Addicted to the Dead

by Shane McKenzie

  “Nothing. I don’t feel anything.” Sophia’s bottom lip quivered but she held her composure pretty good. Paco was proud of her.

  “My god…in all my years. You, young lady, are a first. A miracle, really.” He stood up and chuckled, ran his hand through his hair and exhaled a wind storm from his nostrils. “How would you feel about coming with me? To my office where I can properly examine you? I wasn’t prepared for this, don’t have the proper tools with me.” He chuckled, scratched his belly. “How’s…how’s Addie doing, by the way?”

  “She didn’t call you? Tell you we were coming?” Paco said.

  “Oh no, she doesn’t have a phone. We haven’t spoken in years…not since her husband passed. Had a bit of a falling out because I called the authorities to pick him up after he died. Addie wanted to keep him in the house, and it’s just…it’s just not sanitary. I couldn’t let her—” He chuckled again. “Enough of that. So, how about it? Come with me to my office, hmm?”

  “And then what?” Paco said as he stepped between the doctor and his sister. “What are you going to do to her?”

  Another laugh, another shake of the belly. “My boy, I promise you I only want to help her. She is one of a kind, as far as I know. She could be the missing link between the living and the dead. This could be a potential breakthrough!” He reached out and squeezed Paco’s shoulders. “Don’t you see? Your sister could help change the world.”

  “But you were just supposed to make her better. You were supposed to do something to fix her! We just want to go home…”

  The doctor’s smile faded and he mashed his lips together as he rested a friendly hand on Sophia’s arm. “Let me explain something. To both of you. There is no cure for death. There is nothing I can do to make her alive again.”

  Sophia shrugged the hand off her shoulder, collided with Paco and hugged his arm. She smashed her face into him as she sobbed gently. Paco’s tears soaked into her hair.

  “But I want you to look at the bright side. She is only dead because her body is decomposing. There are ways around that…well, ways to slow the process down anyway. She is still here, she is still your sister.” The doctor dropped to a knee, his face burning brighter. “I won’t lie to you. Her body will eventually break down. But what I can offer you is time. Years and years of time together. And when you think about it, that’s all any of us really have.”

  “Time…” Paco wiped the tears from his face and cleared his throat. “W-what are you going to do to her?” Paco hugged Sophia tighter—she wiped her face even though there were no tears there.

  “Well…” The doctor got back on his feet, though it looked like he had a hard time doing it. He opened his mouth, then closed it, leaned in toward Paco and whispered. “Maybe she shouldn’t hear this, hmm? Maybe—”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “You can say it.”

  He mashed his lips together again, nodded as he wiped more beads of sweat from his glistening head. “Well, what they used to do to the dead before they started walking around was embalm them. See, we remove all of your…insides. You don’t need them anymore anyway, and then we drain your blood and pump embalming fluid into you.”

  Sophia pulled her dress up to reveal the silver wrapping. “All my insides already came out,” she said.

  The doctor started to reach for her stomach, but Paco stopped him. “Don’t touch that…I don’t know if it’ll hold.”

  “What happened?”

  Paco filled the doctor in on all of Sophia’s injuries. The doctor inspected her neck and leg, but said he would take care of the rest once they were in his office.

  “Her neck appears to have stiffened up enough to hold, but I’ll take a closer look once we get to my office. She’s going to stiffen up often, every day. You’ll have to flex her joints out when that happens, big brother.”

  “Yeah, okay. No problem.”

  “And giving her a prosthetic replacement leg might not be a bad idea either. Obviously, infection isn’t the problem, but she may find it more and more difficult to use that leg.”

  “Um…okay.”

  “What’s plastetic mean?” Sophia said as she watched the doctor examine her shin bone.

  “Prosthetic is basically a fake leg, but under your clothing, it would be very difficult for anyone to notice.”

  “Yeah, I want one of those.”

  The doctor laughed, patted her on the head. “You are nothing short of amazing, my dear. I very much hope that we can be friends. Would that be okay with you?”

  She beamed up at him as he stood. “Yes. We can be friends.”

