"Nothing," she replied, quite colorlessly. "Nothing you can help with, anyway."
"Why don't you try me?" I wasn't sure if I should force her problem out or not, but my gut instincts told me something terrible was wrong. Something that would rock me when I found out. "If you can't trust me, who can you trust?"
She stood, but didn't face me. "I think you should go now."
Standing, I reached out to her, but she flinched away. Like I repulsed her, I thought. "I'm your friend," I said, placatingly. "Remember?"
She ignored me and walked into the kitchen. I noticed then that her gait had a slight limp of stiffness to it. I followed.
"Are you hurt?" I asked.
When she reached the door, she unlocked it and opened it. Then she looked at me, cold and serious. "Please," she said. "I have too many things to do."
"What about Milwaukee?"
She shook her head slowly.
"All right," I said. "But think about it, OK?"
She backed away from the door as I approached it. She was just out of reach, but I leapt forward and grabbed her by her arms. And immediately let go. She was cold. Ice cold. Dead cold. The steel plate on my left arm burned for a second.
I stared at her, uncertain as to what to say.
She backed farther away and turned her back to me. "Get out," she said, sounding wounded and mortified. Her body shook as though she were crying, but no tears fell. "Please get out and don't ever come back."
I shut the door, but stayed inside with her. I wasn't about to leave until I found out what was wrong. "Not until you give me some answers," I said. "Are you sick?"
She laughed cynically, as if I had just said something so absurd that only a moron could have spoken it. She turned to face me. "Yes," she said. "Very much so." And she laughed again, but only for a few seconds.
"Let me take you to a doctor." I still shivered from her icy touch.
She crumbled to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably, the tears finally falling. "Oh, Stephen," she said, looking up at me with a lost expression in her eyes that reached clear to her soul. "Why?"
I started toward her, but she again waved her hands emphatically in front of her to keep me away.
I stopped. "Are you dying?" I asked.
She laughed through the tears. "That's a good one," she said.
I slipped my left arm back into its sling and stood there staring blankly at her, not knowing what to say or do. I still felt the chill from touching her, and I wanted to get away. Yet, deep inside I knew I couldn't just leave her crumpled on the floor like a forgotten rag doll waiting to be thrown in the trash. "Ann--"
"I'm already dead," she said bluntly, looking me squarely in the eyes.
"I've seen dead people, Ann." I unconsciously took a step backward. The vision of Reed's empty grave flashed in my mind. "They don't walk around and talk the way you're doing."
Tears clouded her eyes again. She raised her right hand toward me. "Feel for a pulse," she said.
I hesitated, shaking my head. She was getting too weird for me now. "Ann--"
"Go on!" Her voice cracked as she shouted. "Do it."
She couldn't be serious, I thought. She was sick, that was all. But what was that I said last night when Sly said that Reed was definitely dead? That he may be dead, but he's walking around Dodsville as if he's alive. "Don't joke anymore," I said. "You're kidding about this. Aren't you?"
She shook her head slowly, still holding out her hand.
I walked up to her, hesitated a moment, and then took her wrist in my hand. The complete chill of her touch again shocked me, but I was prepared enough not to back away repulsed this time. I squeezed lightly on her wrist. No pulse. I let go and pressed my fingers against the side of her neck. Nothing. Only a coldness that chilled my entire body. I shivered and backed away. This is some sort of trick, I thought to myself, but not believing that.
"Still don't believe me, do you?" Ann got to her feet. Her facial expression was no longer that of a vulnerable damsel in distress. "Maybe this will convince you." She swallowed hard, and floated up off the floor. She rose only two inches, but enough for me to see the space under her feet.
I wanted to back away from her, but I held my ground. "What's going on, Ann?" I wanted to believe that she was doing some sort of magic trick.
"Listen to me carefully, Stephen," she said. "Go to Milwaukee with your friends." She rose another inch. "While you still have the opportunity to leave. You're in more danger here than you can imagine."
