“What do you mean!?”
“Some of it’s just stories, but a lot of it is true. Young deaths… tragedies... everyone around here knows the stories. It’s local legend. People just try not to talk about it anymore, but to Elizabeth it was gospel. And I know the sermon.”
“Tell me.” Sarah said.
“Shortly before the Civil War, there was a bloody massacre in this valley. Over 100 dead. There was one man that managed to survive. Jonathan Bayard. Elizabeth’s great, great, great grandfather. He lived just long enough to make it home and tell his son what he had seen. How the men had been fighting and then how something changed and they began to attack one another like animals. No sides, no allegiances, everyman for himself, and how the Iktomi river ran red with their blood…”
It didn’t take long for the vision to start this time. All she had to do was close her eyes and listen to Nick’s voice trailing off and soon enough Sarah found herself once again standing barefoot in the waving plains grass of Nebraska. She looked up and saw a wounded Jonathan Bayard- yes, that was his name- crossing the green sandhills on the back of his horse. Her great, great, great, great grandfather, she thought, or is that one too many greats? Who could be sure anymore. She looked over her shoulder and saw the twisting Iktomi River. It was bright red with blood. Then the vision flipped, like her visions and dreams always do, to a dying Jonathan Bayard laying in bed with his son sitting nearby. Jonathan was desperately trying to tell his son the story before his life escaped him. Sarah hated the heavy feeling in that room. It was dark and harrowing, and made it hard to breathe. But there was something else too, wasn’t there? She could feel the presence of something else, something in the blurred edges, in the dark corners, and it wasn’t friendly.
Jonathan lifted his head from the sweat stained pillow and desperately continued telling his story. He just needed his son to know...
“and that's when the gutless ran towards the Iktomi, and the damned Indians followed. August Arrow was like a mad man, throwing soldiers from their horses and slashing their necks all in one stroke. The death screams were everywhere, James! Everywhere, they're still ringing in my blasted ears, son. In my ears...I couldn't move then, my leg was shot to shit and I was wedged between two stinkin’ dead horses, but I could still use my eyes and my ears and I saw the Lieutenant lead his soldiers into the river. It was a struggle to see, mind you, but one eye could make out everything and that's all the Good Lord wanted me to see with...so as I could still come back and tell my story here to you today, son.
I could tell the horses were struggling with the river's current, but it was almost more than that. They were spooked and not just from the battle neither. I saw a number of them horses rear up, throw their rider and shoot outta the water and up the bank like they were trying to put space between themselves and that Iktomi. It was incredible I tell ya. I think those stupid animals knew what was coming next, they could sense it, cause shortly after is when the lines blurred to grey. I remember....it was like the air became too thin. Too thin to breathe. Too thin to think. But I could still see outa my one good eye, mind you, and that's when the men turned. Sounds crazy, but they all turned on each other! There were no more sides, no more soldiers, no more warriors...only animals...every man for himself, crazy animals.
Blood stained the air and dyed the Iktomi red, I tell ya. At first, I was trying to claw myself free of my dead stinkin’ bovine prison cell, but when the grey happened, I tried to crawl the other way, you see. Tried to get away from their awful, God-forsaken blood screams. I couldn't turn that one eye away though, as much as I wanted to, I just couldn't do it. So I watched. I watched the hacking, and cutting, and clawing, and biting...yes biting, and screaming. I'll never forget the screaming. At last, a silence fell over the valley again, and I prayed. Yes I prayed to the good lord Jesus, that he'd help me get away from all a this, and I'd be good again. I'd go a prayin’ and offering to God and everything, and stop the cussin’ and the drinkin’ and all that. I'd be good, James, you hear me? I'd be good.
But that's when I seen someone moving outta the water and onto the bank. He was all ripped to shreds, but I could still make out who it was...Lt. Wilmington himself. He crawled on hands and knees up the river bank, his face a crimson mask, but his officer's hat still somehow upon his head, and then he slowly stood to look back out at the river. It seemed like an eternity that he stared out at the red running Iktomi. Stared at the bodies, at the men, his men, and the men he had brought justice to.
