His first instinct when he saw the two men sleeping in the main room was to have the child retrieve a knife and kill them. But he needed Manny alive until he reached the lot; the other was of no consequence.
Wiy guided her out the front door and down the steps, one step at a time, down the block and in his direction. He put feelers out all around her to make sure nothing got in the way. He wasn't sure if the child would be able to defend herself even with his power coursing through her, so he wanted to use stealth instead of strength. There would be time enough for strength.
There were humans in the area, stupidly thinking they were safe behind locked doors and barred windows. No material object would stand in his way, and nothing living would survive.
The child crossed Route 36 with no vehicles in sight and stepped onto Chelsea Avenue. He was exhilarated. Even from here, a hundred feet away, he could feel her body warmth and taste her soul.
She was made to force her way through the dense growth, clawing and kicking, until she stood before his secret place below. She was sopping wet, cuts and bruises on her limbs and face, and one of her feet was bleeding.
Wiy gently forced her to kneel in the deep puddle above him, and he began to slowly and methodically drain her.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Tammy screamed. She was wide-awake, standing in the kitchen.
When Manny and Mark ran in, she could only hold herself against the wall. “She's gone.”
“No way,” Manny said, hysterically. “How? When?”
“I don't know. I woke up and figured she was out in the kitchen, helping herself to breakfast. She's not in the house, and the front door was unbolted.”
Mark put his hand on his head. “Impossible. That deadbolt is a bitch to break through, and we would have heard.”
“She left,” Manny suddenly said. “He called her. Shit. Get dressed.”
Tammy struggled to get her jeans on because her hands were shaking so much, and she was seeing red. How could this happen? Why didn't we set a watch or think we were dealing with something normal and natural? Why, why, why!
“I am so sorry,” Manny said when they ran into each other at the front door.
“I don't know what we were thinking. If anything happens to my baby…” Tammy pushed past Manny and went out the door. “Let's go.”
“Not you,” she heard Manny say and was about to attack him for even suggesting she didn't go, but he was speaking to Mark.
“Bullshit. I'm your partner, and I'm the only one stupid enough to have your back.”
Manny grabbed Mark by the arm. “This isn't some gang thing or some shooting thing or some drug thing. This is a crazy fucking thing. Something you have nothing to do with, and something that is beyond you.”
“I'm going,” Mark said defiantly.
“We're wasting time,” Tammy yelled.
Manny looked at Mark and spoke calmly. “This isn't a movie where we tell you not to come but you do anyway and then you save the day. This is between this creature and me. You being there will only give him another person to control and attack us. I won't have you there because then I'd have to shoot you.”
“I'm going,” Mark said but with a stutter in his voice.
“Please, stay here. I promise, as soon as we return, we'll fill you in.”
“I'll make coffee.” He hugged them both.
“We need to run,” Tammy said. “I had a dream last night. We were on foot and running.”
They began to run down the block toward the ocean and Chelsea Avenue.
Manny dreamed they had to run as well, but he was so out of shape, he was out of breath by the time they crossed Route 36. It's not supposed to be this way, he thought. The hero shows up with music blaring, strong and powerful, ready to kick ass. He thought if he took another step, he would pass out.
Tammy was breathing heavy but not nearly as bad as he was. "Where?"
The lot looked even more grown over since the other day when he was here with vines and tree roots digging into the street. The asphalt had been split, brown, gnarled tree roots driving a full five feet into the road.
“This is it,” he whispered and set foot on the wet grass. He immediately felt cold, the shooting coming back to him like it was yesterday. In response, his wound, which still bore the scar, began to get warm. He doubled over in pain as he could almost feel the bullet entering his gut again.
“Are you alright?” Tammy asked.
“Yes.” Manny willed himself to push the pain and the fear down. He wasn't here alone, and he had a job to do. “This is my property, you hear me?” He yelled. “You have no power and no control here.”
As if in answer, the waves crashed on the beach to the east, loud and threatening. Manny knew it wasn't a coincidence. The water around his feet seemed to pulse, ripples expanding where there was no movement.
Tammy began pushing through, tree limbs smacking at her and the weeds trying to hold onto her legs. Manny was right behind her, and they cut a path, both having a sense from dreams where the central hub of this creature was.
“We need to hurry,” Tammy said desperately. “Stephanie had too much of a lead on us.”
“We'll find her.” God, please let us find her alive. “She's a tough girl, like her mom.”
“Her mom just pissed her pants,” Tammy said.
Manny would have laughed if he had any spit left in his mouth. His jaw wasn't clenched, and his teeth weren’t grinding together.
Tammy slammed her weight against a net of foliage, and it gave way.
So did Tammy, who Manny watched plunge headfirst into a large puddle of water and go under.
Chapter 25
July 2003
One minute, Tammy was fighting her way through the jungle before her, and the next, she was underwater.
She swallowed water, burning her lungs, and struggled to break the surface and get air. It happened so fast, she didn't have time to take a breath.