I tried to say something, but nothing would form in my mind. What I was witnessing couldn't be happening like I saw it. But didn't Julie and Sly say they saw Clair Klaus float out of the closet and down the stairs after them?
"We don't like to walk much," Ann said at length, dropping slowly back down to the floor. "It takes too much energy to bypass all this stiffness. But that problem is being worked out." She smiled weakly at me and I stared back at her mutely. "Yet, I'd rather be dead," she said softly. "Real dead. Not this."
"How many are you?" I asked hoarsely, almost choking on the words.
"More than you'd believe, Stephen." She turned away and floated to the kitchen sink, where she grabbed a dishtowel and dried her face. Then she pulled herself onto the counter and sat down.
I was too confused to think. "And Reed?" I asked.
"Because of Reed," she replied, not meeting my eyes.
"Melissa?" I cringed. I wasn't ready for any of this. None of this could be happening. I would wake any minute now and wipe the sweat from my brow. The morning was all a dream.
"Reed would kill me," Ann replied, and chuckled at her response. "That's funny, huh? Reed killing me when I'm already dead?"
"You're sick, Ann. That's all. And you need help."
She glared at me defiantly. "Get out!" She picked a kitchen knife out of the sink and held it in front of her. "Or I'll take care of you myself."
I shook my head at her and turned to the door. I unbolted it and started to leave.
"Stephen?" Ann said behind me, softly now.
I turned around. She no longer brandished the knife. "What?"
"Go to Milwaukee."
I walked onto the outside steps and closed the door behind me. I heard Ann immediately slap the bolt shut.
"Please," she said through the door. "Just get out."
Feeling a scream rising to my throat, I sprinted down the stairs, taking three at a time. Upon reaching the sidewalk, I ran as fast as I could away from there. Two blocks later I stopped and leaned against a light pole to catch my breath.
"No!" I yelled as loudly as I could.
Someone laughed in front of me, and I quickly looked up to see who it was. On the side of the house next to me, a man stood with his hands in his pockets. Tears had welled up in my eyes, and I couldn't see him clearly. Yet, I recognized that sinister laugh. I wiped my eyes dry.
Randy Beliwitz laughed again and pointed at me. "What a loser," he said.
"You're dead!" I shouted and took off after him.
He stopped in mid-chuckle and disappeared around the corner of the house. When I reached the side, I just caught a glimpse of him running behind the next house. But when I got back there, Beliwitz was nowhere in sight. I fell to the ground and beat my good fist into the grass.
The back door to the house opened and an old man with a long gray beard stood behind the screen door. "Go away." He waved me away emphatically with both hands. "Hurry up, now. Get away from here."
I stood. "Fuck you!" I waved my own fist at him.
He quickly slammed the door.
I walked slowly down the sidewalk back to Julie's house, closing the day's events out of my mind for the time being, and liking it that way. The one subject I did think about, though, was Julie's plan of getting the hell out of this damned town. And right away, too. The situation had just become too serious. This was beyond my capabilities. I had reached an impasse and would go no farther.
Sly was sound asleep on the c
ouch when I finally got back, and I had to shake him a few times to get him to awaken. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes for the second time this morning, I sat in the chair opposite him and waited for his mind to clear completely.
"I see they took off the cast," he said, leaning against the arm of the couch. He yawned once more.
I only stared back at him, not knowing where to begin.
"How's Ann doing?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck.
"Something's happened," I said slowly.
Sly quit scratching and sat up straight. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"
I shook my head.
"Well, then spit it out. Don't let me sit here in suspense, for crying out loud."
I started from the beginning, from when I first arrived at Ann's apartment. As I retold the story, I recalled every minute detail. I needed to hear the story myself, now that my mind was clearer. While it all happened I was in a dream state. Julie came downstairs and wanted me to start over after she heard a little of what I was discussing. I gladly agreed, wanting to hear it all again to drill it into my brain that it did actually happen. Neither one interrupted again until I got to the part where Randy laughed at me.
