A Monster Escapes

by Lewis Wolfe

  Yet he was left completely in the dark as to what this young woman desired from him. What those dark eyes demanded, even if the stare softened somewhat because it came from a childlike face.

  “Mr. Toaves? I’m going to save Ellie now but I could really use your help,” she repeated.

  Arthur shook his head. He didn’t—couldn’t—understand what she was talking about.

  “You’re not a doctor,” he said. “How can you help Ellie?”

  He watched as Jane Elring leaned forward. She never took her dark gaze away from his face. That terrible gaze that now felt threatening. Coming from those eyes that he wanted to deny, but couldn’t.

  “Ellie’s sickness isn’t of the body; it is of the soul. I can help her. I will help her. Will you assist me?”

  Arthur took a deep breath as he looked at the young girl on the hospital bed. He didn’t understand why, but Ellie looked peaceful now with her eyes closed. She had finally found sleep through the invisible terror that tormented her. Arthur wanted very much for this peace to last. To grant the young girl the relief that he knew she deserved.

  “What can I do to help then? Do you need resources? I can provide—”

  Jane raised her hand.

  “I don’t need resources. I only need your commitment. Do you want to help Ellie?”

  “Of course!”

  “Do you want her to be better? To be safe, to be healthy?”

  “Yes! That is all I ever wanted for the girl.”

  “To be happy, even? If at all possible?”

  “Stop asking these silly questions! Of course I want that for her!”

  Arthur watched as Jane Elring leaned back into her chair. The young investigator took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Then she cocked her head slightly in her bodyguard’s direction.

  “You will make sure nobody disturbs us? Nobody walks into this room until I’m done,” she instructed.

  “You got it.”

  Caleb stood up and walked toward the door. He faced it quietly with his arms folded.

  Jane straightened her back and took another deep breath. Arthur noticed that her breathing was rhythmic, as if she was meditating, or hypnotizing herself.

  “Very well then, Mr. Toaves. Hold on tight, because this is going to be a trip.”

  “What are you… ?”

  Arthur found finishing that sentence an impossible task. He couldn’t understand why, but it was as if all his thoughts abandoned him. He was left a mumbling fool, trying desperately to find words he didn’t even know existed anymore. Words that drifted somewhere, deep down, in the back of his mind where he couldn’t reach.

  Then the room around him began to twist and curve. A strange force was warping his surroundings, stretching out the walls until they became oceans of the sickly green color they had been painted with.

  Soon the entire room began to spin, or was it he that was spinning instead? How could you be sure that you were sitting still when everything stretched and spun all around you?

  When Arthur looked at the floor he realized it was no longer there; in its place was a bright red light that called out to him. It wanted him to get up from the chair and dive into the depths of the aura that colored the room an eerie crimson.

  Arthur was so dizzy that he thought he could never get up. Not even if the warmth of the red light felt so kind and inviting that all he wanted to do was give in to it.

  Arthur knew enough to realize that he was not of proper mind and that, somehow, the young investigator had done this to him. How could he possibly escape her grasp? How could he free his riddled mind from the clutches of this monster? He was afraid, so very afraid, that he could never return from the hell that lay beneath his feet.

  The red now was no longer kind and warm, but cold and demanding. Arthur knew then that it was hell that called to him. Reached out for him and desired his presence. This was the final reckoning of all the blood money he still possessed. This was the final judgment of the family name he so reluctantly carried. It would all end with him.

  Arthur struggled up from his chair and knelt down. He tried to touch the red light that was now the floor, but his hand went straight through it.

  Jane Elring’s voice echoed through the room. “Come on, Mr. Toaves. We can’t wait anymore. We have to go help Ellie.”

  Ellie was down there? In hell? Waiting for him to come and rescue her?

  Arthur took a deep breath and allowed himself to fall face-forward into the red light. There was no floor to break his fall.

