The Dead Never Die

by Bajaña, Edgar

  For a moment, Mary snapped out of it, the trance that she was in for most of the day. The voice that had invaded her ear had grown faint.

  "Of course I love him. Where is he?"

  Amy pointed up at the edge of the grave. Solomon fingers curled over the edge of the grave peeking inside. When he saw that his mother was alright, he smiled down at her.

  "Let's go. mom" said the boy.

  Mary smiled and made her own way out of the grave. Her boy tried to help her out, as best as he could. She was on her knees when she stared into his eyes. It felt like she had not seen him in years.

  He smiled, as he opened his arms. They hugged each other as tight as possible. Amy teared as she watched. She missed her own child.

  For a moment, it seemed like Mary had come to her senses and her eyes were filled with life. She looked at her boy and bent down to hug him. She squeezed his shoulders together. I'm sorry baby. I'm so sorry for dragging you out her.

  "Can we go home now, mom."

  Of course baby. Let's go.

  "Do you think we can make it home before it gets dark."

  "We'll make it." She rubbed the boy's back and his hands. Her hands felt as cold has ice.

  Mary wiped the dirt off her clothes and they stood under the branch of an ancient tree. For a moment, they gazed at the last bit of light starting to fade at the horizon.

  "Come on mom."

  "Wait a second," said Mary. "I just want to see something."

  Mary stood there, hypnotized by the last ember of light drowning in the coming night.

  A few minutes passed and the night was here.

  "The boy's right. Let's go," said Amy.

  They were all about to go when they heard the rustling of leaves. And underneath that, they heard a growl. The sun was as red as blood and the evening light was now coming in sideways.

  As the boy looked at his mother, he felt a chill pass through her. He looked in the direction of where she was looking. His eyes widened when he saw the black hood man leaning against a stone mausoleum.

  He walked straight toward them and stopped. He pulled down his hood and revealed his face. He stared at them for a little bit of time.

  In that second, Mary's eyes had became unclear, then vacant.

  Mary's eyes slid away from the boy. Then, she dropped his hand. She walked over a couple of graves toward the night, toward him. Then, she stopped.

  She turned back to look at Amy and the boy. She smiled at them. She was about to call to them and tell them not to worry. But, she forgot the boy's name again.

  It didn't matter.

  When she turned around to look at the man in the shadows, he was gone. But, she saw him. There was only the faint impression of him.

  And that was enough.

  She was sure it was him. She broke away from her sister and son. And into the night she went.

  Amy looked across the field of the dead at her sister Mary. The sun dimmed and night was about to begin. Amy hand her hand on her heart. But, she let it fall to protect the boy. She saw her sister looking at the

  At the Mouth of the Cave

  Everyone stared and saw nothing. They expected it to appear again. But, it did not. They kept looking and there was nothing. What they feared most now, was that they did not know where it was. It killed them and filled their mind with uncertainty. They heard sounds like flapping wings.

  The devil hadn't taken my entire soul a least not yet. I had such a horrible thing ready for you. This was not how you were suppose to see me.

  Well what did you want? Maybe.

  Come here and let show you. But, it is too late now. At least let me

  "He's here." Said one of the women.

  "He's back and he wants his boy back." said another.

  "Yes. That's what he wants. If we give him the boy, then he will leave us alone."

  Amy found her lying at the bottom of the grave.

  She stood at the edge of grave.

  Her eyes wife open with a strange wonder as looked at James's grave. He had no big tombstone with great words. It was a simple headstone, about the size of brick. At first that what it appeared like. The tombstone was only the tip of the iceberg. There was a large slab of granite rock buried in his grave. It looked like a there was write on the stone. To read it, she would have jump in but, she wouldn't do that. Not now not ever.

  She pulled out her camera and took of pictures of what she could.

  She heard the rustling of the leaves again and looked between the slit of tombstones. She saw a figure looking at her from a far. She couldn't see exactly who it was. The person wore a black hood over his head. He stood there looking at her and she felt like a million ants were crawling over her body.

  She got up and looked at the grave again. The caretaker should know what happened here. Beyond the hooded man there was the care takers house and beyond that the massive crematorium that looked like a factory.

  She looked at the hooded stranger who had not moved from under the tree. She decided to come back another time.

  It the sun had changed color and it was time to go. She could no longer wait for her sister. She had to get back to her own child.

  Their eyes held each other together for as long as their eyes could. But, their bond eventually snapped. In the end Mary turned away to look at something out there. There was something out there that caught her attention. In an instant, she turned away from her sister Amy and the boy, the boy who had no name. In fact, the boy had vanished as if he never existed. To Mary the boy wasn't even a thought.

  With her hand, Amy held her heart, hoping that her sister would listen to her. But, her sister was no longer there. So, she let her arm fall to protect the boy.

  Mary and Amy had only a brief moment together. It was a horrible moment, where they both found out that nothing would ever be the same. But, they did not think about their relationship. No. It was larger than that, than the both of them combined. It made them rethink the nature of the gods. The world became darker that day. Indeed.

