Be Holden

Chapter 13: Blood

You walk up the cement stairs leading to your house. The green paint on the building is cracked and peeling. You touch the banister and the wall for support. Some paint peels off as you drag your hand along the rough, bumpy surface of the wall. The banister is cold and this does not help to settle your nerves. They have been making your skin tingle since you parked the car in the parking lot. You walk to your door which is ajar. No music is blaring from the apartment. Eerie silence is all that is heard here. You shutter as a gentle, cold breeze passes by you. You look behind you to be cautious before entering your apartment. The parking lot is just like how it was when you left it earlier. It is almost vacant.I think everyone is at work. You push the door open with your index finger. It hits the wall behind it and the sound echoes through the house.Everything is gone! You shake your head as you go through the house. Your dresser drawer, all the beds, all the lamps, the sofa, the table, and all the other furnishings in the house are all gone.

You turn around to close the door and find the tall shadow guy looming just outside the doorway. You freeze for a moment to see what he will do. He begins to intrude slowly moving his frame through the door. It's too late to shut the door, now! You run to the bedroom and the apartment seems to tilt as he enters. The atmosphere grows thick, warm, and heavy. You run to your bedroom and slam the door shut behind you. You lock it. Then you hear faint noises coming from behind you. There are two voices sounding off before you but one is deeper than the other. The wall that used to hold a window in your shallow room tunnels into a dark place where the sounds are coming from. Sweat rolls down your neck as you walk slowly to the entrance of the tunnel. You shake your head. No, I am not going in there. No, I am not going in there.

The overseer of evil walks past you and up to the couple moaning in the mouth of the cave; he grabs Ether's hair. Ether punches the overseer of evil's abdomen. Black lines infect his fist and he struggles to pull it away from the other overseer's abdomen. The overseer of evil pierces Ether's purple orbs with his blue fingers. Then he rips Ether's nose bridge out. Blood spurts from Ether's face and the dark brown woman clutches the neck of her cotton, black T-shirt dress. Her mouth is agape. The overseer of evil crushes Ether's skull against the wall of the tunnel. He pulls each of Ether's four main limbs until they pop out of their sockets, and he continues to pull on them until they are ripped from Ether's body. She releases a whimper as she watches the overseer of evil spit fire on Ether's tattered black clothing and Ether's separated body parts. He turns to her and she crawls backward and away from him. He disappears and appears again behind her. He stares down at her body for a moment. He grabs her shoulder and pulls her up. She stands on her feet and he claws at her brown flesh until there is only bare translucent skin. A thin, tree root snakes over the discarded brown skin and sinks into the ground. You feel liquid tickle your back steadily. You look up to the dark ceiling to see nothing is dripping on you. You touch your lower back and you feel something somewhat flexible bend under the pressure of your hand. The overseer of evil pulls Ishin up along the tunnel's wall until they are at the same eye level. You feel the wet spot on your bare back and follow the bumpy thing with hairs tickling your hands until it connected with the ground. You turn around and find yourself attached to the ground by this hairy, woody; brown tail.Is that a root?You tug it until it is set free from the ground. The end of the root and the root tip does not have any hair on it.

"Aah!" Ishin screams. You turn back around and see his hand piercing her torso where her heart should be. An ache originates from your intestines and quakes through your body. You are dizzy and the image before your eyes keeps blurring. Your intestines grumble as branches shoot from your arms and wrists. They reach for Ishin's pierced body and groan as they bend in her direction. A strong headache slams your head like the pressure of a twenty ton vehicle rolling over a watermelon. Blackness creeps into your blurring vision. You decide to close your eyes. "How could you do this to me? I care about you so much that even now I can't stop looking at you. I want to hurt you but I can't stave off my obsession long enough. You annoy and disgust me! I will delightfully punish you and make you beg me to feed you more of it." The overseer whispers loudly to Ishin. He whispered so loud you heard the yearning in his raspy voice. The air gets cooler and a light wind picks up around you. You feel more space around you and the headache subsides. You open your eyes and the sunlight peers through your window. The furniture in your room is back. You walk through the house and everything is back to normal. The front door is still open. You start to close it until you hear someone wailing. You walk outside and see your high school sweetheart wiping tears from their eyes. You walk up to their sitting body which is right below your bedroom window. You two lock eyes. "What are you doing here?" You ask. "My spouse found out about us." Your old lover says.

"What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about adultery. We are cheaters!"

"I did not commit adultery with you!"

"You remember all those nights we tossed and turned in those motels. You remember! Don't act like you don't because you know that you do!"

"I don't! I suggest you go back to your family and stop trying to drag me into your mess!"

"My mess? What was I doing in that motel? Talking to myself and touching myself! This mess is ours! It is bigger than you could imagine too."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"My spouse wanted to leave and take my children away. I can't be without them but I can't exist without you. I can't choose! I refuse to do so."

"Uh, you are scaring me so I am just going to-"

You begin to back away and your old lover pulls a gun out from their trench coat. The birds stop chirping and the breeze settles to still air. "Come back here, right now." Your old lover says. "Wait, I think you should think about what happened and and-" You say trying to find something else to say to calm your old lover.

"I said bring your ass over here and sit down, right now! See it's easier when you listen to my instructions."

"What happened to your family?"

"I sent them away. Their on a pleasant trip and I told them we will be meeting them there soon."

"Don't do this. Why are you being this way?"

"This is the price I must pay for being greedy and lustful."

"No, you can get through this. You can make up for what you have done and be a better person from this day onward."

"When I think of future days, I can't envision myself in them. Plus, eventually I will end up in prison and away from you. I don't want that! I want us all to be together. We are one big happy family!"

"We are no longer together, remember? We left all of those emotions in high school. You moved on, remember?"

"I did not move on! You told me you did not want marriage or kids. So, I got what I wanted from you with someone else but we never broke up. Never! We were in the accident together! I was driving us from the motel, remember! I visited you in the hospital. We slept on that bed in your room together almost every night. We work together at the elementary school! I am your freaking boss for crying out loud! How could you not remember all of that?"

"I am sorry."

"I tried to fight the urges you gave me when we worked together but I couldn't."

"Were you there when I was at the school earlier? Did you try to scare me then?"

"Yes, I was there. You did not answer my calls and that really annoyed me. I thought I could forget about what I did and live a normal life with you, but you were trying to erase me from your life too. Then I promised the bodies of my family that we will meet them."

"Do you know what happened in that bathroom years ago? Do you know Mr.Jivecks? Tell me something."

"What are you talking about? Mr.Jivecks is just the main character of a creepy story I made up last Halloween. You dared me to scare you but it didn't work. You were not afraid after I told you the story and you're probably not scared now. Usually, you have a blank look in your eyes and a monotone voice. I guess you are getting better when it comes to that. Come follow me."

Your old lover leads you to the banister and looks over the edge. There is a tree at the center of the apartment complex. You look into your ex-lover's eyes and now their brown irises are totally engulfed by a black abyss that has a glint of red reflecting from them. You shake your head. Your old lover shoots you in the heart and in the skull. The last thing you see is your ex-lover's brain blown out of their skull. Then your high school sweetheart falls forward on your still lying body.