Lara’s mouth began to move, but she sealed her lips. You can’t talk to him. But I wanna, he didn’t wanna do anything. That doesn’t change the fact that he did. You got what, a day left? Not even a day, less than a day left to live. You just gonna live it all cooped up with anger? It’s all hurtin’ you more than it’s hurting’ him.
“She had one of those machines,” Denver continued. “I tossed the key on the path so she couldn’t do any more harm. It surprised me when ya found it… I don’t know what to say to make you trust me, but ya know what, I’ll still say what needs to be said… Lara, I care for you, and you know what-” Denver’s tone cracked into a cry. “I’ll care for ya for as long as I can.”
Lara shuttered. “Come here…” Her voice was silk through the air. Denver slipped forward from the doorway. She patted at her cardboard pallet. He slid next to her, soundless, breathless, immobile. He didn’t touch her, only keeping a one-inch gap. Lara wrapped a hand around his shoulder and lay a little over him. She gave him a squeezed, not a friendly hey, nor a sexual grasp, rather an internal emotion that never needed to be spoken—care. He grazed the side of her face and Lara the side of his. “It’s gonna take me a little time but, I-” a tear slithered down her cheek and tapped the cardboard below her. She whispered in his ear, “times all I need, and times ain’t what we got… but with what little time we have I still… I still want to love you.”
She kissed him, he kissed back. For a minute, they looked in the dark at each other, unable to see the other’s eyes but still able to feel that hot off the stove universal energy—an unspeakable connection. The moment where two whole selves orbit like the stars. Knowing that the imitate collide could either shoot off into space or impact into something new. And with that energy, they kissed.
Mellisa got up ten minutes later, causing Lara and Denver to bend upright, listing to her move in the dark.
Lara peeped over the counter and saw the outline of her mother in the dark, “psst… mom!”
“Shh!” Mellisa said. “I think I hear someone out there.”
Lara listened, but only heard the rain’s metal drum tat on the tin roof, “Mom I don’t-”
“Shh, ain’t you hear it?”
Lara listened once more, now hearing the hush of trees behind them and the thin trickle of rain as it slid off the roof. “Mama, I told you I-”
Her mother didn’t need to respond. The door shook against its lock, clank, clank, clank. Something was out on the other side. Lara’s hands sparked. This was the image Althea brought to her. What was it for? Some side of herself already lived through this numerous times. What was I prepping for? Her hand shivered as she tried to find meaning. All she knew were the movements.
Someone murmured behind the door. Then Lara’s ears rang.
A shot cracked through the wood paneled door, then a second shot thundered through the building, growing louder as it reverberated in the basement. A third shot went through the entrance, tossing shards of wood and packets of chips aside.
Lara screamed. She ducked behind the counted, her breath uneven and swaying. She heard something drip on the tiles in front of her, then a light tapping sound as red-painted fingernails shivered on the metal aisle; and finally, a gut-wrenching orchestra of noises as her mother fell onto the aisle of food, popping a few chip bags, her hand slinging candies across the ground.
Mellisa collapsed on the floor with a soft thump. Lara took a deep breath, then stood. The blue sparks ruptured into violent clumps up her wrist. The air began to feel heavy. The lights inside and out flickered with the rhythm of her sparks. A radio behind the counter vomited signals. Lara knew that her mother’s body flashed in the muddy yellow light right in front of her, but she dared not look. All she saw was a dark pool and a spreading stain on a white button-up shirt.
Lara knew what she had to do—she dreamed it all before.
Chapter 14
Side C Track 14
No Surprises
Just when I had it all in the grasp of my hand, they locked me on a radiator, in a cramped room, in a vacant town, at the end of the world. I was stuck in the back office at Walling’s and all I had was a desk out of reach.
Lucy tossed up a middle finger and shook my pistol in the air as she slipped out the door, “That’s what you get for shootin’ me.” The door slammed halfway through her sentence, but I heard her loud and clear. Heard her and her gang stumble on out and roar their engines into the night. So, there I was, left hand, the damaged one, a hung like a Christmas ornament. I pulled the desk in front of me with as much strength as my foot could manage.
