by Mark Tufo
Maybe it’s rats, Jed said in Mike’s head.
The door was open to the closet and there was not enough room to hide anyway. Mike looked to the bathroom. This wasn’t Jandilyn’s M.O.; she wasn’t much into practical jokes. So if she weren’t here, first question was where was she? And secondly, who or what was in the bathroom? What? Mike thought, Why would I think a what?
Mike was concentrating so hard trying to see through the murky light in the bathroom he missed the throw pillow on the floor as he stepped down, the silk cushion slid like a greased snake through a lubed pipe. Mike’s right foot flew forward, his ass impacted hard enough with the ground to throw his head back which made his teeth clatter when the back of his skull made contact with the thin carpet.
“Dammit,” Mike pulled his head up off the floor. His contact had dislodged from his eye and he was now staring at something in the bathroom that was staring back at him. “What are you?” Mike asked as terror closed his throat.
The entity quickly dissipated almost as if once it knew it was being witnessed it was time to go.
“Mike, you alright?” Jandilyn asked from the doorway.
Mike turned quickly, vertigo setting in as his dual vision tried to take in all he saw. On one side was his girlfriend as everyone would see her and through the other was the myriad of colors ever swirling around her. “Might be rats,” Mike said and collapsed.
Mike was in bed when he awoke. He was unsure how long he had been out, but the sun was still shining brightly through the window. His head hurt but not overly, his eye was covered with his old pirate patch and he had no pants on. “This feels suspiciously like a date rape,” Mike said as he hefted himself up on the pillow.
“Good to see you awake,” Jandilyn said as she was coming back down the hallway with an ice pack. She had a smile on her face, but it was deeply lined with worry. She sat on the bed and placed the bag against the back of his head. “You looked like you had a seizure, Mike.”
“That would explain a lot,” he said.
“About what?”
“I said that out loud?” he asked, truly irked he had done so.
“Too late to stuff the cat back in the bag,” she said.
“What if we just tie the end off so it can’t breathe?”
“That would mean the cat was still in it. When did you become a non-lover of cats?”
“When I discovered they were the gatekeepers to the underworld.”
“Who the hell told you that?” Jandilyn asked disbelievingly.
“I read it somewhere.”
“Comic books don’t count. God, you’re good, sometimes I forget just how good,” she said.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your ability to change the conversation. It’s so subtle and inane that one doesn’t even realize that you have completely derailed the train onto a whole new set of tracks. You really should think about politics.”
“I’d make a great comptroller.”
“Do you even know what that is?”
“Not really, but it sounds like something that would have been in The Terminator.”
“Mike,” Jandilyn said, exasperated.
“Sorry, I guess I’m really trying to figure it out myself. The bedroom door was closed but I swore you were home so I came down here…hey, where are my pants? Are you trying to take advantage of me?”
“I might if you tell me the rest of what you’re avoiding.”
“No, you probably won’t, but here goes. I had reason to think you were home. Does that make sense?” He was doing his best to give her the information without saying it. To say it aloud gave it a power, a sense of reality and he wasn’t sure if he was up to the task of wrestling with that right now.
“Sure, you thought I was home. Normally, I would be, but I had to do some errands before I go to the library. I’ve got a paper due next month and I wanted to get started on it.”
“Whoa, that’s friggin’ weird,” Mike said.
“What?” Jandilyn asked with concern.
“You have a paper due next month and you’re starting it now? Holy crap.”
Jandilyn smacked him in the arm. “Not all of us are procrastinators. I think you might need some incentive.” She stripped off her t-shirt.
Mike sat all the way up, reaching for her sheer bra-clad breasts.
“Not a chance.” She laughed. “Not until I get the rest of what you are so desperately trying to not tell me.”
“How about we make love first and then I’ll tell you,” he said, never taking his eyes from her chest.
“Up here, Mike,” she said, gripping him under the chin and moving his field of vision up to her eyes.
“Who are you?” Mike asked as they made eye contact. “And what have you done with those wonderful mammaries?”
“You’re incorrigible,” she said, meaning it, but laughing at the same time.
“That’s not cool that you are you using fancy college words on me now.”
“Remember these?” Jandilyn asked, squishing her breasts together.
“How could I forget?” Mike asked again, dropping his gaze.
“Now look at me.”
Mike ripped his gaze from below. “Fine, Jandilyn.” He sighed. “I thought you were home because I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles, I saw you—I mean your shadow—walk past the door.” Mike was looking at Jandilyn’s face but it would have been impossible to not notice the goosed flesh that sprang up on her arms all the way to her shoulders.
“And when I found you on the floor?”
Mike dropped his gaze to his lap. “My contact fell out and I did see something.”
“Are you sure? I thought you couldn’t really see anything out of your left eye.”
“I’m sure about what I saw.”
“Where?”
Mike pointed to the bathroom.
“Why is it always the bathroom?” Jandilyn sighed. “How am I ever going to put make-up on again in there?”
“Good thing you don’t need it.”
“You might think so, how you going to feel about week two without a shower, though?”
“I’ll probably have you sleep out on the couch.”