My one eye strained, as I watched the Lieutenant move his right hand down towards his holster. In the next instant he had pulled his pistol and kissed his temple with the end of the barrel. The shot rang out and echoed through the silence that had engulfed the valley for the last few minutes. His body crumpled to the ground and that was that, I remember thinking. No one but me. I can't explain it, but that thought made me want to scream. After everything I had just witnessed, that was what horrified me the most. Being the only one. Being the last....all by myself. I remember just holding my breath and listening and listening. My one free eye darting from left to right, and scanning the valley.
I waited like this for hours maybe, but it seemed like days. Finally, when I could take the smell of the dead stinkin’ horses no longer, I managed to free myself and drag my dead, shot up leg and all, away from the horses, away from the bodies, and away from the red running Iktomi. I crawled outta the valley, and then that's when I was lucky and blessed enough to run into Miss Rita Dowring, and her fiancée, who as you know, brought me back here. James, I know what it must sound like, but I've never been one for stories. Something’s just not right out there. Not like the good Lord intended...not right at all.”
Sarah could feel the vision slipping away as Jonathan’s words seemed to mesh into Nick’s and the smell of the tunnel returned. For a moment both men spoke simultaneously from two distant worlds. And then she was back.
Nick continued. “That’s where they say the curse began, like something sinister followed Jonathan back up from the river, and has walked with your family ever since.”
Sarah nodded. Her lips silently mouthed the words. “It’s true.”
“Elizabeth told me that until her, no one in the family had lived to see their 49th birthday, and most weren’t even close. Your grandfather was 48 when he took a bullet and bled out on the kitchen floor. Your Uncle… and your mother… But Elizabeth was different from the rest of them.”
The world slipped again and the dark tunnel seemed miles away. Sarah saw something flicker in her peripheral. She turned her head and found herself back in the kitchen of the Bayard house. A young woman with long, black hair, who could have been Sarah’s twin sister, kneeled on the bloody tile floor next to her fallen father. Elizabeth.
“It's okay...” The dying man whispered.
And then, Sarah was standing next to the screen door, the cold night air drifting in. She looked up as Elizabeth pulled the trigger of the gun that was pushed up against the skinny boy’s forehead. The smell of gunsmoke hit Sarah first as the blood exploded on the wall behind the man, and the reverb onto Elizabeth’s face. Sarah followed her young aunt out of the kitchen and outside. She walked towards the river. Blood covered her face and was dripping down onto her blouse. It was cold out. Sarah could see her breath. But she saw something else too. A smile seemed to be forming on Elizabeth’s face. This seemed to trouble both women. In response, Elizabeth reached up with her hand, almost like she was trying to wipe the smile away, but instead, she wiped the blood across her lips and into her mouth and without thinking- she swallowed. Something immediately changed in her eyes. A visible surge of energy ran through her body. Elizabeth dropped to her knees by the tall grass of the river bank. Her back arched and her legs and stomach began to spasm involuntarily. She shook all over and then let out a low moan. Sarah stood beside her aunt, but she could still hear Nick’s voice from beyond her vision.
“She found an answer to the curse... A cure.” His
voice came echoing across the boundaries of the other world.
Sarah found herself again, walking next to the river with Elizabeth, but now it was daylight, and her aunt looked much older. Elizabeth held a knife as she silently stalked a naked, long-haired man and a woman lying on a towel next to the river making love. They didn’t see her coming. Elizabeth crept behind the long-haired man.
“It’s okay...” She sliced the knife across his throat. The woman screamed and Elizabeth stabbed her in the neck. The woman gasped for air and fell to the grass. Elizabeth slowly sat down behind the woman and wrapped her arms around her, comforting her. The woman continued to gasp and bleed out, as Elizabeth put her lips to the woman’s neck and began to drink.
