The House of Worms

by Harvey Click

  Then she saw the expression on his face and suddenly remembered she wasn’t Linda.

  “Jeez, I’m sorry,” she said. She buttoned Linda’s blouse and went back to the sofa, feeling too damn weird for this world.

  “Something came over me,” she said. “It’s like I’ve been living here for three years and it’s okay to take off my shirt.” She started crying. She was sick of working the graveyard shift, feeling dead people living in her brain when she had no life of her own. “I’m just stupid,” she said. “Everybody who knows me knows that.”

  “I better go stir the sauce,” Mark said. He went to the kitchen.

  It was the wine, she thought. Red wine always made her feel funny. Now it was trying to make her sneeze. She went to the bureau and got a handkerchief just in time. She realized it wasn’t hers when she saw Linda’s initial in the corner, and then she wondered how she had found it. But all women keep hankies in bureau drawers.

  The mucus was big and bloody. She tasted thick blood in the back of her throat, or maybe it was just the wine.

  ***

  After dinner Mark cleared the dining room table, put a candle in the center, and dimmed the lights. They sat across from each other, and Toya started breathing slowly and deeply. He watched her face change as she entered her trance. Despite his half-hearted efforts to talk her out of this, he’d been waiting eagerly all day for another chance to hear Linda’s voice. It soon came.

  “Mark? Is that you?”

  “Yes, I’m here,” he said.

  “I’m feeling much better,” she said. “Everything’s all right now.”

  “What do you mean, all right?” he asked.

  “I mean the man I told you about really is God. I couldn’t see him clearly before because I couldn’t open my eyes to the truth. The place I told you about isn’t a dark cell either. It’s a beautiful world now that the scales have fallen from my eyes. I was blinded by my own darkness, but now I see paradise.”

  “You sure about this?” he asked.

  “Oh yes,” she said. “I’m in heaven. It’s wonderful here.”

  Mark didn’t know what to say. The pit he’d seen wasn’t heaven. He wondered if Linda had gone mad. Could a dead person lose her mind? Or maybe Toya was making up all this heaven-talk, wanting to comfort herself as well as him. Maybe she wasn’t even aware of doing it. Her trances might be a way of unconsciously working out wish-fulfillment. He needed to make sure it was really Linda speaking.

  “Listen,” he said. “Remember that time we went camping near Old Man’s Cave? Remember what happened?”

  The voice giggled. “Yeah. You got up to take a leak and a skunk sprayed you.”

  Maybe Linda had described that incident to Toya. “Okay,” he said, “tell me what we did on our first date.”

  “You took me out to dinner and we both had salmon. Then you took me to your place and got my clothes off in a hurry. I was wearing blue silk panties, and you still keep them in your dresser drawer.”

  It was Linda all right, but Mark didn’t believe she was in heaven.

  “Tell me about the man in black,” he said. “What did he do to you?”

  “He brought me here. I know what he is now, he’s a holy priest. That’s why he wears black.”

  “I don’t think he’s any priest,” Mark said. “I think he murdered Briggs, that guy who sold you the locket.”

  “You have to die to be reborn,” she said. “Unless you’re changed in the twinkling of an eye.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’ve been blessed with great joy. I know you don’t believe me, because you’ve hardened your heart. You need to unlock your eyes to the paths of bliss. I want to talk to you every day until you understand. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?”

  A wave of pity swept over him. Linda was insane. Dead and insane in hell.

  “I want you to take good care of Toya,” she said. “She’s going to be sick for a little while. I want you to keep her with you and nurse her till she’s better.”

  “How do you know she’s sick?” he asked.

  Toya smiled exactly the way Linda did whenever she thought Mark had said something stupid.

  “Because I’m in her body right now,” the voice said. “I can feel her illness.”

  “If she’s sick, I’ll take her to the doctor,” Mark said.

  “She doesn’t need a doctor,” Linda said. “It’s nothing serious, just the flu. Just give her lots of vitamins and red meat and plenty of love. I want you to visit me again tomorrow.”

  “It’s up to Toya,” he said. “If she wants to.”

  “She will.”

