by Lex Sinclair
Tears burned his eyes. His vision became blurry. Fortunately, he didn’t permit himself to let any of them escape him this time. If he had never approached Kate, then she wouldn’t be left alone in this cruel world all by herself, he thought.
Kate rested her hand on his cheek. He would miss his wife’s tender touch; her beautiful face; her hearty laugh; her mesmerising smile, the way she stared at him when she got angry at him, even though he could still see the love in her eyes. But most of all he would miss her, for who she was as a person, as a human-being. He would miss her heart and her soul. Instead of cursing God or the Frozen Man or himself for all sorts of reasons, he thanked God for allowing him to be a part of Kate’s life. His life wouldn’t have been worth living if he wasn’t with her now. Kate was worth dying for. They gazed deeply into each other’s eyes, not needing to speak, for they could feel each other’s everlasting love.
Kate got dressed and went downstairs. She insisted on making some breakfast.
Tom understood her reasons for doing this. She wasn’t hungry - although they could both do with something to eat - but it gave her something to do, which would prevent her from thinking about what was going to happen very soon.
Tom helped her and took extra care to absorb every feature of his wife. They never said a word. There wasn’t anything left to say, other than the three words which had made the two of them become one.
They sat at the dinette table in the dinning room, sipping their orange juice and picking at their pancakes. Tom had an empty hole in his stomach, but it couldn’t be filled with food.
Financially, Kate would be secure. She just had to tell them the story about him being kidnapped by an armed man, and when the police stopped searching for him (due to the fact that they wouldn’t be able to find him), they would put his file in the cabinet along with the innumerable unsolved missing persons’ cases.
He put his glass down on the coaster and said, ‘Kate, I just wanted to tell you that I... I -’ Tom didn’t know what to say. ‘Don’t you ever wish you could go back in time and alter some of the decisions you made?’
She nodded.
‘There was only one thing I will never regret, and that’s asking you out on our first date. That was our first date, and after that, every day was great... I mean it. I really do. I know you’re gonna make a terrific Mum. You will. Our son, Tom,’ he fought back his tears when he said the name of his only child, ‘will be the luckiest kid in the whole world to have you for a mother. I just wish I could be around to see the joy in your eyes when you bring him into the world. But I’ll know in my heart that when you get over my ‘passing over’ you’ll be used to not having me around in person. Only in spirit... And I’ll never forget the day I proposed to you, and you said yes. That was one of the happiest days of my life. I just wanted you to know that you made me the happiest man who ever lived. Nobody, not even the Frozen Man, can take that away from us...
Remember that whenever you’re feeling depressed. Okay?
‘If you give half the love you gave me to our son, I know I wouldn’t have died for nothing.’ Tom placed his hand on his thudding heart and croaked, ‘I’ll be right here, with you, always.’
Kate hadn’t responded, only because she couldn’t. Her melancholy was so overwhelming she couldn’t even utter a few words. She had a lump in her throat the size of a tennis ball which she couldn’t swallow. She reached her hand across the table and touched Tom’s fingertips when a loud knock on the front door and jolted them.
Kate stood first. Then she slowly made her way down the short hallway, not sure if she would even make it, and opened the door. She drew in a sharp intake of breath when she saw Charles’ corpse, in its decomposing condition, standing below the step leering at her.
‘Hello, Kate. May I come in?’
Kate stepped aside, knowing that her refusal would not stop the Frozen Man from taking her husband.
‘Thank you,’ it said.
It saw Tom standing at the dinning room table, trembling. ‘My, my, Tom. Don’t tell me you’re gonna sacrifice yourself for the greater good?’
‘That’s right, I am,’ he muttered.
The entity wearing Charles’s body couldn’t help but grin. ‘What a brave man you are.’
Tom didn’t respond.
‘What choice does he have?’ Kate snapped.
The Frozen Man regarded her and said, ‘You could have given me the child, woman. What choice did I have when Tom threw my corpse into the fire? If Tom here hadn’t been so foolish, then he would’ve been allowed to live. After all, he did dump my body in loft as well, didn’t he?
‘If I had done that to Tom, and he could come back and punish me, do you think he would? Of course! Tom is merely a human being. Thousands of human beings die every single day for a number of reasons. Tom doesn’t deserve to be spared. He’s a murderer. You watched him yourself. Now he must come with me on a never-ending journey, where there is a lot to see. And you will get to have the child you always prayed for, and live out the rest of your life in peace.
Now most folks wouldn’t be as magnanimous as me. Isn’t that so, Tom?’
‘I guess. However, there are some people who learn to forgive when a person has repented. Isn’t that right, Kate?’
‘Yes it is,’ she said.
The Frozen Man chuckled. ‘Forgiveness is merely something you humans created so that when you make such foolish errors you don’t have to think too badly of yourself. You believe by merely showing remorse for you actions makes the misery and guilt go away, don’t you?’
‘It depends whether the sinner is sincere or not,’ Tom said.
