by C. C. Wall
The room finally started to clear and Lukas had an easier time getting over to where the body fell. Once he was there, though, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He dropped to his knees and turned the head of the person he shot. It wasn’t Hoodie.
“Smile,” said a voice, followed by a flash and a click. Lukas looked up and saw Jack Hart. “Drunk cop kills unarmed teen. Great headline, huh?” Jack said.
Lukas’s couldn’t believe it. His heart sank and he couldn’t breathe. He looked back down on the ground and saw the blood begin to pool around the head. The bullet hole in the forehead of Michelle, stared right back at him, crushing whatever was left of his soul.
59 - Beer and Aspirin
Even though there were dirty clothes all over her floor, she didn’t care, not tonight. Bekka had had a hard enough time getting Jason out of her car and helping him into the house that cleaning up was out of the question. Normally, she wouldn’t be caught dead allowing a guy to see how much filth she could accumulate, but Jason was hurt. She laid him on the bed. His eyes were closed and his ears were still bleeding. She handed him a shirt off the floor to try to soak up the blood. He barely opened his eyes long enough to take the shirt from her.
She thought this would be her chance to tidy up a bit. First she ran around the room grabbing all the dirty dishes and putting them in her closet. She was grossed out by food still being on some of them, but knew she had to pick and choose her problems at the moment. She then took all the dirty clothes she could and put them in the closet too. Panties first and anything that looked unattractive second, followed by everything else. In about three minutes, her room actually looked fairly clean.
“Are you all right? Can I get you anything?” she said. “Do you want some aspirin?”
Jason squeezed his eyes closed tightly and said quietly, “No.”
“If you need anything, let me know,” Bekka said. She sat on the bed next to him and placed her hand on his arm.
“Everything is gone,” Jason said. “Our big chance, ruined.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Bekka said. “And while you were playing the place was going wild. You did great.” She smiled at him. She had always had a crush on him, like every other girl in Black Star Canyon, but she was always in some kind of relationship with Dakota. But not now. “I’m going to get you some medicine for your head and some water. I’ll just place it on the nightstand.”
“Beer, please,” Jason said.
“You want a beer?” Bekka asked.
“Please,” Jason said.
“Okay,” Bekka said with a smile. She left he room and pulled the door until it was almost closed. She was happy as she walked down the hallway. She got to the kitchen and pulled two beers from the fridge just as Jen and Eric walked in.
“Oh my God! Bekka!” Jen gasped and gave her a hug. “I was worried about you. I have been calling you!”
“I left my phone behind the bar,” Bekka answered.
“No, we’re fine,” Jen said. “Thanks for asking.” Jen rolled her eyes.
“Stop it,” Bekka said. “I have a lot on my mind.”
Eric noticed something. “Two beers?”
Bekka looked down as if she just noticed it too then sighed. “Jason is in my room.”
Jen’s eyes widened. “Is he okay? I saw him right after the gunshot. I thought he got hit.”
“I did too, but we checked him out, no bullet holes,” Bekka smirked. “His ears are bleeding and he has a headache.”
“Shouldn’t you take him to the hospital?” Eric asked.
“I thought that someone was trying to shoot him. I didn’t think he should go somewhere like that. If someone was trying to kill him they will probably be there waiting,” Bekka said. She headed back to the room.
“I think hospitals are good places for people who are injured,” Jen said, “and if someone tries to kill him at a hospital, he’s already in a hospital, they would be able to fix him.”
“She may be right,” Eric said. “If someone is trying to kill Jason, that would be the next place to go. It’s the next place I would go.”
Jen gave Eric the death stare.
Eric tried to save himself, “I mean if he’s all right and all.”
“He’s fine,” Bekka said. “And thank you Eric for taking my side.” She went into her room and shut the door.
Under his breath Eric said, “I really wish she didn’t say that.”
Jen stormed into her room and shut the door. He went to the door and waited a moment before entering. Jen was sitting on her bed dialing a number on her phone.
“I was just gonna try my mom again,” Eric said. “I’m sure she’s worried sick right now.”
“Let her call you. I’m sure she has her hands full with this madness,” Jen said.
“I’ll just text her,” he said. “Any luck on your end?”
“No I don’t know why Michelle isn’t answering. I hope she’s okay,” she said.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” he said. “She probably met some attractive older guy that knocked her off her feet.”
