Life Flashes

by Beesler, Jeff

  Isn’t it wondrous? Your body betrays you even now…

  “Whatever.”

  Another flash of white light filled the air. I could feel my soul being ripped from my body. My mental resistance still seemed great, but I lost consciousness fast enough.

  CHAPTER 14

  THE TRUTH ABOUT MRS. ECKERTY

  Location, Time, and Date

  All Unknown

  The next time I opened my eyes, I wasn’t even sure I’d done so. At first, I couldn’t see anything in the room. Maybe I hadn’t really woken up. Maybe I thought I was awake when, really, I might’ve been sleeping the night away. Keith refused to speak to me in my mind or out in the real world, clueing me in to nothing.

  Then a door cracked open, a sliver of light filtering in. A second later, someone flipped on the switch and I found myself back in the bedroom with the window boarded up. In walked Regina and Sissy. They both held either end of a stretcher, their hands gloved, the lower half of their faces masked. Regina had a nasty glare in her eyes, while Sissy looked rather bored with the way she rolled her eyes and slouched her posture.

  “I can’t believe Keith’s having us clean up the mess,” Regina said. She set the stretcher across the bed that remained unmade from when I’d last lain in it.

  “Who cares. It’s fifty bucks I didn’t have before. It’ll go toward having my tongue pierced,” said Sissy.

  “Good for you. Maybe they could go one step further and staple your mouth shut,” Regina snarked.

  “You better not let Keith hear you say that. He’s already not happy with us for the way we let that Austin guy slip through the cracks.”

  I went to say something, but my instincts forbade me. Still, had I heard her correctly? Did Sissy just say my real name? I didn’t think it was possible, but then again, this whole situation had mind-fuck written all over it.

  “I thought his name was Tyler,” said Regina.

  “No, Tyler was the name of the guy Keith drove off the road the other week. Austin is the name of the guy Keith kidnapped from Washington State.”

  “I’ll never get his damn story straight,” groaned Regina. “Seriously, Keith keeps playing mind games with these other guys. I’ll never figure out what the hell his problem is.”

  “Just be glad that Keith prefers to mess with guys and not us ladies,” said Sissy.

  “Right.” Regina stepped about the room, her gaze intense as though she sought something. I didn’t make a sound, just in case.

  “Do you think it’s true though?” Sissy asked.

  “Is what true?”

  “That Keith kidnapped someone from a whole other state?”

  Regina flung her head Sissy’s way, the stare in her eyes raw. With how she pursed her lips it made me believe that, deep down, she secretly seethed over Sissy’s remarks about Keith.

  Did Regina even care about the truth at all?

  “Who’s to say?” said Regina. “I couldn’t care less about his love life.”

  “Really?”

  Regina shrugged. “Why should I care? I just wish he’d stop involving us in his romances gone horribly wrong. He’s going to run out of luck, Sissy. I’d like to get out before it’s too late.”

  “Then why don’t we just dump him? We aren’t his bitches.”

  Do it. Drop his sorry ass like a sack of bricks, I thought.

  “So, do we tell him we’re done with him?” Sissy asked.

  Regina waved a thumb toward the down position.

  “Hell, no. Let him wriggle like a worm for a change instead of us.”

  Snickering, the women vacated the room. I tried to follow them but found myself unable to. For an instant, I thought perhaps Keith had somehow immobilized me. Then that I realized I wasn’t bound to physical form. Yes, I still looked like myself, but without the tactility.

  Was this another one of Keith’s tricks?

  A second later I popped up in another room, unsure of how it happened. The walls and flooring looked just like what I’d seen at Keith’s. But Spanish paintings, rugs, and wall tapestries made it clear I’d wound up elsewhere. The fact that the bedroom window wasn’t boarded up offered me some reassurance.

  “Juanita, you need to stay away from that crazy guy,” I overheard a man say from the next room over. Quickly I slipped behind a couch in case anyone wandered in here. But as Regina and Sissy hadn’t paid me any heed a few minutes ago, the move seemed almost unnecessary.

