by Thomas Melo
He closed the distance between himself and the Apollo tree and the wind grew stronger still. He could hear the impatient banging of shutters crashing over and over against a distant house. The wind was strong enough to blow over the Adirondack chair that he left out by the pond for his therapeutic sitting-sessions and send it barreling towards him, which Jim easily avoided. He had the feeling that whoever or whatever did not want him reestablishing contact with that tree could only do so much in the entities physical absence and was relying on these poltergeist-like tactics in order to deter him. For many people, the desire of an entity not wanting them to do something would be more than enough, but Jim felt a sense of love and a sense of duty when it came to his former student.
Jim reached the tree and stood gazing at it for a moment, psyching himself up for what his next move surely had to be: to touch it again. He recalled the barely tolerable jolt that the tree had given him before and needed to refortify as much of his remaining fearlessness as he could muster. The wind made one last feeble attempt to urge Jim to go back into his house and get a good night’s rest. This gust of wind even made him retreat a step or two, not because he was afraid, (although he was), but from the sheer force of the wind. This only made Jim more determined.
Finally, Jim made contact and an intensely wonderful white light joined his hand with the tree, making them one once again.
Chapter 23
Jayson drove back to the Chasm to relieve some stress. Not only was the Memorial Garden a location of serenity and reflection for Tyler, but for Jayson as well, unbeknownst to Tyler. He drove his brand new BMW Werewolf, the fastest car BMW had ever produced, like an angry teenager back to his reserved parking spot in the rear of the Chasm, feet from the staff entrance.
When Tyler left the bar, he could not go home. He did not feel as if his home was his to go back to anymore in light of that night’s decisions. He also defaulted to the one place where he had found some sanctity in these confusing and prosperous times: the Memorial Garden at the Chasm. It was also close to the bar and would give him a chance to sober up before he had some real driving to do to a destination unknown.
As Tyler pulled his more modest (but still expensive) Italian import vehicle into the back lot he noticed that Jayson’s car parked there as well. Tyler thought that perhaps Jayson went back to his office to finalize some business for the upcoming bloodbath that would be held at his venue in less than two weeks. He thought that whatever would keep Jayson’s mind occupied and away from focusing on what had just transpired between the two old friends would be good for him. You may wonder why Tyler cared so much for someone who had betrayed him with his wife. There are two answers.
First, Tyler was always the kind not to hold a grudge, although this was a serious trespass in his friendship with Jayson. This seems like a lame reason, and for the majority of the world’s population, it would be. You may also scoff at the absurdity that this man could forgive his friend for intruding on his marriage in such a way, but he could not forgive his parents, specifically his father, for comments he had made about his son’s business venture. Again, you would be correct in the eyes of most people, but Tyler was coming around in that respect as well.
The second reason he was willing to move on from this was that he knew what Jayson was in for by attaching himself to Lilith and he legitimately felt as if that would be punishment enough. Now he genuinely felt sorry for his (former) friend.
Tyler shut his engine off and grabbed for the door handle, but was knocked back into his seat with such force that his rear end left the seat and he banged his head on the roof of his car. He gripped the steering wheel of his car with the strength of a man clinging to life, making his knuckles nearly transparent.
* * *
After seconds of struggling and wincing in near pain (but not quite), Jim was able to stabilize his body and thoughts and worked on what needed to be done. He did not know the physics or the broken laws thereof, but he knew that this was his only chance to communicate with Tyler. Through all of the intensity and command of the phenomenon, he was able to decide that when he spoke his message out loud to Tyler, he would also visualize what he was saying.
The near-pain was diminishing now, like wading into a bath that is too hot until your skin finally finds some peace with the once oppressive temperature. Jim both spoke and thought the images of his final plea to his friend and former student: “Tyler, I have no doubt that you are receiving this. I cannot waste time with pleasantries. You are in danger. Your parents are attempting to reach you, but are unsure of how to contact you because Lilith is making this impossible for them. You need to leave the Chasm, and you need to leave tonight and never return. I cannot be sure, but I think an activist who despises the Chasm intends to do you serious harm. This is hard to hear, but your wife is not for you anymore; she never was. You have to leave it all behind before it is too late." There was a pause in Jim’s transmission to his friend and this pause came because Jim was receiving an image from the Apollo tree, a gruesome one, and an image that he needed to share with his friend before it was too late.“Tyler just leave! Leave tonight! Just don’t–”
* * *
The transmission was lost. “Jim…Colabza?” Tyler said to his empty car. “Was that you, Jim?” Although Jim did not take the time to telepathically introduce himself, Tyler was certain that the voice from the past he heard in his head was that of his former social studies teacher. Young people change a great deal through the years, but older folks, with the exception of their hair color and perhaps weight, change very little through much of their adulthood. “Don’t what, Jim? Don’t what?” Tyler gripped the steering wheel even harder, attempting to perhaps will an answer from it…but nothing came. Tyler felt that regardless of the missing information he had enough to go on as he re-buckled his seatbelt and started his engine. He was going home to take care of some unfinished business before he left forever.
