Colder, still.
Her eyes glassed over from the stench and her stomach heaved and spasmed. Then she heard him speaking.
“Plain, little Jennifer.” The voice sounded like a twisted wind, bent through trees and formed sounds into words. “Come to have another go with us? We knew you’d be back.” The voice was cut with a deeper sound, scratching, gnashing like grinding teeth. “That’s all you ever wanted, wasn’t it, Jennifer? To be desired more than anything else. To be an object of lust. Yes, then, Jennifer. We desire you. We want to be inside you. Come closer.”
Through her stinging eyes, she saw movement. She shook her head, demanded that the voices vacate and trained her eyes on the movement.
It was Henry, she was sure. Climbing up out of the water, reaching for Mac.
“You are desire, Jennifer. Our desire. Man’s desire.”
She saw him, fully out of the water now and leaning over Mac, his arms extending towards Mac’s legs.
“You. Are. Sex.”
Jennifer screamed.
She leaped out from behind the tree and charged towards Henry. Screaming with each step, she aimed her body directly at him. She saw him stand straight, open his arms as if he were readying himself for a hug. She lowered her shoulder and drove her full weight directly into his chest. Together, they plunged into the pond.
<<<<>>>>
Mac heard the screaming then the splashing. The cold left him as quickly as it had enveloped him.
“Mac.” Someone was calling his name. “Help.” It wasn’t Justin or Kevin. It couldn’t be. “Mac!” It was a woman’s voice. Her voice smothered with water, drenching and diluting her tone but not her urgency. Another scream for help. For him to help.
“Jen?” he questioned, asking much too softly for anyone to have heard. “Jen?” he said, louder, clearer and more directed. “Jen,” he yelled as he clambered to his feet. She was in the water, struggling against something. Or someone.
He dove towards the water, his chest bouncing roughly off the rocks. The moon slipped out from behind a dark cloud and poured its light on to the pond. Mac saw Jen fighting with a man, both were torn in their focus between keeping their head above the water and forcing the others below. The man was winning.
“Henry!” Mac screamed. “Leave her alone.” Henry did not comply with Mac’s command. He paused a beat, looked Mac squarely in the eye, smiled, then slipped silently beneath the water. Jen, breathless and exhausted, twirled herself around, looking and preparing for Henry’s attack. “Jen,” Mac said, “swim towards me. Grab my hand.” He extended his hand towards Jen, who was three or four feet away from the rocky outcropping. “Hurry. We’ll fight him together, like we said.”
The water was perfectly still, Jen’s head and the top of her shoulders were the only things breaking the mostly frozen surface of the pond. The moon’s light became diffused as thin clouds stretched out their reach across the sky and buried the moon’s light behind them. “Jen?” Mac questioned. “What are you doing? Swim to me. Hurry.”
“He has my leg,” she said, her tone too sullen. Then silently and swiftly, she disappeared beneath the surface.
<<<<>>>>
“The water is clearer here. Much easier to see here than any other place in this world. Tell me, Phillip, what do you see?”
“I know what it is,” Phillip said, his face contorted into a question. “Why doesn’t it cause pain?”
“That’s not what it’s for. That’s not what it was ever for,” the ancient one said. “Tell me, Phillip, tell me what you see?”
Phillip felt empty. There was no pain, no remorse, regret or fear. “Why did Henry think it would destroy you and why did he warn me not to look at it?”
“Tell me what you see.”
“A crucifix. I see a crucifix.”
“Henry believed, erroneously, that seeing this crucifix would remind me of what I rejected.”
“But the crucifixion happened centuries after you were cast out of heaven.”
“There are only three times here. The past, the present and the future. Over the millennia after my choice was made, the three have blended into just one: The present. All that happened and all that is happening, is ‘now’ for me. Henry understood this, much to his credit. But he believed that seeing this crucifix would alter my time. He thought that my past was hidden from me, clouded and murky like the waters where you began your journey, and that this crucifix would clear my vision. He believed this symbol would let me know what was done for me. For you. For all of us. And once I learned the meaning behind this symbol, I would retract my choice, leave this realm and he could rule as he sees fit. But I cannot retract my choice.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have no past. I only have ‘now.’ I am always making the choice to reject Him. I will always reject Him. But you, Phillip, you still have a past.”
<<<<>>>>
The pond’s surface was much too still. Mac screamed at the pond, demanding that Henry release Jen and for Jen to swim toward the surface. Mac thirsted for the pond’s surface to erupt with activity. But it remained too still.
Suddenly, a hand shot out of the water. Fingers splayed wide, reaching, grasping. Mac pulled his hand back, as his nightmare came flooding back to his mind. The frigid air surrounded him, whispering to him that this was only a dream. Then, he saw another hand emerge, that of a child. “Justin,” he said, then shot his arm towards it, grasping only air. The other arm, the one belonging only to his dream, slipped beneath the water again. “Justin! Kevin!” he screamed.
The arctic air left.
<<<<>>>>
“What are you saying?” Phillip asked.