“Is it still in there?”
“It seemed to leave when it realized I could see it.”
“It was intelligent? This is not getting better. Talking about things is supposed to make it better. That’s what my mother always used to say.”
“Pretty sure this wasn’t what she was thinking about when she said that.” Plus, she’s a bitch, Mike thought.
“Face your fears was another one,” Jandilyn said as she got up, heading toward the bathroom.
Mike watched as she took an unnaturally long time to get to the doorway. She took a heavy breath reached in and turned the lights on. “Huh!” she cried in triumph. “There’s nothing in here! Do you see anything?” she asked looking back, with a scared expression on her face.
“It’s a great view from here,” Mike said.
“Mike, I’m not a big fan of the supernatural, could you help me out a little bit?”
Mike slowly lifted his patch, shrinking away from the sun light. “Well, you still look good,” he said with some discomfort. “And you’re alone,” he said as he dropped the patch back in place.
“Could you stay in here with me while I take a shower?” Jandilyn asked with a small quiver in her voice.
“The only thing that could beat that would be season tickets to the Red Sox.”
“That’s better than this?” Jandilyn removed her bra.
“It’s the Red Sox, Jandilyn.”
“And this?” she said, stepping out of her jeans.
Baseball was completely forgotten except for the bases being traversed in the small shower.
CHAPTER EIGHT – Roger
“Wow,” Jandilyn said a half hour later. “That’s probably the best shower I’ve ever had.”
“Probably?” Mike asked. He was stretched out on the bath
room floor breathing heavily, a puddle of water spread around him.
Jandilyn shuddered once as she pictured the clear water a muddy red for the briefest of seconds. “You should towel off, you’ll catch a cold.”
“If that means I could stay home for a day and do that again, I’d catch the damn flu.”
“Are you going to get up? I have to get ready now.”
“The view from this angle is incredible.”
“Mike!” She kicked him lightly in the side.
“I feel used right now.”
“You’ll get over it.”
“Maybe, but I’ll be damaged goods from here on out. No one else will want me.”
“Good,” she said “Because you’re all mine.” She leaned down and kissed him as he was sitting up. “By the way…I found your contact. I placed it in its case on the nightstand on your side of the bed.”
He wrung out the wet patch as best as possible, put the uncomfortable chaffing piece back on, and after a vigorous towel drying he hopped into bed. He watched Jandilyn who had decided to get ready with the door open. The colors swirling around her were soothing.
“Mike, how am I going to sleep here without you?” she asked as she applied some eyeliner.
He didn’t have a good answer for her. But something came to him, whether she took comfort from it was a different story. “I don’t think they’re here for you, Jandilyn.”
“They, Mike?” she asked, turning around to look at him rather than through the mirror.
“It’s Saturday, where are you going?” Mike asked completely ignoring her question.
“Study group, library, remember? Half the class is supposed to be there.”
“You really take this school stuff seriously.”
“They?” she repeated, never taking her eyes off of him.
“God, Jandilyn, you’ve got some blonde hair, I would have thought you would have forgotten by now. Fine, there was something at work, Jed thinks it’s rats, I’m not convinced.” He spent the next few minutes detailing the events at the warehouse.
“You think this has to do with you?”
“I’d swear I heard it say my name by that garage door.”
“That’s it, I’m getting a priest.”
“What? Like in The Exorcist? I’m not possessed. I think. I don’t even like split pea soup and I sure can’t turn my head around in a three sixty. I’d love to try the floating bed trick, though,” Mike said looking off into space.
“I’m going to get this place blessed.”
“Do they do that? And what about the warehouse?”
“Well, that poses a problem,” she said trying to work it out in her head. “Maybe I’ll just get you blessed.”
“I am not demon spawn.”
“My mother begs to differ.”
“Really? I thought she liked me. She always laughs at my jokes.”
“Those are sneers.”
“I always thought they were a little toothy, I just figured she had some sort of condition.”
“What condition involves flashing canines?”
“Vampirism, I mean she does look really good for her age.”
“Gee, I can’t imagine what she doesn’t see in you.”
“Wait, was that a backhanded compliment?”
“Sleep on it, I’ll be back in a few hours.”
“Goodbye, love,” Mike said as he nestled his head on his pillow.
“Never goodbye, Mike, that has too much finality attached to it.”
“Godspeed then?”
“How hard did you hit that tree?” Jandilyn asked. “How about ‘cheerio’?”
“We’re not British and I can’t stand the cereal. How about ‘you are the air I breathe and until you come back to me I will never be able to catch my breath?’”
“A little lengthy.”
“It’s the truth, though.”
“I hope this will keep you until I get back,” she said and placed a tender kiss on Mike’s lips.
“It’ll do for now.” He smiled and was almost asleep before Jandilyn could get the apartment door closed. A droplet of water on the back of the patch was irritating him enough that he lifted the soggy material to wipe it away. He just happened to have his left eye open. The colors encompassing Jandilyn were muted, unsettling, and if he was being honest with himself, even disturbing. Mike jumped out of bed as the lock clasped into place. He had been exhausted moments earlier and now he began to dress quickly and with purpose. The library was no more than a mile-and-a-half from the apartment. He could get there in twenty minutes; Jandilyn would really only beat him by ten minutes once she parked. Mike put his contact in and headed out.
