After You Died

by Dea Poirier

  “Someone just piled them up like old socks, like they didn’t mean anything. They’re people,” Olivia says through a sob, her voice trembles. “Who would do that? Who could do that?”

  I pull her into a hug and she cries into my shoulder. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to get the image out of my mind. And the smell has seeped into her hair. It’s not just the weight of their deaths we bring with us, it’s their empty stares, the smell of them.

  “Who would do something like that?” she asks as she pulls away. She looks down at the puddle of tears left on my shirt and rubs her hand over it as though she can erase it. “I’m sorry.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for,” I say as I wipe her cheek. “I think we should get out of here before whoever did this gets back.”

  She gives me a quick nod and grabs my hand. We turn down the hall, the front door is open and headlights pour in.

  Whose car is that?

  My feet are heavy next to hers. A hollow metallic thud fills the hall, like a boot hitting a metal pipe. Black spots explode behind my eyes, the world shifts, and I fall to the floor.

  AFTERNOON LIGHT STREAMS in through the moth-eaten curtains. My vision is tainted, swirled, blurred. Black edges in, until I see Olivia. Her head is slumped, smeared red. Limp blonde curls fall in her face.

  Rough rope bites at my wrists. I try to move my legs and look down to find them tied to the chair I sit in. For good measure there’s also a rope around my waist. Adrenaline and fear pour into my veins. My breaths quicken. My bound hands tremble. If we don’t get out of here, we’ll end up like those people in the basement.

  My eyes scour the room searching for the person who hit us, tied us up. When I don’t see anyone, I whisper, “Olivia.”

  She doesn’t move, I try several more times. Though I’m afraid I might crumble beneath the fear quaking my body, I need to stay strong for her. The air is thick with death. With each agonizing moment that passes. I wonder if she’s dead. She can’t be dead.

  “What?” the word slips out of her as a breathy sigh.

  “Someone tied us up, I need you to see if you can get out of your ropes,” I whisper to her as I try to see how well she’s been tied. If she can get free, we can get out of here. We can escape.

  Her eyes go wide as they sweep across the room. All at once her whole body contorts as she tries to slip free of her ropes.

  Heavy footsteps echo from the back of the house. The boards ache and moan with each footfall. The closer they get, the higher my stomach and heart creep until they fight for room in my throat.

  “Asher, someone’s coming,” Olivia whispers to me.

  “I know,” my voice is flat.

  The first thing I see, is red hair. Dominic strolls into the room, his gait as smooth as an Atlantic City hustler.

  “Dom!” I call out. “Hey man, someone tied us up. Can you help us before they come back?”

  Dom laughs. “‘fraid not.” He pulls a pack of cigs from his pocket, shakes one out and lights it.

  “Come on, I’m not joking,” I say with an edge to my voice. It’s only now that I see the darkness hiding just beneath the surface of his face.

  “Neither am I.” Dominic clicks the lighter closed. “You’ve always wasted your time with fucking morons like this one.” He motions toward Olivia.

  “Don’t you dare talk about her like that,” I growl the words at him.

  “I was hoping your last moments would be a bit more special than this. But unfortunately, you had to come out here before I’d planned for you to and move up my timetable.” Dominic makes a tsking sound as he walks toward Olivia. When he reaches her, Dominic runs his hand across Olivia’s cheek. “I had something nice planned for you, too.”

  “What are you talking about?” Olivia jerks her head away from Dominic’s hand.

  “It’s unfortunate that you two can never remember...after. At least you’d understand.” Dominic smiles and cocks his head as he looks at me. “But you know, it doesn’t matter. Whether you remember or not, I love killing you. Both of you.” He smiles at us, looking between us.

  In one fluid movement, Dominic is behind Olivia, there’s a glimmer of metal, a knife. Dominic leans in and runs his finger across Olivia’s neck. She grimaces and jerks her head to the side, away from Dominic. That’s exactly the opening Dominic wanted, he brings the knife up. And horror floods through me. He’s going to kill her. He’s going to kill Olivia.

  “Don’t!” My throat tightens as I spit the word at him.