“Your initiation. The burning, ripping pains you felt when you found yourself here, was it complete? When your pain ended, did you still feel something inside? Something hidden. Something you were too afraid to recognize.”
“I don’t know,” Phillip said.
The ancient one said, “You do know. You know you locked some hope away. It is still inside you, someplace that only this,” he said as he lifted the crucifix to Phillip’s line of sight, “can allow you to reveal.”
“There’s nothing left,” Philip snapped, turning away from the ancient one. He thought of charging him, taking the crucifix from his weak grasp and using it as weapon.
“I rule this realm only because I have no time. I know, I always know what still remains inside of me. But I am always making my choice.”
Phillip turned to face him. “What do I need to do?”
“Take this back. Hold it. Make a new choice.”
<<<<>>>>
Mac’s thoughts cleared. He shook his head to evict any remnants of the terror the frigid spirit had deposited. He stared at the water, ready to grab Jen’s hand if only it would break the surface again. “Jen,” he sobbed, “please. I’m sorry. Please, give me your hand.”
The surface remained still.
Mac saw bubbles drifting to the surface, breaking into nothingness as they finished their journey. The clouds parted and the moon bore its light down. He could see something just beneath the surface. Something struggling to rise. Striving for the surface.
Mac adjusted his body on the rocks to afford him greater reach. He plunged his hand into the horribly cold pond and felt blindly for what he had seen. “Jen,” he screamed into the pond. “Reach for my hand.”
There was a slight stirring in the water. A promise of hope. Then, seemingly directly out of his dream, the reaching arm shot through the surface. Mac grabbed and pulled with all his strength. He sensed a familiar force opposing his pull. Strengthening his grip, he shifted his body on the rocks, gaining more leverage and pulled.
In his nightmare, his mother’s hand slipped from his. In his past, the hand of one of the boys he had frightened and who had jumped into the same pond was pulled away from his. In that moment, Mac refused to lose. He shot his other hand forward and grabbed Jen’s hand. He screamed and pulled against his nightmare and ag
ainst his past.
Jen’s lungs were burning. Her vision, already occluded by the pond’s dark water, began filling with the deathly color of black. She felt Mac pulling her arm and Henry pulling her legs. Soon, she knew, it wouldn’t matter who had the stronger pull. Soon, she would be nothing but the lifeless object two tug-of-war contestants were trying to pull to their side. The deathly black color painted over what remained of her vision.
<<<<>>>>
Phillip held the gift and made a different choice. His past swirled around him, flashing images of his life. Memories of pain and joy competed for dominance in his mind, each thought dissolving the thought before then instantly morphing into the next. He heard the ancient one talking somewhere in the distance, his words an unintelligible mumbling of sounds, admonitions. The swirling slowed, then steadied his thoughts on to the object he held in his hands.
Phillip was called to a different home.
Henry screamed in anger and fear as his strength left him. He lost his grip on the sender’s leg and began to sink hopelessly to the bottom of the pond. He wasn’t being sent back, that he knew. He was being called back. Cell by cell, he felt his body being torn apart, and he watched with his dying eyes as the dark green of the pond was replaced by the murky darkness of the other realm.
Henry screamed.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Mac insisted on making a quick stop at the hospital. Jen assumed he wanted to have a doctor check her out, despite her repeated insistence that she felt fine. After Mac had pulled her free of Henry’s unexplained loosened grip, he quickly got Jen out of the water. She was hypothermic, slipping in and out of consciousness, but she was breathing and alive.
Her carried her to the fire, laid her on her side, stoked the fire with dry wood and covered her with all the blankets they had brought. Jen returned to awareness ten minutes after being pulled from the frigid water and after laying so close to the fire, her shivering abated after fifteen minutes. The two said nothing to each other and they laid, holding one another, till sleep relieved their watch.
“I told you, Mac, I feel fine,” Jen said. “I appreciate your concern for me, but really, I’m fine.”
Mac said, “I need to visit someone. Someone I met in the in-between. That’s why I’m here. I still think you should get checked out by a doctor, however. But if you promise you feel okay, I’ll drop the topic.”
“Mac,” Jen said, “the world thinks that I’m either dead or was kidnapped. If I check myself in to this hospital, they’re going to find out who I am. If that happens, who knows what becomes of us and our mission.”
They were standing outside of the hospital’s entrance. “There’s a coffee shop down the hallway on the first floor and the cafeteria is in the basement. If you just want coffee, I’d suggest the coffee shop. But if you’re hungry, I’d suggest drinking coffee in the coffee shop and you and I can grab something on the road.”
“You’ve been in this hospital before?”
“Experience,” Mac smiled. “Hospital food is intentionally created to pump more patients into open beds. The more open beds the hospital has, the worse the food.”
Jen laughed a small laugh, then said, “I take it you need to make your visit alone?”
“Yeah. Just need to say a few things and let him know how things ended up.”
“You planning on telling me what this is all about someday?” Jen asked.
“Absolutely,” Mac said. “Once I figure out what happened, I’ll let you know.”
