She sat down in the kitchen chair trying to hold her tears back that were building up in her eyes. She knew the tears were coming from the fact that she hit Eddie and not from the pain in her arm. She reminded herself that she had no choice but to put him in the closet so he couldn’t do more harm to her or himself. After he broke free from her arm, he tried to go for her neck. The growling and hissing coming from his mouth reminded her of a rabid dog. She laid her head down on the table, thought about Bobby, wishing that he were home with her.
The closet door shook as Eddie banged on it from inside. The pictures on the wall rattled with every punch and kick Eddie gave to the door. The hinges seemed to loosen with each blow and Nikki couldn’t image what she would do when the door would finally give way and let the little monster out of his hole.
The tears fell from Nikki’s eyes onto the kitchen table. The banging became louder and she could hear Eddie growling louder and louder behind the door. She shook her head and pounded her fists on the table.
“Stop it! Just stop it!” She jumped up from her chair and briskly walked to the closet door. She stood there looking at the door as it shook. The banging noise hurt her ears and it was on the verge of sending her into a nervous breakdown. She couldn’t take it anymore. She beat her fists against the door. “Stop hitting the door!” She cried harder and beat harder on the door. “Stop it, Eddie!” She slid down onto the chair in front of the door and wept. The banging noise went on for another minute and then stopped. She could still hear him behind the door, growling in a low, deep groan. She could hear his breathing. It reminded her of a monster waiting on the other side wanting to eat her.
Eddie’s breathing slowed down to a shallow pace. She wondered for a moment if Eddie had lost too much blood from the nose punch and if he was starting to pass out. She felt like she was trying to restrain a monster. She wondered if this is what it’s like to work on the fourth floor in the mental ward at the hospital.
She cried out for Bobby in her mind and cursed his boss for sending him on the pointless trip to Kentucky. She would pick up the phone and call Mr. Masterson and tell him what a piece of shit he is for sending her husband away when she needed him most, but she couldn’t call. For some reason the landline had no outgoing connection and her cellphone kept repeating to her that all networks were busy. She thought to herself that she would just sit in the chair in front of the closet long enough for Eddie to calm down, and then she would take him to the hospital. She leaned back in the chair and her head rested against the closet door. If Eddie decided to hit the door again it would surely hit her head.
That’s exactly what Eddie did. The door tapped the back of her head and sent a rush of pain through, vibrating her front teeth. She screamed and jumped up from the chair, turning around to see the closet door. The pictures on the wall in the hallway began shaking again as Eddie screamed and growled while banging his fists against the door harder and harder. This time a family picture, the one they took when Eddie was only three years old, fell from the wall.
“Shut up,” Nikki yelled. She grew more furious with every minute that went by with Eddie screaming and beating the door. She wanted to be a good mother. She had always been a good mother. “Please, honey. Please be quiet.” She spoke softly to him, hoping he would calm down behind the door. She began crying again and started hating herself for locking him in the closet. This is not what a good mother does. She fell back in the chair and cried herself to sleep.
At a quarter to ten, Nikki woke up from her nap in the recliner. She rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. She shook her head and remembered she had her son locked in the closet behind her, not that she could forget. She slowly got up. She didn’t want to wake him out of fear he would start with one of his vicious rants again. She grabbed the arms of the recliner and slowly pulled it away from the closet. Her chest jolted up and down as her heart raced. She had a crazy feeling that some kind of an evil monster would crash through the door and eat her alive after she got the chair out of the way. She felt the blood pumping rapidly and hard through the veins in her neck.
Her hands trembled as she reached for the doorknob of the closet. She feared that Eddie would be lying on the other side of the door dead in a pool of blood. Blood she caused to pour from his tiny nose. She grasped the knob and slowly turned it all the way to the right until it stopped and clicked. She swallowed what felt like a lump as she eased the door open. She closed her eyes and opened them again. If Eddie wanted to jump up and have a go at her again, now would be the perfect chance. The only thing between her and the boy lying on the floor with a bloody nose was about two feet of empty space.
The blood had dried on his face and covered the front of his bare chest. She did her best to hold back the tears and felt a little relief when she noticed his chest rising up and down. “He’s still alive,” Nikki said to herself. “Thank God.”
Eddie had fallen asleep, and at the young age of ten years old it doesn’t seem to take much for a child to drift off into a deep sleep. From all the banging and pounding on the door he had done he was no doubt in the deepest of sleep. The way he lay in the closet made him look like a rag doll that had been tossed away after playtime.
Nikki reached down carefully out of fear of Eddie biting her again. She hovered her hand over his mouth to feel for air coming out of him as she watched his chest rise and fall. He was breathing normally despite his busted nose. She grimaced at the site of what she had done to her son’s face, but she reminded herself she had no choice. I had no choice, is what she’ll tell the police, if it ever comes to that.
