“. . . and whatever’s on the other side, it’s evil. Pure and carnal, like a demon no one has ever seen before. The ones…those people that have been affected. Those are the ones that are truly blind. They can’t see.”
“Can’t see what?” Teddy asked, reaching the car and opening the back passenger side door.
“The riders. The Hitchers. They can’t see that it’s too late for them. That they don’t have control anymore. Once one of those things latches on, you’re done for.” The homeless man shouted, making onlookers in the street show concern. Teddy tried easing the irate man into the cruiser, but he pulled away, shouting more nonsense. “It can be stopped if you find the gatekeeper. We must find the one responsible for opening these doors that let them into our world. They’ve already gotten to Elliott and now Bonnie. Who’s going to be next?” He shouted.
“Calm down,” Teddy reasoned, still trying to push him into the patrol car. “Get in the car and we will talk about it on the way to the station. Maybe we can get someone there to help us find this gatekeeper of yours.”
“No!” The homeless man pulled away, slipping from Teddy’s grip. He stepped back, calm at first, then glared hard at Teddy for a moment. His expression quickly went from excited to frightened. “You . . . it’s you!” He pointed at Teddy, back stepping. His arm shook with fear, his lips trembling. “You’re one of them. It’s too late for you! You’re one of them, I tell you. It has control. The Hitcher that rests on your shoulders has sealed your fate.”
Teddy scanned the road and the shops on the other side of the street. The number of onlookers had nearly doubled.
“Everything all right, Teddy?” One of the shop owners called out from across the street.
That was all it took. The single moment that Teddy took his eyes away from the hysterical creep was enough. The homeless man turned away, taking off in full sprint. Running back the way that they had just come, he rounded the old diner building, instantly disappearing. Teddy hesitated for a second, looking at the cruiser. He should call in and let someone know what was happening, but doing that would only provoke his old man. Make him think less of his son. Opting out of the need to call dispatch, Teddy gave chase.
It was mere seconds before he was behind the old diner again, weapon at the ready once more. Sighting down the pistol’s barrel, he scanned the area. From where he stood, the area opened up to the back alley of the old mom and pop shops. Most of the shops on this side of the street had by now moved to the plaza or had closed all together. If any area was a dangerous one to be in, it was back here. This was where a lot of the homeless community hung out. To his left was the back side of most of the condemned shops. To his right, were a few dumpsters no longer in use, along with one long privacy fence reaching from one end of the alley to the other. It was what separated the small shops from the playground and neighborhoods on the other side. By the time the sun went down at night, this back alley would be teaming with people, either turning in for the night or getting drunk around illegal barrel fires.
As Teddy slowly eased his way down the alley, he passed one of the charred barrels. A few long ago emptied bottles covered with small brown bags sat around the barrel. The alley was just like those bottles; surprisingly empty. Aside from the stray cat that dashed out from under a cot of cardboard and blankets behind one of the dumpsters, there wasn’t much happening. If being startled for the third time in less than thirty minutes wasn’t putting him on edge, the silence was.
“Stupid fuckin’ cat.” He grumbled, taking one step at a time deeper into the homeless dwelling.
He watched the black cat scurry away, probably more afraid of him than him of it.
Where the hell is everybody, he thought, nearly halfway into the back alley.
There were still at least five more shops up ahead on the left that were abandoned. That creep couldn’t have gone far.
Then, someone screamed.
It came from one of the buildings up ahead on the left.
“Shit.” Teddy took a breath and checked the safety on his 9mm.
He was filled with instant regret. He should have called dispatch from the car before heading off into the alley.
He stopped for a second and then looked over his shoulder. He was the only one in the alley. It was too far to go back now and he had forgotten his handset at the house in his rush to get dressed and call in. It wasn’t his fault that getting called in early was so sudden. He looked down at his wristwatch and scanned the skyline. It was still daylight and he had at least three or four more hours before the sun started going down. He was glad for that. Last thing he wanted was for the sun to go down while he was still hanging around this creep-fest, dealing with this screaming lunatic. That was when all of the crazies would be coming back to the alley to crawl back into their holes and do whatever the hell it was they did back here.