60 - With No Sight
When Bekka went back in the room with Jason’s beer, she found him fast asleep. She was worried that he might have a concussion. She didn’t know how one would get a concussion but since there seemed to be something wrong with Jason’s head, she thought that he might. She leaned in close to make sure that he was breathing, which he was. That made her feel better. She grabbed a wash cloth and ran it under a warm tap. She squeezed the excess water out of it and came back and sat down on the bed next to Jason. She gently pulled his hands from his ears and wiped the blood off his hands and arms. Jason stirred slightly in his sleep but not enough for her to think she should stop. She wanted to wipe his ears clean but thought for sure that would wake him up. She covered him with a blanket and then jumped into the shower. She wanted to be nice and fresh for Jason in case he wanted to thank her when he awoke.
While Bekka was washing her hair and shaving her legs, Jason was asleep but was not having a restful slumber. He was in the midst of a horrible dream. In his dream, he was kneeling in a room that was completely black all around him. He was horrified. A light turned on directly above him that made it even harder to see anything around him. It was blinding. He tried to lift his hand up to shield his eyes from the light but something was holding his arms down by his side. He squinted his eyes in hopes that that would help, but it didn’t. He could hear footsteps around him but couldn’t tell how many people were there. He heard whispers, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
“Please!” Jason yelled. “What do you want?”
He heard steps coming closer, directly in front of him. He still couldn’t see anyone though. But then, a black gloved hand broke the barrier of the light. Jason gasped. The hand pointed at Jason. He heard a voice and could slightly make out what it said.
“You are different than the others…”
That statement sent more fear coursing through Jason’s body. He felt something wet drip on his forehead. Like a drop of water. One drop turned into two. Two drops turned into four. Jason looked up and he saw red pour down upon him. It was warm. It got in his mouth. It was salty. Jason began to scream. He knew what the liquid was. The more he screamed, the more he swallowed. That made him gag. He vomited on the floor and kept screaming. He was covered in warm blood. It wouldn’t stop pouring on him. He cried out. The tears that ran down his face would briefly clean streaks of blood from his skin, then quickly be covered again by fresh blood in its place.
The blood stopped. Two hands came from behind Jason and grabbed him by the sides of his head. They tilted his head up to look directly into the light. He heard another set of footsteps get closer to him. He could tell they stopped very close to the right side of him. He saw a black gloved hand glide through his line of sight, blocking the bright light above him for a slight moment. He heard a voice.
“Being graced with sight has only made you blind,” the voice w
hispered. “Now with no sight, you will finally be able to see.”
Jason couldn’t move. He tried to fight it but his entire body was locked in place. The black gloved, left hand of he who spoke, rested on Jason’s forehead. Jason saw something thin and long come into his line of vision. It was getting closer and closer to his face. It was a knife. It slipped inside of his right eye socket sending massive amounts of pain spiraling downward through his body. He screamed out. His vision doubled, then blurred. The pain worsened when he felt his eyeball being ripped out of his head. He though it was over until he saw the blade coming for his other eye.
Bekka put on a night shirt and dried her hair as best she could without using her blow dryer. She dimmed the lights and got in her bed. Her heart was racing. She couldn’t believe that she was laying in bed with Jason Harker. She never thought she would ever be in this situation. She knew these were extenuating circumstances but still, she was spending the night with Jason Harker.
She cuddled up to him, wrapping her arms around him. She closed her eyes with a giant smile on her face. He smelled different than she thought he would, but she didn’t care. She was just hoping that he would roll over and kiss her. She wanted this so bad that she kept nudging him. She lifted her leg and wrapped it around his. She slowly slid her leg up his, stopping just near his waist. He wasn’t waking up. Bekka was getting impatient. She kissed his neck.
That made Jason stir. He rolled over onto his back. He opened his eyes and blinked repeatedly, making sure that he really had his eyes. He sighed in relief. His dream seemed so real to him. His next problem was that he couldn’t remember where he was. He froze for a moment trying to gather his memories of the events from the night. He felt lips on his neck. It felt good but he had no idea who it was.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Bad dream,” Jason said.
“I’ll protect you,” Bekka said with a giggle.
Jason still wasn’t sure who it was. He didn’t want to say something rude or anything that he would regret. But he didn’t have to wait long. Bekka rolled over, straddled him and laid flat on top of him.
“Let me make you feel better,” she said. She went in for a kiss. Jason got a good look at her.