  “Good.” The doctor pulled Paco close—his breath smelled like peppermint. “You did a good job keeping her safe, my boy. She has some damage, but nothing I can’t help you with. I’ll make sure you’re there with her through everything, okay? You have my word.”

  Before Paco could respond, the bedroom door exploded inward. The suddenness of it ripped a scream from Sophia, and Paco flinched so hard he fell to his backside.

  Jake stepped into the room, followed by the whirring of Mrs. Harrell’s chair and Mr. Harrell right behind her. Jake cracked his knuckles and smiled at the kids.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” the doctor said as he stomped toward the intruders.

  “I’m sorry, Doctor. Nothing personal, I assure you,” Mr. Harrell said, then he locked eyes with Jake and gave a slight nod.

  Jake caught the doctor in a tight headlock before the chubby old man could reach the Harrells. With a quick jerk of his arm and a loud pop, the doctor went limp in the large man’s grip, then was dropped like a pile of dirty clothes to the floor.

  “What’s going on!” Paco screamed as he jumped back to his feet and stood in front of his sister. “He was going to help us! What are you doing?”

  “We’ve got new plans, son,” Mr. Harrell said.

  “And it doesn’t concern you, my sweet boy,” Mrs. Harrell said. “Nothing’s changed for you. You’ll still stay here with us, can still have anything your little beating heart desires. But your sister…”

  Jake’s arm felt like a baseball bat as it knocked Paco out of the way. Sophia screamed and beat her fists against his back, kicked her legs as he draped her over his shoulder. There was a tearing sound as Sophia struggled and then her intestines were pouring over Jake and dragging on the floor as they left the bedroom.

  The doctor sat up, made a low groaning sound as he struggled to his feet. Mr. Harrell stepped forward, smiled into the doctor’s face, then turned toward Paco.

  “I’m sorry about this, son. But it has to be this way. You’ll see.”

  “Don’t you call me son. Give me back my sister, you son of a bitch!”

  Mr. Harrell led the doctor out of the room by his hand, gave Paco one last wide grin, then slammed and locked the door behind him.

  - Chapter 22 -

  Calico cut a perfect square away from the veal cutlet on his plate, then stared across the long table at Fleet as he chewed the succulent morsel. Beauty looked like she was tickling her portion, the tip of her finger scraping a hole into its center.

  “Cute kid,” Fleet said as he sipped straight liquor from a glass. No food sat in front of him and he eyed his guests, smiled at them.

  “I told you she doesn’t eat. She has no stomach.” Calico’s voice was low, almost menacing, though he did his best to seem at ease, as if he were enjoying his evening.

  “No worries. Just didn’t seem right to have her at the table with no food in front of her,” Fleet said as he took another sip. “How’s the veal?”

  Calico decided not to comment on the fact that Fleet wasn’t eating, though it made him nervous, like the meat was poisoned or something. But he just nodded and burped. “Tender. Tasty.”

  Fleet emptied the rest of the liquor down his throat, then refilled it—he picked up a silver bell and gave it a violent shake. “I think it’s time for some dessert, yes?”

  An Asian woman in chef’s gear strolled into the room wit
h two covered silver platters. She set one in front of Fleet, then the other in front of Calico. She gave a slight smile and a bow, then retreated back to the kitchen with Calico and Beauty’s dirty dishes.

  “There’s a saying,” Fleet said as he rubbed his hands together and slid his tongue over his lips. “Never get high on your own supply. Pure bullshit, that saying.” And he uncovered his plate. A slice of meat, at least eight ounces and a grayish pink, pulsated and moved across the plate like a flattened caterpillar. Fleet grabbed it, his eyes wide and his mouth twitching, then lifted it to his mouth and bit into it with savage excitement.

  Calico didn’t open his dish, slid it away from him. His fingernails bit into the palms of his hands as he squeezed them tightly under the table. He tried to breathe, tried to stay calm, but only tiny wisps of oxygen could get through the thick hatred filling his body.

  “Oh, come on. We’re celebrating, aren’t we? You tellin’ me you don’t have any vices, Calico?” Fleet grabbed hold of the meat, lifted it toward his mouth.