The vision spun again and Sarah was once again in the basement. She could see the face of a lifeless girl in the horse trough, and then the face changed to that of another girl, followed by the face of another, and another. It was the faces of the girls in white who had visited Sarah on the stairs- the six missing girls. Sarah turned and saw Elizabeth putting the old canning jars of blood up on a wooden shelf. The shadowy figure was standing next to her. The gas mask dangled from his right hand. He suddenly stepped forward into the dim light…
“Nick!” Sarah screamed in both worlds. She was back and he was standing in front of her smiling.
Sarah stared at Nick in disbelief.
“You… you knew what she was doing and you did nothing?!”
“It’s complicated.”
Sarah backed away from him. Nick took a step out of the grey shadows of the tunnel and into the dim light.
“It was you...” She whispered. “You helped her...”
“Sarah, slow down. Let me explain.”
“Explain? You…you killed those poor girls.”
“Sarah please... she needed me. Don’t you see? She found the cure, but she needed me to help her execute it. I owed her that. Elizabeth was like a mother to me. You know what it’s like to go through life without a mother. She asked me for help and I did it. It kept her young and strong. It’s the cure! She lived ten years longer than she was supposed to. And it’s done the same for me, Sarah. I am stronger than I have ever been.”
“No... how could you?” Sarah was crushed and repulsed all at the same time.
“Because she promised if I did this I would be rewarded.” Nick replied matter of factly.
“Rewarded? You did this for money?”
“No... for you.”
“What are you talking about, I never met you before a week ago!”
“Elizabeth told me all about you.”
“Elizabeth didn’t even know me!”
“You’re wrong. She did know you, Sarah. She met you when you were just a little girl, and she kept tabs on you your entire life. Elizabeth used to tell me that you would inherit everything that was hers and we would carry on what she started, together. A prince and his princess... I've been waiting for you.” Nick reached out and grabbed Sarah’s hand. Almost immediately she saw…
Elizabeth sat with Nick on the sofa with the ugly afghan. Her health was failing- it was quite obvious to Sarah, who now found herself standing in her blue nightgown behind the two, as they sat flipping through a large scrapbook. Sarah leaned over the sofa to get a better view of what they were looking at. Elizabeth turned the page. It was covered with photographs of a young Sarah. She turned to the next page to reveal more of the same. The scrapbook was, in fact, a collection of photos of Sarah through the years, from grade school pictures to her high school graduation. This is your life Sarah, welcome to it.
Elizabeth looked up from the book and caressed Nick’s cheek lovingly. There were tears in her eyes as she cleared her throat to speak. “When I pass, and it will be soon, she will come home to you. Promise me you’ll show her the way. She needs the cure, Nick.”
“I promise. I love her already.” Nick replied in a whisper. There were tears creating new paths from the corners of his eyes down his cheeks.
“And she will love you too. You are a good boy.”
Nick looked at Elizabeth, the only mother he’d ever really known and believed her completely. He smiled and they embraced, and then he carefully lifted her frail body up into his strong arms and carried her up the stairs to her bedroom at the end of the hall.
Nick’s grip increased drastically on Sarah’s hand and she gasped back into her current reality. “I made a promise. Now let me show you.” He spoke quickly and confidently.
“No!” Sarah shouted. “Nick, no.”
“Princess... you have no idea how powerful it is, you can feel their energy course through your veins, a hundred times more powerful than the adrenaline that's going through yours at this very moment.”
Sarah slowly backed away from Nick. “You’re fucking crazy.” She whispered.
Nick stopped and looked at her. His expression was as if she had just slapped him across the face. He cocked his head to the side as if to process what she had just said. “Sarah, I have to save you. I promised.” He reached in the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small pocket knife. He flipped it open and moved the sharp blade across the palm of his hand. He smiled and extended his bleeding hand to Sarah.
“Stay away from me, Nick.” Sarah whispered. She turned to run, but Nick grabbed her hand and yanked back on her arm.
“Don’t run away from me, Sarah.” Nick looked as if he was about to cry. He pulled her back towards him, as if to embrace her again, but Sarah spun around and hit him in the side of the face with the flashlight. Blood immediately exploded from Nick’s cheek. Sarah pulled free from his grip and took off running down the tunnel and back towards the crawl space.