The scream came again.
It was obviously a male. His judgment told him which building it was coming from. Before he even realized what was happening, training took over. It was as if his body switched on a light, telling his legs where to go and his arms what to do. He watched as he kicked the back door in. It swung open to what used to be Kelly’s Pawn shop. They had shut down when the new plaza was built, eager to join the swarm of small businesses relocating. The transition never happened, because the rent at the new location was too high, so the shop never relocated or reopened. The walls were lined with shelves stuffed to the brim with lawn care equipment. A row of shorter shelves down the middle of the store displayed small televisions and VCR’s too outdated to use.
The store was dark, musty, and damp. He heard movement farther into the store.
“Don’t move. Grayson Police. We have the building surrounded!” someone shouted, their voice shaky.
Teddy shook his head, realizing not only that he was the one who shouted, but also that what he had just said sounded very unsure. He gritted his teeth, aiming the pistol out. Something fell on the other side of the aisle that had the televisions on it. As the heavy object crashed to the ground, frightening Teddy, he saw movement. From his vantage point, he couldn’t tell what it was, but something was obviously happening on the floor on the other side of the aisle.
“Hey,” Teddy shouted, sounding more confident this time. “Whatever the hell is going on over there, stop right now and show yourself.” He sidestepped the aisle of VCR’s to get a better look. What he saw, he didn’t expect. At first, he wasn’t even sure what he was seeing anyway. “You…put your hands where I can see ’em!”
The two men on their knees with their backs turned to Teddy didn’t respond. Their arms hung limp at their sides and their heads were cocked back oddly. It wasn’t until one of them shifted their weight slightly that Teddy saw him. The homeless man that he was trying to assist into the cruiser, the one that had made the call, was cowering in the corner. The two men on their knees had him cornered next to a rack of old used golf clubs and outdoor sport gear.
“Hey!” Teddy called out again, slowly easing closer to the men.
“Please,” the homeless man cried, locking eyes with Teddy as he drew closer.
The fear in the homeless man’s gaze sent chills up the young cop’s back. His skin crawled. Looking away, he brought his focus back to the two men who were on their knees doing absolutely nothing to harm the cornered bum.
“All right now, what the hell is goin’ on here?” Teddy asked, stepping just a few feet forward, right behind the two men. With their backs still to him, he shook his gun trying to get their attention. It wasn’t working.
“You can’t see?” The homeless man shouted, pointing a finger past the two men toward Teddy.
The sudden shout made Teddy jump, almost dropping his pistol. But that wasn’t the only thing that happened. While Teddy was still climbing around inside his head, trying to find the answers, the homeless man screamed. The blood curdling cry made Teddy stumble back a step, biting down on his tongue. A sharp pain jarred his senses. Th
e warm taste of iron filled his mouth.
When he looked back up, the man on his knees to the left started to convulse. His body wiggled in short controlled spasms. Teddy stepped forward, lowering his pistol to grab the man on the arm. Just when he was going to ask if the man was okay, he got a better look at what was happening.
The homeless man that these other two men had cornered screamed again in even more pain.
Teddy looked up and almost vomited on the spot. He watched as the cornered bum’s forearm and face melted like hot wax. His screams turned to gurgles as his throat started to swell. The skin bubbled and then burst around his throat. Red meaty chunks spewed out splashing the two men before him. They did nothing. Didn’t even move. Other than the small spasms that both of them were doing at this point, they didn’t even seem to notice the gore as it splashed across them.
The sound of pain and suffering filled the pawn shop as Teddy tried to look away. His stomach recoiled, demanding to send whatever was in there to the top. He dropped his gun at his side and fought the nausea. The gun came to rest with the soft thud as it hit the cold, scuffed up tile. He closed his eyes for a moment, but the images where still there. He opened them again.