  “But his boyfriend may be in trouble,” Mrs. Eckerty argued. “I can’t just ignore what I’ve seen and heard.”

  “Honey, I know you mean well, but I don’t want you to get hurt,” said the guy, who just had to be Mr. Eckerty in my opinion. “Promise me you’ll stay away from the neighbors.”

  “Yes,” said Mrs. Eckerty, disappointment and concern coating her words. “I won’t stop worrying about the boyfriend, though.”

  “Not our problem, Juanita. I love you, and I love that your heart is in the right place. But please, for your own sake. Just let him go.”

  I wanted to turn away from this. Nothing the guy said inspired any hope in me whatsoever. If Mrs. Eckerty gave up on helping me, then I really had no one left to turn to the moment I returned to my body.

  “Do you think the boyfriend is still alive? I haven’t seen him for days,” Mrs. Eckerty remarked, her voice more distant.

  Mr. Eckerty gasped. “What the hell did I just say, Juanita? Now just drop the damn matter already.”

  I scowled. Mr. Eckerty seemed to echo Keith’s temperament. Was that why Mrs. Eckerty wanted to help me out so badly? Was she also trapped in a relationship with a partner who didn’t respect her?

  “Can I at least call the police?” she asked, although it sounded like she’d already decided.

  “Whatever, Juanita. I need to go.”

  I caught the full thunder of a door slamming. I would have done anything to get out of their home right then and there.

  “You know you can’t get back there,” Mrs. Eckerty said, wandering into the room an instant later.

  “You know I’m here?” I asked, struggling not to gawk at her.

  She nodded, locking her hands in front of her belly.

  “I have a special sense for folks just like you. Folks who are nearing the end of their life, who need a helping hand as they prepare to make their great journey between worlds.”

  “Like a guardian angel,” I muttered.

  She cast a soft smile my way. “You could say that.”

  “Where were you when Keith first came into my life?”

  The weak smile on Mrs. Eckerty’s face drooped.

  “I’ve been here the whole time. In my house.”

  “Doing absolutely nothing while that guy kidnapped me from Washington and brought me back to his place so he could have his way with my body.”

  Mrs. Eckerty looked at me with a blank stare. “Why are you angry?”

  “I’m angry because you didn’t do enough to help me!”

  “You need to calm down.”

  I held my hands up toward her. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  “Why shouldn’t I?” Her lips formed a dangerous sneer. “You’ve always been an idiot.”

  Now she’s starting to sound just as crazy as Keith. What the hell is wrong with these people? They all act like him.

  The answer slammed into my brain an instant afterward. Maybe the reason these people acted like him was because they were extensions of him. Even the hospital staff had seemed to be under Keith’s influence. Did that make Keith the only person in all of Colorado who was a real person?

  No, I was still missing a critical detail about him. What was it? What had I not yet realized about Keith?

  “I think I’ll be leaving now,” I told her, wary of her next response.

  “That won’t be necessary.” She flexed her fingers, as though trying to bare her fingernails at me.

  “What, are you planning on shredding my soul to pieces or something?” I guffawed at her.
“You can’t touch me. I’m not physically real right now.”

  “That’s because your mind is growing separate from your body, fool. Your life is over. Your only hope lies in Keith.”

  “Sure, Mrs. Eckerty.”

  “Why say my name so…boorishly?” she asked.

  “Because I know you’re a fraud, just like everyone else in this town. In fact, there’s only one person I’m sure isn’t a mere puppet. He’s the guy calling all the shots, including you now.”

  “It would be so much easier if you would stop putting up a fight,” she told me.

  “I’m not ready to lie down and die,” I told her, a sudden surge of determination ready to fill me for the coming adventure.

  “How can you be so stupid?” Mrs. Eckerty said with a snarl.

  “I like to think of it more as my stubborn streak. I’m going to fight with my dying breath. You’ll see. I’ll beat this thing yet.”

  “You can’t win,” both Keith and Mrs. Eckerty said at the same time.

  “Go to hell, Keith. I’m not scared of you. Not anymore.”

