and third we stopped...me, the other me! From gaining access to Luke and that as well, is a good thing. I know I'd rather face..." she looked a little confused. "I mean if I were you, I would rather face Luke than me...
darn it! I mean the other me."
Will wasn't backing down at her reasoning. "Who's to say we won't have to face both of you. I mean... not the both of you, but you and Luke. Do you know what I mean?" This he was asking of Jim, who was in fact, still playing catch up.
"Can we call the evil Talitha, E.T. for short?" Jim asked. "It might make things simpler."
"Sure, good idea, Jim," Will agreed with a nod. Jim felt an embarrassing amount of pleasure over this small bit of praise.
Will continued, "Like I was saying, we might have to face Luke and E.T. at the same time. She has a tendency to show up, just when she can hurt us the most. Can you control her at all?" he asked Talitha.
"No, E.T. can come and go as she pleases and she seems to know when I'm particularly stressed."
Will looked at Jim. "I'm sorry, but I don't like E.T."
"Who would? I'm sure Luke doesn't," Talitha said.
Jim smiled at her. "No, he's talking about the nick name. E.T. was a good guy; it just seems weird to say."
"What? The E stands for evil, remember? You were right here! You made it up for goodness sakes." Her perplexity caused the two men to come close to laughing, but there was also an edge of annoyance with her perplexity and they both held it in.
"We're talking about the movie, you know E.T.?" Jim waggled a finger at her. "E.T. phone home," he said in his smallest voice. Her face was priceless. Confusion ran amok there, plucking at muscles in a seemingly random order. It was clear she had no idea what he was talking about.
"It was a movie that came out when you were in the hospital. It was cute, we should rent it when this is all done," Will explained.
"Rent? What do you mean the whole theater?" Talitha was sadly lost and she was in her vulnerable state that Jim found adorable.
"No. You can now rent movies and play them on a VHS..." Will started, but a light popped into Talitha's eyes and she interrupted him.
"A video home system, I read about them before... you know before. They were big in Japan. I take it they're sold here on the mass market?"
"Yeah, we got one in '82. You'll like it. You can catch up on all of the movies that you've missed." Will said, but there was sadness in his voice as if he knew she wouldn't ever see one.
Now the car was quiet, except for the ever-present rain. Talitha stared out into it with a lost expression and Jim stared at her. He thought about the last eight years and everything that she had missed hidden away in her cabin, or trapped in an insane asylum, it didn't seem fair.
She suddenly put on a smile, "I'm being mopey, when I'm supposed to be happy. Sorry about that, where were we? Naming the evil me...how about Evil T?"
Will made a sour face. "You've never heard of Rap music have you?"
Before Talitha could answer, Jim stepped in, "Evil T will work just fine. We were talking about finding Luke and maybe people dying. I'm wondering if Luke is really all that dangerous now. Maybe going after the sword was his one big shot."
"No, I'm sorry, Jim," Talitha said. "He's after something big. Maybe he's trying to bring Ba'al into this world, I don't know, but I don't think he's going to stop until he gets what he is after." She turned to her brother. "Lisa should take the sword and leave, someplace far away."
"She is. She'll be packed and gone by eight tomorrow morning." Will's face drained of color. "I told her not to tell me where she's going, but now I don't know how I'll find her when this is all done."
Talitha took her brother's hands in her own. "Don't worry about that, you'll find her, I know it. But the danger to Lisa is another reason, you need to look."
"For once your logic is flawed. If I look and I die, who'll protect Lisa from you and Luke; she'll be in even more danger then."
Another silence followed this, but Jim was fidgety and he broke it. "I vote we take the fight to the enemy. Running and hiding? I'm not very good at either." His huge frame taking up nearly the entire back seat attested to this.
"I'm with Jim," Talitha agreed. "That makes it two against one in favor of looking."
"I can't," Will moaned and Jim was shocked to see tears coming down the man's battered face. Talitha was alarmed at the suddenness as well and touched her brother's hands again.
"It'll be ok. Jim and I will be right here with you."
Bitter mocking laughter rang out, loud and shrill from Will. "Right! What are you going to do when the visions get stuck in my head and I go insane? I...I can't do it. Ok? You don't know how it was. I could feel the maggots..." His body shuddered horribly and his tears were nonstop.
Jim recalled how the man had gone mad in seconds, right before his eyes, screaming, crying, and then hitting himself with such viciousness. Jim began to have second thoughts.
"I know that it was bad last time, Jim told me, but it may not be this time. Luke has only been gone, what eight or nine hours? He's probably in hiding tonight," Talitha added as she bit at her lower lip.
