The Cleansing

by Shane Staley

  Moments later, his body stopped moving. But there was still movement beneath his skin.

  Recognizing this, I looked down and saw the undulating mass moving upward from my leg.

  I took the dull end of the pole and mashed the squirming leeches from my leg, raking them across the ground.

  I had to burn the body. There had to be gas somewhere close. The smell of gas was strong, although the campground didn’t have natural gas lines. Most every site had its own propane tank for heating and cooking.

  As I glanced around, I found the source. The old truck I had driven must have had the gas line rupture running over debris, as a small puddle slowly leaked from beneath.

  I returned to the truck. Once inside, I shifted it in gear and drove over Mason’s body. Bones snapped and a hiss of air exploded from his gaping mouth. It sounded like a balloon deflating.

  It took me a few times to line Mason’s body up underneath the truck just right. Then once enough gas had leaked, I moved the truck, then ran to Gary.

  Gary was unconscious as I searched his pockets and found the book of matches.

  I returned to Mason’s body, struck a match and set fire to his corpse.

  As his skin burnt once again and the last of his body hair curled into the flames, I watched his flesh stop crawling.

  The presence beneath slowly withered and died in the crackling heat.

  Chapter 19

  I had spent an entire lifetime without having to watch anyone die until my father took his last breath before me. One minute he was alive, the next he was lost. I looked down on him and his face triggered so many memories taking place during his life. As he blinked in the hospital bed, I imagined what thoughts must have been running through his mind. The fear, the anger, the concern he must have felt knowing that he was about to leave us behind. And then in a matter of minutes, he was an empty shell, unable to think or feel again. It was that very second that I realized that we’d never get the chance to make another memory together. He’d never get to see the sunrise or sunset. He’d never be able to walk outside during one of his beloved storms and feel the cool breeze blowing, the lightning sparking throughout the sky, or the low growl of thunder rising in pitch.

  A flurry of thoughts raced through my mind as they pulled me away from him. I felt angry, realizing that this was the only thing that life promised. One day it ends and then nothing more. The way the nurses and doctors pulled me away from him seemed to confirm this feeling, as if my father was no longer a person, but an object—a mere thing as soon as death took hold.

  I never wanted to witness anyone or anything die as long as I lived after that terrible day. Now it was happening again as I watched Gary in the clutches of death.

  He was in shock, his body trembled, his teeth chattering violently. His eyes had yellowed, matted shut between his damaged eyelids.

  I talked to him, but his head pivoted this way and that, as if he had heard someone else talking around us.

  And then suddenly, he stopped shaking. His body calmed. He slowly rose to his feet, his hands stretched out in front of him, feeling along the wall.

  “Chris,” he said, “you have to kill me.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “No way, man.”

  “It’s inside me,” he whispered.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I felt it,” he said. “Mason infected me while you were gone. He found me. He wasn’t wild like he was back under your father’s trailer. It was as if those things were learning how to work inside him, calming him in order to track us down. He wasn’t going to kill me. I think he just wanted to infect me.”

  “Come on, that’s crazy,” I said, “I got a truck and I’m going to get you out of here. We’ll look for Audra—”

  “No!” he snapped.

  “What do you mean ‘no’? You want to find your daughter, don’t you?”

  “Listen to me,” he said, then gripped my arm tight. I flashed back to my father dying before me, gripping my arm before he passed on. “I don’t want her to see me like this. I’m infected, for Christ’s sake. Look at me!”

  Gary turned his head. His grip tightened around my arm. I was about to pull away when I saw the trickling of blood from his ear. I saw the leech wriggling inside his ear canal, already deeply buried.

  “I only felt one,” he said, “but I can feel myself changing. It didn’t happen as fast as with Mason, only because there were more of them inside him. But once this thing takes hold, I’m going to change.” Gary shook my arm impatiently. “Please don’t let me live through this. I don’t want my daughter to see what I become.”

  From witnessing what had happened to the goat and to Mason, it seemed that these things were feeding darkness back into their host, changing them into pure evil. It was as if those creatures had lived with a core of evil for all these years, waiting for this moment to spread. I wondered if it were actually the creatures, or if it was the concentrated evil inside them that drove them. This darkness was transplanted in them from a human, a far more developed creature than the leech. Could the leech have really served as some sort of vessel containing an evil that was left unchecked now that it was taken from a human soul?

  Halfway to the truck, Gary began to change. He fought it, like some schizophrenic fighting off a bad episode. He whimpered briefly, obviously in the midst of some horrible flashback.

  I guided his arm, fearing that he would attack me at any minute.

  I positioned him in the driver’s seat of the truck. The gas gauge was almost on empty, the fuel still running slowly from the bottom of the vehicle.

  Nearby, I pulled a gas grille from the wreckage of a trailer. I removed the propane tank and cut the gas line in half, then set it on the passenger’s seat next to Gary. I twisted the gas valve open and propane began leaking through the broken gas line and into the truck’s cab.

  “Drive straight. As fast as you can,” I said, choking on the words. I placed the book of matches in his hand and said, “Just in case.”