  He tumbled through the red aura and into an impenetrable darkness that surrounded him. It wasn’t a shadowy darkness. No. The presence of shadows implied that light was shining somewhere. This was pure blackness, the absence of all that was good and warm.

  Arthur fell, and fell, and fell. Deeper and deeper into this terrible abyss that he knew would swallow him whole. It would consume him without any mercy. This was it. This cold and dark horror of a place was where it all ended.

  Then, out of nowhere, he felt a small hand on his arm that stopped him from falling any farther. When he looked to his left he saw Jane Elring.

  Her touch healed him. He could begin to think again and the dizziness that had conquered his head began to vanish.

  “What have you done to me?” It was all he could think to ask.

  Jane put her finger on her lips as if to shush him. With her hand still on his arm she began to walk, guiding him along the darkness in which she, apparently, could find a way.

  Arthur refused. He didn’t want to go with her. She had done this to him and he couldn’t trust her moving forward. When he tried to stop moving, however, he realized that he couldn’t. He was forced to go along with her.

  He looked down to see why his feet no longer obeyed his commands, only to realize that he didn’t have a body.

  How was any of this possible? How could he move without a body? How could the young investigator hold his arm? How could he even see if he had no eyes to watch with?

  “Have you killed me?” Arthur asked his question, only to wonder how he could ask anything at all without a mouth.

  “We are in Ellie’s mind. I took you there because you have to help me help her. Very soon the light will come and you will be able to see again. I just have to find—”

  Something interrupted the young investigator, though Arthur had no idea what it could have been. He saw only blackness. This terrible blackness where all thoughts and feelings came to die.

  They were in Ellie’s mind? This cold and damp darkness was inside the young girl’s head? The energetic Ellie that liked to ride the horses and couldn’t ever stop asking him questions? How could such a horrible darkness live inside of her?

  Then, to his dismay, Arthur realized that perhaps this darkness existed inside of him, too. Perhaps this was the place that they called the unconsciousness. That aspect of the mind where you could never find what you were looking for. Instead, you were usually found by whatever was looking for you.

  “Found it!”

  Jane began to run and Arthur could not help but follow her frantic pace. Together they raced through the darkness. Where to? He had no idea.

  It could have been hours, it could have been seconds; Arthur had no sense of time in this strange place. Eventually a white light appeared in the distance and it became clear to him that this was their true destination.

  “Where are we going, Jane? What is that light?”

  “That’s the moment! That’s the moment where I can intervene!”

  Arthur didn’t understand what she was talking about. Unable to stop, however, all he could do was follow the running girl toward this unknown and macabre destination.

  Slowly the white light grew until it filled the entire horizon. It felt good to leave the darkness behind, Arthur thought, even if he only traded it in for the next great mystery he could probably never solve.

  Jane said, “Only a little bit more. We’re almost there, Mr. Toaves!”

  He sai
d nothing. The lack of control was very painful but Arthur began to realize that it might be for the best. Where would he have wandered off to if the young investigator hadn’t gotten ahold of him? Surely he would have drowned in the cold abyss she’d managed to guide him away from.

  But why was he here?

  The white light was now so large that it blinded Arthur, yet he found himself unable to close his eyes. Of course, he had no eyes to begin with. So how could he even be blinded?

  “This is it! Don’t be afraid, Mr. Toaves. I have you and I won’t let go!”

  Arthur watched as the girl prepared to jump into the light. This was it, then. This was where she wanted to take him. This was what he had to be present for. Where would that light lead them? He once more found himself clueless. As the girl jumped into it, however, Arthur gave up all the ambitions of control he had left.

  The next moment they were inside a bedroom. It was nighttime, which did little to hide the horrible spectacle that was unfolding.

  Next to the bed lay a dead body, probably a man, with his face bashed in beyond all recognition. Blood flowed eerily from his mangled corpse.

  To the left against the wall sat a large woman beating on a young girl. No! Not just any girl! It was Ellie that had her head against the wall, absorbing the large woman’s terrible rage.

