by J. Thorn
Jack nodded again, but this time he was thinking about how long he would let Samuel suffer before he killed him.
Chapter 11
Lindsay and Samuel let Tommy fall back to sleep as they sat in silence on top of the desks. The morning filtered into the office and provided enough light for them to see shadows and outlines. Tommy’s retelling of the dream shook them both and neither knew how to start the conversation. Lindsay decided to try.
“What did he mean, ‘they’re still in there’?”
“The person, the essence, the soul. He thinks they’re still trapped inside the body.”
Lindsay nodded. “So they’re like prisoners? They’re trapped in a body that is no longer theirs.”
“Something like that.”
Samuel stood and walked around the desk to face Lindsay. He took her hand in his and used the other to lift her chin while she remained seated.
“I love you,” he said.
“Stop being an asshole,” she said. Lindsay could not wipe the smirk from her face. “I love you too, Samuel.”
“This boy, I just don’t know.”
Lindsay turned her head sideways at Samuel’s comment. She pulled her hand free of his and leaned back.
“What do you mean? He’s just a kid.”
“So?”
“So, he’s just a kid. He’s a victim here, Samuel.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he said. “Maybe I’m tired and I’m over-thinking shit.”
“Would be nice to be back on that beach, wouldn’t it?”
Samuel looked at Lindsay and smiled. She winked and ran her toe up his thigh.
“That was really nice.”
Samuel leaned forward. He lowered his head and Lindsay turned her lips up to his. He took her face in his hands and felt her breath on his mouth. She pushed forward and gave Samuel a deep, long kiss until they heard the noise behind them.
“I’m hungry.”
Samuel pulled back and sighed. Lindsay spun around on her backside until she was facing Tommy on the other side of the desk. “Kinda weird here, isn’t it kid? You don’t think about eating for hours and then all of a sudden you’re starving. Let’s see if we can find something.”
Lindsay blew Samuel a kiss over her right shoulder. She extended her hand to Tommy. Samuel watched them wander back through the darkness and into the office in search of food. He shook his head and decided a bit of food might make them all feel better. He started following them and saw the outlines of their bodies moving through the ambient light. He was about to put his hand on Lindsay’s waist when Tommy’s head spun and their eyes locked. Samuel stopped walking and a shiver ran up his back.
“He ain’t just a kid,” Samuel said after waiting for them to walk further into the building. “There’s something off about Tommy.”
***
There was nothing to find in the office space and Tommy stopped complaining about being hungry because it didn’t do much good anyway. Lindsay was tolerating him, but he wasn’t so sure about Samuel.
Tommy had a recurring dream, but he could not remember when it began. His sense of time and place was no longer stable although he sensed Samuel was tapping into it somehow, like downloading pirated movies. What Tommy did know was it was always the same: he would open his eyes and be sitting in the middle of a wide, large room. It was empty except for his chair and Samuel standing on the other end. A light would come through a doorway behind the man and illuminate the outline of his body. Tommy would look down at his hand and see the knife. It was old, small, but sharp. He called it Scout in the dream and that made Samuel angry. Tommy would get up from the chair and walk to Samuel. Spirits emerged from the darkness. They would whisper into his ear with each step. In some versions, the spirits would be Tommy’s family. His mother and father, even Mara. In other versions the unseen figures would be strangers. The most powerful version of the dream involved only one whispering spirit, a guy named Major.
Major would appear from the darkness and although Tommy never saw him in the dream, the man’s voice would say the same thing over and over.
Cut him.
Tommy did not need the dream voices to tell him what to do. Kole promised him Samuel’s neck and Tommy intended to take it. After all, the man hit their car and killed him. Samuel was responsible for ending Tommy’s experiments in the basement. Samuel kept Tommy from moving on to grander, more important tests. After the puppy, Tommy had a stray cat from the neighborhood on his docket and then Mara. He would be careful with her and try to limit the pain, but in the end, Tommy would do what Tommy did. It wasn’t his fault Mara was born into the family. He hoped to learn on her so when he was old enough to go out on his own, he’d know what to do. A world of humanity was at his disposal and the son of a bitch took that from him. Tommy appreciated Major’s suggestions but they were unnecessary. Tommy would cut Samuel’s throat and he would smile while doing it.