* * *
“Don’t go home, Tyler! Don’t go home!” But that brilliant white light was gone and the backyard was dark and silent once more. What was left but to see how this would play out? How would he receive his information? The image from the tree made it clear that if something bad happened, he would hear about it sooner than later. What Jim wanted now more than anything was two things: one, to finally get some rest after his crash-course lesson in metaphysics, or whatever it was…he had done his best. And two, to avoid the news and/or newspaper for the next couple of days…although he would not; he could not.
Chapter 24
It was now Tyler’s turn to drive like a rebellious and scorned teen. He thought about Jim’s message and what it meant for him. Leaving the Super Chasm behind might solve the problem between him and the radically discontent or it might not. Tyler did not have the stomach for that sort of uncertainty. Being a police officer, he was able to live with a degree of possibility of revenge from those he had imprisoned, but that felt more manageable…somehow it was just more business-like: I busted you, so now you seek vengeance upon me. It was simple and it made sense. It also rarely, if ever, happened to police officers. But this, what he was warned of on this night, was different. A radical anything is something to beware of because of the unpredictability of their dedication to their cause. The assumption is always that they are as dedicated as dedicated gets, and that is true 99% of the time. In a place like Las Vegas, if you are ever lucky enough to see those odds, you better take it, because it is as good as a sure thing as you are going to get in that city.
So the anger he was feeling was directed not only at his soon to be ex-wife, but at himself for allowing himself to be manipulated by who or what he viewed as the ultimate puppet master.
Moments later, Tyler pulled into his lengthy driveway and killed the engine. This time, when he attempted to exit the vehicle, he was not met with any physical shock or phenomenon whatsoever. Tyler ascended the steps to his front door and let himself in. He didn’t bother with quietly closing the front door, tryi
ng not to wake his wife. If she was not awake, she would be soon. They had things to discuss.
When Tyler turned around from closing and locking the front door, he saw Lilith in an amatory black satin night down lurking on their balcony, which overlooked the main foyer. What once gave him a stirring sensation in his loins was replaced by a dread that was ice cold and heavy.
“Hey, Ty. Come on up. I think we have some things to talk about, yes?” Lilith suggested from the shadows.
Tyler tried his hardest to hold onto control of the situation, but found it difficult just from the very sight of her and the tractability her presence commanded. At this point, he was unsure of how he ever got anywhere near her, let alone shared a bed and a life with her. As it was, he knew he was going upstairs for better or for worse, but right now he thanked God for every stair that acted as a buffer between them. He was afraid of her. He finally realized that now, and if she chose to run down the stairs towards him instead of quietly retreat to their bedroom and wait for him to come up to the bedroom, he may have screamed himself crazy.
With heavy irresolute feet, he made his way up the stairs towards their bedroom to have it out with Lilith, once and for all. The twenty-six stairs came and went and then he was at the top of the balcony.
“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it? Come on hun, you’re almost there!” Lilith called out from their bedroom. Tyler stopped mid-step and shuddered slightly, sure that she was reading his mind. He was at a loss as to how he could feel so differently about a woman he once loved, and loved for a long time. He thought to himself “She’s allowing me to feel it now. I would have felt this way long ago but she would never allow me to feel this way. She realizes that it doesn’t matter now.”
Not exactly in response to what her husband was thinking, Lilith called to him in the hallway, “Come on hun, almost there!” Tyler decided to get it over with and entered the bedroom to see Lilith in her black satin night gown sitting on the bed with her back resting against the headboard. Tyler heard the bedroom door slam behind him. He need not bother to check, the door was locked and he knew it. “Come sit,” Lilith coaxed, as she patted the empty space next to her on the bed.
“I’m fine right here,” simultaneously frightened and surprised by her little door trick.
“Awww. Suit yourself, but you are not fine, my dear,” Lilith said with an expression of feign disappointment on her countenance.
“What I have to say won’t take long, Lilith.”
“Oh?” she quipped. It was a quip and not concern; you needed only to look at her face to realize that.
Ignoring this, he continued, “We are very different people–”
To this, Lilith scoffed…if he only knew. But he did, didn’t he? After all of this time, didn’t he?
“And there’s no easy or nice way to say this, but I need you out of my life. I need all of this out of my life.” Tyler gestured to the house and probably Las Vegas as a whole. “So, I’m going now.” Tyler turned and headed towards the bedroom door that he knew would not budge an inch, hoping that somehow he was wrong and now that she had Jayson to control, she would lose interest in him and let him be.
“See, I knew all about your little idea. Jayson and I have gotten a little closer during the last six months now and he told me about your meeting at McJaggers tonight. I guess you were hoping that you’d have your say and then that would be that, right? Let bygones be bygones, that sort of thing?”
