When Beth Wakes Up

by Matthew Franks

  Allie entered the room with a blueberry cobbler on her signature silver platter. “What in the name of all that’s—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, the crimson creature lunged at her, knocking both her and the blueberry cobbler to the ground. The monster pounced on top of Allie and sliced her face with its sharp claws. Allie struggled and pleaded for help. I picked up a vase and smashed it over the beast’s head. It didn’t even phase it. I tried pushing it off Allie, but the monster only shoved me into the wall. It mauled Allie until she fought no more.

  After the creature was finished with Allie, it turned its attention to me. Edward continued to watch pixilated snowflakes on the television. The monster dived at me, but I quickly jumped out of the way. It ran headfirst through a window in the living room, shattering glass into shards that fell onto the ground. The impact didn’t stop the creature. It landed on its feet outside in the grass and then sprinted through the rain toward the highway. Then it merged into the darkness.

  “What’d I tell ya?” Edward said without taking his eyes off the static. “They all go away some time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Every now and then, I question my life choices. There was the one time when I was in an inmate’s dream and he tortured a man because he owed him drug money. There was another time when I pretended to be a serial killer’s accomplice, so I could discover the grisly details of how he murdered his victims. And now, driving through an imaginary thunderstorm and chasing a demonic, red monster, I couldn’t help but wonder if I might’ve been better suited to be a chef.

  I finally caught up with the creature in the field where Beth had been discovered. It was running around in a circle near the same spot I found her lying unresponsive in the grass. I parked Beth’s car by the side of the road. I opened the door and willed another umbrella to appear in my hand. I stepped outside and watched as the beast continued to chase its tail in the same three-hundred-sixty-degree pattern. Every few seconds, the creature let out a piercing shriek as if it had been wounded.

  I slowly made my way toward the creature, careful not to alarm it as I approached. When I reached it, I noticed a familiar mist surrounding the area the monster was encircling. Suddenly, the beast ran straight into the haze. It bounced off what, not surprisingly, turned out to be another force field and landed with a thud on the ground. It got up and slammed into it again with the same result. After the monster hit the earth a second time, it started to shriek so loud I had to cover my ears. On the bright side, it wasn’t trying to kill me.

  I moved closer to the blockade and noticed that it extended vertically far into the sky. I reached my hand out toward it. The creature watched in awe as I barely touched it with my finger and was met with less resistance. It reacted the way a caveman might when seeing fire for the first time. Whatever lay on the other side obviously held some significance, so I took a step back and closed my eyes. I willed myself to transport into the center of the enclosure.

  Once inside, there was an immediate change. It wasn’t raining or thundering. In fact, the sun shone down exclusively on that particular spot. It was calm and peaceful, the exact opposite of the tempest outside. No longer needing the umbrella, I willed it to dematerialize. Through the fog, I saw the creature looking in at me. No wonder it wanted to cross the barrier. I held out my hand and beckoned it to join me. It shook its head and shrieked again.

  I cautiously moved my hand toward the inside of the wall. Although it was just as fuzzy as the outside, it didn’t push me away. I slowly put my fingers through the static barricade. They glowed as they penetrated the force field but came out safely on the other side. I extended the rest of my hand and held it out toward the creature. Half-expecting the monster to tear it off, I was pleased when the beast gently took my hand into its own.

  “I’m going to bring you in,” I told it, a metallic echo of my voice reverberating as it traversed the otherworldly obstruction.

  The creature nodded. I coaxed it into the barrier, and, like my hand, it was able to cross over without incident. The only difference was that as each part of the monster’s body passed the dividing line, it transformed into Beth’s. Eventually, she was standing before me shivering, nude and soaking wet. I quickly conjured a blanket and covered her with it. Her lips quivered as she wrapped the comforter around her.

  “That’s the second time you’ve seen me naked, Max,” she said, trembling. “Hardly seems fair. Does it?”

  “I’m glad you’re back to yourself again,” I said, ignoring her comment.

  “Me too,” she said and shut her eyes. “It’s a lot warmer on this side.” She stopped shaking and the water on her evaporated. She opened her eyes and dropped the blanket to the ground. To my relief, she was wearing clothes she’d willed to materialize. “So, what now?”

  “We go back to your parents’ house and try again.”

  “No. I just want to get it over with. I remember leaving that night. It was no different than any other time.”

  “Okay. Do you remember what happened when you got here?”

  “It’s still blurry.”

  I motioned outside of the sanctuary she’d created. “Then we’ll have to go out there and retrace your steps.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. I just got in here. It’s terrible out there.”

  “You said you wanted to get it over with.”

  “I lied.”

  “Beth, it’s the only way. Don’t worry. I’ll be with you the whole time.”

  She stalled, but then realized I wasn’t backing down. “Can I at least have a minute?”

  “Of course.”

  Beth stayed completely still for a moment as the rain pounded all around us, but not a single drop on our heads. She took a deep breath and exhaled. The force field dissipated as did the storm I thought would never end. The sun that radiated solely on us faded away too. Only the moon provided illumination in the darkness. Beth hesitantly looked at her car by the side of the road.

