“You want to know how,” he stated quietly.
I turned and the glow of the setting sun lit up the room. It wasn’t a large window but the angle of the sun let the light in completely. There weren’t any shadows for Zach to hide in. “It’s going to sound insane,” he said instead of answering my implicit query.
“What isn’t insane right now?” I asked. “The Loch Ness monster cavorting in an Oregon reservoir with her two babies? Millions, if not billions, of people vanishing in an instant? A man who wanted to stab me to death before he did what? Ate me? Isn’t that what he did to that other poor individual?”
His face was like carved granite. His eyes didn’t flinch from mine. “There were bite marks on the bones,” he confirmed and his words were on the edge of cracking with horror.
“That was the message he was trying to send by putting the skull on the grill?” I asked, not of him exactly.
“I don’t presume to understand how that man thinks,” Zach said carefully.
“Well, presume to understand me, then,” I said, angered. “How exactly did you know what I looked like…before?”
His jaw was set. He barely opened his mouth as he answered. “I dreamed about you,” he said and it held a violent undercurrent of emotion. “Always of you. Every night until the day of the bluff in Bandon.”
“You dreamed of me?” That wasn’t the answer I was expecting. Well, I didn’t know what I had been expecting. “At night? While you were asleep?”
Zach smiled ironically. “Of course at night. While I slept.” His expression changed. It became sadly reminiscent. “You. Always you. I dreamed about you crying. I couldn’t do anything for you. You were wandering. Closer and closer to me, but I couldn’t do anything to help you.” His eyes sank into mine. He took a deep breath and his muscular chest expanded significantly. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found you. Or if I had found you too late.”
I was stunned. I stood frozen by the window.
“And there’s more you should know,” Zach continued on, as if I had encouraged him to do so. “It wasn’t just after the change. It was before that, as well. It started months ago. I’m not sure exactly when. Sometime in the spring, I think. I knew you were in some sort of school. I knew that you liked hiking with your father, that sometimes you dreamed of the double chocolate cake your mother liked to make. You know, the one with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups all cut up on top? You have a favorite top you liked to wear. It’s got a naval design on it. It’s blue and white. There was a hat that matched. You worried about the weight in your hips. Sometimes you would dream of doing those thigh exercises that you must have been doing endlessly during the day.” His eyes burned with a hollowed fire. “How could I have known something like that, if not by some other paranormal way?”
I couldn’t move. I didn’t know what to make of his confession. With all of the weirdness that had happened to the world and to us, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. And nothing else seemed to make much sense.
“I was looking for you a long time before the world ever stopped being the way it was,” he finished. Then he surged to his feet and slammed out of the room.
♦
I wasn’t hungry but I made myself eat. Then I asked Kara if she had any strong pain killers. She did, and just for me. I said my shoulder was hurting and Zach asked if I needed a hot pad or something for the muscles. He could boil some water over a fire if I did. He did so in a stilting manner that made Kara look at him with surprise. I said, “No, the pain killers will work.”
Kara offered to get them but I went into the kitchen where she had her backpack and got them myself. Then I noticed the wine rack and asked them if they wanted some wine. There was a very old bottle of something French. Ooh. La. La. It looked expensive too. Kara nodded and Zach grunted, which I took to be a yes. It didn’t take much but the pain killers dissolved in the wine readily. I didn’t overdo it because I didn’t want to hurt them.
I told them I didn’t want any wine because I had taken the pills. I even laughed and said the wine didn’t really suit me anyway. Kara laughed and told me I didn’t know what I was missing. I guessed it was an acquired taste, like caviar.
We all went to bed. Kara took the couch, which was a huge sectional and looked comfortable. Zach changed the sheets in the master bedroom and disappeared in there. I read a two month old People magazine by candle light for about an hour. Then when I was certain that the two were both well and truly out, I proceeded with my plans.
It turned out that I was good at being devious. It made me feel more alive than I ever had before.
Chapter Eleven – Well Laid Plans…
An hour after I had taken Kara’s bicycle I was pedaling through Crescent City and the firefly pixies showed up, surrounding me with their energy and affluence. Oh, they were highly agitated with me and I couldn’t even sing to them because I was panting with effort. I don’t think that they would have been soothed by that in any case. Succinctly, they were pissed off. I didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what was bugging them.
Three times I had to stop and walk to conserve my strength. Once I stopped and sat on the curb next to a pharmacy until I could breathe regularly again. The firefly pixies buzzed me continuously until it became obvious to them that I wasn’t going to turn around. One landed on the bicycle handles and chastised me roundly, shaking both tiny arms frantically, glaring at me with discontent. She even stomped on the brake with all the force that her tiny body could muster.
I sighed. “I know,” I told them sincerely. “I know he’s coming. I could feel it yesterday.”
I couldn’t explain that feeling anymore than I could explain how Zach dreamed of me previous to actually coming into contact with me. I had always been on the cusp of knowing something was going to happen. Usually it was a certain song on the radio or knowing my cell was going to ring before it did. There had been a bad feeling about the mountain trip with my father but I hadn’t put the words to the feeling. Then I had thought it was simply because I didn’t want to climb up another mountain with my father when I could be at the mall with my friends. There had been the bad feeling as I had approached the bonfire at Bandon, but I had been injured and sick, and was all too willing to ignore it as imagination in my excitement over being able to be in contact with another person.