“Eddie?” she whispered. “Are you okay?” She said it softly so she wouldn’t wake him. She’s too afraid he will come at her again. She slowly wrapped her hands around his shoulders and underneath his arms. She gently picked him up from the floor.
“He’s getting heavy,” she said under her breath.
She placed Eddie on the couch and covered him with his favorite blanket and went to the kitchen briefly, then returned with a washcloth soaked in warm water. Tears ran down her cheek as she wiped the dried blood away from Eddie’s face and from his chest. Her tears dripped from her chin and landed on Eddie. She wondered to herself why something like this would happen to her and her son. She became angry as she thought about the perfect timing of the phones not working when she really needed them the most.
Nikki decided to wait just a little while longer before putting on some decent clothes and throwing a shirt on Eddie before driving him to the hospital. She wanted to think about what she would tell the doctor when they ask what happened to his face. Would they accuse her of abusing her child? Would they claim that Eddie bit her to defend himself even when she would tell them what really happened? This made her question herself about taking him at all. She had seen it happen before in her time as a nurse with Cheyenne General. A high-tempered parent would conjure up an almost believable story before they would bring in their battered child only to have the story fall apart when the child talked to the police.
“Oh, he fell out of the top bunk and hit his head on his Tonka truck. It was quite a fall doctor,” a parent would say. “Me? A child abuser? No way...Why are you calling the police?”
She pictured herself standing in the emergency room trying to explain to the doctors a similar story. They would have to believe her. She works for them. They know she is a calm and passive person. She took the vision of herself to an extreme and saw herself in handcuffs in the back of a police car with Eddie standing on the sidewalk, waving to her and laughing. Should have left me in the closet woman.
No. I have to tell the truth. I need to take him. Just in case his nose is broken.
She turned and looked at her sleeping son on the couch.
His nose doesn’t look broken...It could be cracked though.
She stared at him for what seemed like a half hour until she finally decided to pull herself together and get dressed. Before going to the bedroom to change out of her nightgown, s
he reached down and picked up the television remote.
Maybe there are some cartoons on this morning he can watch if he wakes up. What am I thinking? There is nothing good on TV in the morning.
She turned on the television anyway. The white noise and the snowy background on the television reminded her of when Bobby had begged her to stick to regular cable. She also thought about all the shows that she could watch on her days off if they had satellite TV. Instead, anytime she wanted to see the latest episode of her favorite show, she had to do an exhaustive search on the internet just to watch it. She shook her head, turned the television off, and carelessly tossed the remote on the coffee table in front of her. She froze as she watched it hit the glass table, causing a loud clanking noise as it bounced twice and landed on the carpet. She knew right away that this was a big mistake. She felt as though everything turned to slow motion as she turned to look at Eddie.
Eddie’s eyes opened and jerked to his right to his see his mother turning toward him. The look on her face was as though she just remembered something she forgot to do, like turning off a gas burner before leaving the house or maybe putting the car in park before leaving it on a hill.
She turned just in time to watch Eddie’s lips curl back, exposing every tooth in his mouth. He took a deep breath and began to growl at her. She didn’t have time to think about what to do, so she did the second thing that came to mind (the first had been to put a pillow over his face, but she knew she couldn’t do that).
“Eddie! Stop it!” She tried to push him away.
Eddie pushed his elbows down on the couch and began to raise himself up. She grabbed both of his wrists, jerked him from the couch and dragged him back toward the closet. He squirmed his body in her arms and she nearly lost hold of him. There was no telling what could happen if he broke free.
“I’m sorry honey,” she said as she pulled him closer to the closet. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’re hurting yourself and you’re hurting mommy.” She didn’t waste any time putting him in the closet and slamming the door shut. She held the door closed in fear of the door knob breaking away and Eddie jumping out and latching down on her with his teeth again.
Eddie beat his fists against the door over and over again. Then there were several thuds that made the pictures shake. Nikki stepped back and put a hand over her mouth. She gasped, realizing the thud was from Eddie beating his head against the door. Thud after thud after thud.
“Stop honey,” she said. “You’re hurting yourself. Please stop.” She fell to her knees and the tears began dripping from her eyes. Eddie continued beating his head against the door. “You little bastard, stop it!” She couldn’t take it any longer and let herself go. She felt like a failure at being a mother at that point. She couldn’t control her own son.
The beating stopped. Nikki’s cries reduced to a shallow whimper as she looked up at the door. She could hear him growling on the other side. It was a low and hideous growling that made Nikki feel more scared than she had been in her life. More scared than the time she had watched “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” when she was no older than Eddie.
Please God. What is wrong with my son? Please make it stop.
A faint scream that Nikki thought was coming from the closet was actually coming from the street in front of their home. Nikki turned her head and looked toward the front door in the hallway. The screaming faded away, then another scream. This one seemed closer. She wondered what was going on outside, but there would be no way in hell she would step foot out of the front door if she really knew what was going on. She looked at the closet door, and then pushed the recliner in front of it to make sure Eddie could not get out. She walked up to the door and peeked through the peephole.