  He makes another tsking sound and drags the knife across her throat, blood shoots out of her in a fan. Her eyes are locked on mine, fear seizes her, then she’s choking, red pouring from her mouth.

  “No!” I cry, “Please, no.” I growl at him, “I’ll kill you.” I struggle against the ropes.

  Dominic holds his stomach as he laughs. His bloody hand staining his shirt. “Oh, love, that’s rich. But no, no you won’t.” There’s a hint of something to his words, like an accent that’s started to bleed through.

  He turns his back to me and looks at Olivia like he’s waiting for something. Fear chokes me. I feel like I’ve been punched in the heart. I wish harder than I ever have for anything in my life, that she will be okay. If I could get free, maybe I could help her. Save her. There has to be something I can do. My body shakes as the tears pour out of me.

  “Hmm,” Dominic finally says. “That’s strange, guess I was wrong.” He shrugs, cuts Olivia free, and slings the body over his shoulder. Blood drips off her forehead onto the floor, leaving a trail behind them.

  He’s gone so long, hope creeps in. Maybe I’ll live through this. I’m not sure I want to live in a world without Olivia. I sure as hell don’t want to be bled out by a psycho. When he returns, he cuts me free. I lunge at him, but he holds the knife out. Olivia’s blood still clings to the blade.

  “Walk outside,” he orders, knife inches from my eye.

  “Or what? You’ll kill me?” I challenge. I stand straight, as tall as I can manage, arms pressed to my sides.

  “Either way, I’m going to kill you.” He shrugs and takes a long drag from a cigarette with a bloody filter.

  I turn toward the hall, starting slow, walking over the debris I avoided on the way in. When I see the sunset peeking through the door frame, I start to run and bound down the stairs. Adrenaline pours into my veins. But he catches me only a few feet from Olivia’s body, grabbing the back of my shirt. He traps me, my neck in the nook of his arm.

  “It’s a shame, you two weren’t who I thought you were. Now I have to start looking again. Can’t believe I was wrong this time.” He brings the tip of the knife to my throat. Then his lips are at my ear, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find each other in hell.”

  The knife is so sharp I don’t feel it cut me, I only feel the air sting the wound. The spray of the blood hits the ground, it sounds like rain. When I go limp, he drops me and before the darkness takes me, I take my last breath and look into Olivia’s lifeless eyes.

  After

  There are voices around me in my dreams, but I can’t make sense of them. I’m close enough that I hear the trail of whispers, but I can’t make out the language. There’s only one thing I recognize.

  “Asher,” a voice calls beside me. Fear ignites inside me when I realize the voice belongs to Dominic. He stands a few feet away, a limp, lifeless Sayid held in a headlock. “It’s about fucking time you woke up. I swear in this life you’re defective. You should ask for a refund.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask as I sit up. My head swims as my brain adjusts to the sitting position. Dried blood flakes from the side of my head, but the wound is already healed.

  “And you just keep getting stupider. Get off the fucking ground.” He points down the row of corn with his knife, “Walk. That way. Otherwise, I’m going to kill your boyfriend here.”

  Anger rises up inside me. Though I want to lunge at him, I swear Dominic knows what I’m thinking, becaus
e he holds a knife out toward me, just long enough for me to see it. Then in a few seconds he has the knife pressed back to Sayid’s throat.

  “Where am I walking?” I growl as I follow his instructions. I should have known better than to trust this asshole. How could I have ever been so stupid?

  Behind me, I hear dragging. When I look back, Dominic is dragging Sayid. My heart falters, and I stumble. Eyes locked on Sayid’s limp body, my heart beats into a frenzy. He can’t hurt Sayid, I won’t let him. “Just walk, and keep your fucking mouth shut.”

  We weave through the cornfield and cross the small stretch of open field before the forest swallows us. The further we walk, the more the anger twists inside me. A silent flame smolders inside me, when I get the chance, the second Dominic lets his guard down, I will kill him.