“Look, you can have the house, my shares of the Chasm,–”
“Well, see it’s not really that simple. All of that, the money, this house, the Chasm, that pales in comparison to what you’re trying to escape with and what you fail to see is already mine, done deal years ago in fact.”
“Wh…what would that be?”
Lilith chuckled the way a parent might chuckle when their five year old mispronounces a tough word, but she persevered and answered him: “Your soul, hun.”
* * *
On the roof of the Super Chasm, nestled right between an emergency-access hatch and the roof-access ladder across from Memorial Garden, Gary John Herrick laid in wait in a prone position with the butt of a Sako 308 sniper rifle nestled in the crook of his shoulder. He did his best to refrain from smoking, thinking prudently that the smoke from the cigarette or even the smell, would be noticeable even at this time of night. Ultimately, he lost that struggle, as he was clearly not the poster-child of self-control and lit up to calm his nerves. He meant to do some business on that night.
Jayson walked along the pathway of the Memorial Garden, taking his time, kicking rocks and thinking about what the past six months implied about the future of his friendship with Tyler. He settled on the feeling that they had had a good run and that nothing lasts forever and chose to focus instead on what this all meant for his career. Part of him did want to reconcile no matter how silly the idea seemed now. Why else would Jayson be where he knew he would most likely run into his former friend during his stress-relieving routine? He continued to walk around the garden, deciding what he would say to his friend, or if there was anything to say.
Jayson was coming to the wall monument in the garden where all of the fallen combatant’s names were listed. Gary John Herrick flicked away his half-spent cigarette as soon as he detected movement through the trees that obscured his line of site except for the area in front of the wall, the spot where according to Gary’s weeks of reconnaissance, Tyler would spend anywhere between 3 minutes and 30 seconds to upwards of 5 minutes, seemingly reading all of the names on the wall monument. Gary lowered his eye back to the eyepiece of the rifle’s scope.
* * *
Tyler stood in the middle of their large bedroom, frozen and unable to move. He knew that he heard what he had heard, he had just hoped that she meant it in a metaphorical sense, which, of course, she did not, and which, (of course), he already knew.
“So here’s what happens next. We keep up appearances. For the sake of the business, you understand. See, what the Chasm represents is far too important for me to allow you to fuck up; I told you that out by the Wailing Wall the other night. If you leave, then there will undoubtedly be questions as to why you left, and regardless of what you tell the press or anyone for that matter, they will know that you don’t have the stomach for this. They’ve known all along because you ooze it like the little pussy you are and always have been. So people, people who support our little business, will start to question what we’re doing, too. They’ll think, ‘Gee, if he’s making boat-loads of money and can walk away from the Super Chasm, how bad is it really?’” Lilith mocked in her perfect mimic of a hick voice. “But I won’t let you plant that seed, Ty-my-guy. Because as long as that seed is planted, it’ll make my ultimate goal that much harder, and I won’t have that. Especially not from a worthless human. Certainly not from a human.
“What is your ultimate goal?” Tyler asked. He figured he had a right to know if he had a role to play.
“You used to be a cop? Geez! My goal, hun, is very simple. It’s the global deconstruction of the moral fiber of man…simply put, of course.” Tyler remained silent. What could he say? “So, as I was saying, the plan now is simple: we will remain together for appearances, just like Clinton and his wife did decades ago when they stayed together after he got caught getting his cock sucked in the oval office. You will live here with me; I don’t care if we are ever in the same room within these walls, but outside these walls, we are the Swansons. We are the happiest goddamn couple this shitty planet, that you all take for granted, has ever seen.”
Tyler knew that his options were almost non-existent once he realized that what he was dealing with was otherworldly. He found that he did have one option. Tyler lifted the back of his shirt and drew out a concealed pistol he carried every day of his life after the Chasm was erected, in light of the daily threats he would receive via mail.
“Haven’t you got it yet? That won’t do anything to me, but I’ll be glad to feed it to you if you’re hungry,�
� Lilith threatened.
* * *
Jayson reached the wall monument, took a cursory glance at all of the names, and stuffed his hand in his pocket to bring out a pack of cigarettes. He drew one out, lit his cigarette and put the pack back into his pocket and stood there smoking, reading, and waiting for Tyler to come.
Gary John steadied the rifle and adjusted his aim until his target was in his crosshairs. He drew in breath and held it in order to give his aiming added stability. Gary John’s finger, already in the trigger well and resting lightly against the trigger, gave it a squeeze.
* * *
CRACK! A deafening reverberation of sonic assault and handgun onomatopoeia echoed in the Swanson’s bedroom, the smell of cordite present immediately. Tyler’s head jerked to his left, going with the concussion of the gunshot, as well as the momentum of the bullet exiting the side of his head. The rest of Tyler’s body followed his head’s lead and collapsed to the left.
“No matter. This changes nothing, mindless human. Pun intended.” Lilith laughed to herself in the now otherwise vacant room.