"Wait a minute," Julie said, motioning with her hand for me to stop. "You're sure it was Randy you saw? You admitted yourself you were in a state of confusion."
"No," I replied softly. "I chased him behind some houses and he just disappeared. He probably cut back on the other side of the house, and I wasn't up to chasing him."
They both stared at me a minute, as if trying to determine if I were sane or not.
"By any chance," I said, "one of you didn't slip something into my orange juice this morning, did you?" I knew that hadn't happened, but I wanted so much to believe my ordeal with Ann Smith never occurred.
Sly shook his head. "What was that part about Reed and Melissa?" he asked.
"I asked her if Reed was one of 'them' and she replied, and I quote, 'Because of Reed.’” I stood and walked to the picture window. Nothing moved outside at all. "I don't know what she meant by that, though. And at the time I wasn't in a clear enough state of mind to drill her on the topic. She wouldn't even discuss Melissa, saying that Reed would kill her for sure if she mentioned anything about her."
"But Ann’s already dead, I thought," Julie said.
"Right," I replied, sitting back down. "She had a laugh over that."
Sly slapped his forehead hard. "Don't you realize the implications of that statement?"
Both Julie and I shook our heads.
"They can be destroyed somehow. Killed off completely."
Julie leaned back into the couch and sighed. "I wouldn’t believe any of what you just told us, Stephen," she said, "if I hadn't seen with my own eyes Clair Klaus floating out of that closet at the mansion." She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, this pretty much seals it, huh? I say we leave for Milwaukee as soon as we can get packed. Whatever evil is coming down in Dodsville, we're going to be so far away it won't have a chance of even touching us anymore."
"It's a good idea that you get out of here, Julie," Sly said. "But Stephen and I already decided we're going to stick it out a bit longer. To find Melissa, anyway. Right, Stephen?"
I didn't know what to reply. He was right about needing to stay to find Melissa, but what if she were already dead? Or worse, one of them? There would be nothing we could do for her, and we would probably only be killed attempting a futile task.
The doorbell rang, saving me from having to make my decision right then. Julie allowed it to ring once more before getting up to answer the door. Sly and I went with her.
A middle-aged man dressed in an expensive three-piece suit stood on the front porch holding a briefcase in his left hand. "Is Stephen O'Neal around?" he asked. "I'm his grandmother's attorney."
"That's me," I said, behind Julie. I didn't really want to deal with him at the moment, but at least it was a distraction from having to decide whether to stay or not. "Come on in."
As I fully expected I was the sole benefactor of Grandma's estate. What I didn't expect was how much she was actually worth.
“The house will be transferred to your name, but we can take care of that paperwork at your convenience later. What you choose to do with the house is up to you, but she did tell me she hoped you would raise your family there one day. Other than her house, you will also receive her bank account, which at last count was worth in the neighborhood of eighty thousand dollars." He paused and looked up at me, as if to read my expression. I only nodded. "Now, all I need is your signature on a couple of documents here and I'll be on my way and out of your hair. We can handle all the transfers when you come back to Milwaukee." He handed me a couple of papers and pointed where I should sign. "Any idea of when that might be?"
I looked to Sly and Julie, who were seated on the opposite of the kitchen table. "Soon," I replied. "Real soon.”
Sly didn't show any emotion at my answer, but Julie smiled at me.
Mr. Scott found his own way out, leaving the three of us alone at the table. None of us said anything as we listened to the sound of his car driving away. Just a few hours ago, we had been sitting here enjoying a normal breakfast. Now, any thoughts of leading a normal existence for some time to come were washed away. I wondered solemnly if we would even know what normal felt like again.
Sly sighed, breaking the silence. "Now that that's done with, we can decide where we go from here."
"There's nothing more to discuss," Julie replied. "We are all going to Milwaukee with Stephen and wait this thing out. I refuse to stand by and allow you two to get killed."
Sly nodded toward me. "What do you say, Stephen? The choice is yours, it seems."