He remembered hearing Major’s voice in his dreams as well. By the time he woke, they all filtered into one vague memory. No matter how hungry he was or how quickly the dreams were whisked away by the morning, Tommy knew what had to be done.
Samuel looked haggard. Tommy thought Samuel even looked ready to die, but he would have to control his impulse to cut Samuel’s throat. The dream would reveal the right time and place and this was not it. Nothing in the moment matched the dream, which he had enough times to know it was a message. A plan. In the meantime, Tommy would do what he had always done. He would act his part like a play in school. Lindsay believed him, but Samuel probably didn’t. Tommy would not worry about it for now. Samuel did not have to believe he was a harmless child. He only had to let his guard down at the right time.
“There isn’t anything to eat,” Lindsay said to Samuel.
“I didn’t think you’d find food. The paper is yellow and brittle. It’s like nobody has been in here for decades.”
“There might be Twinkies,” Tommy said.
The comment made Samuel laugh. “They’d still be edible, wouldn’t they? Of course, you’d have to assume they were always edible.”
Tommy smiled, not really understanding the point Samuel was trying to make. He was too busy thinking about yellow, spongy cake and sugary crème.
“We need to move out, don’t we?”
“I think so,” Samuel said to Lindsay. “You’ve been down this road before. We need to outpace the cloud to the peak, the cauldron. Has to be in one of those skyscrapers downtown.”
Lindsay rocked back and forth. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, her shoes off from the night before. She had her hair pulled up and bunched on top of her head.
“It’s not like we can hail a cab, so maybe you should get your shoes on.”
Lindsay heard Samuel but did not reply. She seemed to be staring off into the hidden darkness of the office.
“Linds?”
“Yeah. Sorry. What?”
“I think we should get going.”
Tommy smiled at Lindsay and then at Samuel, and it made the man shiver.
“Right. Okay.”
“What’s up?” Samuel asked.
Lindsay stood and shook her head and then waved her hand at Samuel.
“Nothing. Just had a weird thought. It was nothing.”
“C’mon, Lindsay. You know better. There’s no such thing as a weird thought in the reversion. Everything is significant.”
She put a hand to her forehead and then put the pointer finger of her right hand in the corner of her mouth. Lindsay’s eyebrows dropped and she opened her mouth twice to speak, but did not.
“We’re being followed.”
“What?” Samuel asked.
“No, tracked. That’s a better word. Others are tracking us. I don’t remember much from my dream, but I remember the feeling. Two people. I know them both. One of which knows both of us.”
“Jack,” Samuel said. He plucked the name from his head and he could tell from Lindsay’s face that he was right. Jack was one
of those people coming for them.
“Jack wants you, Samuel. He thinks it’s your fault the spider crabs got him. He’s coming for revenge.”
“I can’t be bothered with that punk right now. We need to get to the cauldron ahead of the cloud and nothing else matters. If we keep moving, he won’t be able to catch us.”
“First of all, you don’t know where he is and neither do I,” she said. “He could be waiting outside the building. Secondly, we’ve got to take Tommy with us and we’re going to have to move at his pace. He’s just a kid.”
Samuel felt his face flush and his mouth became dry. He turned and looked at Tommy.
“Hey, champ. How about you go wait over there while Lindsay and I talk for a minute?”
Before Lindsay could protest, Tommy nodded and ran off into the darkness whistling an impromptu melody.
“We cannot leave him. That’s bullshit.”
“We can’t take a chance of him slowing us down. We need to get to the peak. If Jack and someone else are tracking us, Tommy becomes a liability.”
Lindsay stepped to Samuel. Her face was inches from his.
“I am not leaving a child here,” she said.
