TO WAKE THE DEAD

by Richard Laymon

  “I’m okay. Just a little scared, that’s all. Anything wrong with that?”

  “No it’s—”

  “I mean, I’m trying to handle all this. Right? I’m okay… haven’t broken down yet. Kept my head, so far. I’m keeping it all together, aren’t I, Tag?”

  “Sure.”

  “I shrugged it off when that first watchman got killed, didn’t make a fuss about messing with that damned mummy in the john, didn’t crack when that disgusting Mabel beat me up or killed that poor little kitten and hung it outside my home.” She swallowed. Her face was fixed rigidly, but her eyes filled with tears. “And now there are two dead men in there and I don’t even know them, and I’ve got to go in… must go in… only the last thing I do want is to go in there. I don’t want to.”

  All her control broke. She flung herself against Tag, hugging him tightly, crying like a lost child.

  He held her. “It’ll be all right, Susan,” he said, soothingly. “Please don’t cry. It’ll be all right. It’ll be all right, believe me.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “So, how long have you been here?”

  “Doesn’t the guy ever stop asking questions?” Marco complained.

  Ed Lake sat on the foam mattress in the center of the cage. He’d been talking to Virginia, but Marco lobbed in comments. Virginia sat with the blanket around her facing Ed. Marco lay on his back, feet crossed, resting them on one of the horizontal bars of the cage so they were higher than his body.

  “How long?” Virginia shrugged. “Hard to tell.”

  “Days? Weeks?”

  “Weeks, I guess.”

  “And you, Marco?”

  “Always. I’ve been here always.”

  “Always?”

  “That’s what it feels like.”

  Virginia nodded. “You can’t tell night from day in here. We guess the lights go on for around six hours, then off for four. It’s a completely artificial day-night cycle.”

  Marco laughed. “If we weren’t tough cookies it could screw us up.”

  Ed rubbed his jaw. “How did you get here?”

  “Don’t remember,” Marco said.

  “You must remember something.”

  “Not me. You might say I’m of no fixed abode. I moved from place to place. I’d been staying with a girl over near the beach until she threw me out. Then I took to sleeping on a bench outside a shopping mall.”

  “Can’t have been easy?”

  “I made it easy, brother. I took the girl’s stash of weed. I got mellow every night. Hours just seemed to float away on a summer breeze.”

  “Then what?”

  “I went to sleep on my bench one night. When I woke up, here I was in the beast house. Someone had whammoed me as I slept. Easy-peasy.”

  Ed looked at Virginia. “You?”

  “It seems so stupid.” She looked embarrassed.

  “No more stupid than I felt.” Ed smiled. He remembered being dumped in the wilds by Janey.

  “I’d been to a party,” she said. “Drank too much, then I walked home.”

  “Now that was stupid.”

  “Tell me about it. But I lived just down the street. A three-minute walk at most. So, there I am alone in the middle of the night in a quiet neighborhood when all of a sudden—wham.”

  “Knock on the head.” He touched his still matted hair.

  “No, a stun gun I figured. Didn’t see anyone, just felt a jolt like someone had kicked me in the small of the back.” She shrugged. “Woke up here with Marco as my neighborino.”

  “And we’ve been inseparable ever since.”

  “Yeah, inseparable.” She didn’t smile.

  Ed looked around. “And you’ve never heard any noises from outside? Anything to tell you where you might be?”

  “Look at the white panels on the walls.” Marco pointed with his bare toe.

  “Soundproofing,” Virginia added.

  “Yeah.” Marco chuckled. “In this place no one can hear you scream.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “Sure is. Remember George? That guy who split his sides laughing?”

  Ed lifted his head. “George?”

  “An ex-roomie,” Marco said.

  Ed looked at Virginia. “There have been others here?”

  “Some.”

  “What happened to them?”

  Marco wriggled his bare toes. “They come… they go.”

  “Geez.”

  “So it’s best to play the game according to their rules,” Virginia said meaningfully. “They ask, you do. Got that?”