I rubbed my forehead, trying to sort my thoughts. Going back home to Milwaukee sounded downright relieving. And, most likely, though I hated to admit it, Melissa was already dead. What choice did I really have? "I'm with Julie this time," I replied, not meeting Sly's glare. "It's the only prudent thing to do under the circumstances. I know what I told you earlier, but the situation has changed since then. We're playing a new ball game now, and I don't like the rules. Ann told me that there were a lot of 'them' out there, in this city, and I really don't want to become like them. And I think that if you really loved Julie you would want her as far away from here as possible."
Sly stood up so quickly in response that he knocked over his chair. He leaned forward on the table, only a foot away from my face, and glared at me with cold, steel eyes. This wasn't the Sly I knew before and liked so much because of his stability. "Aren't you forgetting about someone yourself?" he asked in a strange, penetrating voice. "Someone I thought you loved. Now I'm beginning to believe you only love yourself. Is that it?"
"I know you're talking about Melissa," I replied, calmly. "But think about it. What are the odds she is still alive?"
"Maybe the odds are against her, but we know nothing for sure." He picked up his chair and sat back down. He sighed deeply, as if trying to calm himself. "She'd never leave without you," he said slowly. "That much I know for a fact."
"All right!" I shouted. Some spittle flew from my mouth. "What the hell do you suggest we do? There are federal agents with sophisticated procedures, and they've come up with even less than us."
"That's right." Sly spoke rationally. "We don't have much to go on." He paused and raised his eyebrows. "But you have an ace in the hole."
I only had to think what that was for a second. "Ann?"
"Right again." He paced around the table with his hands in his pockets. "I watched her with you, Stephen. And she had it bad for you. She'll tell us anything we need to know." He stopped and leaned on the table again. "Like where Melissa might be."
I wanted to protest, and almost did. A disappointed expression on Melissa's face entered my mind and stopped me. This was my fault that she had been taken. It was. I had gotten too close to her for Reed's comfort, and he snatched her away. Yet, the question in my mind--the real reason tha
t was holding me back--was, does she want to come back to me, or does she want to stay with Reed?
"Well?" Sly asked after a minute.
"What about Julie?" I replied.
Sly reached out and grabbed her hands in his. "Go to Milwaukee," he said to her. "Wait there for us." Julie started to reply, but Sly cut her off. "And I think you should leave right away. We'll come as soon as we find something definite about Melissa."
Julie pulled her hands away from him. "When will you come?" She couldn't meet his eyes, nor mine.
Sly shrugged. "As soon as we can."
"No," Julie said, shaking her head emphatically. "I don't go for that. Not at all." She stood and walked to the sink. "Three days," she said with her back to us. "If you don't find anything in three days, I want you to promise you will come to Milwaukee whether you have her or not." She turned to face us. "But you have to give me your word."
Sly looked to me for an answer, but I only shrugged.
"Take it or leave it," Julie added. "Or I stay here with you."
"She will be out of our way, and out of danger," I said, to Sly.
He rubbed his temple with his thumb and forefinger. "All right. If we don't find something in three days we give up and leave for Milwaukee." He looked up at Julie. "But only if you leave Dodsville now."
Julie agreed and began to cry. Sly helped her pack while I sat by myself in the living room. My hands shook so badly that I had to give up trying to tie my shoelaces. The game had gone up another level.
Sly and Julie came back downstairs carrying two suitcases, and Sly didn't stop with them until he had them secured in the trunk of Julie's car. I drew a map to my grandmother's house while Julie called the hospital and took her leave of absence. Sly kept her moving right into the driver's seat of the car and closed the door for her.
"Three days," Julie said as she backed out of the driveway. "Or I come back to haunt you both."
Sly and I stood on the street and watched her drive off until she turned the corner three blocks down and disappeared. We didn't move for a minute, staring down the road at the last point where Julie had turned out of our lives. No other cars cluttered the road. No pedestrians littered the sidewalks. No children played in their front yards. Sly and I could have been the last two persons left in the world.
The Revenant: A Horror in Dodsville Page 35