“Fuck,” Samuel said. He turned and stomped his foot down.
“He can keep up. He’s young and kids that age have a lot of energy.”
“You’re sure about this?” he asked. “You’re sure Jack is coming?”
“Jack wants to harm us. We need to keep Tommy safe. We need to keep ourselves safe.”
Samuel sighed and grabbed his backpack off the floor.
“This office is giving me the creeps. Let’s go.”
Lindsay reached up and put a kiss on Samuel’s lips before putting on her shoes and calling out to Tommy.
***
By the time the descension ended, Kole could barely stand. Shallna handed him his staff as they navigated down the rocky outcrop. The newly planted horde swayed and moaned while the reversion repaired the cloud and set it off to resume its march to the east. The two appeared as black dots on the face of the bleached stone jutting from the earth and towering over the highway. It reminded Kole of the peak, Deva, the cauldron and his acceptance of the duty, all while Samuel was free to run off and fuck Lindsay.
When Kole’s feet hit the ground, he fell on his backside and put his head between his knees. Shallna picked up the staff Kole dropped and looked toward the city. The horde covered the highway like a filthy carpet and the cloud pushed down upon them, now hiding the outcrop they stood upon minutes ago.
“Night is coming. We must find a place where you can rest.”
“I’m the lord of the reversion and I have to find a bed?” Kole asked.
“On the other side of the roadway, I see a structure,” Shallna said.
Kole lifted his head to reveal patches of gray hair at his temples. The skin around his eyes lost its sheen and the crow’s feet looked darker, deeper.
“I don’t care.”
Shallna grabbed Kole by the elbow and helped him to his feet. He pointed across the roadway and over the heads of the undulating horde.
“There.”
Kole started walking.
The building was once part of a row house built for immigrants in the 1900s. The dwellings went up quickly, and without much workmanship, for the thousands of people coming to America for work and a future. The eastern Europeans came in droves in the early 1900s and brought their culture to cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit. They imported the Old World cuisine, cabbage and a reliance on potatoes. The men went to work in the mills where accidents often created widows and orphans. Most of the row houses were not far from the gates of the factory, so the men could get to their shift on foot.
The building facing Shallna and Kole was the only dwelling to survive. It was pinched between two multi-story office buildings. A jumble of broken steps led up to an open door. A sign hung above it, one corner connected to an iron hook while the other corner dangled in the air, detached from the tether. The name and letters on the sign vanished in the brutal, sandy winds of the reversion. As Kole approached, he imagined it as an ice cream shop or a cafe although it could have been anything.
“Are there zombies in there?” he asked Shallna.
“The horde is guarding the path to the peak.”
“I’m getting kind of tired of your high-brow attitude. Couldn’t you just say the zombies are staying on the road?”
Shallna did not reply.
Kole put his hand on the railing and it disintegrated in his hand, collapsing into a pile of red, rusty ash. He stumbled up to the door and looked back at Shallna. He stood there looking like the Grim Reaper of the desert wasteland from an expensive video game. Kole waved his hand at Shallna as if to tell him he would be fine on his own. He stepped through the doorway and caught a scent that lingered in the shop for decades. Kole smiled and hoped the reversion left him some.
***
“You ain’t gonna partake?” Kole asked.
Shallna remained seated in the corner, facing the door and keeping the horde in his sight.
“Damn. I can’t believe it. I guess there are some perks to being King Shit of the reversion.”
Kole leaned back on his chair and took a long, slow drag from his hand-rolled cigarette. The tobacco was stale, mild and almost impossible to light. Kole loved every second of it.
“This is totally cool. Not sayin’ it ain’t. But man, if this was one of those legal weed joints, ya know, the headshops that sold pot? I would never leave.”
Shallna kept watch on the horde as Kole blew a plume of smoke through the air at him. It hung in the waning light and Kole laughed again when it swirled around Shallna’s hood.
“You’d make the perfect Halloween gag, seriously.”