On top of the desk was a pen and some girly novel called Love’s Tender Fury, I scorned at the thing then paused it with a melancholy gaze. The woman on the cover reminded me of Debbie. I stopped squirming and watched the cover as if the face was going to turn at me. I looked away and flipped the book over. I’d rather starve to death before I read that thing. I brushed through the desk drawers looking for some way to free myself, but all I found was, a raincoat, tax papers from, pencils, an empty bottle of white-out, loose change, undefinable crumbs, and two empty cigarette cartons. I grabbed the tax returns and did the only thing I knew would help me. I wrote.
9/8/1977
I am stuck in Walling General Store. That bitch Lucy came by and said she knew I was looking for the devil, and, BAM, I’m chain up like a dog. I miss Abe. I am frozen here, writing what may be my last words. So that’s fun. I think the army is done for as well. Something is wrecking up their place, so I doubt they would find me.
I got distracted trying to think of some last words to say. I’ve been studying the radiator, the thing bolted to the wall. Meaning I’m going to need to find a wrench if I want to let myself go. I can slide my arm along the pipe bolted to it, but that’s only about an inch of movement.
Welcome back world. According to this tacky clock, it’s 1:14 I tried kicking the wall to see if I could pull the thing off and kicked through the drywall, I’m sneezing like hell but making progress. Of course, I can’t do anything till I get that bolt off.
Things are at a standstill. It makes me wonder how many people have been like this and just died, forgotten, stuck, a practical joke of a death. I’m looking back on my life, and I’m not too proud of much. Hell, I’m not proud of anything. Not satisfied with how sloppy of a job I’ve made, and
Just yanked the damn radiator off the drywall, I’m still handcuffed, but at least the thing is off the wall.
Update, I spun the radiator off its bolt by pivoting the whole thing. I’m now free, well, sorta. It’s all unhooked, and I can walk around. The only problem is that the handcuff won’t go over the valve, so until I get a wrench, I am stuck with this thing on me.
I tucked the paper I wrote on into my pocket. The radiator still clung onto me like a needy child. The muscles under my bandage pulsed with pain. I ended up driving all the way over to the gas station with the radiator riding in the passenger seat demanding attention.
Side B Track 14
I'm Hooked On-
“This god damn radiator,” Harvey muttered as swerved into the gas station overhang. Something dark lulled under his headlights. He slammed his breaks, afraid to run over what he assumed to be a dead shadow lying on the gas station parking lot. He would have missed the entire gas station if his headlights weren’t on.
Harvey’s headlights were the only thing that gave shape to the dark mass. He got out of the car but still left it running. The body in the road looked like a black trash bag. As he came closer, he saw it breathing, then a pair of legs. The radiator on his wrist made a shiver-inducing screech as it dragged along the paved ground. The dark mass screamed. Harvey recognized the voice.
“Leonard?” Harvey clanked the radiator on the ground and knelt to his side.
Leonard gave a large childlike grin, “Ya scared the shit outta me.” His leather jacket rose and feel with his lumbering breaths. “I knew that radiator couldn’t hold ya, I-” Leonard coughed, but
that wasn’t the best word for it. To Harvey it was more like a hacking spray on the concrete. Harvey only saw the rim of Leonard’s moon-like face in the headlights blaring on his back. Leonard’s voice grew wearier, “I knew yousa smart sonuvabitch…”
Harvey patted on his black raincoat, “Where are the others?” Harvey watched the corner of Leonard's grin fade into the frown.
“They done gone Harv, Long gone” Leonard chuckled, tears filled his eyes “I’ve been sittin’ here… waitin’ to die.” He nodded, then rested his head back down, and nodded to himself.
“Die?” Harvey repeated as if he didn’t know the word. “You’re not gonna die-” Harvey tried to lift him up, but the radiator sucked every bit of energy he had.
Leonard raised a shaking finger out in front of him, “my gun over there… gots three bullets left.”