  As Amy stared at Mary standing among the tall tombstones, fixated on something out there. At that moment, Amy felt nothing, but pity for her dear sister.

  All they can do is run after her.

  Twenty-Eight

  A Dead Man Hangs In the Office

  Joe and Amy walked down 48th street, into the industrial corridor, where there were large stores and vast parking lots. The more they walked, the later it became. The sun was almost gone and they were covered in a blue hue. They made their way across a vast parking lot running along the freight line. Sometimes it felt like they were going in circles. After a five hours, the night had appeared.

  It was close to midnight when Amy asked, "Are you sure that we're safe out here.”

  Joe looked around the empty parking lot of the Home Depot before answering. It was practically empty, except for a few trucks picking up some wooden materials and equipment by the garage door of the store.

  "Of course it is." He told her.

  For a moment, his words made Amy feel at ease, like there was nothing to worry about. However, Amy should have been home by now. But, she was being spontaneous and fun. That was all. It was harmless, like the good old days.

  That night, the only part that really worried her were the black shadows that she saw swirling around in the low lit areas, above the empty parking spaces. She saw them, she swears. And that was the only thing that she would remember after the night passed by.

  Both of them walked for only a little while longer. Then, Amy and Joe ended up sitting on the worn asphalt in a pool of light. No one was around them for a while.

  When Amy sat down, she felt so relieved. Her legs and feet ached because they spent the last five hours walking. However, Joe didn't appear tired at all.

  On the other hand, Amy looked disheveled and sweaty. Throughout the night, she wanted to stop and rest. But she couldn't. Joe had this power over her that she could not break. If he wanted to, he could have had her walk
off a pier or he could have had her walk, until she fell over from dehydration.

  Joe looked at the deserted parking lot and then at her. "So why are you visiting your sister?" He asked her.

  She told Joe so many times why she was visiting her sister, but he never listened. The entire time, they walked together, he hardly heard a word that she said. Except, he listened now. He wanted her to feel some what good, before it all went to hell.

  Joe extended his hand toward her and rubbed the side of her body, between her rib and the crest of her pelvis. She said nothing about the way his hand felt on her and just answered the question.

  "I thought I told you already. I wanted to speak to my sister to tell her something. You know."

  "Really? Your sister? What's her name?"

  "Mary."

  "What a pretty name." He pushed his glasses up with his pinky finger. "I guess we'll have to see about her, at some point. Right?"

  That was probably the first and last time that Amy suspected anything wrong and let it slide.

  "I guess." She responded.

  Joe gazed up at the night sky and Amy's eyes followed. It looked like a shit load of stars out there and Amy was a little taken back by how bright those stars were.

  "Take a good look at them." He told her. "Take a good look at the stars. Eventually, it will all be a memory, one day."

  "What do you mean?"

  Joe looked up at her and refused to say more. To tell the truth, not even Joe knew if the stories that he read about were true. He knew that he was different. But that was all. He didn't know, if the world he lived in was really going to change. So he changed the subject, giving her no time to settle into a way of thinking.

  "Do...you know what, Amy?"

  "What?"

  "I've seen you before."

  Under the lamp post, he looked harmless.

  "No?"

  "Yeah."

  "Where?"

  "I ran into you at a park in the low east side. You probably don't remember, but it's okay, if you don't. It was a few years back. I was sitting down on the other side of the bench, when you sat behind me."

  "No?"

  "Yeah really. Ain't that crazy?"

  "It is."

  "So what did you want to tell her."

  "Nothing...I just want to tell her that I'm having a baby."

  "Really. You don't look like it, at all."

  She wanted to thank him for the complement, but hesitated.

  "That's even better." He said under his breath, as he looked at the skin along her neck.

  "Well, It's no big deal?"

  She was about to continue on, when she could not feel the muscles of her lips. Her mouth felt numb and she couldn't say anything else.

  Instead, only he could talk.

  He stopped her from speaking anymore because he couldn't take her blabbering on, like she was. He looked into her eyes as her face froze in place. He could see her trembling.

  "I'm sorry for shutting you up. But I got something that I've been wanting to get off my chest. You know how it is? I hope you do.."

  And that's when he started to confess the very thing he did that day.

  "Like any writer." He told her, "you gotta pick a good place to start and it always starts with passion. You know that. You're a writer?"

  "I guess. But what's wrong?"

  "To tell the truth, I got to get something off my chest." They looked at each other. "I guess that I can tell you."

  She looked up a him and said, "I'll listen."

  "Thank you. Where should I start? Let me see. Okay. I think I got it. I used too work in an office downtown. I was like the rest of them losers who wore the same monkey suit every day."

  "You?"

  "Yeah. Can you believe it. I was one of those suckers taking the train to get to work, every day. What a living hell that was. I don't know why I did that. Anyways, I didn't always used to be a garbage man. I was like all the rest of these slobs, riding a train into the future, where there really was no future. But, those bastards can't see that. Even if they did, they wouldn't see it. Why would they want too. Well Anyways. I got fired a couple days ago."

