When Two Worlds Collide

by Jerome Sitko

  Joey drags the groupling to the concrete step at the entrance of the door and makes it bite the edge and screams, “Fuck you!”

  He jumps and lands on the back of its head shattering its teeth and breaking its jaw. Lance and Jeremy cringe and turn away. Joey keeps kicking and stomping the groupling as they drag him away trying to calm him.

  Lance remembers Bear and runs over to him, fearing the worst. Bear’s already in Reno’s arms. Reno is crying as she rubs his head, crying and rocking him.

  “Is he alive? Is he going to be alright?” he asks, tears building and his body shaking as he looks his best friend over. Bear looks up with his puppy dog eyes and then lays his head back down on Reno’s lap.

  “He’s hurt real bad, Lance, but I think he’s going to survive,” she says, wobbling as she stands. She walks toward the kitchen door and stops mid-step. “I can’t go over there.” She points to the groupling with the crushed face, blood and teeth splattered on the door and wall. She hands Bear to Lance; he steps over the groupling and takes Bear in for a drink of water.

  Joey and Jeremy pull the other groupling out of the way so they don’t run him over when they leave. Joey is the only one that does not look visibly shaken and he wants to make sure these two grouplings won’t get up and attack again. He jabs each of them in the back of the neck with his knife looking for a reaction, neither respond, and Joey is satisfied they won’t be getting up, but he knows they’re grouplings so they will eventually come back to life and he doesn’t want to be around when that happens.

  “Lance, hurry the fuck up before these shitbags come back to life,” Joey yells over his shoulder.

  A couple of minutes later, Lance emerges with Bear from the kitchen, his eyes puffy and red. All four of them silently get into the car and Reno starts the engine. As Reno pulls away, she runs over a groupling’s leg. The boys didn’t move him far enough out of the way.

  They were only driving for a few minutes when Reno slams on the brakes as she points toward the sky in front of them. “What the hell is that?”

  Lance looks where she’s pointing and sees four black dots in the orange sky coming toward them. He knows what they are, highwaymen, the big, black, featherless, vultures coming to take the two dead grouplings.

  “Highwaymen, keep driving. I don’t know if they will try to attack us,” Lance answers.

  Reno doesn’t want to find out and guns the engine and the GTO launches down the road.

  They drive for hours and Lance has Bear curled up in his lap.

  Please God, don’t let Bear die. He’s a good dog, I love him so much. I promise I’ll be better. I won’t smoke or drink. I won’t skip school anymore, please just let him live. He was trying to protect Reno. He’s a good dog. He’s my best friend, please God, please.

  Lance is crying and doesn’t care if the others can hear him now.

  Bear’s labored breathing is getting worse. His internal bleeding is slowly killing him and his broken ribs cause involuntary ‘yips’ of pain as he draws air. Bear and Lance grew up together and their love is reciprocal. Bear is his best friend. Thinking about life without Bear, consumes every fiber in his body and Lance’s tears flow freely down his face. Lance wishes he could rewind and start over from the beginning, the last day of school. He would stay home instead of trying to go to Larry’s stupid party. If he stayed home, he would not have gone to the Thriftway Building Center and none of this would have happened.

  The pain is too great for Bear to lift his head all the way, but he does his best to take one last look at his big brother. They lock eyes and Lance sees and feels the love Bear has for him. Once again, Lance wishes he could communicate with Bear the way he does with Emma.

  Bear lays his head back down on Lance’s lap, grateful that he will die in his arms. He shuts his eyes for the last time and his breathing ceases.

  Lance knows that Bear just died but he doesn’t want to believe it. He sits frozen, silent, wishing for Bear’s little chest to rise again. He leans down so his face is touching Bear’s and begins crying uncontrollably.

  The others remain silent, allowing Lance to have his last moment with Bear. All three of them are quietly crying. It hurts Reno knowing that Bear blindly rushed out of the kitchen to try and save her. She feels it’s her fault. She’s shaking so bad and the tears are so heavy that she has to pull over onto the side of this road.