  Linda’s expression vanished from Toya’s face. She leaned back and let out a tired sigh.

  “You okay?” Mark asked.

  “Yeah, but I think I’m catching a cold. Okay if I lay down somewhere?”

  Mark showed her to the guest room. He soon went to bed himself and fell asleep at once. He dreamed that Linda was living in a sparkling house made of crystals in a beautiful city of golden light. She wanted him to come and live with her, but he told her that first he had to sell his condo and that might take a little while.

  “Then I’ll come and stay with you till you get it sold,” she said.

  He heard her come into his bedroom and slip quietly under the covers. He murmured happily and rolled over and put his hand over one of her breasts. When he felt the ring in her nipple he opened his eyes and saw it was Toya. She seemed to be fast asleep.

  He tried to go back to sleep but was still wide awake when the alarm rang.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cold rain started after midnight smearing blurry yellow headlights on black pavement, gray water gushing through oily gutters spraying in thick high sheets drenching all the whores shivering with their dresses plastered wet against their tired dirty asses. Tiny Tom huddled deeper in the doorway alcove where he’d been hanging all night riding out his nice smooth smack high looking for some sucker to rope in because his horse ride wouldn’t last much longer and he didn’t have scratch to buy another, but the cold rain was washing all the chumps off the street and no one was going to front him jack shit or jill tonight.

  Some skinny square running across the street not looking where he was going rammed into La-La Lucy knocking her flat into a deep sewer puddle but she didn’t even notice. Poor ol’ La-La sure didn’t need no drugs anymore to visit La-La Land but took them anyway if anyone ever gave them to her but no one ever did, why waste good drugs on a gomer too gone to give good head? Skinny square all upset helping La-La up like she was a real lady or at least real but she wasn’t and she hardly noticed, just got up and kept on wandering across the street like it wasn’t raining like she was back in Kansas or something.

  E-Z Dawg suddenly shot around the corner in his dinky dented-up BMW, get no respect with that sad set a wheels and those sadass ready-for-the-grave bitches he snatched up after every other pimp booted ‘em out on their AIDS-eat asses, head stuck out the window hair all wet neck veins popping hollering, “Get yo fat ass ovah heah, ho, an’ I mean raht now!” hollering at Sissy who was trying to stay dry in the liquor store doorway, no way she was getting in that sadass dented-up car. “Go fuck yo’self,” she yelled, E-Z Dawg hollering his car shaking in the rain and Sissy just laughing at him, no respect coming to that sorryass hunk-a-junk pimp tonight.

  Big camper-cap pickup truck pulled up to the curb real slow and a tall lean dude climbed out dressed in black cowboy duds getting a big duffel bag out of the back and throwing it over his shoulder rain pouring off his ten-gallon hat like a roof gutter, E-Z Dawg still screaming neck-veins popping while the old cowboy approached Tiny Tom’s doorway alcove walking real slow like he owned the whole stinking city.

  Tiny knew everyone, knew who was dead already and who would be soon, knew this thin leather face coming toward him was called Dead Man, knew Dead Man could do you a favor or do you in and it didn
’t make a dime of difference to him which kind of doing he did, one dead eye staring at a grave already dug just your size.

  Dead Man climbed up the stairs past Tiny not even noticing he was there and punched the buzzer to number five, Tiny thinking if you have something he wants he does you a favor and right now I want something nice not cut with crap and Dead Man might want something too.

  “Big Bessie don’t live here no more,” Tiny said, Dead Man looking down at him like a cockroach was talking then punching the buzzer some more.

  “You can buzz her all night, she ain’t here,” Tiny said, Dead Man looking down again trying to decide was this cockroach worth killing probably not worth the bother.

  “You do something nice for me and I’ll show you where she moved,” Tiny said, Dead Man reaching down picking him up by the seat of the pants to his dead eye saying, “Sure, kid, I’ll do you real nice,” lugging Tiny like a suitcase to the truck tossing him on the seat and starting the engine.

  Tiny huddled in the seat saying, “Go up two lights and hang a louie,” thinking this is either real smart or real stupid staring out at the rain getting worse now trying to beat the asphalt back to tar and beat the tar back to dinosaurs, his horse-high getting jumpy riding to the end of its trail, truck seat stinking sour and rain beating the tar out of the pavement.