Her tongue was long like a serpent’s. She had great big horns coming out of her head. Fire spread out of her eyes. She opened her mouth and a loud “hissing” sound filled the air. When she spoke it sounded as if it was coming from the deepest bowels of the earth. “I’ll make all your worries go away,” the creature moaned out at him.
Jason threw her off of him. She fell off the bed and hit her head on the night stand.
“What the fuck?” she yelled.
“Stay away from me!” Jason pleaded.
“Jason, stop it. Come here,” Bekka said and stretched out her hand to him.
Her arm grew like a snake and came at him. Her hand grew fangs and began snapping at him. It sunk into his arm. Jason screamed. He knew what he had to do if he was going to get out of this. He grabbed a nearby lamp and slammed it down onto the demon’s face. The beast fell down limp on the floor, but Jason didn’t trust it. He got on top of it and repeatedly smashed the lamp into the demon’s head until the lamp was nothing more than just broken pieces in his hand. He stood up and looked at the fallen creature and didn’t know what to make of it.
“What are you doing?” a voice yelled. Jason felt something crash on the back of his head. He grabbed the attacker and threw him into the mirror above the dresser. Jason looked up at himself in the broken mirror and saw his distorted face. He was a monster. He face was severely disfigured and even worse, his dream must have really happened. He had no eyes. Just bloody sockets where his eyes once were.
“What happened?” said a soft, gentle voice from behind him.
Jason spun around and saw something shimmering and bright. It immediately calmed him down. It was beautiful. It was Jen. There was a light shining down on her from what seemed to be nowhere. She had huge, white wings with fluffy feathers. She was in a white gown and she filled the room with serenity. Jason could see dust float through the light and catch it. It looked like snow.
“Are you all right, Jason?” Jen said.
Jason could hear the man that attacked him stirring. He knew he didn’t have much time. He picked Jen up and ran out the door, out of the house, and into the night.
61 - The Road You Are On
Slamming the door wasn’t satisfying at all. Lukas threw his keys at the wall as hard as he could. He stumbled through the room, pulling the bottle of vodka he had nabbed from Cook’s, out of his coat pocket and opened it with fervor. He tilted his head back as far as it would go as he poured the warm alcohol down his throat.
He saw that the stick figure in the pastel portrait was looking him in the face with a huge smile, still.
“I fucking hate you,” Lukas said.
He walked over to his bed and collapsed upon it. He took another big swig and sobbed out loud. “He was right there!”
“I believe you,” Mr. H said.
“I shot him. I shot him,” Lukas said.
“It did seem like it,” Mr. H said.
Lukas looked at his bottle and seeing it was almost half empty, he knew this was more than a “one bottle” problem. “So this is it, huh?”
“If it looks that way,” Mr. H said.
“Are they in the bathroom?” Lukas asked.
“If that’s where you left them,” Mr. H answered.
Lukas got up and stumbled into the bathroom, crashing into the door jam as he went. He knocked everything off the counter of the sink as he looked. He finally found it in the medicine cabinet before coming back out and sitting on his bed.
“How many should I take?” Lukas asked.
“I would think the whole bottle should do the trick,” Mr. H answered.
“I was thinking that,” Lukas said. “So this is my path? My quest? My journey?”
“If this is the road you are on,” Mr. H replied.
Lukas popped the lid off the bottle of pills and emptied the bottle into his mouth. He followed it with a few huge gulps of vodka.
Mr. H looked at him calmly and said, “You know, if you put your ear to the floor, you could hear it breathe.”
Tears poured from Lukas’s eyes. “Why? I don’t understand any of this. I don’t understand what’s going on. Didn’t I come here to get away from all this crazy shit? It just seems to follow me wherever I go. I just can’t seem to shake it.”
“It would look that way,” Mr. H said.
The smile on face of the stick figure in the pastel portrait, had turned to a frown. Lukas saw this and stood up in disbelief. He was getting really sleepy. Really dizzy. He took a step towards it and lost his balance. He could feel himself fading, as he fell to the ground. On his way down he tried to catch himself on the bed. He hit the floor hard.
He laid on the floor, unable to move, looking under his bed. He wanted to panic but he couldn’t. He was looking deep into the cold, dead eyes of Jane Doe, who was under his bed, staring back at him. He wanted to get up, he wanted to run. But it was too late. He was dying.
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