  Lance gets out of the car cradling Bear in his arms. He knows he has to bury Bear, but wishes he didn’t have to do it here in this evil, forsaken hellhole. He finds a rock and starts digging a hole. The others join him and soon they have a small grave carved out of the red dirt. Lance gently places Bear in his new eternal home. He pulls Bear’s favorite toy out of his backpack, a gnarled red and white rubber chew toy shaped like a bone.

  No matter where Lance was in his house, Bear would show up with his bone and push it with his nose as close to Lance as he could for Lance to protect it and keep it safe from Bear’s imaginary thieves.

  He places the toy in between Bear’s front legs close to his chest. They fill the hole and Lance says a prayer. All of them stand, silently reminiscing about their fondest memories with Bear. The kids make their way back to the car and silently get in. Lance is still standing by Bear’s grave. He’s having a hard time leaving him here in this evil place. He asks God to promise him that he will find him here in Sheol and take him to heaven. It hurts Lance that he has to leave him alone. He turns and gets in the car and sits with a distant look on his face. All of his friends feel sorry for Lance. They all know how much Bear means to him. With the funeral over, they continue their journey toward the factory.

  S

  Standing on the same marble steps he walked down after receiving his punishment at the hands of Delphine, Charlie smiles a wicked smile. He promised her on this step that he would return and make her pay, make her eat herself, and today is payday.

  He convinced Erebus to let him have his revenge early. This time Charlie will have a marked advantage. The last time his powers were useless. Tonight he walks into the house of horrors rejuvenated, confident, and vengeful.

  Inside, Delphine is punishing Miss Rebecca for spilling sweet tea all over the kitchen floor.

  As soon as Charlie crosses the threshold, Delphine feels his presence and pauses. She has Rebecca’s arm submerged to the elbow in a huge, boiling, forty-gallon commercial pot of mudbugs and fingers. Her plan was to keep Rebecca’s arm in the boiling water until the flesh fell off, adding flavor to the meal. She pulls her arm out and stuffs a hand cloth into Rebecca’s mouth to stifle her screams.

  Delphine is having a dinner party and there are about forty guests in the dining hall anxiously awaiting their crawdads and fingers. They will have to wait just a little bit longer.

  Charlie confidently walks into the house, passing the guests chatting amongst themselves, and into the kitchen. Rebecca is kneeling on the floor. She’s holding her arm, her mouth stuffed so she can’t speak, but Charlie can read the pain in her eyes. The flesh on her arm looks like someone poured hot wax on it and it’s dripping onto the spotless kitchen floor, coming off in globs. Delphine is standing in the center of the kitchen, her hubris filling the elegant black party dress and sparkling like the expensive jewelry around her neck and fingers.

  “Hello, Mr. Stratt. I’ve been expecting you, but to be honest, not this soon,” she says as she nods at Rebecca to pick her pathetic, insolent self off the ground.

  “Yes, well, I’m a man of my word, Delphine. Hello Miss Rebecca, I see you are hating your life right now.” He nods toward Delphine’s master chef.

  She barely looks up and gives the slightest nod.

  “Well, this is awkward; would you like to stay for dinner, Mr. Stratt?” Delphine asks.

  “As a matter of fact, yes. What’s on the menu tonight?”

  “All of the mudbugs and corn you can eat,” she say
s, leaving out the fingers that replaced the sausage.

  “Hmm, sounds good, but I have a better idea. Tonight, your dinner guests in the other room and the prisoners you have locked away are going to dine on a big, fat, cow.” He points his finger directly at Delphine, hatred, and fire burning in his eyes.

  She does not know that Charlie’s power works in her house. Her house is like a Wi-Fi dead spot, normally, but not today, and not for Charlie. She lets out an angry shriek as she rushes Charlie, expecting him to be the same feeble, broken man he was before. “I’m going to eat your brain and keep you alive so you can watch!”