  Ed still couldn’t believe they took this lying down. They sounded so damn passive, so damn accepting. Like the fight had gone out of them.

  “But surely the cops are out searching for us.”

  Even Virginia laughed at this one.

  Marco rose to his knees. “Now that kind of doofus talk makes me need to take a leak.” He pulled down his zipper. “Watch out, you folks in the front row. You will get wet.”

  He pointed himself in the direction of the bowl full of sawdust. His aim, Ed saw, wasn’t all that it should be.

  Jesus Christ. It can’t get any worse than this.

  Wrong, Eddie.

  It’s just about to do exactly that.

  Lights killed. That same instantaneous plunge into darkness. Maybe this was the lights-out phase for sleep. But Ed doubted it. Surely the period of light had been too short.

  He heard Marco murmur. “Ladies and gentlemen. Fun in the beast house is just about to begin.”

  Ed’s scalp tingled. Suddenly it felt cooler in the room. He looked around but as before, he couldn’t see a thing in that total darkness.

  Here it comes, he told himself.

  Here it comes, Eddie boy.

  Did you keep your strength like Marco said? Or did you dribble it all away asking questions?

  But what will they make me do? What kind of challenge am I going to face?

  Maybe it won’t be me.

  Maybe Virginia? Might be Marco?

  It doesn’t have to be me this time. They might not be interested in me and—

  “Lake.”

  Holy shit, they’re talking to me.

  “Lake.”

  But how do they know my name?

  Marco told.

  Hey, maybe Marco’s in on this. When the lights go out, how do I know that Marco doesn’t simply unlatch the cage door and come out to do his funky stuff? He might have sliced Virginia’s breasts. He’s got the night-vision goggles hidden somewhere.

  He walks around. Seeing us. We don’t see him.

  The thoughts blasted through Ed’s brain. They were paranoid thoughts but, hell… Maybe they were both in on this. Both Marco and Virginia could be his captors. This could be their game.

  Pretend to be captives in cages. Pretend they were just like him.

  But why?

  To get inside his head, of course. Enjoy his fear close up. Watch his face when he reacted.

  Marco went on and on about keeping his strength up. Working on him. Working on the scare centers of his brain. Maybe that was it.

  But what about Virginia’s injuries?

  Self-inflicted.

  But, hell, that must hurt.

  Maybe moviemakers’ fake blood?

  “Lake.” The voice came again. It was a deep man’s voice. Eerily slow too. Inhuman-sounding.

  It sent ice down his spine.

  “Lake. In a moment, I will give you instructions. You will follow those instructions to the letter. Otherwise you will be punished. Do you understand?”

  He remained in the same frozen crouch position, not moving so much as a finger.

  “Nod if you understand, Lake.”

  So they do see me? Jesus H. Christ. He’d never been so scared.

  “Nod if you understand, Lake.”

  He nodded.

  “When the lights are switched on again, go immediately to the panel that is suspended beneath the roof of the cage.
Lie flat on your back on it. Then present your penis.”

  “What!”

  “Present your penis. Present it in such a way it will pass through the aperture in the top of the cage.”

  “No way. I’m not sticking my cock through no goddamn hole!”

  Virginia hissed: “You’ve got to, Ed. Remember, play by their rules.”

  “But, shit… I can’t. I mean I really—”

  The deep bass voice continued calmly. “Lay on the panel. Present your penis. This is a matter that requires no further discussion.”

  The light flickered on. He glanced at Virginia. Solemn, she nodded. Do it, Ed. Marco had retreated under the blanket as if he didn’t want to witness what happened next.

  Holy shit.

  What were they going to do?

  To take his dick out of his pants and push it through a hole in that glass. Jesus.

  What’s wrong, Eddie? Afraid of runaway lawnmowers?

  The thought escaped before he could rein it in. Lawnmowers and penises. They were two words that didn’t belong in the same sentence. No way.

