The Hollow Skull

by Christopher Pike

  Especially toward the end of the dreaming, which was exciting to him. In the back of the drugstore he ran into Jill, who started to kiss him as she often did, long and deep and wet, sighing as she did so. So happy to be in his arms, and totally unaware that he had drawn his knife. In the dream, as he stabbed the blade into her back, her whole mouth erupted with blood, and he leaned forward and kissed her even more hungrily. Licked her even as she gagged and died in his arms. Because to be all over her at the moment she breathed her last was the real thrill. The beginning of the end, a silent voice whispered. This was still a mere symptom of what was really going on, of what was really happening to him.

  Now that he was awake with Jill sitting beside him in the car, Tim didn’t know what was happening. Only that he felt both better and worse than he could remember feeling. It wasn’t his bandaged hand, it was the rest of him. All his muscles ached, his bones even, they cracked every time he stretched his neck or back. His head felt full as if his sinuses were stuffed with cold virus. Yet there was a clarity to his thinking that he couldn’t explain. For example he knew exactly how Jill felt, by her body language, even the rhythm of her breathing. He knew she was feeling strongly sexually aroused and that she was trying to hide it from him because she wanted him to make the first move at the reservoir.

  But he wasn’t inclined to tell Jill about all these novel experiences. He felt no shame, even over the violent dreams because they were just something inevitable that he was observing. In addition to his newfound sensations and dreams he was visited by a cool detachment that he would not have recognized twenty-four hours earlier. Yet he didn’t think there was anything particularly wrong with him, certainly not something he wanted to change. Psychologically speaking, he had entered a narrow tunnel of unknown length, he was moving quickly through it, and he thought he glimpsed a light up ahead. Only he didn’t know if the light was bright or dark, and frankly he didn’t care. He just wanted to be alone with Jill, and do … things.

  “Are you all right?” Jill asked, glancing over at him.

  “Yeah.”

  “How’s your hand?”

  “Fine.”

  She reached over and brushed his hair back. “Are you sure you’re OK?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re so quiet.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure you want to go to the reservoir?”

  “Sure.”

  “You probably shouldn’t go in the water.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Did you take the pills the doctor gave you?”

  “Yes.”

  Jill smiled. “I can’t believe he charged us only forty bucks for everything. Dr. Plant is such a cool guy, he makes me want to become a nurse.”

  Tim stared at her. “You’d make a lousy nurse.”

  Jill frowned. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say. Why can’t I be a nurse?”

  Tim kept staring. “I’m hungry.”

  “You’re hungry? We just ate. How can you be hungry?”

  Tim looked down at his wounded hand. “This is going to a be an interesting day.”

  Jill studied him, he seemed to be sweating a lot, which was understandable—it was close to a hundred degrees and her car had no air conditioning. The breeze through the open window was like the blast from a furnace. Still, she had never seen anyone sweat as much as he was. The fluid was pouring out of his skin, and he was breathing hard as well.

  “Why do you say that?” she asked.

  He kept looking at his hand. “That mine was a trip.”

  “I didn’t like it down there. It scared me.”

  “I liked it. The place had power.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He shrugged. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  She hesitated. “Did you check under the bandage to make sure you had no infection?”

  He glanced at her and smiled, kind of a wolfish grin that somehow made her feel dirty. Saliva gathered at the corners of his mouth and spilled onto his chin.

  “You want to have sex,” he said, not asking.

  She paused. “Yes. If no one’s at the reservoir, we can do it.”

  He shook his head, keeping his grin. “Even if people are watching, I don’t care. We have to do it.”

  Jill felt uneasy. “Let’s wait until we get there and see what the situation is.”

  The reservoir was not deserted, but they were there only ten minutes when a heavyset mother and her two whining kids got up and drove off. They then had the whole place to themselves. The reservoir was two hundred yards across, roughly circular, and very deep. Jill had heard stories that gangsters in Las Vegas had dumped weighted bodies in it over the years. But that didn’t stop her from swimming across it—she was a pretty good swimmer.