“Nothing can happen in ten minutes,” he said aloud, trying his best to shun the memory of the car accident that hadn’t lasted more than three seconds.
Mike made it to the library in fifteen minutes. Jandilyn’s car was close to the front of the massive structure. Not many kids want to do higher education on a Saturday morning, he thought. She probably stopped for coffee, most likely hasn’t been here for more than a minute or two, if she catches me skulking about she’s going to kill me.
“How the hell am I going to figure out what floor she’s on?” Mike asked as he craned his neck to look up the twenty floors of tome-lined stories.
If Mike had a watch it would have read exactly forty-seven and-a-half minutes later when he tiredly stumbled upon the study group, although to call two people a group was pushing the limits of that definition.
Mike walked on to the twelfth floor. He could hear some quiet talking off to his left, but straight ahead he saw a large table that could hold as many as a dozen students, but right now there was only Jandilyn who had her back to him and a strikingly good-looking guy Mike thought looked like a bigger version of Tom Cruise. His heart thudded in his stomach, the oversized Tom Cruise doppelgänger briefly noted Mike and then dismissed him like a big fish in a small pond is apt to do. Mike veered sharply to the left and into a large column of books, the titles all revolved around Medieval literature. Mike didn’t think any of them told how to deal with a broken heart.
He wondered if he were to remove his contact and spy on them what would the colors of betrayal look like? He went to the far end of the column he was at and found a way to circle around and get a better look at them. He found a decent vantage point not more than twenty feet away and he was hidden by a large row of catalog shelves.
Jandilyn was busy pouring over her array of spread books; Tom’s twin was barely paying attention to his book propped up on the desk merely for effect. Every chance he got he stole a glance at Jandilyn. A few times he would even rise to stretch to see if he could get a better vantage point down the front of her shirt. Mike thought his blood was going to begin to boil over. He wouldn’t be surprised if hot liquid began to leak out of his ears.
He wanted nothing more than to confront them, but what would he say? What could he say? He had followed her and technically she still hadn’t done anything wrong. “Except be in the motherfucking library alone with Mr. Movie Star,” Mike said in hot, hushed tones.
“God, I’m starving,” Top Shit said as he over exaggeratedly grabbed his smooth torso.
“Go get something.” Jandilyn looked up at him.
“How about we both get something?” he asked. A smile flashed across his lips, but Mike saw something much more sinister Jandilyn missed.
“Roger, I’ve got way too much work to do.”
“I’ll buy. Come on, we’ll be quick. My car is in the garage. We’ll go grab a bagel or something and come right back.”
“I am kind of hungry. This coffee is burning a hole in my stomach.”
Mike had the distinct impression he was going to throw up in his mouth as he watched his life pack her books up and stuff them into her stretched-out book bag.
“I’ll get that,” Roger said as he grabbed her bag before she had a chance to respond.
Mike noticed just the slightest hint of hesitation
in her movements, and his heart soared for it, but when Roger turned and asked her if she was coming she followed behind.
They stood at the elevators, Mike ducked quickly as Jandilyn turned around as if she felt something. The elevator ‘binged.’ Mike stood as he watched the doors close.
He was a moment away from going home and packing his things when he decided that he wanted the satisfaction of a direct confrontation. Besides, he thought he’d go insane if he had to stay at the apartment and wait for her for any extended amount of time.
Mike raced down the stairs to level G1. “Oh, come on, how many levels can there be in this garage?” Five to be exact but he only needed to check out two more before he came across Roger and his soon-to-be ex.
It had been much easier searching the subterranean parking structure, Mike could count the number of cars on one hand, and a couple of those were labeled as University property.
He heard a car door slam and knew without a doubt that was them. He slowly started plodding to the car, his heart now not so infused with the hot magna as it had been earlier, now it was filled with cold dread. His life was about to be over, not in the traditional way, but it would be a death all the same.
Mike was about to say ‘fuck it’. Maybe he’d just pack his shit up and go slinking into the night. That was until he heard the loud thwack followed by a very loud “Bitch, you’ve been teasing me with those tits for weeks now.”
Mike heard Jandilyn’s cry as he sprinted for the car. He had just got to the driver’s side door as Roger ripped Jandilyn’s t-shirt in two.
Mike ripped a fingernail off in his haste to get the door open. He had enough adrenaline surging through his veins he thought he’d be able to rip it off the hinges like Superman even if it was locked.
It wasn’t locked.
“What the fuck?” came from both Roger and Mike almost as if they had rehearsed it.
Mike took in the scene quickly, the left side of Jandilyn’s face was a deep red from the slap and would continue swelling for a few more hours. Her shirt, which had been one of her favorites that she had bought just last weekend, was barely holding on as a large rip that started from her neckline traveled past her navel where two lone strands were holding on for dear life as if to protect her modesty.