  But what choice did he have?

  Skin crawling like a jug full of ants had been poured onto him, he made his way across the cage. In front of him the transparent panel was at eye level as he crouched there. Maybe ten inches or so separated it from the transparent roof of the cage. It would be like lying on a bunk bed that nearly touched the bedroom ceiling.

  Virginia whispered. “Use the bars at the side to climb up, then slide onto it on your back… that’s it. Now push your feet against the bars to move yourself along.”

  It wasn’t easy. He yanked his back muscles working his way onto the panel. His forehead butted the glass top of the cage. He couldn’t raise his knees to use his feet, so he had to worm his way farther along, pressing his palms against the panel.

  Jesus H. He felt like he’d become a sandwich filling now, with the glass panels forming the two slices of bread.

  Present your penis.

  That’s what the deep voice had told him. Present? What a way to phrase it.

  But, good God, what would they do to his dick once it was poking up in the fresh air. You couldn’t feel any more vulnerable than this. That’s why guys outdoors took a leak facing a wall or a tree. You felt uncomfortable exposing your cock to the wilderness. It felt so unnatural.

  A passing eagle might mistake it for a tasty snake.

  It wasn’t easy in that confined space, but at last he took his dick from his pants and… yes… presented it. Gritting his teeth, he poked the head up through the hole in the glass. Fortunately, the hole was smooth around the edges, so there should be no nasty cuts. He tried to lift his head to see how much of itself it did present. Only he couldn’t lift his head on account of the sheet of glass above his face.

  Was Virginia watching?

  Was Marco!

  He didn’t know whether to feel terrified or embarrassed. Mortally embarrassed.

  Terminally embarrassed.

  Shoot.

  Then the worst thing happened.

  The worst he could imagine.

  The thing he didn’t want to happen just went and did it anyway.

  The damn lights… they went out. It was dark again.

  And here I am lying with my dick pushed through a hole in the glass. He swallowed, gritted his teeth, waited for the next installment.

  Okay, buddy. You can pause the tape now. I’ve seen enough… The mind chatter didn’t help. Especially when it began talking about runaway lawnmowers.

  Swirling blades. A soft column of flesh. Who’s gonna win that wrestling bout, Eddie boy? He closed his eyes. Not that it mattered. He wouldn’t see what happened next in the dark anyway.

  He waited.

  Waited.

  Minutes sneaked by in no particular hurry.

  Maybe this was the test… to lie there with his dick poking up above the glass. This could be a psychological challenge. Not physical.

  A rustle sounded close by.

  The drafts came again. Cool air played over the end of his manhood. A manhood that wanted to shrivel back into his body where it would be safe from whatever lay out there.

  He pressed his lips together. A cry tried its darnedest to escape.

  He wanted to yell: NO! NO! NO!

  But he must keep quiet.

  Revealing his fear might only excite his captor into… no, he didn’t want to speculate any further than that.

  The sensation that somebody moved above him came. He heard a whispering sound. Feet moving across the floor.

  Holy shit!

  The glass floor flexed above him. Had someone stepped from the elevated catwalk onto the cage roof?

  Moments later came a faint squeaking sound.

  Oiling the lawnmower blades…

  No. Someone was tightening the bolt arrangement that supported the panel that held him. Slowly he was being raised up toward the underside of the cage.

  This went on for several minutes.

  Inch by inch he felt himself being winched up tight to the roof of the cage. He felt his entire body pressed tight against it. His hips were crushed hard against it; his skin burned with the pressure.

  Was the intention merely to crush the life out of him?

  But just as the pressure against his ribs made it difficult to breathe, it stopped.

  Then came the next shock.

  Something touched his penis.

  He could see nothing in the darkness. And right now he didn’t want to. What if it was a blade? Remember the cuts on Virginia’s breasts?

  Was it his turn?

  But this was light. A feathering motion. Faster.

  It was a tongue!

  Someone’s tongue flickered lightly against the end of his cock.