Not so this time. No waiting and thinking that it was just a weird feeling that I should ignore. No ignoring at all. The firefly pixies inadvertently had reinforced my decision. Their frantic presence made me confident that I was headed in the correct direction. I’m sure if they had known that they would have never shown up at all.
The first moment I had seen the sign I had known somewhere deep inside. It was something I hadn’t admitted to myself until Zach had offered to go ahead to see what was at the mile marker. He was going to be there, at the billboard. I was going to be there too. I couldn’t tell what was going to happen but I knew it was going to be bad. I had to stop him before he could do something to Zach. Zach was going to protect Kara and me, but he was going up against a very evil individual and Zach wasn’t going to persevere. I knew that, too. And I wasn’t going to be able to live with that.
That was the choice I had to make. This was the reason I had done what I had. If I had allowed Zach to go, he would have died. Therefore, I didn’t allow him that choice. Hopefully he was still sleeping off the drugs I had given him and Kara, both safe from him. They would be angry with me. Perhaps they wouldn’t be able to forgive me, but I could live with that. I would make the same choice again over and over, if given the opportunity.
I stopped at a gas station and got a gallon can of gas and a matchbook from the register. I checked to see if the matches worked and they did just fine. I hadn’t realized what Zach had been doing to start our fires. A match was another chemical reaction like the bullets from the guns, but for whatever reason, it was still good to go.
Using a hose from the back of the gas station, I dis
covered how utterly disgusting it was to siphon gas from a parked car. Don’t even talk about doing it in the dark because using a candle with an open flame around gasoline is a bad idea. Believe me the principle sounds much easier than the actual process. It’s very easy to get a mouthful of gasoline by mistake. Getting a mouthful of gasoline will spoil everything you taste for several, subsequent hours. Really, gross me out.
Three hours after I left the house between the highway and the beach, I was back at the sign. It didn’t look all that different in the nighttime. Except I couldn’t see the letters from my vantage point. Off to the east the sky was beginning to tinge with pink, indicating the sun was coming around the bend, but the stars above me still twinkled brilliantly.
The firefly pixies were still with me although I was aware that half of them had flown back to the south after it became more and more evident that I wasn’t going to do the same. Apparently they were sneaky, too. They were headed for reinforcements. “Good luck waking Zach and Kara up, girls,” I muttered ungraciously. “And don’t forget to fix the flat on his tire, too.”
I put the kickstand down on the bicycle and got the gasoline off the back rack. Then I climbed up the ladder and drenched the sign with gasoline. I let the gasoline run down the supports and when I was done I tossed the gallon can. The firefly pixies kept their distance from me as I climbed down the ladder. Maybe the gasoline smell was bothering them or maybe they started to realize that things were becoming more dangerous.
I didn’t know what was going to happen but I knew that the sign had to be destroyed before the burned man could see it. If I failed, then he would go after them. I deliberately herded the firefly pixies away and waited until they flew to a safe distance. I flicked a match against the striker pad and observed the blue glow before the match ignited. For once the wind wasn’t blowing and the match stayed lit.
There was a loud keening from the pixies. They didn’t like the fire. They didn’t like that I had it. I tossed the match and quickly retreated to where the pixies were hovering and bleating in distress.
We watched the sign flare into a full flamed fire. It crackled and sputtered with the strain of the intense heat.
I got my crossbow from the bicycle and loaded it with a bolt. I checked the daggers in my belt and in the ladies’ hiking boot that I had borrowed from the beach house. They were a size larger than my feet, but it didn’t matter much.
One of the firefly pixies deftly dive-bombed my face. She came so close I almost flinched. Then she landed on my shoulder and violently tugged on my hair. She said something. Then she said it again. It sounded like, “Sak. Sak. Sak!” The other pixies flew around me and repeated the word in complete synch. After a moment it dawned on me that they were saying, “Zach.”
“What?” I said. “Is he coming? Or is something else wrong?”
The one on my shoulder yanked at my hair again. I’m sure she was trying her best but it felt like a few strands of my hair was caught in something unsubstantial. I turned my head slightly to look at her.
She jabbered at me and then pointed to the north. She pointed again and then really yanked on the hair. The strands came loose and she went flying. It was more luck than anything else that my hand reached up to catch her before she fell to the ground.
Abruptly the firefly pixies were silent. It was odd. They had been making noise at me generally and around me. It had comforted me to a certain extent. There was only the burning of the sign nearby. It blazed with furious concentration as paper and wood were consumed.
The pixie sat in the palm of my hand and shook her body slightly, as if she were clearing her head. She chirped at me, still holding several strands of my hair, and pointed north again.
I looked and I didn’t see anything. The highway stretched away. The pink in the eastern sky was beginning to spread. The skies closest to the horizon were changing to yellow as the earth continued to roll around in its incontrovertible manner. I could see the thick pines and redwoods that grew in abundance on the western side of the highway. The eastern side was populated with pasturage of some sort.