  “Pull over here,” he said staring proudly at the sign below her window

  BIG BESSIE

  THE SPIRIT MEDIUM WHO TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

  staring proudly because he painted the sign and even made up the message.

  Bessie’s new place was dark but it always was and she was always up there always awake, Dead Man stalking slow through the rain looking up at the dark window with a suspicious eye and Tiny trying to grab his duffel bag thinking make like a bellhop and get a nice tip saying, “Bell don’t work but she’s got a secret knock,” but Dead Man held his bag tight and started knocking Bessie’s secret knock without Tiny’s help and he started thinking the bellhop ain’t gonna get no tip tonight.

  Bessie opened the door and looked down at Tiny saying, “Why’s he here?” and Dead Man grinned saying, “He’s my carrier,” even though the bellhop wasn’t carrying anything and Bessie started smiling the nice soft way she could smile when she wanted to smile saying, “Y’all come up then and get warm and dry.”

  Tiny followed Bessie’s big ass up the stairs looking up her dress, huge thighs jiggling like plastic bags full of raspberry jelly and he wanted a taste of that good sweet jam. Apartment dark as death, just a few candles flickering like a few dim memories of life and Big Bessie seating herself with a soft wet grunt in her big armchair at her table with her ashtray and water glass and brandy, never saw Bessie without her brandy, and three candles on the table made her eyes shine like two dark moons in a midnight sky on some weird planet far from home.

  Dead Man sat across the table from her, Bessie saying, “Y’all go over that there chiffonier, Tiny, and get in the middle drawer and get that ‘baccor tin for Dead Man and get yo’self a little treat while you at it,” MacBaren’s Plum Cake tobacco tin there and a plastic baggy about an eighth full of brown powder with a spoon and needle beside it but Tiny didn’t need the needle, always carried his own, Bessie saying, “Don’ take too much, hon, ‘cause it ain’ been cut yet and you ain’ big.”

  “Not big but long,” Tiny said, Bessie chuckling and saying, “Don’ I know!” while Tiny put some powder in the spoon, climbing up on a chair and borrowing a few drops of water from Bessie’s glass and cooking it up over one of the candles feeling tall and proud because Dead Man and Bessie were talking business like he was someone they could trust.

  Dead Man opened the tobacco tin sniffed and tasted saying, “So here’s the Thothroot but where’s the rest of my stuff?” and Bessie saying, “They getting it together for you down at that there new Cincinnati headquarter,” Dead Man saying, “I don’t give up nothing till I get my full pay,” Bessie saying, “Cypher say you gimme the Horn for the Thothroot and you give up your other three holes for the rest a the stash,” Dead Man making his ugly face uglier saying, “It’s always some damn thing,” Bessie saying, “That new Cincinnati headquarter be going after Michael Grimes pretty soon here, maybe that interest you a little,” Dead Man starting to grin and that made his face even uglier.

  “Maybe it does,” Dead Man said reaching in his duffel bag getting out some funny-looking thing like a cow-horn with a metal cap at the big end, Tiny filling his dropper from the spoon and pulling up his pants leg trying to find a vein not totally ruined, that one behind the knee would do but it was hard to reach.

  “Come on over here, Tiny, and lemme help,” Bessie said pulling him up into her nice soft lap turning him over her knee like Momma about to give a spanking pulling his pants down to the good vein behind his knee, Tiny’s long cock getting hard pressed naked against her big warm thigh.

  “I sure don’ know how you keep from stepping on that thing, Tiny,” Bessie said chuckling pulling his belt out of his pants to tie off his leg slapping up his vein good and fat and running in the needle slick and easy. No place Tiny liked better than Big Bessie’s big lap because no place was safer, been there many times before sometimes scratching her where it itched sometimes just rubbing his cock against her fat jelly thigh the way he was right now. Bessie let off the tourniquet, smack flowing down to his toes and up to his head making the back of his neck feel soft and sweet like his head could float to the ceiling and keep on going right through the plaster.