  He remembered the deep man’s voice… oh, holy Christ, not that!

  His reflex action was to recoil, but the panel he lay on held him firmly against the underside of the roof. He couldn’t move even a fraction of an inch. He was wedged tight against the glass. Only his cock was free and that was being… well, he couldn’t believe it but it was being licked with a rapidly flickering tongue. First the very rip. Then down the shaft.

  Now fingers… encircling. Gentle, tentative.

  But then firmly. Holding his cock upright so the whole mouth could slip over it, gorging, swallowing.

  Teeth next. Leastways, that’s what his runaway imagination anticipated. Teeth clamping hard. Biting. Rending. Ripping.

  He could hardly keep from screaming. But somehow he held the scream inside his body. He sensed his survival depended on it.

  And then came something even more shocking.

  The ultimate betrayal.

  In utter disbelief he realized his body was responding to that sucking mouth. Felt himself stiffen, felt himself rise, growing big in the mouth.

  The glass flexed above him.

  Whoever was above him was getting excited. They were moving, getting in a better position to suck at him.

  What had happened to him? Why was his body becoming excited by the attentions his penis was receiving?

  He felt disgust…

  Worse, he felt turned on. With involuntary movements he tried to thrust his hips forward into the face of his abuser. His heart hammered. He wanted to writhe in pleasure, only he was constricted by the two sheets of glass that held him sandwiched so tightly.

  Then the mouth was gone.

  Relief.

  Disappointment.

  He didn’t know which emotion was the strongest. Saliva cooled on the end of his penis. It throbbed as it stood erect above the glass.

  Then it happened so fast.

  He gasped with disbelief. Understanding only too well what was happening to him now.

  More importantly, what was happening to his cock?

  He clenched his hands. Gritted his teeth. Curled his toes so tightly his feet ached.

  Someone had slid onto him. The sensation was different. He knew that someone n
ow knelt on the glass above him. Taking his cock into them. Inside.

  But inside what?

  He felt a slick encircling.

  Felt the motion too as they lowered themselves, then raised a little before sliding slowly… slowly down his erect shaft.

  Please, he wanted his cock to shrivel back.

  But the perfidious hunk of meat wouldn’t. It became so swollen it felt as if it would burst. He’d never been as hard as this. Or as thick. He felt himself penetrate deep into this captor’s body.

  But what was he penetrating?

  He could feel the moist lips, the clenching muscles.

  It reminded him of when Janey sat on him and impaled herself on his cock.

  But there was that deep man’s voice… Dear God, and here he was enjoying this… no, loving this sensation.

  It didn’t take long before he felt himself ready to ejaculate.

  But he remembered Marco’s talk of saving his strength. He knew he must hold back until his captor had been satisfied.

  Still the motion continued. The rising, falling. The tightly encircling collar of flesh about his flesh.

  He must delay. He couldn’t permit himself release.

  They were insatiable. His captor rose and fell above him for hours. He heard them panting. But they said nothing.

  They were inexhaustible. A squeaking sound came to him, and he realized it must have been their perspiring hands taking the weight against the glass slipping backwards and forward.

  He centered himself on the pain as the glass squeezed his ribs. The pain distracted him from coming to orgasm.

  His captor must be satisfied first.

  Punishment would follow if he disappointed.

  The glass flexed above him. In the darkness he saw nothing. Heard nothing but the squeak of moist palms against glass, and muffled panting. No words.

  This won’t end… this will never end.

  On and on. The perpetual motion of flesh against his flesh.

  But then it changed. Louder panting, convulsive movement from above. Spasms.

  Then the body was gone from his. He heard the bolts turn, the panel lowered. In a moment he’d slithered off, soaked in perspiration. He thought he’d have orgasmed with his captor, but sheer willpower on his part had prevented his release.

  Still hard and still slick from his encounter, he crawled on his hands and knees across his cage. Found his mattress in the dark. Curled up tight on it. Kept his eyes shut.