Through the dirty water, she couldn't see inches in front of her. She was swimming but didn't know if she was going up or down. She banged her head into something solid, possibly a tree, and struggled to find it with her hands.
She reached out and grasped the bloated, dead arm of her ex-husband.
Tammy opened her mouth to scream, and saltwater ran down her throat.
It was Randy, his skin waterlogged and swollen, belly distended and fingers like balloons. She tried to release her grip, but her arm wouldn't work, her fingers refusing to let go.
Randy opened his eyes, black and sightless, and his mouth constricted, his dead tongue forcing between blue lips.
She closed her eyes and gave up, the water killing her.
Manny fished through the murky water and gripped Tammy by the head. He pulled her, unceremoniously, out by her hair, dragging her to the side of the small lake.
He began CPR, but she didn't respond at first. “Come on, don't you dare die on me. Not here, not now.” He knew what it would mean if she was dead.
Tammy was unresponsive, and Manny almost screamed. Manny searched deep inside, knowing what sacrifices he had to make. Knowing what he had to ask.
He closed his eyes and put his hands on Tammy's chest, thinking if the feisty woman were conscious, she'd have a snappy retort for him touching her there.
She spit water from her mouth and rolled like she'd been electrocuted. Manny pulled his hands back. She was hot to the touch and alive.
Manny lifted her head, but she pushed him away, water leaking from her mouth. She stumbled to rise, but he held her to the ground. “Take a break. You almost died.”
“My daughter,” she managed to say between coughing fits. “Help me up.”
He did and was amazed at her resilience. Without another hand, she shook as much water out of her hair as she could, gave a glance back at the pool, and continued forward.
Manny got in behind her and, silently, thanked the powers that had helped them.
The branches whipped in their faces, and they
could hear the angry sea crashing onto the beach and probably as far as the short sea wall that separated the sand from the street.
Undeterred, Tammy was nearly running now. Manny knew they'd lost so much time, too much time… He was sure little Stephanie was alright, a captive of the monster. Isn't that how these stories are supposed to end? Where the heroes save the damsel in distress?
Tammy gasped as they entered a clearing, a natural lake with a bathtub as its centerpiece. Manny was sure it was the same one he'd been near the day he was shot. He could still picture Tony holding her head underwater, drowning her in the tub. Like it was yesterday. In response, his gut began to throb again, white-hot pain searing through him and bringing him to his knees.
Tammy screamed.
Through clenched teeth, he could make out the still form of Stephanie, face down in the tub and unmoving.
Chapter 26
July 2003
The little child was dead. He'd drained every last drop of blood and life force out of her puny carcass and basked in its taste. Her hollow body was filled with new life as his denizens from the ocean were feeding on her organs and growing new life, life that would devour the rest of the Earth with water.
He savored the moment. No use in simply killing Manny and draining him immediately. Wiy of the Water, his power growing enough he could form a humanoid shape from the pool, now stood in open air for the first time in many years.
He used his senses to smell the salty air, hear the waves crashing angrily, trying to reach him, and feel the water around and part of him.
Manny Santiago would make an excellent vessel until he found one more suitable. The irony of this weak man, the last one to defy him, would be the face that the world saw when he began to rip it apart and rebuild it in his image.
The mother was crying, holding the dead child in her arms and screaming. He smiled with his watery mouth, savoring the movement, as she begged him through teary eyes to take her instead and let the child live. Such weak creatures. It was too late for sentimental and inconsequential things now. That part of the puzzle had been solved, and only one more stood before his conquest.
Wiy of the Water turned and faced Manny Santiago, who stood on the other side of the water. He was trembling.
Manny stood his ground despite every inch of his being telling him to turn and run and never look back.
Wiy had materialized right before him, a swirling mass of water that spun and tossed droplets back into the pond. He could smell seawater, and he could see tiny sea creatures, seaweed, and globs of foam spilling off the monster and then getting drawn back in. It stood a full head taller and twice as wide, a wall of death.
Manny was glad he was soaking wet because he felt a hotness on his leg and realized he had pissed himself.
He wanted to tell Tammy to stop screaming and stop pleading with the creature to take her instead. He knew it was pointless. The creature had gotten half of what he needed to fully Ascend to this world.
Manny was the second half of that.
“Tammy, take Stephanie and go.”
She ignored him, still pleading as she held her daughter and leaned heavily against the tub.
Not taking his eyes off Wiy, Manny moved to Tammy and put a hand on her shoulder. "You need to get her out of here, or there's no way she'll survive."
He knew she was already dead and knew nothing would bring her back, but he didn't have time to plead with her or make sense out of what happened. “I'll see what I can do. You're no use to him, and he'll just kill you or use you against me.”
Tammy lifted her daughter in her arms, Stephanie's arms hanging limply and dripping water. She turned to Manny. “Kill this fucker.”
“I will,” Manny said and hoped he sounded surer than he actually was.
She turned back to Wiy. “I hope you burn in Hell, motherfucker.” She turned and began the lonely trek back to the street.
