“The cop’s dead?” Cody asked.
“Oh yeah,” the man said. “If you’d seen the state of his head you wouldn’t be asking.”
Cody hesitated. “But they didn’t let you on the plane, right?”
The man lowered his gun.
“You’re a smart guy,” he said. “Black Noah took one look at me, pointed his shotgun at my head and told me to get-the-fuck-outta-here. Cop or no cop, he said – you ain’t getting on my plane. His plane? There were several guns on me. Not what you’d call a warm welcome.”
“Look,” Cody said. “I’m real sorry about your folks. It’s tough to lose your family like that, I know. But I’m trying to protect my daughter from the Black Storm. You wouldn’t begrudge her a way out of this mess, would you?”
The man looked thoughtful for a second.
“You know something pal,” he said. “Yes I would. Why should I be the only one getting screwed today?”
Cody ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair.
“You’re not well mister,” he said. “You’re not thinking right. Please just…”
Cody gasped. He saw something over the man’s shoulder.
The Black Widow was in the terminal.
She was approaching the young man from behind. She came slowly, floating down the terminal building like a specter traipsing through the corridors of a haunted house. There was no life in her features – only those silver orbs, gleaming on her deathly pale face.
Her long black mourning dress trailed behind her like a vast, sprawling cloak.
Rachel must have seen it too because she dug her fingers deep into the back of Cody’s hand, her nails slicing through his skin.
Cody wanted to say something – to warn the man. But it all happened so fast. The Black Widow glided towards the young man and entered his body.
She vanished.
“Dad,” Rachel said. “Do you…”
Cody gave her hand a squeeze. “Yes.”
The man whimpered like a frightened child. His emerald eyes lit up, his body stiffened, and for a second it looked like he was about to keel over in shock. Then his shoulders drooped as he appeared to relax. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked over at Cody and Rachel.
His green eyes had dulled to charcoal black.
The man’s expression had also darkened. His pallid grey skin was dry and wrinkled, making him look much older than his thirty or so years.
The gun was pointing at Cody and Rachel again.
“Why won’t they let me on the plane?” he said. His voice was shaking, like a little child on the brink of tears. “They sent me away. What am I supposed to do? I’m alone. My parents are dead. Why doesn’t anyone want to help me? And now you want to leave me alone too. What is it with you people? You think you’re so much better than everyone else. Aren’t we supposed to stick together at times like this?”
Cody let go of Rachel’s hand. His fingers moved towards the gun tucked into his waist.
“Hey man,” he said. “It’s the Black Fever talking, you understand? You gotta fight it.”
The young man laughed. He was pointing the Smith & Wesson back and forth between Cody and Rachel like he was playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
“No I’m just tired,” the man said. “Tired of being treated like shit by everyone. Tired of living. Aren’t you sick of it all? You look exhausted mister. Well I can help you with that. I’m going to do you a favor. Ain’t nobody going to take your little girl from you. No breeder mob will touch her, I’ll make sure of that. Yeah, how about this? How about we stay together forever in this airport – all three of us? One shot each, that’s all it takes.”
He smiled at Rachel, bearing his teeth like a wild animal.
“I’ll do you first little girl,” he said. “Close your eyes.”
The gun stopped moving. It was pointing at Rachel.
“No!” Cody yelled. He threw his hands up in the air, pleading with the man to stop.
Bang!
Cody pushed Rachel as hard as he could. He possessed the superhuman strength of a parent witnessing their child in extreme danger. In that moment, he was sucked into another world where time slowed down, where colors were brighter and more intense, where sound was clearer, and the entire universe was inside him.
Rachel dodged the bullet. She fell out of range of the gunfire, rolling onto her side and curling up into a tight ball on the ground.
When Cody saw that Rachel was safe, he returned to the lesser plane of existence. This was where pain still existed. Almost immediately, he felt a searing heat coming from his side and when he looked down he saw blood pouring from a wound at his side.