  “I’m prolonging it,” she said. “Aren’t I?”

  “That’s not for me to say,” I replied. “But if it’s causing you pain, it may be time to face it.”

  She took my hand, and, together, we walked to the car. When we reached the driver’s side, I tried to let go, but she held on tightly, gripping her fingers over mine. She looked at me pleadingly. In that moment, I felt worse for her than I ever had. Not caring how it might be construed, I leaned in and hugged her. She released my hand and hugged me back. I pulled away from her and motioned to the driver-side door.

  “Were you in the car when your attacker arrived?”

  She nodded. “I had run out of gas,” she answered. “I was going to call Bobby, but my cell phone was dead.”

  I opened the car door. “Get in.” After she reluctantly sat down behind the wheel, I closed the door and went around to the passenger’s side. I got in and shut the door. “So, then what happened?”

  “I, uh, couldn’t charge my phone, so I decided to walk to the nearest town.” She looked into the rearview mirror. “But then, uh…I’m sorry. I can’t do this.”

  “Yes, you can. What did you see in the mirror?”

  She started breathing heavily. “Headlights.”

  “Show me.”

  The headlights appeared in the mirror, slowly approaching us. The beams were too bright for me to make out what kind of vehicle it was. The light flooded the inside of Beth’s car so much, in fact, that I had to turn away from it for fear of being blinded. Beth hyperventilated. I put my hand on her back to try and calm her down. I considered aborting, but we were so close, and I didn’t know if we’d ever get to that point again.

  “Did the driver come to you or did you get out of the car?” I asked.

  “I-I-can’t remember,” she said, her breaths getting shorter. “Please don’t make me.” She tried starting the engine, but it only sputtered. “I gotta get out of here!” She went to open the door, but it was locked. “Did you lock me in here?
! Why would you do that?!”

  “You know that I didn’t.”

  She struggled with the lever, but it was jammed. “Look. I changed my mind. Okay? Now open the door!”

  “Beth, stop it! If you keep running away from it, it’s only going to catch up with you again. It has power over you. If you face it, you gain that power back.”

  She let go of the lever and sat still. She slowed her breathing down and gripped the steering wheel tightly. She looked into the rearview mirror directly at the headlights. They suddenly went dark. I turned around to see the vehicle. There was a haze around it, so it was still difficult to see. Beth opened the car door with no problem. She glared at me with a disdain in her eyes I hadn’t seen before.

  “You’re a persistent son of a bitch,” she said. “Aren’t you?”

  “I’m only trying to help you,” I said.

  “Well, come on then. Let’s end this mystery together.”

  She got out of the car and closed the door. I climbed out of the passenger’s side and came around behind her. In the mist, the other vehicle’s door opened, and the sound of footsteps hit the pavement. A shadowy figure closed the door and walked toward us. As it approached, a scraping sound emanated from the concrete, growing louder as it got closer. When the figure finally emerged, standing before Beth as clear as day and holding a shovel in one hand, I froze.

  “Daddy?” she said.

  “Hey, little girl,” Edward said vacantly then lifted the shovel and swung it hard across her face.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Everything went completely dark. For a moment, I thought the shock of what happened caused so much distress that Beth’s brain stopped functioning. Just as I feared that I was stuck in the sliver of a window between being connected and prematurely ejected back into reality, I spotted Beth in the distance. A warm glow surrounded her as she sat lotus style and floated aimlessly into the void.

  I noticed that I emanated the same light. It extended only a foot beyond my body but was bright enough to help me get my bearings. I tried to move toward her, but, since there was no ground to walk on, I just spiraled off into another direction. When I finally stopped spinning, I pushed my arms out as if I were in water and thrust myself forward. I kicked my feet as well, repeating both actions until I was, quite literally, swimming after her.

  Since I was moving faster than she was, I inevitably caught up with her. Her eyes were closed, but she seemed very much aware. She reminded me of one of those meditation gurus that emit energy despite remaining totally still. I came to a halt right by her side and waved my hand in front of her face. She didn’t react. I tapped her on the shoulder even though I felt like I was intruding somehow.

  “I know you’re there, Max,” she said without opening her eyes. “You don’t have to get weird.”

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “The end of the line. This is where I get off.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m never going to wake up. The least you can do is let me transition to the afterlife in peace.”

  “Beth, you can’t just give up.”

  She opened her eyes. “No? My father tried to kill me, Max. Not only that. He murdered five women.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “You might not, but I do. About twenty years ago, he left home and came back early the next morning. His clothes had red blotches on them. He told my mom and me that he hit a deer. I found a girl’s blouse in his truck that afternoon, stained just the same. I wanted so badly to tell my mom but never did.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I was only twelve and he was my father. I ignored it.”

  “But it happened again?”