“Sarah!” Nick called after her. He was surprised by the blow. He felt his face with his hand and saw blood from his wound. It excited him. He shook his head and ran after her. It didn’t take him long before he was right on her tail and gaining speed.
Sarah felt his hot breath right behind her, but she was close to the odd little doorway just up ahead. She made her legs move faster and soon slid down into the crawl space and jumped out of the small doorway. But when she hit the ground her ankle gave way and she crashed onto the floor. She struggled to get to her feet. Her ankle was already swelling up, but she forced herself to move. Nick was already crawling down through the small doorway as she hobbled to the cellar staircase. As she quickly climbed the stairs, he grabbed her. His grip was like a vice. She tried to struggle away from him.
“Stop it!” He shouted and backhanded her. Sarah flew from the steps and hit the wall, knocking her unconscious.
“Why did you make me do that?” Nick groaned. He squatted down next to Sarah and stroked her face gently. “I’m sorry, Princess. I didn’t mean it.” Nick scooped her up in his arms and carried her up the staircase.
Chapter 12
The End
It was dark. And there was a throbbing coming from deep inside Sarah’s head. She slowly tried to open her eyes. Her vision was blurry and out of focus, but she could make out a tall figure standing in front of her. He was veiled in shadows. Sarah was disoriented, but she knew she wasn’t dreaming anymore. The smells- the smells were stronger here. As the figure stepped closer, she slowly realized it was Nick. He looked sad.
“I’ve been so worried about you.” Nick whispered.
“I had another dream. A bad dream. It was awful, you were in it.” Sarah’s vision was still blurred. The room seemed too misty- too grey. She attempted to move her hand up to her eyes to help, and that’s when it hit her. I’m tied up, she thought in a panic. That’s when her mind let her in on the whole scope of things. She was in the basement, she could smell it. Sarah looked down and saw that she was in fact tied to a chair, but the real interesting part? She was dressed in a white wedding gown.
Nick, now standing at her side, reached out and gently touched her face. She winced at his touch.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream, Sarah.”
“Why am I tied up?”
“Because we need to talk and I don’t want you running away again.”.
“Are you gonna kill me?” Sarah’s voice was shaky.
Nick’s expression twisted in pain as her words hit him. “No Sarah. I don't want to hurt you, don’t you see that? I’m trying to save you! I’m sorry I hit you. Please forgive me...”
“Nick...” Sarah started but Nick put his finger to her mouth.
“Don’t talk. I need to tell you something.” He moved closer to her. His eyes were pools of warmth and water. “I love you.”
Sarah sat stunned. She watched as a tear wound its way slowly through the dried blood on Nick’s cheek.
“I loved you before I ever met you. I’m sorry it had to go this way, but sometimes to save someone, you have to hurt someone first.” Nick’s hand found its way onto Sarah’s thigh. His fingers caressed the fabric next to her skin. “This dress belonged to Elizabeth. She never got to wear it, but she saved it for you- for our wedding. It belongs to you and you belong with me. This is our life now.”
“Nick, you’re confused... we can get you help, just untie me.”
Nick’s face hardened at that. “I’m not confused, Sarah! I am very clear about how I feel about you. I am going to save you and we’ll be together as Elizabeth promised. You don’t understand now, but you will.” He paused for a moment, looking off into the distance. “I have a present for you.” Nick’s eyes lit up. He walked over toward the corner of the basement and flipped on a light switch. A dangling lightbulb outlined a bulky, blue tarp. It was covering something large.
“Do you remember how I came to your rescue at the bar when those animals were harassing you?”
Sarah nodded.
“You said I was your hero.” Nick reached down and grabbed the edge of the blue tarp. “I will always protect you, Sarah.” He yanked up the tarp to reveal two, tangled white bodies in a long horse trough. Their eyes were still open, but their lives were no more. It was the two men from the bar. Morris and Wright. The man with the red beard had a horrified expression frozen across his face.
Peripheral Vision: A Supernatural Thriller Page 12