  "My god. Are you okay?"

  "It's all right. I had it with that job, anyways. I really had. Tell me the truth. How many times can you look at a screen and not want punch the shit out of it. I mean really. And I'm a pretty fast typer."

  "Why did you get fired?"

  "Hold up. First of all, I got fired on purpose. I could not take anymore of it."

  "But, what happened."

  "Hold on." He laughed and pushes up his glasses with his pinky finger.

  "Okay."

  "Do you really want to know?

  "Yeah."

  "Okay. This guy at work has the same name as me. Can you believe that? Jesus, do you know how mad that makes me?"

  "No."

  "Do you know how embarrassed I am that we have the same name. I really could' make it. Do you know what I did?"

  "No."

  "Well, I really don't know why I didn't bring it up any sooner."

  "Well you can."

  "Thank you. First, let me start. Well, it was the first day in the job."

  "And."

  "The way they should me around the place was ridiculous. They basically pointed in the right direction."1

  "There was this black dude in the cubicle across the aisle. He looked normal enough; the whole situation did. By the end of day, I would have not remembered his name."

  "What was his name?"

  "It makes me feel disgusting, every time I think about it."

  "And his name?"

  So Joe approached after work that same day.

  "Hey Joe. I want to talk to you about something that I think you might like."

  Black TJ smiled, "allright."

  "Cool. I know this bar downstairs about half a block away. It was the least that I could for the man."

  "What did you do to him?

  I killed him.

  No.

  Yes. I did and I have nothing to be sad about. I just have pleasure from watching someone hanging above there desk. I thought it would do it for me.

  I just thought that I could do so much better.

  When did you think that?

  When I saw you.

  "I don't know. I just sometimes do bad things."

  "But, you don't have to."

  "I used to think that."

  "Nothing. I just spoke to him. That was all."

  "And. You can tell me."

  "Nothing. I swear. I went home and so dis he. Well, I thought he did."

  "So what happened to him."

  "The following morning, the boss walks into his office and finds him hanging from the ceiling over his desk. Can you believe that?"

  Joe and Amy sat crossed legged in the glow of a lamp of the parking lot.

  He couldn't let go. So, he told her about the two other ones. It was messed up. But, she sat and listened.

  Twenty-Nine

  He Wanted Me to Have You

  It was still night time when Amy woke up. Slowly her body lifted off the ground. She brought her head up and realized that they had fallen asleep, where they talked the whole night. At least that was what she thought. She opened her eyes and saw the skyscrapers of Manhattan twinkling in the night.

  Her head felt like a rock. "God damn New York."

  Joe was sitting a couple feet away from her, with his back to her.

  "Joe." She cried.

  "Don't worry about anything Amy. Don't worry about anything anymore. It's all over. Your lucky though."

  "What do you mean?"

  "He usually doesn't give the girls back. Which means that he wanted me to have you." He smiled, "he did."

  She stayed quiet, thinking about all the things might of happened during the night. There were flashes of images popping inside her head. There was a memory of her and Joe walking quickly through a cemetery, as the police searched for us. There was another of her s
tanding in front if a white marble mausoleum. However, the last image was different. With that image, she saw an ocean before her, where the waves crashed against the shore. All of sudden she felt something in her stomach. As she rubbed her belly, she started feel dirty and hot. She pulled at her clothes, pulling them off.

  The whole time, Joe did not turn around to look at her her. He gazed into the distant darkness, getting ready to release her from his grasp.

  Amy heard the waves of the ocean, not to far away. She pulled her dress off and stood in her bare skin. She stood there unable to wait to jump into that ocean, ready to jump into the night.

  As she disappeared, Joe glance at her, admiring her. Then, he looked at the trail of clothes that remained on the ground. His eyes follows the trail back to her purse. Her wallet was partly in and partly outside.

  He was in need of some money to buy food. So he grabbed her wallet to scavenge some money. He saw a picture of a beautiful woman. It's Amy's sister, Mary. She was striking. He could not believe that he almost forgot about her.

  Mary.

  Thirty

  Forgetting Was Simple

  At night, the man with the pale face looked at the width of the street. He stared down at it, as if she were still lying there.

  He imagined her, sprawled out naked on the hot asphalt. To him, she was still there and she stayed with him, even though he had left her, a long time ago. Whenever he looked at the street, she was out there ready to be picked by anyone who passed by.

  The pale face man stood under a canopy of light coming from a street lamp. He stayed there, lingering, thinking about their last time, together. Like the embers of his cigarette going out, all memory of her started to disappear. When the pale faced man puffed away, one part of him glowed orange, reflecting the light off the rim of his brown glasses. He didn't even need to make the slightest effort to forget her.

  Forgetting was simple.

  As he inhaled the last bit of tobacco, she disappeared into the darkness and everything he did to her disappeared too.

  "Oh my Farrow. Of my love," he said to himself a final time. In less than a second, all memories of her were gone.