Harvey crawled toward the gun and looked up, “Christ, Leo, what happened?” There were 3 windows knocked out of the station’s curved wall. Five bullet holes scurried along the building, four were sent through of the front door in a splintery burst.
“Shoot the cuff first.” Leonard huffed.
Harvey braced back as he pulled the trigger, Leonard didn’t flinch. The handcuff snapped off; his wrists pulsed from the sudden knock against it. Harvey cradled his beating wrist to his chest.
“They all left me,” Leonard let out a heavy sigh. “I’m used to it, it ain’t hurt no more… We tried to break in and shoot, but that devil, she got somethin’ to her… At the end of it all. Cain lost his little hand; Collin got his beefy leg all meshed up and Lucy got her skull busted in.”
“Were there any people in there?” Harvey asked. Despite the constant banter of rain above them, Harvey could tune into every word Leonard breathed.
“Yeah, Lucy did a good effort to thin out the pack, but that didn’t stop it, ya know. Things always come out unexpected for her. She got shot, and somethin’ else happened in there, but I honestly couldn’t tell ya. It was like a flash photo. And then snap they all escaped, at least they tried to… I don’t know who all made it out, I just sat out here and listened to the shufflin’ of feet… I tried to call out… for any of them, Collin, Cain, even Lucy… She told them to leave me here. Maybe they all died. I wouldn’t doubt it… I don’t doubt bein’ left behind, either.” Leonard took in a quick breath and let out a shuttering exhale, “I know that gun got two bullets left… You can just-”
“What, Leo, I?” Harvey picked the shards of his thoughts, the way Leonard reminded him of Abe; his huffs of air, the way a body lost strength and gravity, the weight of the world, sinks in, the way it yearns for you to return home. “I ain’t gonna do that, I gotta get you to a hospital or something!”
“I’m shot.” Leonard leaned back, exposing his blood-soaked t-shirt.
“I gotta get you somewhere! I can pick you up.” Harvey whipped a tear off his cheek—he hated crying.
“Just stay here for a while then… Tell me your story. Make it good while you’re at it. I ain’t goin’ anywhere, and I got a good hour left in me.” Leonard’s breaths became thin whistles.
Harvey told him a story of a man who arrived by highway, a man who got the girl, took her in, and killed her, and that same man who failed his search, a man who didn’t do shit but still went on, a man who escaped death with a girly novel in one hand and a radiator on the other. Though Leonard was only a shadow in the pale-yellow headlights, Harvey could feel the warmth of his smile. He looked back at him and realized his whistling stopped, the constant wave of his stomach receded to a low wake. Harvey wanted to call out his name but found himself breathless and Leonard breathless as well.
He died smiling.
Harvey drove back to town as fast as the rain would allow him. Lucy probably trapped Lara down at the gang’s hideout. If Lara wasn’t there, he would search every inch of the town until he found her, until he knew she was dead, until he knew peace.
The gang parked a truck and two bikes in the Brookside Gardens parking lot. Harvey stepped in a one-inch-thick puddle as he exited his BMW. He was astonished at just how deep the rain was. Puddled pooled the corners of the parking lot. Glancing back up at the wooded section of the park, he noticed the maze was caked in a sheet of rainwater as if the trees and flora grew out of a vast pond.
He stepped over a puddle and shuffled towards the entrance to the gang hideout. The smell of rain and dirt was thick in the air. Harvey gripped the knob and glanced around. There was no one in sight, only a choir of puddles and newborn streams. He found the door unlocked and pushed through. The red neon bulb at the bottom of the concrete stairs flickered.
Side D Track 14
Ricochet
The gulf gas station’s basement floor was ice. A sheet of cardboard protected Michael and Danny from the concrete’s cold. The three upstairs had hogged most of the boxes, leaving Michael and Danny enough to lie on one layer. While the others failed to sleep, they stayed talking about hell, the afterlife, and their comprehension of the mess they found themselves in.
“Why do anythin’ if it’s just gonna be a theological tangle?” Danny asked. The bag of chips he called a pillow crinkled under his head as he turned. “I mean, you still believe. Right?”