  “This is your fault! This is all your fault! You did this! You did this! You did this!”

  Jane let go of Arthur’s arm and he watched her walk toward the switch next to the door. She turned on the light.

  Warm rays of artificial light graced the room, only to emphasize the absolute horror that plagued it. In this light the dead man’s excuse for a face seemed even bloodier and the scent of his beaten flesh first began to torment the nose Arthur didn’t have.

  He watched as Jane walked over to the large woman beating on Ellie. She placed a single hand on her furious shoulder.

  “Stop.”

  The woman stopped all movement. She yelled no more terrible things. In fact, she seemed frozen solid.

  Jane pulled the large woman away from Ellie and put her on the bed.

  “Sit.”

  And the woman sat down.

  Jane walked over to Ellie and knelt down next to her. Gently she wiped the tears and the blood from the girl’s face.

  “So this is where it happened, Ellie?”

  The girl sobbed.

  “This is where your terrible guilt was born?”

  The girl nodded frantically. “I caused this. It was all my fault. I could have… I should have….”

  “No,” Jane Elring said resolutely. “This stops now.”

  Jane rose and took Ellie’s hand. Gently she pulled the girl up from the ground and guided her toward the bed. Toward the terrible woman that had beaten her so mercilessly.

  “Sit down, Ellie.”

  Ellie sat down on the bed.

  Jane turned toward the large woman and said, “Speak.”

  “You did this! He was MY man! Mine! You caused this! This is your fault! This is all your fault!”

  Arthur watched as the woman droned on and on, blaming the sad and terrified Ellie for things he had no way of knowing about. No girl, however, deserved such terrible treatment. That much he knew for certain.

  “Do you hear that, Arthur?” Jane asked him her question as she looked at the corner where his body was not standing.

  Ellie asked, “Arthur is here? Why?! Why did you bring him here?! I don’t want him to see this!”

  Jane gently rubbed the young girl’s shoulder, then repeated her question. “Are you hearing this, Arthur? What this woman is saying to Ellie?”

  Arthur was sure his voice would be rusty under the pressure of his awful confusion. However, he spoke with absolute clarity. “I hear it.”

  “And what do you think? Could any fourteen-year-old girl be responsible for this mess?”

  Arthur looked across the room. The dead and disfigured man coloring the floor an awful red. The large woman that raged on and on about how everything was Ellie’s fault.

  “No. No girl could ever be this terrible. And certainly not Ellie, because Ellie is a wonderful person.”

  Jane looked at Ellie. “Do you hear that? You’re a wonderful person.”

  The girl shook her head. “No I’m not! I’m horrible and worthless! I’m a… I’m a whore!”

  Ellie’s words echoed through the room and made Arthur sick to his stomach. How could he respond to that? What could he say to make her see the beauty he saw in her?

  Jane gently took Ellie’s chin and steered her eyes toward the large woman that still sat raging on the bed. Those pale blue eyes were terrified, but Jane did not allow her to look away.

  Then Jane picked the large woman up from the bed and lifted her into the air. The woman continued to rage her horrible messages like a broken record.

  “Do you see how light she is, Ellie? It’s like she’s only made of air.”

  Ellie was shocked at Jane’s amazing strength.

  “How can you pick her up like that?!”

  “It’s easy,” Jane said, “because she doesn’t matter. She’s hot air, Ellie.”

  Jane put the large woman down on the bed and widened her arms. As she did so, the large woman grew even bigger. Her deep voice now boomed through the room.

  “See? You can make her really big….”

  Jane squeezed her hands together. The large woman followed suit and became as small as a mouse. Now all they heard was a laughable high-pitched voice screaming angry insults.

  “… Or you can make her really small!”

  Jane picked the woman up and put her in the middle of her hand. She held it up for Ellie’s fascinated pale blue eyes to see.

  “Ellie…. Roger Wheeley was a terrible man who did awful things to you. That wasn’t your fault; it was his. Your mother was sick, very sick, and she took her illness out on you. That wasn’t your fault, either.”

