The Dead & Dying

aware that the pressure of Watchmaker holding onto the hem of my jacket was suddenly gone. And that Doc’s jacket had slipped from my grasp as easily as if it had been oiled.

Standing as quickly as I could, I looked around, trying desperately to find the others. But everything was obscured by a veil of whiteness so dense I could barely make out my own outstretched hands as I spun around, trying in vain to catch sight of my companions.

My heart hammered within my chest so hard I could feel the rhythm pound in my temples. I tried calling out for Carl, for Doc, for Sadie and Watchmaker; but the wind blew my voice back at me and made it sound so tiny and lost… even to my own ears.

Lurching forward, toward what I thought was the direction we had been heading in, I tried to fight off the images which haunted my mind: my body, lips blue and ice crystals stuck in my eyelashes, lying rigid and frozen in some godforsaken field that would never be tilled again.

Though I knew it was futile, I screamed Carl’s name again and tried to listen past the keening wind for even the faintest reply.

And it’s funny, but all I could think of as I pictured myself dead and stiffened in the subzero temperatures was Carl. How I would never see his crooked little grin again. How he would remember me as the woman who bit his head off on her last morning alive.

But then, like a phantom materializing within a cloak of fog, I saw a fuzzy silhouette form in the blinding whiteness. It’s hands were reaching out for me, ready to pull me back into the warmth and safety of the group.

“He found me.” I thought as the fear leached from my body, leaving my formerly tense muscles feeling tired and spent. “He found me.”

“Carl!”

I reached through the shroud of snow and wind, stretching my fingertips forward until finally connecting with his outstretched hands.

Only, it wasn’t the slick vinyl of gloves I felt beneath my hands. No, what I felt was so cold that it seeped through my mittens. And it had a rough texture, like something that had been cracked and chafed and abraded to the point that the flesh had begun to flake off.

Before I had the chance to realize what this meant, it seized my wrist and I was yanked forward as a blackened, gnarled face emerged from the obscurity of the storm.

At the same time, I heard – very faintly – an ancient voice screaming out in terror and pain.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE CHILD

I don’t know how long I was there in the hallway, kneelin’ down in front of the keyhole but not really lookin’ through it anymore. It was almost like the whole world just kinda stopped when I saw Mr. Carl shoot my Mommy: I wanted to cry but couldn’t, wanted to scream at him through the door or just pound away on it ’til my fists were all bloody. But every muscle in my body felt like it’d just froze in place.

After a while, I thought I heard Mommy’s voice, only it seemed like it was somewhere inside my head and not comin’ from the other side of the door.

“Run baby.” She told me. “He’ll kill you, too. Run!”

So I stood up and started running as fast as I could down the hallway only I was in so big of a hurry that I bumped into a little table and the vase that was sitting on it crashed to the ground.

“Jason!”

It was Mr. Carl’s voice behind me, loud and booming and I could picture his gun pointing at me but didn’t take the time to turn around and look.

“Jason, no!”

I crashed through the door and was outside again. For a second I just kinda stood there, not really knowin’ which way I should go but I could hear Mr. Carl’s footsteps runnin’ down the hall so I knew I hadta go somewhere, anywhere… I couldn’t just stand there and let him shoot me like he had Mommy.

So I ran across the yard as fast as I could, jumpin’ over flowerbeds and these little pink birds that were stuck in the ground all over the place.

“Jason, come back!”

Mr. Carl’s voice was getting’ softer each second and I kept expectin’ to hear the boom of his gun but kept right on runnin’ anyway. He might’ve killed me, but I wasn’t gonna make it easy for him that was for sure. I remembered something I’d seen on TV and started zigzaggin’ back and forth as I ran to make it harder for him to shoot me, which is probably why I never did hear a shot.

And then I was back in the woods again and I felt a little safer cause I knew the trees would help protect me from his bullets and stuff. But I still kept runnin’ though cause I didn’t want him catching up to me.

“Jason!”

And my Mommy would have been so proud of me. I kept runnin’ and runnin’, just like Forest Gump, and before too long I couldn’t hear Mr. Carl hollerin’ for me anymore so I started slowin’ down a bit. My legs were hurtin’ real bad and my heart felt like it was gonna beat right outta my chest so I stopped for a second and sat down on this old tree that had fallen over.

I was catchin’ my breath and listening to the wind in the leaves when I started thinking about Mommy again. I kept hopin’ that I’d see her walk through the trees, her arms spread out for a hug, smiling so big that her eyes would look kinda squinty.

“I was just foolin’.” She’d say. “Just trickin’ Mr. Carl so we could get away, baby. And you did good. You did so good.”

Only part of me knew this wasn’t gonna happen. I could sit there and watch the woods until all the nighttime creatures started comin’ out and I could holler for her until I couldn’t holler no more and she’d never come. And it was all his fault.

If it hadn’t been for him, Mommy woulda been there and she woulda been able to tell me exactly what I needed to do. She woulda knew where to go next, where to get food and stuff. But most importantly she woulda been able to hold me and rock me in her arms like I was just a little baby and tell me everything was gonna be all right. And I wanted that more than anything else in the world. To smell the perfume I’d gotten her last Christmas and that she wore every day, for her to kiss my forehead and sing me a little song.

Now, I’m in the woods too only all those blurry people are around me again. We’re still walkin’ and it still hurts every time my feet hit the ground but I just can’t stop and rest like I did the day Mr. Carl killed my Mommy. I just hafta keep going on, like someone else is in control of my body and I don’t have no choice or nothin’.

It’s almost dark but up ahead I can see someone. It looks like a woman and she’s got her back turned to us and I can’t really make out what she’s doin’ but she’s kinda crouched down.

We get closer to her and I can see these little sparks as she runs her knife across a rock or something’. There’s a little pile of twigs and old leaves in front of her and every time she scrapes the rock, the sparks fall down onto them and she starts blowin’ like she’s trying to cool soup or something.

I feel really excited when I look at this woman, like I just wanna run up to her for some reason, only at the same time I feel really angry and I wonder if it might be because her hair kinda looks like my Mommy’s. But all of the blurry people around me seem kinda worked up too because they’re walking a lot quicker now.

And I start wonderin’ if maybe the real reason we’re trying to get to this lady as quick as we can is because she isn’t blurry and fuzzy like everyone else. I can see the checkerboard pattern on her coat just as good as I can the trees and bushes around me and I can see every piece of hair on her head too and the way leaves are kinda stuck to it in places.

And she has this smell that’s kinda like a mix between old fruit and sweat and the smell makes me even more madder, but I don’t know why ’cause it’s just a smell.

We’ve almost made it all the way to her when she hears us behind her or something. She stands up real quick and spins around and her face looks like she just saw a ghost as she starts backin’ away real slow. At the same time, she’s lookin’ around like maybe she’s lost something and the blurry people are all rushin’ toward her