  “Only one,” he said. “Killing.” His voice sounded like a snarl. As Fleet bit into the meat chunk, Calico slid the fork from the table, moved it to his lap, then jabbed its prongs into his thigh, as deep as they would go. His anger subsided, but only slightly.

  Beauty slapped her palms over her stomach as she watched Fleet devour his drug and moan with deep pleasure. Calico reached over to her, ran his fingers over the tops of her hands to try and calm her, but she still grunted and clicked her teeth.

  “I think she’s jealous,” Fleet said and giggled like a madman. “I wonder what would happen if a dead girl ate dead meat. How about a little experiment, huh?”

  “No, you won’t be putting any of that shit into my daughter’s mouth,” Calico said as he stood. “She’s just agitated, that’s all. New surroundings, too much excitement.” It was then he realized he still gripped the fork handle that was embedded into his flesh. Before Fleet noticed, he popped it out and set it back on the table, staining the tablecloth red.

  “It can’t hurt her. Let’s just give it a try.” The bossman approached her with the last bit of writhing meat in his hand. His shirt was wet as if he’d spilled something on it.

  “I said no!” Calico lunged for the man, was ready to tear him apart with his bare hands, damn the consequences. And Fleet was too high to even notice or care—his full attention was on Beauty.

  “Sir!”

  Both men stopped in their tracks, Calico ready to strike, Fleet letting his gaze slowly peel away from Beauty toward the man rushing into the room with a cell phone in his hand.

  “What is it? It better be fuckin’ good.” Fleet stuffed the rest of the meat into his mouth, wiped his lips on his sleeve.

  Bunny Rabbit nodded at Calico, an idiotic grin contorting his face. He handed the phone to Fleet, leaned in and whispered. Fleet’s expression went from irritated to confused to a rictus that forced Calico to scoop Beauty up and hold her close.

  “Excuse me…some business to attend to. We’ll get back to our…uh…just wait here.” And with that, Fleet spoke in a hushed tone on the cell phone and walked out of the room.

  Bunny Rabbit took a seat at the table and shook his head. He saw the full liquor glass sitting in front of Calico. “You gonna drink that?”

  “Help yourself.”

  Bunny Rabbit emptied the glass in one gulp. “Big news, man. Fucking titanic.”

  “What’s going on?” Calico sized the man up, wondered how much of a challenge he would be, how good of a fight he would put up. He figured he could kill him before Fleet came back, then take care of the bossman before he even knew what had happened. He calculated he could get it done before either one of them detonated the explosive, then he could fish that fucking thing out of his daughter’s head. His left hand crept down toward his ankle.

  “Just got a call from one of Fleet’s best customers. Rich couple, own all the hotels in the city. They got it bad, man. Real bad.” The liquor bottle sat in the middle of the table, and Bunny Rabbit grabbed hold of it, refilled his glass. “You won’t believe what they have at their house right now. Fucking insane. Gonna make the boss crazy cash.”

  The knife was out of its holster now—it felt so good to squeeze the hilt, knowing the blade would be buried into this man. The familiar tingling high started at Calico’s toes and worked its way up. Beauty moaned and pulled on her dress.

  Bunny Rabbit gulped down another glassful of brown liquor, hissed, chuckled as he spun the glass on the table. “The man I spoke to said they have a live dead girl over there. Can you believe that?”

  Calico’s knife hand stopped in place, then fell to his lap. “Live dead girl? What…what do you mean?”

  “Don’t really know. Said she’s dead, had a doctor examine her and everything, but she…she talks. She can think, said she’d be a normal girl if she wasn’t rotting.”

  Calico nearly fell backward in his chair. He grabbed the edge of the table to steady himself, but he still felt dizzy. His mouth dried up and he had to concentrate as he breathed. Beauty stared at him from his lap, gave him her best impression of a smile, her flesh blinking red under her eye.

  “How…how is that possible? Did the doctor do something? Something that caused this?”

  “Beats me, man. All I know is that they got this girl at their home, and they called us right away. I can only imagine what the boss is gonna do with her.” He chuckled. “Funny thing is, the boys were headed that way anyway to drop off these people’s order. Same couple that ordered that girl, you know…the gang bang?”