“What is going on out there,” she said to herself as she tried to focus on the people in the street. She stepped away from the door and unlocked it without thinking to look out of the window first. After opening the door, she would wish she made a better choice. Her mother had always told her to never open the door for strangers and to never open it if you didn’t know what was happening on the other side.
On the street there were three people in the middle of it directly in front of Nikki and Bobby’s house. She recognized two of them as neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. The third person she didn’t know. Her neighbors seemed to be enjoying themselves to a hearty breakfast of flesh and blood as they tore at the other person’s face.
Nikki placed a hand over her mouth and shook her head in disgust. She ran back into the house. She grimaced as she quickly closed the front door and tried not to let out a scream. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she rushed to the phone to call 911. Her thoughts raced as she tried to make sense of everything happening inside and outside of her home.
When she pressed the TALK button on the phone, she felt relief at first when she heard nothing, waiting for the dial tone to come through. She started to pull the phone from her ear to dial 911, but heard the recorded operator coming through saying, “We’re sorry. All communication systems are experiencing an overload of call volume. Please try your call again later.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said as she poked the TALK button with her finger. “This is crazy.” She sat the phone down on the kitchen counter, went back to the window, and peeked through the curtain. “Oh God, what are they doing?” She watched as her neighbors continued to feast away at the woman on the ground that was surely dead by now. Mrs. Thomas ripped open the dead woman’s blouse and opened her mouth wide. She leaned down and started biting at the woman’s chest. Mr. Thomas was still gnawing on the woman’s face. Nikki shook her head and started to cry. The tears ran down her cheeks and dripped from her chin. “This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.”
A loud thud came from the closet in the hallway. She turned and looked toward it.
Eddie.
She realized Eddie had awakened again, only this time he wasn’t screaming and growling. She hoped that it was his fists he was beating against the door and not his head.
What am I going to do?
She stood by the window watching the closet door shake vigorously. She sobbed as she fell down to her knees and put her head in her hands.
“Please God. Please make my son stop.”
The beating stopped. She remembered the people in the street and turned to look out of the window. She pulled the curtain back slowly and saw that Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were gone. The dead woman was still in the middle of the street. Nikki leaned her head against the window and tried to look as far as she could in both directions to see where her neighbors had disappeared. She saw nothing, but the glimpse of her car in the driveway gave her an idea. She thought carefully about the risk of getting Eddie into the car and taking him to the hospital. Now did she not only have to worry about what Eddie may do to her when she would take him out of the closet, she would also have to worry about her neighbors that have obviously turned crazy. The horrific scene had made her think of “Night of the Living Dead” and how the people were stuck in the house and were being bitten and ripped apart.
Nikki sat down on the living room couch and turned on the television again. The same white noise and snowy background still showed on the screen. She turned it off, walked over the stereo, and turned it on. She turned the radio tuner knob until she found a station that actually worked. She caught the middle of a broadcast coming through. The radio disc jockey sounded distraught and his voice was very shaky.
“This is Henry Watson with KWTC radio,” said the radio jockey. “I’m now going to turn you over to a live report that is being sent to all radio stations across the country. Please listen carefully and God bless you all and good luck.”
The live report was coming in from Washington, D.C. Someone in a high-up military ranking position came on and spoke.
“Be advised. I’m going to have to make this short and to the point. I’m sure you are all aware of what is occurring in our cities across the country as I
speak. If you are listening to this then you are clearly not infected. We are not sure of what is causing a majority of our citizens to become hostile. Terrorism has not been ruled out, but we are currently working on this issue. Please do not leave your homes. Find somewhere safe to hide and do not come out. We do not know how long you will need to go into hiding, but you will be much safer if you remain unseen. If you see anyone acting strangely do not approach them. If you become bitten care for your wounds and please seclude yourselves from others. We do not know if those that become bitten turn hostile or not at this time. Use of necessary force to protect yourself is a must and is completely authorized at this time...” The radio transmission faded out and turned to static.
Nikki stood, staring at the radio with her hands over her mouth. She could not help but to think about Eddie. He had become hostile. She feared the worst of losing her son and if he would ever be normal again. She needed Bobby more than ever now. She needed him to be home and help her with their son. If only she knew that he had almost died in a plane crash and that he is dealing with his own set of problems right now. She didn’t think about it at first when the government official came on the radio and spoke about how it’s happening across the entire country. She could only think about what is happening inside of her home and on the street out front. She looked down at the bite wound on her arm and thought about what the radio transmission had said about hostiles biting people. She prayed that it would not be true that people turn hostile when they are bitten. It’s the last thing I need at this moment, she thought.
The Gorging Page 14