Kole waited for Shallna’s reply. He took another drag and put his feet up on the low windowsill looking out on to the street. The horde was still there, as was the cloud.
“We should remain here until the sun rises. You need to recuperate,” Shallna said.
“Wisest thing you’ve said so far.”
Kole giggled, looked at Shallna and then stopped. Kole waved his hand as if he was batting at the air.
“You got no sense of humor, man.”
“There is much you don’t know, my lord.”
“Then tell me. We’ve got all night,” Kole said.
“No.”
“Wait a minute. I’m the boss here. If I command you, then you have to do it. Right?”
Kole took Shallna’s silence as compliance.
“Right. So get talking. I want to know your story, old Grimster. I want to know how you got to be assistant to the head honcho of Shitsville.”
“Is this a command?” Shallna asked.
“You bet yer ass it is. Speak. C’mon boy, speak. Ruff. Ruff.”
Kole stopped with the barking and threw a pretend stick in the air.
“Fetch. Go on, boy. Fetch.”
Shallna stood and walked over to Kole. He pulled a chair from the wall and sat without saying a word.
“What is it you desire to know?”
“I want to know how you got here. Simple. Tell me a good story, my man.”
Shallna leaned his staff against the wall but kept his hood over his face, his head covered mostly out of shame. He spent thousands of years naked and he would spend forever more clothed, his features hidden. At the end of the story, Kole would know why as well.
“I’m not of your plane.”
Kole stopped cracking jokes and he spun to face the hooded figure sitting across from him while the light drained from the diseased sky.
“I’ve had many names. Most of those are lost to history, although I believe one existence was in your birth locality. I’m not from there, but I roamed through it,” Shallna said.
“Fucking English, dude. Can you speak English?”
Shallna ignored Kole and continued as his past lives resurfaced from wounds he thought would be forever
closed.
“I was called by the name Drew Green in one of my prior existences, one of the physical containers I inhabited before serving Deva here. I passed through a handful of others, but I was Drew through most of that world before jumping through the portal, my last chance in that universe. It was shortly thereafter the Great Cycle linked me to Deva, to this role.”
Kole sat up and placed his feet on the ground, extinguishing the cigarette in his right hand by smashing the burning tip into the floor. A thin trail of smoke floated upwards and the cigarette left a black half-moon on the floorboard.
“Drew Green. Right. Probably only a million people with that name.”
“The name is meaningless when the flesh is possessed by a Gaki.”
“What?” asked Kole. “What’s a Gaki?”
“I am Gaki, or Preta. The hungry ghost tortured to wander the multiverse without satiation.”
“That explains everything,” Kole said.
“Please,” Shallna said.
Kole bowed his head and leaned back. He would comply for the sake of a ghost story.
“You know the fate of some as you have met them in a reversion. However, that is not the fate of all. Suicides in certain circumstances can drop souls into the forest inside a reversion. Catastrophe and war can replenish the horde. But millions of other entities perish from the multiverse and, while some extinguish like a low flame, others are sent to wander. The Great Cycle banishes them to the earthly realm for reasons unknown to even Deva.
“The souls cannot find fulfillment. They are not satiated and must wander the lands, eating filth, feces and blood. They commit heinous acts of violence and yet nothing satiates their hunger for it. When the Great Cycle believes they have suffered enough, usually in accordance with the suffering they caused, the Gaki is put forth to the reversion. Some Gaki come through the forest in human bodies, some join the horde—”
“And some are assigned jobs here, like serving the lord of the reversion.”
Shallna nodded.
“In my existences on the physical plane, I must have done evil things. I don’t remember them all. I do know I was banished to Preta’s realm. Preta is the name given to Gaki in some cultures of your world. I spent hundreds of years as Gaki until inhabiting the corporeal form of Drew Green. For some reason, the Great Cycle released me from that hell and brought me to the reversion. I have served many lords here and I believe you could be my last. My body has broken down and the Great Cycle has given me clues that protecting this cloud could mean my eternal release. I am tired and desire it so.”