Will's tears lessened and then stopped altogether, but he didn't look up. With shame coating his words, he whispered, "I can't. I'm sorry."
"I understand, Will. It sounded horrible," her tone was all sympathy. "But what would Lisa want you to do?"
Will barked a short laugh. "That's easy; she wants me to come home right now."
"Then why aren't you going."
The rain filled the long uncomfortable silence, but at last Will spoke softly in the tone of a condemned man, "I'll look in the morning...maybe. Sometimes I will have a vision when I dream at night. If tonight I don't have one...then I'll look."
"I think that's all we could ask of you." Talitha kissed her brother lightly on the cheek.
"Yeah, I agree," Jim said and then yawned a great cavernous bear like yawn. Talitha looked shocked but followed it with an amused smile, Will however seemed suddenly nervous.
"Jim, I know you're tired, but...you can't go to sleep. You have to stay awake and keep Talitha up."
"Will, I'll be ok. I've slept two nights in a row, that hasn't happened since before," Talitha reassured her brother.
Will ignored his sister and pleaded to the big man, "Jim, please promise me that you'll stay awake."
"I will, don't worry."
"We'll keep each other awake," Talitha said with a touch of Jim's hand that sent a shiver right up his back.
Chapter 21
Love and the Illusion of Love
The Volvo's windows had long since fogged over and Jim was beginning to get cold despite the coat that he wore. Talitha, who had on just the ankle length black habit seemed very comfortable and smiled at him when he zipped his coat up tight.
"So where do we go?" she asked. "Are there rooms at the orphanage?"
There were at two least vacancies tonight, but they had been the priest's rooms and Jim wasn't keen on the idea of spending the night in one of them. "Naw, at least none that we should use, but I know a motel nearby. Actually, it's not so close, all the motels around here are gross, roaches and stains and such. But I had a friend who stayed at this one place that was ok."
"Wherever you pick will be fine with us, but I need to make a stop first," Will murmured in a small voice.
The stop surprised Jim.
Jim drove and at the first liquor store that he saw Will demanded, quite urgently, to be let out. Moments later, he came out swigging from a brown bag. With his battered face and torn up clothes, Will looked like nothing more than one of the bums or hood-rats that populated the neighborhood alleys in that part of the city.
Both Talitha and Jim plastered happy smiles over what had been shared looks of alarm only a second earlier and Talitha asked her brother, "Do you expect it to be that bad?"
Will's thousand-yard stare matched the way he shook his head in a slow distant manner, and taking another pull from the bottle, he justified, "I just want to be able to sleep. That's all." After this, he was moody and sulked quietly, slumped in the back seat, not saying anything during the short trip, but only taking frequent sips from his bottle.
Whe
n they arrived at the motel, Jim secured two side-by-side adjoining rooms and tried his best not to let his excitement mount too much. However, when he opened the car door for her, Talitha beamed at him, sending his pulse hammering through his veins.
"Wow, such a gentlemen," she said as he took her by the hand. He didn't trust himself to say anything, his tongue felt huge, dry, and unruly, so he only dipped his head, feeling warmth spread out through his chilled body.
Unfortunately, his happy feelings were doused by Will. He stopped in front of his door and instead of opening it, he simply stared at it drinking. A minute passed and still he hadn't budged or even spoke.
"We'll be right here, if you need anything," Talitha spoke brightly. Will seemed to remember they were there and gave her a half smile. He then unlocked and opened his door, yet still didn't enter. Another minute passed and now Will had finished a third of the bottle.
Jim remembered the previous night and the horrible screams. "You know, he should just look into the future and save himself from this." The two of them hadn't entered their room either, it didn't seem right to leave him out there in the calming rain all alone.
"I know, but he'll blame himself for everything that follows," she whispered back.
"That's stupid, the..." He was being too loud and she shushed him with pursed lips.
Will glanced over to them, his face glistening with sweat and the last of the rain and he only just realized they hadn't gone into their rooms. "Oh, good night...sweet dreams," he swayed slightly in the doorway.
"Good night, Will," Talitha said with quiet fake cheerfulness. Will took a final deep breath as if preparing for a long icy plunge and stepped into his room, shutting the door behind him.
With that, Talitha and Jim entered their own room, one that seemed to be the model for all motel rooms ever built. Two lamps, two chairs, one writing desk, one TV and a large bed with a standard issue floral comforter, and this last, not only dominated the room, it dominated Jim's mind as well. As he looked about, his eyes lingered longest on it and it spoke to him suggesting interesting and unlikely possibilities.
The Trilogy of the Void: The Complete Boxed Set Page 61