  Jane turned toward the bloody corpse that lay next to the bed and waved her empty hand into the air. As she did so, the man’s body disappeared.

  “You can let it all go, Ellie. It doesn’t have to stay this way. Hold out your hand!”

  Ellie did as she was instructed and Jane put the tiny, raging woman in the girl’s open hand.

  “You can let go of her too, if you want. It’s your choice. She doesn’t have to be big or heavy. She can be very tiny. She can even be nothing at all.”

  Jane turned toward Arthur and asked, “What do you think, Arthur? Should Ellie let go of all this terrible stuff?”

  Arthur didn’t even have to think about it. “Yes. Because, as I said, Ellie is a wonderful person and she deserves so much better than this!”

  Tears ran down Ellie’s tanned cheeks as she confessed, “I don’t know how to let it go. I hear it all the time inside my head. I keep seeing it. I keep feeling it.”

  Jane placed her hand on the young girl’s head as she said, “All you have to do is say the word. Just say ‘Poof!’ and I’ll make her disappear. She’ll be gone and she’ll never come back to haunt you.”

  Again Jane turned toward Arthur. “What do you say, Arthur?”

  Arthur said, “Poof!”

  Jane looked at Ellie and asked, “You hear that? I think he said ‘poof’….”

  Ellie nodded. “He did.”

  The young girl held her pale blue eyes fixed on the tiny woman in her hand, screaming her insults in the silliest voice the girl had ever heard.

  “This is all she is?” Ellie asked without looking up at Jane.

  “This is all she is.”

  Then Ellie folded her hand into a solid fist and crushed the tiny woman with all her strength. “Poof!” When the young girl opened her hand again, the woman was gone.

  Satisfied, Jane walked over to Arthur and took hold of his arm. Her smile was warm and genuine and Arthur knew that whatever she had tried to accomplish was done.

  Jane said, “Ellie, we will be going now. You’ll wake up ve
ry soon. You’ll be better, you’ll be safe, and you’ll be loved.”

  Ellie rose from her bed and nodded. “Okay! I will! I will wake up soon! Will you all be there?”

  Jane said, “We’ll be there. We’ll be waiting for you!”

  With that, the young investigator turned toward Arthur and said, “The way out is a lot more pleasant than the way in. Just close your eyes.”

  Arthur said, “I have no eyes to close.”

  Jane grinned as she replied, “Close them anyway, Mr. Toaves!”

  Arthur did as she said and immediately the blackness overtook his senses. Again a dizziness filled his head and soon he felt himself floating off into a distant, dark sky.

  He felt safe now because he had seen what Jane Elring did for Ellie. He had witnessed her kindness and knew that it would extend to him all the same. Quietly, peacefully, he floated up through Ellie’s mind.

  When Arthur opened his eyes he found himself back in the hospital room. Immediately he rose from his plastic chair and studied Ellie’s face up close. Her eyes had opened and they were very peaceful. Happy, even.

  Then he looked over to Jane, who sat coughing madly across from him. Her bodyguard had folded himself over her and held her shoulders.

  Caleb looked up at him and said, “Don’t worry. She’ll be alright. It’s just… uh…. She’ll be alright.”

  Arthur returned his attention to Ellie and he whispered to her, “You’re still drugged. The medicine will leave your body soon and you’ll be able to move again. You’re safe, Ellie. You’re safe!”

  7

  Twilight was already coming through the window when Ellie was finally able to sit up straight again. Her mind had been very active, trying to process all the things that had happened to her.

  She had spent the last day in a private kind of hell, being visited constantly by Roger Wheeley, who insisted on touching her and whispering vile words in her ear. The scent of his rotting bloody pulp of a head still lingered in her nose.

  When she thought back to how it started, she remembered Mr. Boothby and what she had done to him. His blood had stained her fist after she broke his nose. She told herself she would have to go back and apologize to him. Maybe even explain why it had happened.