“Shit,” he said, dropping onto one knee.
He heard the fake cop walking towards him. Cody looked up at the man and saw that his eyes were like two black moons stuck to his head. He was a walking, talking mannequin. He wasn’t human anymore.
“It’ll be alright,” the man said. “I’m here. I’m here.”
Cody kept his hand pressed against his left side, applying pressure to the wound. He was leaking.
His fingers fumbled at his waist, trying to reach the Glock tucked underneath his shirt. But he was grasping at nothing – his hands couldn’t keep up with his brain.
“It’s going to be alright,” a voice said.
The man was standing over him. Cody looked up and saw the black pistol pointing at his head.
“I’ll see you on the other side brother,” the man said. “I won’t be far behind. And neither will your little girl. It’s better this way.”
Cody closed his eyes. His head dropped, like he was baring his neck to the blade of a sharp axe. He didn’t even have the strength to beg for his daughter’s life anymore.
Rachel. I’m sorry.
There was an explosion of noise. It sounded like something else blowing up in San Antonio. Had the end of things come at last? Maybe the old city would go into the history books at exactly the same time as ex-Hollywood superstar, Cody MacLeod.
He waited for the darkness to envelop his mind. But nothing happened.
Cody dared to look up and just as he did, the man in the police uniform toppled over like a falling statue. There was a trickle of dark blood pouring out of his mouth and running down his chin. One hand was reaching towards a massive, bloody hole that had been ripped open in his chest.
“Die motherfucker!” a booming voice yelled.
Cody heard somebody running. Footsteps came closer. It sounded like a Greek God striding over the clouds on Mount Olympus.
“Cody!” a man’s voice yelled. “Are you okay man? Talk to me.”
Cody felt himself being dragged up to his feet. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to stand but once he was back on two legs, he leaned on the other man’s shoulder for support while he regained his composure.
He looked at the man’s face and grinned.
“Nick?” he said. “Is that you?”
“Hell yes,” the man said, laughing. It was a deep glorious rumbling sound that shook the floor.
It was Nick Norton. He was standing there in all his splendor – six foot five, two hundred and eighty pounds, and built like a linebacker with boulders for shoulders. His black skull was shaved almost to the bone and he was sporting a pencil thin goatee that Cody immediately loathed. Cody had expected to see Nick strutting around in his beloved pilot’s uniform but to his surprise, the big man was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and dark pants. He looked like he was about to head off for a round of golf somewhere.
A black and tan rifle was hanging at Nick’s side.
“What took you so long asshole?” Cody said. “You had to wait till I got shot before riding to the rescue?”
Nick wrapped his arms around Cody and squeezed him tight. Cody yelped. It felt like he was hugging a grizzly bear.
“Good to see you!” Nick said.
Cody winced under the weight of the man’s tree-trunk arms. “You too,” he said. “Although that beard is ugly as hell ma
n.”
“Fuck you too,” Nick said with a grin.
Like Cody, Nick Norton had been a beloved child star in the 1980s. But in the man’s own words he’d ‘grown pissed off with playing the token black kid in all those coming of age movies about white kids and their stupid white problems’. Acting wasn’t a man’s game anyway, not according to Nick. As a result of his dissatisfaction with the industry, he’d bailed on Hollywood at fifteen and went off to join the air force.
“Dad!”
Rachel ran over and wrapped her arms around Cody’s neck, nearly strangling him in the process. He’d just survived a near death encounter and now the two people he loved most in the world were trying to kill him with hugs.
“Oww!” he yelped, pressing a hand against his wound.
“My God!” Nick said, taking a step back and looking at Rachel. “Little Rachel MacLeod, is that you? The last time I saw you, you were about the size of my thumb!”
Rachel laughed.
Cody kneeled down to inspect the damage on his side. Nick stepped forward and beat him to it. He lifted Cody’s shirt and took a good look.
Nick looked unimpressed, like he was staring at a shaving cut.