Manny shuddered as he watched her go. He was completely alone now with a task no mortal should have to face.
“I'm ready,” he said aloud and closed his eyes as he raised his hands.
Wiy watched the woman leave, idly smelling her anger and fear as she left. No matter. If he'd wanted to, he could've easily destroyed her and forced her to succumb to his will.
The thought of using her against Manny was strong but in the end unnecessary. There was no emotional attachment between the two except for their predicament. If they'd been lovers or related in some way, it would have been much sweeter.
Instead, he turned his full attention on Manny Santiago. He smelled of not only fear but urine. This one was weaker than he'd thought.
He moved toward him, the water rippling angrily as he passed and joined by a chorus from the ocean that he'd soon meet back with, but the human stood still.
Waves splashed up and nearly knocked over the human, who had his eyes closed and hands raised. Who was he praying to, a dead god that no longer cared? Soon, they would all bow to the new god.
He decided to toy with Manny. He'd drag him underwater until he was almost dead before giving him precious air. Then he'd dunk him again and again until he was truly dead.
From his bloated corpse would rise Wiy of the Water, and he would find the woman. She was probably still in the area, crying over her dead brat.
Wiy went to probe with his power, to see where she was for later use, when Manny Santiago, the last piece of the puzzle, opened his eyes.
They were filled with fire.
Og of the Flame, Eternal Brother of Wiy of the Water and eternal enemy, took control of the mortal with ease. They'd been practicing this possession since the beginning whether Manny Santiago knew it or not.
When told of his ultimate fate and what had to be in order for Wiy to not claim victory, Manny had readily agreed, knowing what that entailed. In order to save humanity and his own as well, he'd agreed to do what had to be done without a second thought. For his wife, who he'd never see again. For Tammy and her daughter. For Long Branch. And all it had taken was for Og to show him a glimpse of the world covered in water, those he knew and love drowned. It had been enough.
Now, Og took advantage of his brother's confusion and began to shoot forth the cleansing fire from the human's hands, eyes, mouth, and especially where he'd been shot, the flame searing the wet trees, bushes, and vines and alighting them like dry parchment.
The pool of water began to steam before him, gases escaping into the air—he knew that his Eternal Brother Soh of the Wind would not become involved but would not stop the water rising through his domain and back into the clouds above.
Likewise, his Eternal Brother Dir of the Earth did not openly interfere when his plant life, soil, and rocks began to burn, scorch, and melt into the ground.
All around the dwindling pool, the trees burned, tossing ash into the wind. The heat was unbearable to those not immortal, and the human that was Manny Santiago ceased to exist, now only a vessel for the never-ending flames expanding across the lot on Chelsea Avenue.
Wiy of the Water created a ten-foot wave from the ocean, and it crashed and swept across part of the lot, but it wasn't enough.
Og concentrated the flame against the water and watched the steam rising, creating a huge fogbank. All his force was used as he continued to burn the land and raze it to the blackened ground.
Sure his Eternal Brother was washed from this world, he continued for several more minutes until there was nothing left of the lot except dying fires and a three-foot deep burned hole where Manny had stood.
He looked to the ocean, now calm, and sighed. He knew somewhere, sometime, he'd be meeting Wiy of the Water again to do battle.
Through the smoke and steam, Tammy found the ambulance and hesitantly handed her lifeless daughter over.
Mark Dowd was there as well as dozens of emergency personnel.
“Are you alright?” he asked as he hugged her.
“No. She's gone. He's gone…”
That was when Stephanie opened
her fire-rimmed eyes and spit water out with a cough.
Epilogue
Tammy packed up the last box and handed it to her brother, Josh. She looked back at her home and sighed. The last three weeks had been surreal, and she'd wandered through life like a zombie.
Stephanie was already curled up with a book in the middle of the rental truck.
“Give me the keys,” Josh said.
“Fat chance. I'm not letting you drive to Jersey.”
“I'm a good driver,” he said with a laugh but didn't press her for the keys.
They climbed into the moving truck, and she smiled at her brother. “I love you.”
“I know,” he said and winced when she punched him. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Sure you want to go back?”
“I don't have anything here. With everyone I know gone except you, I want to get back to basics and get home where I belong.”
“Good for you.”
“What will you do?”
Josh shrugged. “No idea. Maybe I'll look for a place near you and start over myself.”
“Great,” she said sarcastically. “I knew I should've moved by myself.”
“I'm surprised you didn't ask Lover Boy to help.”
“Who?” she asked, trying not to smile.
“Police Officer Dowd, of course. I heard you last night while I was packing, and you were giggling like a little girl on the phone.”
“No idea what you're talking about.” Tammy started the truck. “Put on your seat belt. We're in for one hell of a ride.” She gave her daughter a quick kiss on top of her head.
About the Author
* * *
Armand Rosamilia is a New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he writes when he's not sleeping. He's written over 100 stories that are currently available, including a few different series:
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