  “Thank you. I think I will do that to you,” he says and flicks his hand, making the boiling pot fly across the room and collide into her midsection; her skin immediately turns red and blisters.

  Her blood-curdling scream startles her dinner guests in the other room and Rebecca shrinks into the corner of the kitchen, whimpering, covering her eyes.

  Delphine realizes the gravity of her situation, but she’s stubborn. She’s had her way for centuries in this house and she’s not going to give up easily. Ignoring the pain, she crawls across the floor, slipping on the water, and grabs a large knife off the counter with the intent of carving out Charlie’s eyeballs. He allows her to secure the blade and freezes her in her tracks so she can’t move.

  “Del, not going as expected, huh?” He smiles, calmly walking toward her and gives Rebecca a quick wink. He takes the knife out of Del’s hand and wrinkles his nose as he looks at the blisters on her neck and arms. “I hope your guests will still want to partake in the Delphine special tonight.”

  He motions to Rebecca with his only arm and her iron collar falls from her neck.

  “Miss Rebecca, will you please retrieve the monkey table I saw in the storeroom the last time I was here, please.”

  Rebecca, rubbing the scars on her neck says, “Mr. Stratt, what is a monkey table?”

  “The table with the hole in the middle.”

  The monkey table is a wood table used to secure its victim’s neck so the head is above and the body below the tabletop.

  “Roll it out to the dining hall.”

  Charlie opens the serving door and motions for the four servants staged in the same spot they were last time in the dining hall to come into the kitchen as he walks out to address the dinner guests. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you do not want to end up on tonight’s menu, I recommend you leave immediately.”

  The guests may not know what is happening, but they all heard the commotion in the kitchen and Delphine’s screams. Anyone or anything that can make Delphine scream is not someone to mess with, they know. They frantically scramble to their feet and head toward the door, loudly questioning Charlie but not slowing as they make their way to the exit. It’s a good thing because right now, Charlie is not in the mood. He returns to the kitchen as Rebecca and another servant are rolling the monkey table past Delphine.

  She realizes what Charlie has in store for her. He is going to keep his promise of making her eat herself. She commands them to stop, to not listen to Charlie, or else. Her threats fall on deaf ears.

  “You three, bring me the other prisoners, all of them, now,” he states, staring a hole through Delphine. “How many of them are there?”

  “Twenty-two, sir,” the last servant says over his shoulder as he walks out.

  “Delphine, follow me.”

  “Fuck you, release me now or you will be sorry. You can’t do this. Erebus won’t let you, you son of a bitch,” she says still frozen by Charlie’s spell.

  Rebecca comes back into the kitchen and Charlie motions for her to take Delphine into the dining hall. Rebecca tries to pick her up, to move her, but she can’t. The whole time Delphine unleashes a new round of threats and it takes everything Rebecca has in her to keep from laughing out loud. She’s skeptical and reserved, but deep down she knows it’s already too late. If Delphine ever recovers, she will unleash hell on all who wronged her.

  Charlie walks back into the kitchen and grabs a handful of Delphine’s hair and leads her out to the dining hall, Delphine cussing him the entire way.

  The monkey table pulls apart to allow the victim’s head to be positioned in the middle. The servant slides it closed and secures the brass hasp and a padlock. Delphine looks ridiculous with her head protruding out of the center of the table. The expensive diamond tiara looks so out of place now on her burned, pathetic head. The prisoners are herded into the dining hall. If they could show emotion, it would be classified as shock as they see their monstrous mistress pathetically pleading to be released, abandoning her threats.

  Charlie spots Mr. Garrington in the middle of the pack, now missing his left leg along with his arm. When Charlie sees him, all he can think is what Delphine said to him after their last meal, about feasting on rump roast. Charlie calls him over.

  “Mr. Garrington, do you remember me?”

  “Of course, why are you back? I would never come back. Are you crazy?”

  “I’ve been told that. I want you to sit with me at the table of honor. Will you join me?” He points to the small circular table.