“The bullet grazed you, that’s all,” he said. “Just a flesh wound.”
“It hurts man,” Cody said.
“Don’t be a pussy,” Nick said. He looked at Rachel and his face was instantly apologetic. “Sorry Rachel.”
“She’s heard a lot worse than that,” Cody said. “Trust me.”
“Can we go now?” Rachel said, looking at them both. “Is the plane ready?”
“It’s ready now you’re here,” Nick said, holding the rifle across his chest. “Fashionably late I might add – so much so that I decided to come looking for you guys. Good job I did, right? I see this dead asshole wasn’t in any hurry to leave.”
Chapter Thirteen
Cody, Rachel and Nick set off towards Gate A5. They’d been walking in that direction no more than ten seconds when a strange, shuffling noise stopped them in their tracks.
They turned around.
The corpse on the floor was twitching.
The three of them stood there, watching in horror as a spasmodic jerking of the dead man’s muscles proceeded to throw the lifeless body back and forth across the blood-splattered surface. It looked like his soul was a prisoner, trapped inside the mortal flesh.
Cody knew better. The man’s soul – if he’d had one – was long gone.
Nick pointed his rifle at the convulsing corpse. “What the…?” he said. “He can’t be alive. I just put a hole in that guy the size of West Virginia.”
“He’s not alive,” Cody said.
The body stopped moving. A spray of black mist shot out of it, like steam rising from a kettle. It hovered in mid-air, lingering above the dead man.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Nick said.
The dark mist swayed gently, like it was dancing to soft music. A statuesque woman was reborn out of the cloud – the black vapor at the edge forming the arms, while legs sprouted out of its underside. Two silver orbs materialized at the top, along with last but not least, a deathly pale head. It was a graceful, artistic formation of life. In any other context, it might have been beautiful.
“It’s her,” Rachel said.
The Black Widow’s face was a blank canvas. There was no emotion, no sign of anything resembling life. She was a seven-foot doll. Yet she didn’t need facial features to express her intent towards Cody, Rachel and Nick.
She glided slowly towards them.
“This is bad,” Cody said.
“I’m going to shoot the bitch,” Nick said. He rolled the rifle to the side, the muzzle still pointing at the Black Widow. He checked the magazine, then ran the action and rolled the weapon back onto his shoulder. All in a matter of seconds.
“Don’t,” Cody said, putting a hand on the muzzle of the rifle. “It’s a waste of time. You can’t hurt her with a gun.”
“You got a better idea?” Nick said.
Cody shook his head. “No.”
“Dad,” Rachel said, taking a forward step. Her eyes were locked onto the Black Widow. “She’s coming for you. I can…feel it.”
“Rachel,” Cody said, putting a firm hand on her shoulder. “Come on, we’re going to have to make a run for it.”
“No,” she said.
Rachel looked at Cody. He saw the defiance in her eyes – bravery, foolishness, hard-headedness, call it what you will. It was a familial trait, passed down from mother to daughter. Kate had been a stubborn mess of a woman in life – the drugs, the glamour, the neverending hope of making a comeback and reclaiming the spotlight once again. She wouldn’t let go of the dream. She chose her path and it was to walk the road of excess that supposedly led to William Blake’s palace of wisdom.
The Black Widow glided forward. Rachel stood her ground.
“Rachel,” Cody said. “Do you hear me? We have to go now.”
He grabbed a hold of her arm and dragged her away.
“No Dad,” she said. “She’s coming for you.”
“C’mon Rachel! She’s coming for all of us.”
Cody tried to pull Rachel back but a sharp pain flared up in his side. He winced and was forced into loosening his grip on Rachel’s arm. He doubled over in pain and Rachel took advantage, managing to wriggle free of Cody’s weakened grip.
She ran towards the Black Widow.
“Rachel!” Cody yelled. He pressed a hand to the wound on his side. It was bleeding profusely.
Rachel didn’t listen or turn around. She kept running towards the Black Widow, the teddy bear swinging at her side.