With one hand I took the axe off the back of Kara’s bicycle and put it within reach. The crossbow was better for the distance but I wanted everything I had. The sign crumpled as it burned and part of it fell into the field it stood in. The ladder fell as well. The weight of the burning parts had tumbled it. The noise echoed into the rapidly fading night, leaving only gray smoke billowing into the skies.
I was dismayed to find that the smoke was readily visible and becoming more visible as the sun continued to ascend in the east. It was like a neon sign pointing to my location.
The pixies grumbled abjectly. The one in my palm jittered nervously. At last she took a leap into the air and flew into the mass of her companions. They hummed above me, gradually regaining a little of the noise they were making before.
I shuddered with the fear that I felt rising inside me. Had I ever made a stand for anything before? I hadn’t needed to in the past. My parents had been of the liberal, laissez faire persuasion. They supported me wholeheartedly in my pursuits, only interfering when I needed guidance on more imperative issues. (That included the all important talk on the birds and the bees, illegal drug use, and the necessity of a college degree in life, to all of which I had been easily convinced.) I could remember only having to successfully debate for items or events that I desired. Half the success had been wrapped up in proper preparation.
Was I prepared to face a man who would have been judged criminal insane in another world? I was tired. I was weak. I had enough weapons to do the job. I had firefly pixies on my side. The only thing that I was really prepared to do was to save Zach from throwing his life away in my protection.
The sun peeked over the horizon and the pixies danced about in indecision. One of them flew close to my ear and whispered inaudibly. Their chattering died off to absolute silence. Startled I looked at the one at my ear and saw that she was staring north. Then I looked north.
He was about a hundred yards away from me. His figure was cast in shadows but he was walking toward me, slow and unhurried, as if he had all the time in the world. As he drew closer I raised the crossbow and held it with both hands, willing my limbs to be steady enough for the shot.
Half his hair was gone. The other half was black with half-healed burns. Scorch marks seeped down his face and one of his hands was curled abnormally as if it had been deformed in the fire. He was wearing a filthy hospital scrubs and I had an idea where he’d crawled off to after he’d fallen from the bluff. One of his legs dragged a little. The only thing that was left that even remotely looked human was his blue eyes. Deep blue like a mountain lake’s water, they regarded me as if I might not be entirely real.
I stared back, bracing the crossbow with my elbows against my body. Muscles began to tremble.
The firefly pixies began to make another noise. They hissed at him as if they were cats. They also withdrew behind me, flying in troubled circles, unsure of their next movements. All the time he stared at me and I stared back.
This time he wasn’t shrieking. He didn’t have the advantage. And from what I could see he didn’t have a weapon. His hands were hanging at his side, one of them horribly distorted. His feet were as blackened as the rest of him and bare. He looked away from me and then up at the burning billboard. I saw his lips curve into an approving smile.
“Did you…” his hoarse voice said and abruptly stopped. He swallowed convulsively and tried again. “Did you start that to get my attention?”
“No,” I answered. I was going to be honest about it if I could. My heart and head were racing. He was still insane. I could tell. If he could kill me, he would. But was it possible to convince him into leaving us alone? Would it be feasible for me to succeed without killing this twisted individual? Could I live with myself if I discovered that I had let him live only to have him kill someone else?
His body shuddered. I nearly stepped back. He was taller than I re
membered. Perhaps topping six feet, he had the weight to match his height. All I had recalled from that nightmarish time was that he was stronger than I was and willing to kill me without cause. The vivid recollection of the punishing weight of his body as he straddled mine and his arm slashing overhand with the knife that he intended to use on me had been terrifying. Now he presented as something else. His blackened flesh and seemingly calm demeanor offered as monstrous.
He was a thousand times more frightening now than he had been that night on the bluffs. And I wasn’t certain I could kill him without cause. He wasn’t threatening me except by his previous actions.
I don’t know that Zach or Kara would have had me fire the bolt without questioning my own ethics. Before the change it was legally acceptable to kill while defending yourself. No one would have questioned me if I had killed this disturbed individual during his first attack on me. Not given the circumstances. But this was after and no one would question my decision except myself.
Then I could see that the burned man saw the indecision in my eyes and he smiled more. His dreadfully cracked flesh oozed clear liquid as he smiled wider. “You can’t,” he said and he made a noise that sounded like laughter.
The pixies hissed harder. One tugged at my ear while several others pulled at my hair. They wanted me to run. But they didn’t know that the man was going to follow. He wouldn’t give up. I could see into his eyes just as well as he could into mine. There was crazed determination there. If I turned my back on him I was dead.
His smile dropped away at the sounds from the enraged pixies. Their tiny glowing bodies caught his attention and he snarled, although he didn’t move. His body dipped into a semi-crouch, as if he were going to launch himself at the little vibrating beings. The snarl made the pixies churn in animosity.
“Them,” he raged. “They did this to me.”
I didn’t say anything. He hadn’t liked my voice on our previous meeting so I wasn’t going to try to antagonize him. He was crazy enough without any help from me.
Sea of Dreams Page 11