My feet are firmly planted on the ground of my prior defeat to the creature. I started to call out a challenge when the thing grew in my vision. “Good, I am still hungry. Come here and let me feast,” the voices said in their strange harmony. It tugged at my heart as I could pick out Maryann’s tormented voice.
“The only feast you’ll have this night is a bullet or a blade.” The creature released a huge belly laugh. All the mouths this creature had were taking turns mocking me, laughing, or licking their lips in anticipating its next meal. I refused to pay attention to those monstrosities. “Free the souls you hold, and I will offer you mercy. If you do not, I will put you down.” Another round of laughter filled the air. This time all the mouths joined in.
“You offer me mercy? Why would you offer me mercy when I offer you none?” The monster charged, and without thinking, I fired my 45. The rounds passed straight through the creature with no effect. I dropped the gun as I stepped back to gain some distance between me and this thing. The monster stopped and spoke, “Running only makes your dying harder. Come to me,” each voice said in its own eerie way.
“Come and get me.” It didn’t move; its voices continued to taunt me. I grew bold and foolish and stepped closer. It followed me as I made a grand circle around it and the crash site. It never moved more than a few yards away from the center of misery. “You are tied to this place, aren’t you? It is why you didn’t chase me down. You couldn’t reach me.” I moved closer to this fiend. I stood close to its arms’ reach when I stopped.
“You cannot beat me. You can only succumb to me!” the voices screamed. My mind teetered on the verge of being overthrown as pain and visions forced their way into my consciousness. Trying to fight the visions while keeping the prisoner of my mind in mental chains tasked me to my limit. I had to struggle to keep from moving closer. Somehow my feet wanted to move.
In my mind, I screamed, “Get out!” I envisioned a blast wave spreading out from me as the center. I imbued my will into the effort. My mind rung with the aftereffects of my brain blast. The pain is no worse than a mid-range migraine. I will deal with it later.
The creature looked lifeless. It remained unmoving, and no voices are taunting me. Slowly the faces of its victims floated to the surface of its waxy skin. They are unconscious but are beginning to come around. They started talking at me. The voices started talking over each other, and I couldn’t understand what they are saying. All at once the faces distorted in agony and screamed. I had to try my plan.
“Maryann Taylor,” I uttered her name and put my will behind it. She floated to the top of the creature’s skin. She strained at the surface, stretching the skin like a carbuncle about to erupt.
The other faces on the creature began to talk in unison. “Stop whatever you are doing. You cannot have her back.” Maryann began to recede into the monster.
I set my will again and spoke to the choir, “Help me. I can free her. You must fight it. Stop the monster. Fight for her soul and your own.” My words must have inspired something in the choir because some of the faces switched from taunting me to grim determination. Maryann started to break out of the creature again. I could feel she neared her freedom. “Maryann, Sarah needs you. Your baby needs you.” It did the trick. Maryann tore through the creature’s skin, and as she did, it howled in pain. I could hear some cheers from the choir. “Maryann, get behind me! Get behind me!” The monster reeled against our victory.
Next, I called forth Mathew. The struggle to gain Mathew’s freedom was hard, but not quite as difficult as was Maryann’s freedom. The creature’s weakness grew as more and more of the choir helped me.
I started to recite the names of everyone who died at this site. I freed each one in turn from this thing’s grasp. There remained only one soul I had not yet freed. His name is Jerry Walker, the first to die here. The creature looked emaciated and wavered from the loss of most of its choir. All the freed souls gathered behind me, giving me strength and encouragement. Fading quickly, my will started faltering, but I had to try and free the last one. “Jerry Walker, I call to you.” The last face grew on the creature’s body. His face did not seem tortured. Gradually the whole form of the creature morphed into Jerry Walker, and I could feel him resist my call. It dawned on me what had happened.
“Jerry, you must stop this. You have stopped these souls from crossing to the next life. You must stop.”
I am answered not by a choir, but by a single voice, “No! I need them all so I can live!” After he voiced his answer, he lunged at me but could not strike me. Bound to this place, he could not reach me. He had been tied here ever since he died, and his soul could not or would not leave.
“Jerry, you are dead. You must know this. Don’t let your death keep them here. Don’t make me do something I don’t want to do, but I can’t let this go on. It must end here and now,” I have rescued twenty-three souls. Weariness washed over me, and I had but a fraction of my strength left. Determined, I had to finish this. If I retreat now, he would only kill someone else and grow stronger again. “Jerry, you don’t have to do this. Crossover. Leave this world for the next.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t crossover. The only thing waiting there for me is anguish and pain.” I heard the fear in his voice. It is heavy and oppressive like a winter coat in the heat of summer.
“We all have to pay for what we have done. I know I will have to pay for the pain I have added to this world. I will not hear the music of the voices which guide you to the other side.”
“I don’t hear the voices. I never did. All I hear is anguished sounds calling me,” anxiety filled his voice. “I won’t go.”