“Stop!” Cody yelled. He was about to chase after her again but Nick threw a heavily muscled arm out, blocking Cody’s path. Nick pointed to the rifle in his hand.
“You’re no use right now partner,” he said. “Let me take care of this.”
Nick gently shoved Cody out of the way. With the rifle in hand, he watched Rachel running towards the Black Widow. Slowly, he took aim.
“Don’t shoot my kid,” Cody said.
“I’ll try not to,” Nick said. His index finger teased the trigger. Then he fired.
Crack!
The first shot went through the Black Widow like an arrow flying through the mist. The Black Widow kept coming forward and Nick fired again but with the same outcome. He was shooting at a ghost.
“Damn it,” Nick said, lowering the rifle. “How are we supposed to fight?”
Rachel stopped running. She looked over her shoulder at Cody and Nick, as if to make sure nobody was trying to catch up with her. Then she stood her ground, waiting while the Black Widow came to meet her.
The red-haired phantom’s long ghoulish arms were outstretched.
“Rachel!” Cody yelled out. “Run!”
“She’s not going to take you away,” Rachel said.
The little girl took a step forward. She thrust her head forward, like someone leaning out of the window of a tall building to look down below onto the street. Then she screamed. It wasn’t the scream of a frightened ten-year-old child. It was an angry scream and it echoed around the airport, forcing the end of the world, which was taking place outside, to take a back seat.
The Black Widow was pushed backwards by the weight of the scream. She was like a butterfly caught in a hurricane. Rachel walked forward, still screaming, pushing the Black Widow away from her father.
Cody and Nick watched from afar, their mouths hanging open.
Rachel stopped screaming and the Black Widow bobbed around in mid-air, like a piece of flotsam caught in treacherous waters. The little girl swung her arm back and with all her strength, threw Bootsy at the Black Widow. The teddy bear flew through the air like a guided missile, striking a direct hit on the Black Widow’s lifeless face.
Two silver orbs flickered on and off like a faulty television screen.
The Black Widow put her hands to her face like she’d been douse
d in acid.
“Look!” Cody said, tapping Nick on the arm. “Outside.”
Both men looked through the window. The black sky that had smothered their lives for so long blinked on and off like a broken light bulb. It did this several times and in between Cody saw a miracle – he saw the blue sky and a scattering of cotton ball clouds. He saw the sun. It was glorious as it reached for its zenith in the sky.
Nick saw it too. “Holy shit!” he said. “Cody…”
“I see it,” Cody said.
But the miracle was short-lived. Seconds later, the world reverted back to darkness.
There was no sign of the Black Widow in the airport. Rachel was standing alone where the confrontation had taken place moments earlier. The only hint that the ghostly woman had been there at all was the dead man in the police uniform lying on the floor, his body soaking in a pool of fresh blood.
Rachel turned around. In that moment, her eyes were as blue as Cody had ever seen them. They were practically glowing, every bit as blue as the sky that had appeared outside during the short-lived miracle.
She walked over and picked Bootsy off the floor. With a half-smile on her face, she dusted him down with the back of her hand.
Cody ran over to her and dropped onto his knees. He grabbed Rachel by the shoulders. There was blood all over his hands and he was getting it on her clothes.
He tried to ignore the gnawing pain eating into his side.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he said. His voice was cracking as he spoke. “I could have lost you.”
Rachel shook her head.
“She was coming for you Dad,” Rachel said. “I wasn’t going to let her take you away from me. Not you.”
“What do you mean?” Cody said. “How could you know she was coming for me?”
Rachel shrugged. “I just did.”
Nick walked up behind them, laughing like a man who’d just found the winning lottery ticket sitting on his doorstep. “Well, well, well,” he said. “Ain’t nobody as badass as daddy’s little girl.”
“What did you do?” Cody said, looking at Rachel.
The Black Storm (Book 1): Black Storm Page 12