  “Thank you,” he said, then took the Yankees hat off his head and tossed it at me. “Make sure my daughter gets this.”

  It dawned on me that it was the first time I had seen Gary without a hat on. His graying hair was unkempt, pulled straight back against his head.

  A lone tear rolled down his cheek. He coughed and black particles sprayed the steering wheel. “You find Audra and keep her safe for me.”

  “OK, I will,” I replied.

  “You’re a good man, just like your father was. I’m sorry it had to turn out like this. We didn’t know it would go this far,” he said, his lip quivering. “Please tell my daughter I died quickly. And tell her that I love her with all my heart.”

  “I will,” I said.

  I looked away, unable to stand seeing him in this predicament. Gary must have sensed the parasite taking hold. He punched the accelerator and the truck jumped into gear. It sped through the rubble of the campground, finally colliding with a fallen tree that was positioned straight ahead. Seconds later, the truck caught fire.

  Chapter 20

  The first sirens were heard miles away. The first helicopter echoed through the sky, closing in.

  I found Audra lying beside the twisted remains of her trailer.

  I quickly tore through the warped siding, the jagged metal and splintered wood, and made my way to her.

  She looked posed there, her arms outstretched like a sacrifice. Her body was pale, beaten and broken like some rag doll discarded and forgotten by its master.

  I touched her cold face, smoothed her black hair away from her eyes and felt all hope fade. I felt like some helpless animal trapped in a cage in the midst of a faraway jungle. I shook with grief, with anger and hatred for life itself. The cruelty of fate and its creator pulsed through my thoughts.

  “This isn’t fucking fair!” I screamed toward the sky, not knowing if God even cared to listen.

  Life isn’t fair. My father used to say it to me when I was
a child. It never meant anything back then, just because, as a child, I never really thought that a day would come when everything would die and everyone I loved would go away. As a child, I was invincible, bulletproof, death-defying. So unlike the present state I was in.

  “Kiss me,” came a frail voice nearby, as if carried by the wind. I thought it was in my mind as it was barely audible above the helicopter circling closer.

  “Kiss me,” Audra said. Her lips were the only thing that moved on her entire body.

  I collapsed next to her. She peered upward without moving her neck, looking at me, through me, apparently not noticing her father’s Yankees hat I was now wearing.

  I decided to wait until after she received medical attention to inform her of her father’s death and to tell her what he had said to me.

  She mouthed the words “kiss me” again, but I feared she was fading, and I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

  I rose, took off my shirt, and waved it at the sky, hoping to get the helicopter pilot’s attention. I yelled and screamed until my voice left me.

  We were located minutes later and a medical crew landed. For the first time, I felt the pain as my adrenaline finally decreased. My leg was torn open and there was something metallic lodged in my back. My head throbbed horribly as I collapsed on the ground and shut my eyes.

  Chapter 21

  In the hospital, one of the nurses told me that the tornado was the talk of the town. There were no watches or warnings out when the storm hit. “It came out of nowhere,” she said.

  I nodded, listening.

  “They found two other bodies there, both burned real bad.”

  “Did it do any damage outside the campgrounds?” I asked.

  “That was the funny thing,” she said. “That twister touched down, ruined every square inch of that park, but nothing outside of it.”

  Looking back, I was beginning to think that Gary was right all along. It was the wrath of God.

  “F5 they said on the news,” she continued. “Worst tornado this state has ever seen. A reporter was live there as they showed all the damage. Looked like footage I seen from Sri Lanka when that tsunami hit in 2004.”

  “How’s Audra doing?” I asked.

  “Audra? Oh, your friend! I couldn’t believe it. I was here when they brought you guys in. That girl looked a mess, all busted up. We put her on IVs to get fluid in her. A few hours later, she checked herself out.”

  “What?”

  “She’s not here any more,” the nurse explained. “She wouldn’t even let us run X-rays. I was sure she had a busted pelvis. She limped out of here, looking awful. Nothing we could do.”

  “Did she say anything?” I inquired.

  “Not a word to anyone, except something strange,” she commented. “She kissed the male nurse that wheeled her to the front door. Kissed him hard on the lips and said, ‘Thank you for helping me out.’ They never should have released her in that condition, if you ask me.”

  “Where did she go?”

  The nurse shrugged. “She was seen talking to some truck driver in the parking lot, asking him for a ride. So I assume she knew him, or was hitching a ride.”

  I felt panicked. I promised Gary I would look after Audra, to keep her safe. There was something wrong. She didn’t check in on me. She didn’t even ask me about her father. The doctors didn’t get any testing done. She could very well have had head trauma, amnesia...something had to explain her strange behavior. And to kiss a strange man...that just didn’t seem like Audra.

  It took me an hour to finally check out. I called my mother right away and she picked me up. We drove back to her place and I asked to borrow her car. I needed to look for Audra and I knew the first place she would go.