  Jill had brought a small cooler filled with beer, Cokes, and ice. She had some pot as well but didn’t bring it out. She was tired of getting loaded, it was making her stupid and lazy. While she lay on her towel close to the water, Tim prowled the shore. He kept picking up rocks and examining them and then putting them back down. Jill sat up and rested on her elbows while watching him. The sun was like a fire demon in the sky. She would go in the water soon to cool off.

  “What are you doing?” she called out.

  “Nothing.”

  “Since when are you into rocks?”

  He stopped and stared at her with a rock in his hand, and for a moment she received the distinct impression that he was debating throwing it at her. But then he let it fall to the ground and smiled again, like a fool. He began to pull off his shorts.

  “Let’s go skinny-dipping,” he said.

  Jill glanced around, back toward the road.

  “It’s a Saturday,” she warned. “We might get surprised by someone.”

  He threw his shorts aside and stood naked in the sun. Tim had a great body, awesome parts. She found herself staring at him and feeling excited. Certainly he was excited, the whole nine yards of romance, or inches in this case.

  ‘“‘I don’t care if someone comes,” he said.

  “But what about your hand? Should you get it wet?”

  He stepped toward the water and flashed her another grin. “Come on.”

  Jill stood reluctantly and slipped out of her bathing suit. She supposed if they stayed near the shore and saw someone coming, they would have time to get out and get decent. But Tim had no intention of staying close to the beach. He was swimming furiously into deep water. Wading into the cool liquid, she swam after him, wondering why he was acting so funny.

  Near the center of the reservoir she watched as he dived under. He was perhaps fifty feet in front of her. Tim was an incredible swimmer and could hold his breath for as long as a minute in deep water. But when he didn’t reappear after a minute she began to worry.

  And that worry swiftly changed to full-blown anxiety when another half minute went by with still no sign of him.

  ”Tim? Tim!”

  He was gone, her boyfriend was gone. But it made no sense, he couldn’t have drowned, not on such a sunny day right in front of her. He was strong and he was experienced and there were no man-eaters in the reservoir. He couldn’t be dead!

  “Tim!” she screamed.

  Something gripped her from below. Her feet and legs—it was as if they were encircled by a clamp. Before she could suck in a fresh breath she was yanked below the surface. And if she had been feeling bad over the disappearance of poor Timmy, she didn’t know what bad was. Whatever had her was pulling her down. She could see the smooth glass of the surface straight overhead and could not believe when it began to take on the semblance of a distant mirror. Her ears screamed in pain with the pressure, and she fought desperately with her legs to get free. Incredibly, it started to get dark around her, she was being dragged that deep. Yet the cold dark did nothing to soothe the fire that threatened to rupture her lungs. She had to breathe!

  Just when she thought she could take no more, the grip loosened an
d she was able to kick upward. But by then she honestly didn’t think she could reach the surface—it looked over a hundred feet away. Her screaming chest was filled with molten lead. It didn’t help matters when she was grabbed from the front.

  The light was dim, she was about to die, and she was stunned to see that it was her boyfriend. Good old naked Timmy, he was still grinning.

  He pulled her close and kissed her.

  She yanked back in horror and stabbed at his eyes. He stopped smiling and let her go.

  Jill really didn’t know how she made it to the surface. Because she wasn’t breathing bottled air, there was no danger of her going up too quickly. She couldn’t get the bends or an air embolism. In fact, because she was rising and the pressure on her was decreasing, the actual air in her lungs expanded as she fought for the surface. Still, when she finally did break through she gasped so frantically that she could have been sobbing. Her terror and pain were so great, she wasn’t able to stop shaking for several minutes. She didn’t even notice that Tim was floating nearby, laughing his head off.

  “That was a cool kiss,” he said finally.

  She looked over at him, barely able to keep herself afloat.

  “You bastard!” she swore. “You almost killed me!”