  “Y’all just lay back in Bessie’s lap and keep me warm,” she said, Tiny nestling into her nice warm flesh, horse-high riding slow and smooth into thick time fog, Dead Man getting three funny-looking tripods out of his bag setting them up on the floor across the room in a triangle saying, “You got any duct tape or a needle and thread around here?” and Bessie saying, “Look over there in that left-hand drawer,” their voices murmuring quiet like cool breeze in a deep canyon of good thick time.

  Dead Man handed Bessie her needle and thread and took the metal cap off the cow-horn, darkness spilling out like purple steam, then he reached inside pulling out something darker still saying, “Open wide and say ‘ah,’ putting the dark chunk in Tiny’s mouth so cold it made his tongue go numb making his brain spin like a wet sponge washing down a sewer drain.

  “Sew it in,” Dead Man said, Tiny’s horse suddenly jerking rearing snorting scared shitless in foggy time, Bessie sticking her long sharp needle right through his lip while Dead Man held him still, thin leather face reptile cold, thin gash-mouth grinning and gray eye staring grim at Bessie’s needle working sharp and quick, and Tiny so scared that the chunk of dark ice slid down his throat making it numb all the way down.

  “Think he swallowed it,” Bessie said putting down her needle, Dead Man saying, “Then don’t worry about getting his clothes off, he’s gonna have to be gutted anyway,” twisting open the tops of his three tripods making a purple triangle shaking the air like a sheet of tin.

  “I always liked little Tiny,” Bessie said lifting him to her big face and kissing his panic-sick eyes, Tiny trying to kick her but the smack was too strong maybe laced with something, heavy limbs paralyzed tongue moving numb over the stitches tasting blood trying to get his mouth open but Bessie knew how to sew.

  “I like some of them too,” Dead Man said, “and I tell you I’ve had just about a bellyful of this carrier business ‘cause I reckon sending them to Cypher is a whole lot meaner than killing ‘em outright,” grabbing Tiny by his ankle throwing him headfirst into the purple sheet sizzling like cold fire and Tiny tearing his stitches open trying to scream.

  ***

  It started to drizzle before Dexter went to bed, but he left his window open because the air felt balmy. A sharp crack of thunder awoke him in the middle of the night. Rain was beating hard against the roof, and the air was cold and clammy. He switched on the lamp beside his bed and saw the window screen lying in a puddle on the floor. Soaked drapes blew in like
sails.

  He got up and tried to shut the window, but the wet wood was stuck. Lightning flashed, and he saw the voider grinning at him just a couple feet away on the roof of the back porch. The thing got hold of his wrist and yanked his arm out into the rain until his shoulder was wedged tight between the iron bars.

  Simian lips mouthed something that sounded like words, but Dexter couldn’t make them out. It stared at him like a reflection in a nightmare mirror, tongue prying out a scrap of animal gut stuck between two jagged teeth. Pink new skin edged bare bone on the ruined side of its face, and yellow pus filled the dead socket like a new eyeball growing.

  It reached in and tried to jab a thumb in Dexter’s eye, an eye for an eye, but he grasped its huge hand and they performed a grotesque squatting tango while lightning strobed. The voider was the one leading the dance, its sharp black nails scratching Dexter’s face and its fingers bruising his wrists. He could tell by its grin that it was still just playing with its food.

  Suddenly the thing fell backwards and slid off the porch roof. Lightning flashed as it hit the dirt with a hard thump, and Dexter saw a dagger buried to the hilt in its throat. The creature pulled out the knife and crawled away through the mud on all fours.

  “That makes twice I’ve saved your skin,” Grimes said. He was standing just inside the bedroom and was tying the belt of his silk bathrobe. “Next time, you’re on your own.”

  Dexter got up and felt the scratches on his face. They weren’t bleeding badly, but his left wrist was bruised.

  Grimes went to the window and looked out. “It shouldn’t be able to get in,” he said. “These bars are solid iron, and iron makes it weak. But I’ll give you another room if you want.”

  Dexter shook the bars. They were loose, but if the voider got past them it would find him wherever he was in the house. He shut the window and locked it.