  “No,” he says with fear in his eyes. He knows that Delphine is in a bad spot now, but what about later after Charlie is gone and Delphine is back in power?

  Charlie reads the room and understands the hesitation and fright in all of the prisoners. He leaps onto the top of the large dining table and begins walking the length of it, exaggerating his hand movements for emphasis. The inflection in his voice plays his crowd like a seasoned motivational speaker.

  “Listen, I understand all of you are frightened and do not understand what is going on. Please, everyone, take a seat.”

  The prisoners silently pick their seats, staring ahead.

  “Erebus has granted me and all of you, the power to make Delphine pay. She cannot retaliate. She cannot hurt any of us ever again.”

  What Charlie is telling them is not entirely true. Erebus did grant Charlie the use of his powers in Delphine’s house. The council did not say what would happen after he leaves and the fate of the prisoners never came up. They don’t know that, and right now their blank stares are turning red with revenge, hunger replacing their fright.

  Mr. Garrington sits at the small table joining Rebecca.

  Before Charlie dismounts the table and takes his seat he says, “All, tonight we are having Delphine for dinner.”

  He ends his monologue with an animated bow. They respond with a modest, reserved clap, but not loud enough to drown out Delphine’s shrill voice pleading for mercy.

  Her eyes turn yellow and her pupils dilate into slender vertical black slits. “Do not do this! Anyone that takes part in this will pay dearly. You pieces of shit think you have it bad now, just wait. I will feed you your fucking hearts.”

  The room quiets and Charlie knows he has to win it back. He opens a small drawer just above his seat and pulls out three small brass hammers that resemble a rock hammer with a blunt end and an elongated chisel on the other.

  These hammers will be used to crack Delphine’s skull to gain access to her gray brain.

  Charlie removes her tiara and sets it on Rebecca’s head, Delphine’s shrieks for her property to be returned.

  Charlie uses the blunt end first and cracks her head with the hammer and she lets out a blood-curdling scream.

  “I will feed you worms. You will eat worms!” Fat nightcrawlers flow out of her mouth and nose eliciting gasps from the dinner guests.

  “It’s an illusion! Hit her!” Charlie yells at Mr. Garrington and Rebecca as he takes another healthy swing.

  They join him and Delphine begins spinning under the table, her head looks like a toy top above. They keep smashing her over and over, blood flowing down her head mixing with the worms, a red slime covering her face. Charlie stops to admire their work and takes a knife out of the drawer to
cut the skin and hair away to expose the cracked skull beneath. As he removes chunks of skull, worms begin crawling out of her head.

  It’s a grotesque scene that would make the most avid horror movie junkie turn away.

  He grabs a handful of worms and throws them on the floor exposing her brain. Rebecca begins dishing out portions on their plates, pulling stray worms out and discarding them.

  “Del, I believe you should enjoy the first bite,” Charlie says as he slaps her until she opens her eyes and regains consciousness. He forces a healthy bite down her throat, laughing, “Not so big and tough now, are you? And quit begging; it’s beneath even you.” He turns to his guests. “Rebecca, I think these brains need a little salt, don’t you?”

  Rebecca nods taking the slim silver salt shaker and shakes a healthy portion of the white spice onto their plates.

  Unable to keep up the optical illusion the worms begin dissipating, signaling to the others that Del’s power is weakening.

  Delphine, in a drugged, euphoric state from her wounds, begins giggling and talking excitedly to the table. She is not aware of who she is or where she is, but most importantly, she does not realize her dreadful situation.

  Charlie takes the tiara. “Del, you look so pretty tonight. Do you want to wear your tiara?” He holds it in front of her.

  “Yes, I’m so beautiful. I look like a princess.” She smiles, blood running down her face.

  Charlie takes the tiara and places it on her cracked and jagged head. “You know what? I have an idea. You should eat your face. Doesn’t that sound yummy? All of your dinner guests want to see you eat your nose, will you do that for them, Del?” He gestures to the big table, encouraging them to clap.