  He was happy. “That’s true, it was close.”

  She wept. “But why did you do that?”

  He circled her playfully, splashing her. “I just felt like it.”

  In disgust she turned and swam toward shore. Tim made no attempt to follow her, but continued to play in the center of the reservoir. Well, she was going to show him. She was so angry that as soon as she was standing on solid ground in her bathing suit again, she jumped in her car and drove off. She wasn’t worried that he would die of heat stroke because somebody would be along soon enough to give him a ride back to town. But she had no intention of seeing him for a few days. She didn’t know what had gotten into him.

  Tim didn’t mind that he was left all alone. The swimming helped his stiffness and the cool water gave him a chance to pause and think about what he had just done. Of course he hadn’t meant to drown Jill, he just wanted to scare her and kiss her, in a strange way. Pulling her hard into the depths had just seemed a natural thing to do. Actually, he didn’t mind that she was furious with him. That also seemed natural.

  Yet he was slightly puzzled over the brief desire that had swept over him when he had held her underwater, his lips pressed against hers. For an instant he had thought of biting her, making her bleed, and then sucking up the blood. He had also thought of cutting himself and then pressing his blood into her cuts. He was definitely hungry for some kind of unusual action. He didn’t understand why his breakfast hadn’t satisfied him. He’d had bacon, eggs, and toast, with a large orange juice. He should still be stuffed.

  Yet he wanted to put something inside his body. He didn’t know what, he just needed something bad.

  The cooler caught his eye, the flimsy Styrofoam chest. Jill never went anywhere in the desert without bringing a ton of drinks. It was her greatest fear, to get stranded on some burning road and die of dehydration. He chuckled to himself at the absurdity of the thought. She didn’t know what fear was, didn’t understand that there were much worse ways to die.

  Tim stepped over to the cooler and took out a bottle of Coke. He popped the top off with his thumb, something he had never done before, and drank the cola down in one gulp. Then he grabbed another bottle and downed it just as quick. His thirst was satisfied, yet his hunger remained. This second empty bottle, he didn’t throw away. He studied it for a while, in the blazing sunlight, then held it up to the sky an stared at the sun through it. The glare didn’t bother his eyes. It was easy for him to imagine how bright the sun would appear from outer space, with the atmosphere out of the way. He wished right then that he was an astronaut.

  Tim sat down beside a low boulder and broke the Coke bottle on it. He picked up a hand-size rock and began to grind the glass down. It took him a while to get the glass down to powder form. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was doing or why, but he was pleased with his efforts so far. Picking up a handful of sand, he blended it in with the glass until it was hard to tell one substance from the other.

  Then, on the spur of the moment, he leaned over and licked the mixture with his tongue. The sand was gravel in his mouth, the fine glass fire. Yet to his profound surprise it satisfied him in some inexplicable way. He didn’t even mind the blood that began to spill over his lips. He bent over and had another lick, and then another.

  He didn’t stop until he had finished the whole lot.

  Until others arrived, and found him vomiting blood.

  5

  Cass had a new timetable. She wanted to get out of Madison now, this day, this hour. She told Mary as much while she was making her lunch on Fred’s miserable countertop. Mary was excited with the idea but worried as well. She was a little girl, after all. Cass was talking about uprooting her whole world. Yet Cass thought it was better to act now before school started for Mary.

  “But why do we have to leave today?” Mary asked as she accepted the turkey sandwich Cass had made for her. Cass practically lived on turkey sandwiches, she didn’t know why she liked them so much. She also ate toast and cheese—she was a plain eater.

  “The sooner we leave the more time we’ll have to set up shop in L.A.”

  “We’re going to buy a shop?”

  Cass smiled. “No, silly, it’s just an expression. But we do need to find an apartment.”

  “But are you going to go to college and everything?”

  “Yes.”

  “But how are you going to work and make enough money to take care of us?”

  “I can do it; I’ll work two jobs. I don’t need much sleep, and we’ll have Fred to help us.”