The two walked into the hospital, both of them nervous about Jen being recognized. But as people passed by them with nothing more than a few head nods and mumbled greetings, Jen was, for the first time in her life, thankful for her plain, normal appearance.
She turned to walk towards the coffee shop, paused, and said, “If you only met this person in the ‘in-between,’ how is it you know he’s somewhere in this hospital?”
“I read the road signs while we were driving this way,” Mac said through a smile.
“What, no words falling onto a pillowcase this time?”
“Nah,” Mac said. “Just plain old boring highlighted words glaring out to me on highway signs. Nothing unusual.”
“Nothing unusual for us, that is,” Jen said, then walked away.
He rode the elevator to the third floor then slowly walked down the hallway. He slowed his gait as he passed each room, glancing in to see if anyone looked familiar. He stopped walking, not when he saw someone familiar, but rather, when he felt something familiar.
“Room 326,” he said in a soft whisper. “Seems as good as any other number.”
He was the only patient in room 326 and, as Mac expected, there were no visitors sitting beside him. No one reading “Get Well Soon” cards, sent by concerned co-workers or from relatives living too far out of town to make an in-person visit. There were no flowers in vases, no pictures drawn in crayon hanging on the walls and no signs that anyone had been in for even the shortest of visits.
“Hello buddy,” Mac said. He read the name printed on the still man’s wristband. “Hello Derek Giardi. It’s me, Mac. Thought I’d stop in, let you know how things turned out and to see how you’re faring. Jen and I will be hitting the road soon, so I’m not sure I’ll be back in town again anytime soon. I hope to be, that I know for sure. I’d love to have a beer or two with you. Tell you what,” he said as he pulled the visitor’s chair a bit closer to Derek’s bed, then sat down, “you do your best to come back and I’ll do my best to make it back around. Deal?
“You know what? I just realized you have no idea who Jen is. Well, let me tell you, she’s really something. She’s the one who pulled me back to life. By the way, sorry I left without saying ‘goodbye.’ I was in a bit of a rush, as you can imagine. Jen is like me, a sender. But she’s different from me in so many ways. If you ever meet her, please don’t tell her this, but she’s probably my favorite person in this world. We’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks but there’s something about her. Something that makes her so unique, so wonderfully different. I know what you’re thinking, that a relationship started under difficult circumstances is doomed to fail. I know all about that, trust me. And I’m not saying I have feelings for her, and, I guess I’m not saying that I couldn’t have feelings if things were different. I don’t know, maybe something will happen, maybe it won’t. What I do know is that Jen and I are a team and I’ll do anything to keep it that way. We deal with the worst imaginable creatures there are, but I’d give my life to keep her safe. That’s a promise.
“So, like I said, we’re heading out on the road. We have work to do. Important work, I guess, though I’ll admit that I’m just as confused about what I am as I was when Rachel first told me I was a sender. Maybe even more confused considering what Rachel turned out to be.
“This is hard to say and I have to ask you to not ever repeat this, but, I actually miss her. Rachel that is. I know, it’s insane, considering what she turned out to be. I guess I don’t really miss her, per se, I miss who I thought she was and what I thought she and I were going to become. Crazy, isn’t it? That a person can fall in love with the idea of a person, despite knowing what the person is really like. That’s what’s so wonderful about humanity, I suppose. We’re the only creatures that spend so much time, energy and emotion trying to fool our own selves. All the more reason I’m doing what I’m doing.
“What Jen and I are doing, is what I should say. She’s as much a part of this as I am. Hell, between you and me, she’s a better sender than I’ll ever be. She’s a strong woman, I’ll tell you that much. We’re both giving up our lives so that humanity can be saved. At least, that’s what I think we’re doing. To be honest, I don’t really know why we’re doing what we’re doing, but I don’t think we really have a choice. For whatever reason, we are what we are and we have to do what we have to do.
“When I was with you in the in-between, I told you plenty of things about me, about the raging battle between
good and evil and about my role in it, but I never found out too much about you. I’m sorry about that. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to make it back to this side but that you were. I needed to tell someone the story. Now, here I stand, facing a lifetime of battling demons and of questioning why God doesn’t even send down a rookie angel to give me a hand, and you’re still stuck in the in-between. I do hope you make it back, though I wouldn’t blame you if you choose the high road, if it’s offered to you. But if you do come back to this side, I hope you can keep what I told you just between you and me? No one would believe you anyway if you did share the story, so, it’s probably better off for both of us if our chat stays between us. If I find a way, I’ll have someone check in on you, no matter if you stay put or come back here.
“If you end up having to go south, I hope you don’t hold anything against me. I don’t think I put you in a bad position by telling you everything, and I sure hope I didn’t. But, there are so many things about my new life I don’t understand…well, if anything does come back on you because of me and my story, I am sorry.
“There are other senders out in the world. At least I have to believe there are. Won’t tell you where I read this (because you wouldn’t believe me if I did) but there were twelve of us senders at one time. At most times, actually, but things are turning bad. I think there’s only nine of us left. I only know of Jen and me, but, there must be more. It’s too early for there to be any less.
The Demon Senders Page 25