  And then Fleet poked his head into the room. He called his man over, whispered something, then disappeared again behind the door. Bunny Rabbit looked toward Calico with an expressionless face, and his hands visibly shook. He trudged back to the table, exhaled, then pulled out his pistol and aimed it right at Calico’s face.

  “What the fuck?” Calico stood, set Beauty on the ground and made sure she was behind him. He knew he could throw his knife and kill this motherfucker before he had a chance to pop off any shots, but if he missed, he didn’t know if he would have time to go for the gun before he was pumped full of bullets. So he just stood there, muscles tightened, and gripped the Bowie knife.

  “Sorry about this. Really I am. But boss’s orders.” He stepped closer, gun pointed to Calico’s forehead. “I need you to step away from your daughter. She won’t be harmed, but your dinner plans have been changed. Fleet wants you there when we pick up this dead-alive girl.”

  “Nnnghh…!”

  Calico heard the urgency in Beauty’s tone, and he swung around, blindly swiped his knife. The Asian cook bent backward to avoid the blade, holding Beauty by the hair.

  “You motherfuckers!” Calico went for the woman with a forward knife-thrust.

  Without letting go of Beauty, the woman side-stepped the knife and drove the bottom of her heel into Calico’s chin.

  The impact made him bite his tongue nearly in half. He stumbled backward, still clutching his blade, and spat a splash of blood onto the hardwood floor. He stood up straighter, popped his neck with a quick jerk, smiled at the woman.

  “Keep it cool, man.” Bunny Rabbit’s voice from behind him. “It’s the same as always. Get the job done, she’ll be waiting here for you, safe and sound.”

  But Calico could only concentrate on the high-pitched hum in his head as he locked eyes with the woman holding his daughter. He slid the knife over his forearm, severing the countless scars there, adding another to the bramble of hardened flesh. And he let the knife fall to the floor, raised both fists.

  The woman only smiled back, gave Beauty’s hair a twist.

  Calico went for her, seeing red, tasting blood.

  “Enough!” There was a metallic click and a small chuckle.

  Fleet.

  Calico stopped just before reaching the woman. Their eyes had a magnetic attraction, and he found it hard to peel away his gaze to face Ted Fleet. The old man stood beside Bunny
Rabbit, had the crony’s pistol pointed at Calico.

  “You will go pick up this girl for me. Your daughter will stay here with me until you get back,” he said. The Asian woman was now at Fleet’s side, dragging Beauty along, nearly tearing her scalp clean off. “You cause any more problems, by the time you get back here, she’ll be grinded up and packaged, you understand me?”

  “You touch her, you do anything to hurt her, nothing will stop me from gutting you and bathing in your innards. You understand me? Nothing.”

  Fleet snickered, reached down and massaged the top of Beauty’s head. “Such a vicious motherfucker. That’s why I love you, Calico.” His face went hard, his eyes razor-thin slits. “Now you’ll do as you’re told.”

  Bunny Rabbit stepped toward Calico. “You’ll come with me. We’ll be meeting some of the others at the house.”

  Calico kept his eyes on Fleet as the old man reached over and cupped the Asian woman’s breast. Beauty stood between the two of them, attention on Calico as she clicked her teeth and scratched at her stomach.

  Fuck! Fuck!

  Without another word, Calico followed Bunny Rabbit out of the dining room, only stopping momentarily to pick up his knife. When he heard Beauty calling for him, her voice echoing off the walls of the vast home, he had to fight back the tears that begged to spill.

  - Chapter 23 -

  Paco had given up banging on his door once he broke skin on the heels of his palms. He pressed his ear to the door, but heard nothing. His eyes had long since run out of tears, but his shoulders kept bouncing as he dry heaved.

  “Bring back my sister! Bring her back!”

  His throat felt like he’d been gurgling acid and he let himself collapse backward. The doctor was going to help them. He said he could give them time together. Years. Paco had already been fantasizing about them being back home, back where there aren’t drug addicts roaming every street, hiding in every corner. But now Mrs. Addington’s brother was just another walking corpse, was probably going to be consumed by the Harrells bite by bite.