The homeless man grabbed at his throat with both hands. His eyes started turning into a jelly like substance and Teddy watched as the skin and meat peeled away like pulled pork turned to paste. His skull was starting to show. It too began to melt. His hands did nothing to save him as he dug at the hole forming around his neck. His arms blistered. The sound of skin popping with pus filled plasma was like popcorn in a microwave. His fingers melted to bone, and as he tore at his throat, all he did was stretch the gash even wider. The bones of his fingers melted next.
And in a matter of minutes there was nothing left of the man but a gold tooth and the coins that had been in his pocket. The smell of sulfur and burnt flesh filled the room. Steam lifted from the pile of goo that remained.
Teddy vomited.
What the hell just happened? He thought, wiping his mouth. It’s as if these two men just poured invisible battery acid on him or something, but how was that even possible? They weren’t even moving. They weren’t even touching him. Their hands were at their sides the entire fuckin’ time.
Teddy had seen his fair share of horror movies. The gore. The blood. The violence. But this… this was real life. The only other time he had ever come close to seeing something like this was on the movie Aliens with that one hot chick that had the curly brown hair. It was the blood. When the aliens got cut or spit on you, it was like some kind of crazy acid that could eat through anything, even metal.
It wasn’t until Teddy felt something shift beside him that he realized he had been paralyzed in thought. Coming back to his senses, he was still standing right behind the two men in the middle of the aisle. Only now, the men weren’t on their knees. They were getting up.
He recognized the guy on the left. It was Brian, the construction worker who lost his job a while back. He glanced at the man on the right for a split second. The only thing he caught about the man was the fingerless gloves that he was wearing and the overcoat.
Teddy fumbled for his gun, but it wasn’t in his holster. As he stepped back, in shock and filled with fear, he felt the gun graze his boot. He looked down at it, contemplating the need to be quick. The need to pick it up. He looked up at the two men, both now turned toward him. Just when he was about to reach down to grab for the pistol, he noticed something was wrong with their eyes. Both men’s eyes were solid white. Their eyes were rolled back in their heads, their mouths wide and spilling drool from their lips to their chins.
Then he heard it.
“Why are you afraid, Teddy?” A watery, ghoulish voice called out. It was raspy and cold, and it had come from one of the two men. Only neither of the men had opened their mouths. And it was more like it was in Teddy’s head than anything. It called out again. “Teddy, we need you. You have already been chosen. Help us go forth and choose others. There are others to choose.”
“What? What the hell?” Teddy back stepped, forgetting the gun on the ground.
“Why do you fight us?” The voice grew louder, sounding as if it were under water. “We’ve been here a long time, and we want the others to join us. Help us. Quit fighting it like you have done for so long. Join us. Reach out and penetrate the realm. You must empty your vessel.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Teddy shouted. As he stepped away from the two men, they closed the distance, somehow able to see where they were going even with their eyes rolled back into their sockets. His head throbbed and his vision started to blur. “Leave me alone!”
“Don’t you remember us, Teddy? From the dreams? Your blood has sent for us. Obos is waiting.”
Teddy slapped himself in the head, trying to make the pain go away. His head suddenly ached worse than he had ever felt in his life. It felt like it was splitting right open. It was like these two men were using some kind of mind control. He didn’t know. Mind control was make-believe. He willed himself to turn to run out of the pawnshop, but couldn’t. He felt something pulling him, keeping him there to listen.
The sudden pop that echoed into Teddy’s ear in the left side of his body sounded like a shotgun blast at close range. He felt something warm and thick like tar dripping down his left cheek. When he tried to look back up at the two men, his vision blurred so much that he could no longer see. His head filled with a heavy buzzing sensation. It was as if he had a wasp’s nest floating around in his brain.
Teddy screamed out in pain, trying to rationalize what the hell was happening.