  By the time we break through the trees, the sun ignites the horizon. I recognize the large willow tree looming over the field ahead of us. This is the same place we met with Eden. Dominic must have known. He leads me to a new Buick. With one fluid motion Dominic pulls handcuffs from his pocket and tosses them at me.

  “Put those on,” he says as he winks at me.

  Anger flares up inside me as I glower at him. If he didn’t have Sayid, if he didn’t have my sister, I’d fight him. He can do whatever he wants to me, it doesn’t seem he can kill me anyway. But I need to protect Sayid. I can’t let Dominic hurt him. I press the metal to my wrists and lock the handcuffs in place.

  “Good, now get in the passenger seat,” he says as he waves toward the car with his knife.

  I slide into the car and the moment I’m in, he wraps me in ropes to hold me in place. He’s drilled a loop into the dashboard. After he’s bound me with ropes, he loops a chain over my hands and then attaches it to the loop on the dashboard.

  “There we go, can’t have you getting away from me,” Dominic says as he smiles at me. I turn my head to look at him and Dominic cocks his head. He pulls his hand up and runs the back of it along my hair. “I’ve missed you,” he coos.

  Bile rises up in my throat. This Dominic isn’t the Dominic I was best friends with. This is a stranger, this is a crazy person living in his skin. A memory prickles at the back of my mind, it swims together, it feels raw in my mind. I see the living room of the Howey Mansion first, Olivia strapped to the chair next to me and then his blade at her throat.

  Dominic slides into the driver’s seat next to me. I eye the back seat.

  “What did you do with Sayid?”

  “He’s in the trunk,” he says simply as he starts the car.

  As the Buick begins to trundle along the cracked pavement, I shift in the seat. My mouth tastes bitter, my throat tightens as anger grips around me. But I have to ask him. This might be the only chance I have.

  “I almost feel bad doing all this to you if you don’t know why,” he grins at me. “Almost.”

  “Can you please tell me what you’re talking about?” I beg. My arms ache, the metal bites into my wrists.

  He shrugs and slips a cigarette between his lips. He takes a long drag and then extinguishes it on his arm. In a few seconds the wound has closed up complete. He’s like us. Panic writhes inside me.

  “How?” I ask.

  He shakes his head.

  The questions are thick in my mind. But I don’t know how many of them he’s going to answer. His foot presses down on the gas pedal and the car lurches. We’re going too fast down the narrow, two lane highway.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Ellaville,” he says simply.

  “Where’s that?” Though I don’t know where the city is, I imagine that’s where the Drew Mansion is, where he has Eden.

  “Not too far. East of Dozier. ” He doesn’t look at me. Though his eyes are straight forward, he doesn’t seem to be paying attention to the road, or anything.

  The question bubbles to the forefront of my mind. And I have to ask it. I have to try again.

  “Why did you kill Olivia?”

  He rolls his eyes. “You just can’t let my mistakes go.” He lights another cigarette and casts a glance my way that’s a sharp as a dagger. “You didn’t used to be like this. You used to be happy when it was just us. But then stupid girls like Olivia have to go and confuse you. She’s a victim of circumstance. I thought she was someone else.”

  My jaw tightens as anger rushes through me. He’s so nonchalant about killing one of the most important people in my life. I struggle against the restraints. Then I remember that Sayid is in the trunk. If I try to get free, Dominic could hurt him. There’s another question lingering at the back of my mind, but I’m afraid to ask it.

  Dominic turns the wheel sharply and pulls the car off into the woods. “The town has been shut down since the forties. The roads are destroyed. You might not believe me, but driving through the trees is actually much better than trying to make it through the roads.”

  He weaves in and out of the trees at a speed that makes my stomach creep into my throat. Please don’t hurt Sayid, please.

  “Why can’t I die?”

  “You can,” a smirk creeps across his face.

  “Not so far I can’t,” I argue. By my count, I should have died at least five times.

  “You just haven’t been killed the right way yet,” he says as if to comfort me. He leans over and sets his hand on my thigh. My skin crawls at his touch. “Trust me, I’ve killed you hundreds of times.”

  He must be crazy because it’s not possible. Even though I know I’ve healed when I shouldn’t have. Even though I’ve lived when I shouldn’t have—it still seems impossible.