“Was it like the tormented sounds of your choir?” I gave him a moment to decide. But his moment is now up. “Jerry, I will end this for you.” I stepped over the invisible line, which marked his domain. He transformed back into the creature and charged me. He is slower than before. His choir had given him strength and speed, but they are gone and so too is his prowess. I easily dodged his attack. “Jerry, don’t end it this way.” He made another lunge for me. I avoided this attack as well. Wishing I didn’t have to, I drew my sword.
It shone with greyish light. “That’s new.” Jerry’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the light. His face became grim and determined. He tried to attack a third time. I stood my ground and brought my sword to bear. The instant he was in the reach of my blade, I swung true. It cleaved him in two from right to left and down from his neck to his waist. The second I finished the stroke, Jerry evaporated. There is nothing left. I called out to him with my will. No sickness came over me. The emptiness of my call filled me. I knew he is no longer a ghost, or creature, or anything else. He is now as nothing as if he never was. The only thing left of him is the pain and torment he caused. I had dealt out justice and death to the dead.
I waited and watched all but one of the prisoner ghosts go on to the place we call the afterlife. Their heartfelt thanks touched me. It is time for me to return to hearth and home. Well, we don’t have a fireplace, but you know what I mean.
“Women of the house, I am home victorious and hungry,” I called out as I burst through the door. I replaced my sword to its place of honor. I sat at the dining room table and unloaded my pistol and cleared the chamber. I put it back in the gun safe and promised my gun I would clean it in the morning. Charlene came out of our bedroom coo-cooing the fussy Sarah. “How is Sarah doing?”
“She was doing fine until you stormed into this house.”
“Char, I would like to introduce you to Maryann Taylor.” The spirit of Maryann faded in from the ether.
Maryann immediately reached for her daughter. Her hands passed right through Sarah. “I wish I could hold her one last time.”
“Your wish is my pleasure to provide.” I took Sarah from Charlene, who wasn’t quite happy about it. “Maryann, go ahead and touch her.” She spent the next few minutes caressing her daughter. During this time, I interrogated her about which family member wo
uld be best for Sarah and where they lived. “Maryann, it’s time. You need to go on. Sarah will be fine. Your sister will love her like her own.” Char took back the baby. Ghost tears were running down Maryann’s face. “Go to the music. You’ll be there soon.”
Maryann cocked her head, “I hear it. It sounds so beautiful.” She turned and started her journey. It is a journey we all must make one day unless I can figure out a loophole.
I sat down on the couch and began to cry. Meanwhile, Char put Sarah back to bed in our room. Char returned and sat next to me on the couch. “Nathan, why are you crying? All is well. Maryann passed on, and Sarah will be with her family. You must have defeated whatever attacked you. I don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t understand. It finally hit me what I had done. It will haunt me. My memory will torment me like it does when I’ve done something,” I paused as I gathered will enough to tell my wife, “wrong. What I did goes against the laws of God and Man.” I tried to suck it up, but tears kept coming out. “I killed Maryann.” The statement hung in the air. I could not bring myself to look at Char.
“What are you saying? The accident killed her.”
“No, I did. When she was burning, I couldn’t pull her free. Her screams were filling my ears. I couldn’t let her burn. Such a terrible way to go. The rescuers were nowhere in sight.” I stopped for a moment then blurted it out, “I snapped her neck. She was burning, and I couldn’t watch her die so horribly.” Charlene put her hand on my shoulder, “Nathan, it was an act of mercy. You only stopped the pain of her death; you didn’t cause it. Come to bed you will see the truth of it in the morning,”
Reunion
Entering the courthouse where it all started, I took it all in. Glimpses of memories from that day began to bombard me. A ghost of a migraine entered my consciousness. I dismissed the phantom memory with no more thought than you would use to brush a fly away. Outside the courtroom, I waited until it recessed. I didn’t wait long since I timed my arrival with lunch.
Patiently I watched and waited for her to exit. As she came out and saw me, she smiled. “Why, Mr. Embers, as I live and breathe. I never expected to see you again. Are you in trouble with the law again?” Her eyes laughed with the joke. This woman showed me some compassion after my first stint on the witness stand during the whole Mark Galos debacle. Her words were kind and gentle at a time when I sorely needed them. I would reward her merciful words, and this is why I am here.
“No. I am here to see you. I thought maybe you reconsidered the wink I threw you.”
“Oh, heavens no. I am too old for such foolishness, besides you remind me of my grandson,” she said as she reached out and raked the left side of my hair with her hand.
“Actually, I am here to help you. There is someone I want you to meet.” I placed a piece of my will into the call. “Albert, would you please join us.” Before the passing of even a full heartbeat, Albert materialized. Surprise and confusion came to the woman’s face. I never did learn her name.
“How can this be? I don’t understand.” Tears began welling up in her eyes.
“Don’t try to understand Alice, try to believe. It’s me,” Albert said. “I have been waiting to talk to you for so long. Well, I’ve been talking to you. You never heard me.”