  Absolute stillness echoed in the room. Was he listening?

  I always listen. How could you not know that, Tyler? I have listened to your every heartbeat since you were still inside your mother’s womb. You and I have always been one and the same. You’ve just never understood.

  A rumble rolled along my throat. Every ounce of strength went into not answering him. Keith wanted to torment me no matter where I was. How could I stop him if he knew everything about me, inside and out?

  You can’t, Tyler. I am inside of you. How many times must I tell you that? You just don’t understand me. You’ve never understood me. And for that, you must die. If it makes you feel better, know that you’re neither my first nor my last. You’re like all the others. I just wind up taking over their bodies, and they can’t handle it.

  “You’re a monster, Keith,” I said.

  Another flash of white light. Once the glow faded, I found myself next lying in my dorm room bed, my flesh fully restored. I heard an alarm go off and went to shut it off. It came from my cell phone, which I thought I’d lost. Then I examined the phone and realized that the date was March 17th.

  This is where I say ‘curiouser and curiouser,’ right?

  Keith’s lack of a retort only troubled me further. I waited to see what he was up to, but he stayed silent. I rolled over onto a pile of books, papers, notecards, and writing utensils strewn all about. How was it that I’d wound up back at the very moment I’d passed out from studying?

  Somehow, I didn’t think it was only the stress that I normally associated with the final week of exams.

  “What the hell is going on here?” I asked.

  A pounding came from the door. “Are you okay in there, Austin?” Tony asked.

  “Tony? What am I doing here? I thought I was at the hospital.”

  “Hospital? What are you blabbing about now, dude? Seriously. I try to have one night of fun for a change, and I come back here to find you passed out on your bedroom floor.”

  I rushed to the door to answer him. “Are you sure?” I said, meeting his eyes the second I jerked the door toward me.

  “Of course, I’m sure. I even took a picture of you last night. Wanna see for yourself?”

  He whipped out his phone, pulled out whatever camera app he normally used, and showed me passed out on the bed, buried in nearly half of my study supplies.

  “That can’t be me,” I said. “I…no. I didn’t pass out like that. I saw a flash of white light and…then I don’t know.”

  “You wouldn’t remember passing out,” he said. “But that’s how I found you.”

  “Impossible. I was at my computer desk the whole time. I never even shifted my work over to the bed. And I thought you took me to the hospital.”

  “I think you’re overthinking things again, bro,” he said, laughing away my concerns with a wave of his hand.

  I didn’t trust this, or Tony. For all I knew, this was just another of Keith’s ploys to mess with me. He had managed to make puppets out of everyone I encountered over in Colorado. What was to stop Keith from conjuring up a Tony puppet, too?

  “No. In all my years, I have never studied on my bed.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you, Tony?” I asked him.

  “You, Tyler. You’re such a pain in the ass.”

  Horror struck as I realized Tony’s voice had shifted over to Keith’s. His face followed suit soon enough. Faux-Tony stood, blocking my escape. I tried to sidestep him but couldn’t get around. His face melted right off him, the liquid-like gel melding into a whole other form. Before I knew what happened, I stood before Keith once again.

  “I told you I can get to you anywhere,” he said with a toothless grin. “I’m going to follow you until you give up, simple as that. And the best thing is that you can’t possibly kill me. I am your everything, and you’re my nothing. I’ll make you bleed me out of your every orifice. Then, and only then, will I release you into the ever-loving death. You should have obeyed me, Tyler. I’m the only one who loves you the way you deserve to be loved.”

  “What the hell do you want from me, Keith?”

  “I’ve already told you, Tyler.”

  I lunged at him, only to have him vanish on me. I crashed against an end table and toppled over a lamp. Seconds later, he returned, holding his hand out to help me up off the ground. I refused his aid.

  “You don’t get it, Tyler. This is my world, my rules. You can’t just come in here and expect me to abide by yours. They don’t work in my world.”

  “Big surprise.”

  “Sarcasm is so unbecoming, Tyler,” he told me, the look in his eyes ice-cold. “It’s over. You’ve lost. I’ve already won. Your death is coming.”