  With her big brown eyes Mary stared at her sister and munched on her sandwich.

  “Are you sure Fred wants to come with us?” she asked.

  Cass forced a laugh. “He can’t live without me.”

  Fred had welcomed them graciously the previous night; he hadn’t been asleep when they arrived. None of them slept very well. Fred had taken the couch and Cass curled up beside Mary. But Mary had woken up a few times, suddenly crying out. The whole house hold had felt unsettled. Then, early in the morning, Fred had gone off to his job at the foam warehouse. But seeing how Mary was unsettled, Cass hadn’t gone in to work. But she had called her boss, and he just said to get to the paperwork when she had a chance. He was a good man, and she’d at least like to take care of his bills before she left town.

  Mary smiled. “I like Fred. Are you going to marry him?”

  Cass sat down with her own turkey sandwich. “I don’t believe anyone should get married before the age of thirty, preferably forty. But if Fred is still around when I’m an old lady, I’ll probably marry him. ”

  Mary looked worried. “What is it?” Cass asked.

  “I was just wondering if Daddy is OK.”

  “He is not OK. He will not be OK until he stops drinking. But that’s his problem, it’s not ours.” Cass softened. “Is this what you want? To come with me?”

  Mary nodded.

  “You’re sure?” Cass said.

  Mary’s lip trembled but she nodded again. “Yes. I love you more than anything or anyone.”

  Cass smiled, felt a lump rise in her throat. “I love you, too, more than anything.”

  There was a knock at the door. Cass was surprised to see Jill. Her friend looked troubled. Jill gave Mary a quick hi and asked if Cass would step outside. Cass did so, and closed the door behind her.

  “What’s wrong?” Cass asked.

  Jill had on her bathing suit, dark sunglasses. She smoked a cigarette, which she rarely did. She stared out at the desert as she spoke.

  “Tim is acting real weird. We went out to the reservoir and the whole drive there he was behaving like a zombie. Then we went swimming and he dived under and he was gone. Several minutes went by
and I didn’t see him. Then he grabbed my feet from below and pulled me down over a hundred feet. I came real close to drowning, I swear. Then he tried to kiss me, when we were still way under. Can you believe that?”

  Cass frowned. “He couldn’t have held his breath for several minutes. And there’s no way he could have pulled you down over a hundred feet. Don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a tiny bit?”

  Jill was annoyed. She flicked her cigarette away. “No. You’d have to have been there. What he did was next to impossible. But it wasn’t just that, it was the creepy vibes he was giving off. There’s something wrong with him, I know there is.”

  “What?”

  Jill leaned close and spoke quietly. “You know what Tim said about those men who went insane, the ones who worked in that mine? Well, I think something bad from that mine has infected Tim.”

  “You mean his hand is infected?”

  “Yeah. No. I don’t know. I just know that place was bad and now Tim isn’t himself. What should I do?”

  “Take him back to Dr. Plant and have him examine Tim’s hand. I’d do that first. But what you’re talking about are more like psychological changes, and I’m afraid you’re going to lose the doctor there. I mean, you guys sound like you just had a fight.”

  “But we didn’t fight.”

  “Was either of you stoned?”

  “No! Cass, you’re not listening to me.”

  Cass considered. “I’ll have to talk to Tim myself to form a clearer opinion. Where is he?”

  “Probably still out at the reservoir. I left him out there.”

  “You did what?” Cass exclaimed.

  “Well, he tried to drown me. Why should I give him a ride home?”

  “How long ago did you leave him there?”

  “It must have been an hour. When I first got back here, I went to the drugstore and had a milk shake.”

  “I bet that made you feel better,” Cass muttered.

  Jill lit another cigarette. “It didn’t.”

  In the distance, out on Highway 16, an ambulance was approaching with its siren wailing. The girls exchanged worried glances, yet there was no logical reason to do so. They were still looking anxious when the ambulance swept by at high speed.