  “The key is making sure there’s none of you left to regenerate,” he turns his head toward me.

  “So what’s the right way, then?”

  “Don’t worry, I’m going to show you.”

  I can see the sickness brewing in him. There’s something so dark beneath the surface of Dominic that it scares me. How was I so blind that I didn’t see it in the beginning? Eden and Olivia saw it. Why was I so stupid?

  I swallow my fear. The fear won’t do me any good. But the answers might. “So, what, we get reincarnated and then you find us again?”

  He nods with a smile.

  “Why, though? Why do you keep hunting us? Why do you keep killing us?”

  He pulls the car to a stop in front of a old, decrepit house with a sagging porch.

  “Because it’s what you deserve,” he says as he pats my thigh.

  Dominic slips from the car and grabs Sayid from the trunk. He carries him into the house. A while later, he opens the door, unties me, and I slide out.

  I look toward the house, and back at the car. We’re in the middle of the woods, I could try and make a run for it, but I can’t leave Sayid and Eden.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Dominic says as he glowers at me.

  I walk slowly toward the house, my feet dragging in the sandy soil. This is the end, I can feel it. He’s brought us here to kill us all. Fear coils tightly around me, and panic swells in the back of my mind.

  On the porch, I realize nearly every window in the house is broken. Shards of glass cover the porch. The door moans when he opens it and dry leaves crinkle as they’re crushed. Black dirt clings to the seams of the dark wooden floors. Brittle leaves, grass, and dead roaches form piles that gather at the walls.

  A wide rotten staircase stretches to the second floor. So many of the boards are missing, I’d never dare climb them. I hope that’s not where he’s taking me. Wallpaper hangs limp from the walls, like old sagging skin. But still, the house is hauntingly beautiful.

  I look around for my sister, for Sayid. Dominic shoves me through open double doors. Above them is stained glass that looks like it used to be the last supper. This room used to be the living room. Light spills in from the windows, through the moth eaten curtains; there are so many holes, they may as well be made from Swiss cheese. Sayid and Eden sit tied to chairs in front of me.

  The house smells like dust and
mold; the musty smell of old people. I stand amongst the furniture covered in white sheets, and splinters of broken furniture. Dominic pushes me forward, and slides a chair behind me. He shoves me into it.

  My chest tightens, fear’s fingers digging into me. He wraps ropes around me and secures me to the chair. My eyes fall on Eden, her face is a mask of frustration, not fear, like I expect.

  “Are you okay?” I ask her.

  She offers me a curt nod.

  I shake my head. None of this seems possible. None of this is possible. Dominic must be lying.

  “Did he hurt you?” I ask her.

  “Yeah, he really loves knives,” she glowers toward the door. Dominic has disappeared for the moment and I use it to my advantage.

  “Did he tell you anything strange about hunting us in other lives?”

  “You don’t remember?” she asks as she cocks her head.

  Dominic’s feet are heavy against the wood floor. Something sloshes in the can he carries. He whistles as he brings the can of gasoline close and splashes it onto the floor, and on us.

  “Please let Sayid go. He didn’t do anything,” I plead. I know there’s no chance of him letting me or my sister go. But Sayid isn’t like us.

  “He’s seen too much. He’s too close to you. He can’t stay. If I let him live, I’d be breaking the rules.” He smirks and winks at me.

  The image of all the bodies in the Howey Mansion basement floods into my mind. I swallow down my disgust.

  He stops, takes a long look at me, then a deep breath, “I just love the smell of gas. I could smell it all. Day. Long.”

  He sets the can down and pulls a gold lighter from his pocket. As he looks us over, he clicks the lid open and closed. For a moment he drops his eyes to his feet. His tongue slides across his teeth.

  “This will be the last time,” he says as he smiles at both of us. “I’m not sure what you did to become siblings this time around, but I’m telling you, this is the last time.” He pulls a dagger from his waistband and moves toward Eden. He slices her neck and his palm in one fluid movement and holds the two together. Eden doesn’t wince or react.