“Alice,” finally her name, “you died in your sleep peacefully less than a year after Albert passed. My guess is you hadn’t realized it, or you didn’t want to know you died.” I took hold of her hand and placed it in Albert’s. She gasped at the sensation of Albert’s touch. “You need to go with your husband. He knows the way.”
“Mr. Embers, I don’t know how you did this, but I thank you.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek. Before she turned away, I reached up and wiped away a tear as it rolled down her face. She smiled, and her eyes danced with joy. “Goodbye Mr. Embers.” The years of their lives began to melt away. Albert, back in his prime, stood tall and strong. No longer did the years of hard work weigh down his body. Alice returned to the beautiful young girl she had been when she fell in love with her husband. They are happy together again. My internal iPod started up with “…Imagine how the world could be, so very fine so happy together…” Happy Together by the Turtles. I always loved the song. The music faded in my mind as Albert and Alice turned and started walking away, to where I know not, by the third step they took they vanished. I looked at the hand I used to wipe away Alice’s tear of joy. The tear remained. You would think a ghost’s tear would evaporate instantly when they left. Curious.
After a moment, I took a stance with my hands akimbo and announced to no one in particular “Well, my work here is done.” I received a few odd looks from the people walking by, but I didn’t care. I done good.
Moiraine’s Star
It is the first day of the new school year. Moiraine will be starting first grade. It came as a relief when the police held a press conference on tv a few days ago announcing the Mark Galos was no longer a threat to the city of San Diego. The announcement lifted the school district’s prohibition of me going anywhere near Greentree Elementary. I will be able to walk my daughter to school again; however, I would not be reinstated as the crossing guard. The district had already assigned a new crossing-guard; they did assure me if an opening becomes available, they would give me a call.
Moiraine is eager to start her career as a first grader. “Mommy, Daddy, wake up. I start school today!” She rushed around to each side of the bed and shook us. She jumped up on the bed and crawled between us, bouncing up and down the whole time.
My wife said in a none too happy tone, “Okay Moiraine, we’re up, we’re up.”
Still, half dreaming, I can be a little harder to rouse, but Mo is nothing if not persistent. “Mo, you interrupted my dream. It was a good dream too.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy. What were you dreaming about? Never mind, we don’t have time. We have to get ready!” She ran out of the room, asking herself what she would wear. Foolishly, I had believed she decided last night on her outfit. She did spend an hour going through her clothes, but what do I know? I am a man who is tragically unaware of the latest fashions.
“Nathan, can you start breakfast? Please start the coffee first. Since the doctor cleared me for caffeine, I want the one cup a day first thing.” Charlene sighed and said, “Chocolate is next on the list for getting back to normal,” Char put her hand to her chest and said, “Moiraine’s gymnastic routine hurt my incision, and I want to clean and check it.”
“You got it,” I said while I thought to myself, “My next item on the list of things to get back to normal is a little bedroom gymnastics of our own.” The kitchen is right where I left it last night, so I started. I fixed the French Press for Charlene’s morning jump start. While the water heated up, I pulled everything needed out of the fridge and pantry. I looked at all the ingredients for breakfast and became a little disappointed. What I would love to fix is biscuits and gravy, but mine have never rivaled my mother’s. If I could summon up her ghost, I would ask her to whip up a batch. Well, scrambled eggs, ham, and toast will have to do.
We all sat down for breakfast together. Moiraine inhaled her breakfast like she hadn’t eaten in a week. She tried to jump out of her seat, but Char would not have it. “Moiraine, you can wait for your father and me to finish. We have loads of time left to get ready for school.”
“Sorry, Mom. I am so excited. I’ll finally be in real school, not baby school,” Moiraine looked like she would burst with enthusiasm when she said, “real school.” Char and I sat there finishing our breakfast while Mo fidgeted like her chair was on fire. The moment Char and I started to rise with our dishes, Moiraine shot out of there like a bat out of the Batcave to finish getting ready. As we were doing the dishes, we heard Mo scream, “I can’t find my… oh, never mind I found it!” The doorbell rang.
“If it’s the cat, I will start making a cat-of-nine-tails with his tail being the first,” I said to the Universe as I opened the door expecting Diego. “Okay, Dieg
o, you have to stop…” as I opened the door and looked for the cat. I saw a pair of shoes instead.
“I have been mistaken for someone else a time or two in my life, son, but never for a cat,” John chuckled. Before anything else, John said his usual blessing, “Bless this house and all who live here.”
“John, good to see you,” I reached out with my hand, and we shook. “Come in, come in. Here to see the fashion diva off for her first day of school?”
“Dad, you’re here a little early. We have time yet. Do you want some breakfast?” Charlene asked as she leaned into her father and kissed him on the cheek.
“Oh, no thank you, Bug,” loudly he said, “Where’s my favorite granddaughter?”
Loose Ends And What Knots Page 6