“Yeah,” Michael nodded, “And probably more now.”
“How?” the bag ruffled with every word Danny spoke. “If you know it’s all worth nothin’ then why bother?”
“It ain’t about worth, it’s about belief… everyone needs some belief.”
“So if I believe as hard as I can, that’s all that matters?”
“I guess, but that’s missing the whole energy of it. You gotta live by somethin’ that says you are one with others… I don’t know, I ain’t some grand disciple; I just took a wrong turn. What I can say is that it’s about what it all goes towards. That you have somethin’ strong, and communal, to help you grow with others and make you feel whole… If you outright deny it there’s still a constant pull towards somethin’ more. They described it as ‘not bein’ an animal’, maybe that’s god on the opposite end of that spectrum. If not, then what? Are we all just pulled towards bein’ a very pure person?” The two sat in silence while looking at the dark void of the ceiling. “The man who took me there described it as his, ‘god didn’t make people, people made the gods’.” Michael spoke in a poor imitation of Jude’s British accent. “I’m gonna still be believin’ because I know that almost energy that brings people together, and that, as long as I hold on, that energy will mold with us.”
“So, what if I worship money? Will heaven be a big bank?”
“I think some people already worship somethin’ similar. And they ain’t got much room up in heaven.”
Danny snickered under their breath, “You know what, I still been afraid of fallin’ asleep.”
“Well, don’t mean to hamper ya mood, but there’s one way to find out,” Michael turned to his side and closed his eyes. He thought back to where Cassiel placed him in that dark dream space where icy water replaced the ground. He felt his cardboard float off the air, dipped his hands down, and touched a thin layer of water.
“Michael!” He heard Cassiel echo.
“What’s going on?” despite being unable to see Cassiel's face and body, he felt an aura of fear.
“Something is coming. You must wake up!”
“I, I” Michael tried to think of a way to shake himself awake “I, can’t. What’s coming?” Cassiel faded into the sheet of water. Michael rolled off his pallet and watched Cassiel sink into darkness. He beat his fist into the water, sending a chill splash across his face and shirt—He couldn’t break through. His fists felt numb as they lay only an inch in the water. He gasped and fell to the ground. Cassiel escaped his body then jumped back, forcing Michael awake.
“You alright?” Danny asked.
“Yeah,” Michael said under his breath, the bottoms of his fist felt sore. “Why?”
“You were smakin’ your hand on the ground.”
“I was-”
Suddenly a sound, an unbearable sound that sliced any though clean; a noise that pierced through a conversation… like a bullet. Another gunshot followed, echoing within the room. The sound from the shot before still ricochet off the concrete walls. Michael snapped upright, covering his ringing ears—another shot.
Michael heard the rhythmic echo thump of his heartbeat as he scurried up the first step.
Strobing white light lit Danny’s front, making him look like a stop motion puppet up the stairs. When they got back, they saw Lara and Denver ducking behind the counter. Danny stopped halfway into the gas station’s back room and saw Melissa face down, hair soaked with blood.
Danny raised a shivering hand over his mouth, “Oh god!” His chin shook as he shouted—his words were muffled by the ringing in their ears and the violent wail of radio static behind the counter. Tears streamed down his face, “No! no, no!” Danny lunged towards her.
“Dad, Stop!” Lara reached out a hand. The tail end of Danny’s jacket flicked out of her grasp. He kept running, legs pounding into the ground with each step, full of furious energy.
Then froze.
A window shattered to Danny’s left. A bullet struck his nose. He spun and bounded towards Lara. Another window exploded. Lara tensed up and closed her eyes.
Michael watched every frame of motion in the flicker of light, a horrific slide show. The explosion of glass, glinting dust. Danny’s mouth hung open. His head was kicked to the right and knocking against the aisle of food. His hand trialed loosely behind him as he fell right next to Melissa. Michael turned to Lara; her entire body was shaking.
He could see the sparks on her hands dance up to her shoulders.
She turned towards Michael, eyes wide and flooded with tears, “Grab the pistols.”
Out There: A Rural Horror Story Page 28