  He faded from my sight again. I waited for a moment for him to taunt me more, but it didn’t happen. I glanced all about my dorm room, which shifted back into a hospital room with another flash of white light. Blurriness prevented me from seeing the actual physicality of most things. I waited until my vision came back into focus before I looked around some more. Either I’d gone back to the hospital bed in Seattle, or to the one in Denver. At present, no one else was in the room, not even a security guard.

  “Screw you, Keith!” I roared, and threw the TV remote. How was I going to stop him now?

  CHAPTER 15

  THE ONE CONSTANT

  Austin’s Hospital Room

  Time and Date Unknown

  For a while, I kept my eyes shut most of the time even if I didn’t feel like sleeping. If anyone came strolling in I pretended like they weren’t even there, which they probably weren’t.

  While lying in bed, I realized a few things. One, no matter how much I fought Keith he always seemed to grow stronger. He diffused my every attempt at escape with the utmost ease. All roads led back to him. It didn’t help that nearly every other person I ran into either became his pawn, or they somehow morphed into Keith himself. Something clearly wasn’t right, but what could I do? Give up?

  I had to be missing something. Every single time he spoke to me, he called me Tyler. It was the one constant. He didn’t even acknowledge the Austin Teph persona whatsoever. Why did he cling so hard to that belief? Why couldn’t he accept the fact that the Tyler Jonson of his world was gone?

  “He must actually feel responsible for Tyler’s death,” I said to myself with one eye open, making sure no one walked in on me just then. They hadn’t. I half-expected Keith to show up at any time. No sign of him. I tried to sleep some more.

  But how do I sleep while my own mind taunts me?

  My thoughts felt wired, as though someone had slipped me a double-shot espresso. I glanced over at my IV and noticed no dark colorization to the fluids inside the pouch. No use fighting it. I was wide awake.

  “You are Austin Teph,” I kept repeating to myself as the hours passed. I could feel my resistance slipping away, little by little.
Keith’s mind games kept chipping away at me. Really, he only had to utter the name Tyler to irk me. I had to keep shaking it off, no matter how many times he referred to me by the wrong name.

  But what if I really wasn’t Austin Teph? What if, after living almost a quarter of my life, my real name was Tyler Jonson?

  A series of beeps filled the air from outside in the hallway and down the corridor. It almost sounded like an EKG going off.

  “Rest in peace, whoever you are,” I whispered, casting a mental prayer for the poor soul. Too bad it wasn’t me.

  Are you sure about that? Keith finally replied.

  “You again, Keith? Haven’t you grown tired of these games?”

  This isn’t a game, you fool. He grunted a laugh. At least, not any kind of game you could win.

  “I don’t want to win,” I said. “I just want to go back home to Seattle.”

  Whining now, Tyler? I’m sure that’s not how your mom raised you.

  “That would depend on which mom you’re talking about. Valerie Jonson, or Anne Teph.”

  Why, Valerie of course! I have newfound respect for the woman, now that I know just how much of a pathetic loser you are.

  Rage plowed through my mind, forcing me to throw my fists into the air at an enemy I couldn’t see.

  That anger you feel? That’s my work. Isn’t it a thing of beauty?

  “Go to hell, Keith,” I muttered. “You’re not going to get the best of me.”

  I already have, a long time ago. You just haven’t realized it yet.

  “No. I’m stronger than you. You’re just a figment of my imagination. At the end of the day, I’ll still be standing.”

  Hard to be the one still standing when you’re lying in a hospital bed, with wires hooked up to you, the doctors anticipating your last breath, don’t you think?

  Silence clung to my throat. I looked out into the hall for any sign of hope whatsoever, finding none.

  “Fine. You win, you son of a bitch,” I told him at last. “Now what?”

  Another pause. How can I trust that you mean this, Tyler?

  “I’m done trying to fight you. There’s no point anymore. I can’t beat you because you always have the upper hand, each and every time. It’s like you don’t have any weaknesses whatsoever.”