The Frozen Man nodded his head in a mock gesture. ‘You wave your magic, sincere wand around then Tom, and see if I will disappear. Or better still... forgive you? Go right ahead.’
‘You’re not the forgiving type.’
‘That’s right, Tom. I’m not the forgiving type.’
‘You tricked us, by putting yourself in a block of ice in the woods where we were camping, just so you could punish us, and take away what we had because God didn’t love you any more!’ Kate yelled.
‘SHUT UP!’ the Frozen Man bellowed. A strong blast of air blew Kate backwards, causing her to trip over her feet and fall to the ground, landing awkwardly on her right arm. ‘Speak again,’ it said in a softer voice, ‘and I’ll rip your heart out and show it to you before you die.’
Kate stayed on the floor, too afraid to move in case she was blown over by his incredible force again.
Was that the truth, what Kate just said? Tom pondered. It brought out a wild reaction from the Frozen Man.
The figure standing in the doorway of the dinning room looked back at Tom.
‘I think we should be leaving,’ it said.
‘Where are you taking me?’
The Frozen Man edged closer. Tom tried to retreat but found the dinette table blocking any escape from the clutches of the abomination. ‘To your death.’
Tom’s blood turned ice cold. ‘Why can’t you learn to forgive? If you did, maybe God would love you,’ he croaked.
The Frozen Man reached and clapped a hand on Tom’s shuddering shoulder.
‘Because I don’t worship God, and I never will. I worship the one who led my people and gave us the freedom we deserve.’
‘What about God’s gift to you?’
The Frozen Man smirked. ‘You mean life?’
Tom nodded.
‘God may have given me life, as you say, but He restricts me and my kind to live it to the fullest.’
‘Because you abused it,’ Tom said.
The Frozen Man was standing face to face with Tom and said under his breath, ‘I can take your life painfully or freely, which shall it be?’
‘How did you die, originally?’
The Frozen Man scowled at him. ‘You’re wasting my time!’
Tom matched the Frozen Man’s unflinching stare.
‘I was struck down by lightening.’
‘Why? What did you do? Or was it a freak accident?’
‘It was no accident,’ the creature said through gritted teeth.
‘You did something to upset the higher powers, didn’t you?’
‘I don’t have to answer to the likes of you!’
‘Because you can’t!’
‘I was cast out because I am an entity. Something far greater than any of your kind or any other living creature on the face of this earth.’
‘You won’t live for ever, though.’
‘Won’t I?’
Tom shook his head. ‘How can you expect to? When everyone on earth perishes there will be no more bodies for you to take over, and you and your kind will perish within the confines of earth, and not in the everlasting, where good, decent people like my wife and I will live for eternity.’
The Frozen Man stepped backwards, away from Tom with a blank expression.
‘I think you need to be reminded how powerful I am,’ it said. ‘Watch me burn your friends’ face to ashes.’ Without any hesitation whatsoever the Frozen Man reached his hand up and swept it over Charles’ countenance. As soon as he did this, a ball of fire engulfed his head and nowhere else, flames lashing, searing the flesh and bone to bloody charcoal.
Kate’s breath escaped her in short, sharp sobs.
Black smoke emanated from where the face had been, through the cavernous orifices. A dense, acrid vapour blurred Tom’s vision, burning his eyes, wafting up his nostrils and into his mouth causing him to cough. He stared at the monstrosity before him and every hair on his body stiffened. A chill ran up his back and clamped itself around his neck. The putrefying head leaned forward.
Tom recoiled as white maggots crawled and wriggled out of the deep cavities.
The burned flesh on its face had stretched taut, revealing greyish cheekbones beneath. The lips, now crispy black, sizzled with heat and peeled back away from the gaping mouth into the brittle flesh, revealing yellow, rotted teeth.
The blazing heat simmered... then the cadaver spoke in a husky voice, ‘Maybe now you will fear what is real, and not what your imagination only wants you to fear?’
Tom wished this was just one of his graphic nightmares. He kept closing his eyes for a couple of seconds and then opening them again, hoping, thinking perhaps his imagination made him want to fear this monstrosity standing before him without a face that wasn’t really there. But he knew that this had nothing to do with his vivid imagination. This was the moment his courage would be tested. This was the moment he needed to be strong and steadfast in spite of the overpowering consternation assailing him.
The Frozen Man reached his hand out to Tom and said, ‘Come... time is growing short.’
‘Would it be all right if I said goodbye to my wife first,’ he said trying his utmost to control the quaver in his voice.
‘Very well.’
He stepped past the cadaver, trying not to gag at the putrid stench, and got down on his haunches to where Kate was positioned, eyes wide with terror.
Tom rested his hand on Kate’s tender cheek, leant closer and kissed her passionately for the last time, hoping and praying with all his heart that he would be able to remember and feel the emotions of this final kiss, with a love that would echo through eternity. They pressed their foreheads together and, gazing intensely into each other’s eyes, into each other’s soul, knowing their love was far greater than the world itself.