When his eyes finally reopened, his mind felt clearer than it had ever felt before. There was only one thing he couldn’t figure out. What the hell had he had done with his sidearm. He patted down the empty holster as he opened the driver side door, climbing into the cruiser. He couldn’t even remember why he found himself parked in front of the old abandoned diner. He hadn’t been by there since the new plaza opened. His mind was blank, everything that had happened in the last hour erased.
Chapter 8
Peggy Ann slouched even lower into her couch, crossing her arms out of irritation. They’d been sitting in her living room for more than thirty minutes now and Greg was still talking all of this nonsense.
She had asked him why the hell he would want to see Elliott, and even tried reasoning with him that the guy was a total creep. She had listened to that scrawny bum for over a month at the diner. The last thing she wanted was to sit in her very own living room hearing it from someone else. She made that very clear. She had also mentioned that she didn’t get dressed up for just anyone, and that if they were going to go out, that they should.
Greg wasn’t hearing it. Sure, he’d looked her over once or twice while they sat on the couch talking about everything. She was definitely a pretty piece of eye candy, but his mind was elsewhere. He was thinking of the dreams. Of what he saw on Teddy out in the rain and the same thing he had seen on the doctor back at the clinic. He wasn’t crazy. There was no way. Rather than go out, like Peggy Ann had hoped, Greg told her everything. He told her about where he was coming from the other night. About the bad weather and obliterating the shit out of that deer in the road. He mentioned how he met her younger brother who referred to her as a younger sister; although that hadn’t been true. He talked about meeting Dr. Minders at the clinic and the things that he had seen. It wasn’t in his head. Sure, he had the bump on the head to disprove his argument against the head injury, but something was going on. What he had seen and experienced was real. No question.
Crazy or not, if this Elliott fellow had seen and talked about the same stuff, then Greg wanted to meet him. Find out what this guy knew. See if he could tell him something.
Peggy Ann disagreed with him, feeling it to be a stupid idea. It would be getting dark soon and the last place they wanted to be was in that part of town. Obviously, the alley that most of the homeless people hung around wasn’t all t
hat far from her home, but that didn’t give reason just to stroll on down there looking for trouble. Some of those people would jump you in a heartbeat if they felt like you had enough money or something worth trading on you. She knew that for a fact, and she tried reasoning with Greg by reminding him of Brian back at the diner. The guy was a rude asshole that was out of control. He was the kind of guy that would do just about anything if he felt like he could get away with it. Peggy Ann assured Greg that most of the homeless community was probably exactly the same way.
“So, you’re telling me that you don’t find it at all strange that what I’ve described to you sounds exactly like what this Elliott dude has babbled to you about in the past?” Greg took a sip of iced tea that Peggy Ann had offered, and then set it on the coffee table before him. He leaned back into the couch and said, “Well?”
“Well, yeah, it is odd. But that doesn’t mean we should just go knocking on the creep’s door. Or cardboard box or whatever the hell he lives in.”
“Come on,” Greg sighed, trying to coax her. “You said so yourself. This Elliott dude was one of the nice ones. What’s he going to do to us?”
“You did hear me call him creepy more than a dozen times, right?” She rolled her eyes. “Nice doesn’t excuse someone’s unstable tendencies. There’s no telling what this guy could do if we corner him to ask him questions. The guy’s a lunatic for crying out loud. He sees monsters, remember?”
“Yeah, and so have I!” Greg raised his voice. “Does that make me a whack job too?”
“I didn’t say that.” Peggy Ann relaxed her arms and crossed her legs. Her tight jeans flexed with the contours of her supple thighs and toned legs. She smiled, watching his eyes drift downward away from hers for a moment. “You’ve got to understand, Greg, Elliott is a weirdo. He literally talks to his fingers for crying out loud. He thinks his thumb is alive or something stupid like that.”
Greg looked down at the fingers on his left hand. “Well guys,” he said, cracking a smile, “she isn’t going to help us. I guess it’s just us on this one. Which one of you fellas has my back on…”
Hitchers Page 9