  Chapter 22

  As I drove back to the campgrounds, my mind raced. A dozen different scenarios formed in my thoughts of why Audra had left. No one had told her that her father had died. I was the only one who knew the identity of the two corpses they had uncovered. Was Audra desperate to find her father? Was she in shock? Or suffering from head trauma?

  I arrived and quickly located the area where Audra’s trailer had been. I looked around her property. I found no signs of her there.

  My search finally led to the place where it all began.

  The circle.

  To my amazement, none of the stones were overturned. But when I entered the circle, I saw that something had been digging in the dirt. Several deep holes existed directly in the center.

  “God, no,” I said.

  Peering around one of the rocks, I saw Audra crouched there, hovering over one of the freshly dug holes.

  I looked around and yelled, “Audra!”

  My mind raced. Why would she cleanse herself? I wondered. And then the horrible image of Mason flashed through my mind.

  I turned in circles, looking around the woods that surrounded me.

  I felt sick to my stomach.

  My mind cleared and it all came into perspective.

  I knew what was happening.

  And just as it came into focus, she stood and stared in my direction.

  I noticed that she had already begun to bloat.

  She half-walked, half-staggered towards me.

  “No!” I heard myself say. I felt my body go limp.

  I backed away as she approached.

  Suddenly three terrible images flashed back.

  First it was Mason leaning over Gary, infecting him.

  Then it was Audra’s twisted body amongst the wreckage. Her arms and legs splayed at unnatural angles, her flesh cold to the touch.

  And, lastly, it was Audra asking me for the kiss. The strangeness of that request finally made sense. I now realized that her request for a kiss wasn’t about love or lust or even comfort during a tragic situation. It was about the survival of the parasite that was inside her.

  There was only one way it could’ve happened. Before Mason tracked Gary and I, he must have found Audra lying there amongst the ruins of her home.

  By the time I found her, it was over. She was already a host, controlled by a newfound instinct to spread the contagion...through a kiss.

  Now her body had somehow repaired itself enough to become mobile once again, driven by the creatures within. She walked closer, holding out her arms. If her body hadn’t been so disfigured, so bloated and pale, I would have found that the most welcoming sight on earth.

  Instead, it was the most hideous.

  “Chris,” she said, but her voice sounded strange, like she was choking on broken glass. “I need you.”

  Tears ran down my face. I realized I was holding Gary’s Yankees hat in my hands, as I had come to return it to her.

  I put the hat back on and backed out of the circle.

  Amongst the barrels, I found a pile of rocks.

  Rage now boiled within me.

  “Die!” I said out loud.

  She staggered closer as I picked up the first rock and threw it.

  It hit her in the face, knocking her off balance.

  I picked up another rock and threw it as hard as I could.

  Her skull caved in slightly.

  I followed up a few misses with another direct hit. This time, she fell.

  The gas can was still half-full from the experiment with the goat. I grabbed it, then doused her entire body.

  She rose to her feet again, reaching for me.

  I pulled a match out from the same book I had got from Gary. “It’s over,” I stated.

  She threw her head back and laughed hideously. “No, it’s just begun,” she replied.

  She was a few arm-lengths away when I struck the match and tossed it at her.

  Her hair was the first to catch fire. Quickly her head and shoulders were engulfed, as the flames traveled lower until her entire body was writhing in smoke.

  The mass exited; black snakelike strands oozed out of her mouth and nose. Once exposed, they caught fire, curled up and disintegrated.

  I watched d
eath once again and I felt a little less affected. I felt cold, hollow, my very soul abandoned like the night itself. Crickets no longer chirped here, people no longer camped here, and all the gravel roads now became dead ends.

  Once, earlier in the summer, the smell of campfires lingered with hints of hamburgers and hotdogs cooking on the open fire. Now the smell of burning flesh wafted through the night.

  Chapter 23

  I spent the rest of the night knocking over the stones around the perimeter of the cursed and hallowed ground.

  Looking inside the circle, I spotted a deep hole dug into the earth. Even with the shovel present, there was no way Audra could have dug that deep in such a short amount of time.

  I now figured that Mason had visited the circle either before or after infecting Audra. Instead of finding us first, he had obviously come back to this very spot, had dug the hole. His strength could have penetrated this deeply into the hard, dried earth, but not Audra’s.

  But why?

  I walked within the sacred grounds and tried to understand what was going on. Lying on the ground, around the hole, were a mixture of silver and black leeches.

  A thought suddenly chilled me: she wasn’t gathering more leeches to infect, she was depositing them, like some kind of carrier. She was leaning over the hole, her mouth agape. Mason had returned to this area as well, obviously doing the same thing.

  It still didn’t make any sense.

  Peering into that hole, I witnessed what looked like a million tiny leeches. Some were still silver, but most had turned black. All of them were now active, wriggling wildly in what looked to be a nest of some sorts.

  I took the tip of the shovel and raised the leeches up, deposited them next to the hole.

  To my surprise, none crawled in my direction. Instead, they crawled back towards the hole.

  I extracted more leeches. They, too, swarmed back into the hole after being removed.

  I sunk the edge of the shovel deeper and I struck something hard.