  She nodded. “Two weeks later. Only this time it was a bloodstained shovel and another excuse that didn’t add up. They started talking about two girls that went missing on the news. Both on the same nights my father came home unusually late and with evidence I chose to disregard. I went into full blown denial.”

  “And then?”

  “They stopped talking about it, and eventually I blocked it out completely. But then, seven years later, during my first spring semester in college, another girl went missing. This one was from Ohio, so I didn’t even give it a second thought. Besides, I had buried what I’d seen years earlier deep in my memory. It wasn’t until 2008, when it happened again close to Louisville that I became obsessed.”

  “With the killer?”

  She nodded. “And the victims.”

  She looked upward into the darkness, and, directly above us, a pattern of stars appeared.

  They were still at first, twinkling as they would in the night sky. But then they started to swirl. I watched as they broke off into little clusters and danced around in a seemingly random fashion.

  They became much more ordered, however, and, in their smaller groups, fused together to form numbers. As a whole, they created a familiar vertical sequence. “2-6-7-21-31.”

  “Mary Madsen was killed May 7, 1989,” said Beth. “Linda Kassi died two weeks later.”

  The “7” and “21” broke away from the series of numbers and began a new, horizontal line above the original one. More stars came to life, gravitated toward each other, and shaped into new numbers that landed on either side of both the “7” and the “21.” The first line read “5-7-89” and the second one read “5-21-89.” The “2,” “6,” and “31” floated up from the vertical sequence and joined the horizontal one.

  “Ashley Rogers didn’t return home the night of March 2, 1996,” Beth continued.

  “Macie Lox and Rhonda Sinclair suffered similar fates on June 6, 2006, and August 31, 2008 respectively.”

  One last batch of stars emerged from the darkness, divided into sets, and completed the cosmic list of murder victim death days. As gratifying as it was to finally see the mystery unfold, I felt foolish for not solving it earlier when I read about the five women online. The article mentioned the dates, but I didn’t even think to make the connection. It’s amazing how something can be right under your nose yet somehow you overlook it.

  “They were a lot like me,” said Beth. “Young and still figuring out their lives. Then along came evil. Like a tornado, it scooped them up and blew them out into oblivion. I wanted the authorities to find the source of that evil so badly. I followed every new development no matter how minute. I needed to see the killer’s face, so I could finally concretize it and rid myself of an uncertainty that had plagued me for years. But I guess it’s like they say. Be careful what you wish for.”

  “I’m sorry, Beth,” I told her, not knowing what else to say.

  “He killed my dog too. I saw him do it with a kitchen knife. I tried so hard to convince myself that it didn’t happen that I blamed myself. I even started to believe that I was the one that butchered that poor animal. I wanted him to be innocent so much that I was willing to carry the guilt. I’m not doing it anymore.” She waved her hand and the stars vanished, leaving us in the darkness again. “Even if I could wake up, I don’t know that I want to anymore.”

  “Now, wait a second. It doesn’t have to be that bleak.”

  “My father’s a serial killer, Max. It doesn’t get much bleaker than that.”

  “Okay, but what about your mother? She’s a victim as much as you are. If you give up, she’ll have no one.”

  “Way to lay on the guilt, padre.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “She won’t be around forever. And then what will I have?”

  “Lots of things.”

  “Name one.”

  “You’re a great artist.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are. That painting in your apartment was amazing. Look, I can’t even begin to imagine how you feel right now. But I do know that time heals, and, as much as this moment hurts, it will pass.”

  “What if it doesn’t?”

  “It will if you don’t give up. There are bad things out there,
and some of them are closer to home than we ever thought they’d be, but we have to keep going. Otherwise, the bad things take over and there’s no one left to fight them.”

  “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Max, but I need to be alone right now.”

  “Are you sure that’s for the best?”

  “It’s what I want.”

  “I don’t know that I’m comfortable leaving you.”

  She looked at me with sadness in her eyes. “Please. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

  I hesitated. “Okay, but I’ll be back later.”

  “Goodbye, Max.”

  “I’ll see you soon, Beth,” I said, and then reluctantly withdrew from her mind.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Once I was back in the hospital room, I waited a few minutes before leaving. I knew that technically she wanted to be alone, but I couldn’t bring myself to go just yet. I got up from my chair and stood beside the bed. I reached out and took her hand, holding it gently. Although she couldn’t respond, I hoped that she felt it inside, perhaps comforting her in the desolate place I had left her.

  “The world’s a better place with you in it, Beth,” I said. “No matter how dark it may get, you’re still a light.”

  A doctor came into the room. “Hello,” he said.

  “Hello,” I reciprocated and then let go of Beth’s hand. “I’ll get out of your way.”

  “You’re fine.” He checked her vital signs and then started to leave. “Everything looks good.”

  “So, what would keep her from being able to wake up at this point?”

  “Well, she’s still very healthy. Most of the bruising has healed. Beyond that, it just depends on when she’s ready. I’ve had some patients wake up weeks before we expected, and others stay unconscious for months. Everybody’s different. Sometimes it comes down to will.”