‘Touching,’ said the monstrosity. ‘Pointless, but touching nevertheless... The time has come, Tom.’
With a brave heart, Tom rose to his feet and stared death in the face.
The creature pointed his finger at the door and waved it open. It slammed against the wall behind it. He then gestured for Tom to take his leave. Tom stopped at the threshold and took one last glance at Kate before stepping outside. The creature led him down the driveway and out onto the street, up the slight incline and round the corner... out of sight.
An inexplicable sensation flowed through him. A white effusion encompassed his entire body, causing him to shake uncontrollably from the sudden vibrations spreading from his feet all the way up to his head. He opened his mouth as though to scream but no sound escaped him. Blood pounded around his system.
The cruel wind tore strips of smooth flesh from his corpse, revealing the arching bones underneath, like he’d witnessed minutes ago in his own dinning room.
His face became a mask of dread and incomprehension as his loose, crumbling skin now hung, flapping, and tearing away into the swirling wind. A terrible coldness followed as he lost consciousness for the last time.
***
Kate scrambled to her feet and darted outside, heading in the direction her beloved husband departed. She sprinted up the street and around the corner, but saw no sign of him. She ran on to the next street and the one after that, in vain.
The only person she saw was the postman going from door to door on his routine delivery.
The postman regarded the woman with tousled hair, dressed in a nightgown and nothing else for a moment with raised eyebrows, and then continued posting mail through letterboxes.
Kate’s heart sank. It hit her then more than ever before that Tom was finally gone.
32
5 Months later...
A grim autumn gust of wind shook the trees dislodging the last of their soggy, coloured leaves. The wind drove the undulating sheets of rain against the bedroom window in spatters.
Kate was in bed propped up by a pile of pillows feeding her son, Tom, who suckled enthusiastically on her breast. On the bedside table was a picture of her husband (at twenty-one) smiling at her, now... always. Little Tom was already a month old. Kate and her son would face the cruel world without a loving husband and a doting father. Nevertheless, they had each other, and that’s all that mattered.
Once little Tom had finished feeding, Kate lowered him gently into his cot beside her bed next to the window and sang him a lullaby, softly, until his weary brown eyes narrowed, the lids gradually growing heavy and he finally drifted off into a peaceful slumber. Kate leaned over the cot that Tom had made and wondered if her son would grow up and look like his father. She hoped he would. She hoped he had some of the same qualities his father possessed, but would also be unique in other ways, as well.
No one could ever replace Tom; not in this life or the next, Kate told herself.
She thought about drawing the curtains, but the dim glow from the streetlamps comforted her now that she had no one to cuddle up to in her own bed at night.
She pulled the quilt back and got in bed. On the bedside table next to her glass of water was a tub of stress-relief pills. Since the untimely death/disappearance of Tom, Kate had suffered a serious of anxiety attacks, which had damaged her health. She’d thought that she might miscarriage, but fortunately that hadn’t happened. Now whenever her heart started beating madly and her breathing grew in short rapid gasps (this usually occurred whenever she contemplated the day Tom was taken or suffered with a bout of paranoia or was hallucinating), she took a strong, addictive stress-relief pill, usually before bed to help her sleep, to placate her.
If she’d lost her baby, Kate knew she would never forgiven herself for losing the only mark Tom had made in the world, and would have probably committed suicide. Yet that didn’t happen. And here she sat in bed putting one of the pills in her mouth and washing it down with some water. Then she picked up her paperback novel and read until she could no longer keep her eyes open any longer.
***
Kate awoke with a back-snapping spasmodic jerk. She flicked her eyes open. A ripple of unease travelled up her spine. Something was
terribly amiss - but what? In the darkness she could barely see. Only the dim light from the streetlamp right outside broke the dark. She switched the lamp on and winced at the sudden brightness, which blinded her momentarily. She shielded the yellow glow with a raised hand and swung her legs from under the quilt to the floor.
Kate got to vertical base, whirled at the wind fluttering her nightgown and saw that the bedroom window was wide open. Did I do that? She couldn’t recall.
She didn’t think so. The window had been closed and the latch locked. Hadn’t it?
Terror jolted her heart. Kate’s wet eyes bulged from their sockets when she saw the black footprints on the window sill and on the carpet leading to the cot.
‘No!’
She rushed to the cot, where her fear was confirmed. She slapped her hands to the sides of her face and shook her head ferociously. This can’t be happening!
This can’t be happening! Her chest surged. She reeled away from the empty cot and faced the open window, the breeze blowing her blonde hair behind her.
Kate’s mouth fell open at the sight on the pavement outside her house. And even though she stood a floor above what she thought she saw, she could clearly hear the soft lullaby being sung to her baby boy.
‘Rock-a-by-baby on the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will -’ Tom leered at Kate, holding the baby’s head precariously. Her mouth pulled back in a terrible grin of horror,‘- fall... down will come baby cradle and all.’
Staring into her husband’s dead and shiny eyes, Kate started to scream...
She prayed that this vision was nothing more than a vivid dream...
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