It was time.
Thursday, November 24
2:13 A.M.
Saint Louis, Missouri
CHAPTER 25:
I can hear the footsteps coming.
They thump hard against the wooden stairs below, but I know that is not where they will stay. They are already getting closer.
Each footfall comes louder…
Faster…
As if driven by sheer excitement, they move upward, coming for someone. I pray that this time it will not be me.
I can hear the wails of the others. They, too, know she is coming. Nearby, someone is sobbing. I think it is a woman but I can’t be sure. It has been so long now that they have all begun to sound alike.
They are genderless…
Pitiful moans…
Terrified screams…
Barely even human…
They have become nothing less than a cacophony of anguished noise…
But, no matter how loud it becomes, even it cannot drown out the cruel sound of her feet against the stairs.
I listen in the darkness.
The footsteps are near now, just outside the door.
I wait.
I listen.
And, I wait.
But, the telltale creak of the hinges never comes.
Then I hear her feet shuffle, and the hard noise begins again.
The cruelty is there, but the excitement is gone. It is, instead replaced by annoyance.
This time they fade, growing more distant with each step.
Until, finally, they are no more than a fresh memory of an endless nightmare.
I rolled over in the bed and opened my eyes but found myself staring at nothing. I pondered this for a moment in my groggy state as I listened to my heart thumping. It was beating faster than it should for someone at rest, or so it seemed. But, it was quickly slowing, and with the afterimages of the nightmare still lingering in my head, I thought maybe that was a good sign.
This was the first time the terror had invaded my sleep since the night before Felicity’s arrest. My ongoing headache had actually lessened to a dull throb over the past few days, and with the advent of several decent nights sleep in a row, I was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, I had been wrong. That perhaps by some miracle of the Gods, this was going to all fade away for a change and leave us alone.
Of course, I knew better, but I could always hope.
The stab in the back of my head was working its way forward, but for the moment it was bearable. I was sure that I couldn’t count on that lasting for long. I sighed and went back to considering my lack of visual input. I knew I was awake, so it wasn’t part of the nightmare. As my eyes worked at focusing, it became apparent that the nothing I was seeing was actually a dark pattern. I shifted slightly and the pattern moved, brushing softly against my cheek.
Raising my arm, I pushed the pattern away and found that it was the comforter, which at some point I had pulled over my head. Blinking, I now found myself face to face with a pillow on the opposite side of the bed. The only problem my brain found with that picture was that my wife’s head wasn’t on it.
I pushed myself up on one elbow, eyes drowsily searching the room. Before any unwarranted panic managed to set in, however, my ears caught the sound of rushing water and a porcelain throated burp as the toilet was flushed.
Dropping my head back onto the pillow, I mentally chastised myself for letting my fears get the better of me and then rolled over to face the wall. I was tired, and it obviously wasn’t morning yet, so I closed my eyes.
The nightmare hadn’t been so bad this go around. Maybe it really was just a product of my overactive subconscious.
This time.
The reprieve had been too short, but then they always were. It’s just that this one was even shorter.
Footsteps advanced once again up the stairs, pausing only for a moment, then proceeding, coming closer with each hard strike against the wooden planks. The sobbing filled in the short voids between them.
But, there was something different about their sound.
They were still excited.
They were still cruel.
But there was something acute about their tone. No longer the familiar thud, they had become a sharp clack. However, different as they were, I knew they belonged to the same monster.
And, the fear they brought with them bit deep into my soul, for this time I knew they were coming for me. How I knew, I couldn’t say. But, there was no doubt that I was to be her chosen victim, and there was no escape.
I began to pray, but my request had changed drastically from what it had once been. Instead of asking to be spared as I had countless times before, now I prayed to die quickly and not linger, suffering for days-even weeks- like some of the others. I could hear myself whispering in the darkness, even above the growing cries and awful footfalls.
When they stopped outside the door, I was more than just simply aware my time had come. I could feel it deep within every inch of my body, and that just made the panic grow.
The door creaked on un-oiled hinges, allowing a swath of dim light to fall across the room. I couldn’t keep myself from trying to raise my head, but try was all my weakened muscles could manage.
Terror made me strain and pull, trying to escape, even though I knew I was held fast. The flight reflex made me try yet again, but my wrists and ankles screamed with pain as something bit sharply into my flesh. I was left with no choice but to give in to my fate, horrific, as I knew it was to be.
The door creaked again as it swung wider, then the steps clacked closer, stopping near my head, just out of my sight. I felt my stomach tighten, then heave, as it tried to expel contents it didn’t have. The bile rose in my throat, burning and making me gag. But even through that, I continued to pray.
There was a shuffle, and then the steps continued, clacking away across the room. But, I knew they would be back.
The moans of the others hummed in my ears, punctuated by animalistic wails that were born from the bowels of hell.
A sudden, loud clunk sounded in my ears, and bright light flooded into my eyes. I had been in darkness for so long that the luminance brought only pain. A searing pain that made me squeeze my eyelids tightly shut.
The footfalls came again as they moved across the plank floor, returning to their station at my head. I continued to hold my eyes shut and struggled through a gasping breath as I began to sob with the others.
Now, instead of the acrid stench of rot and excrement to which I had grown so accustomed, the sweet smell of perfume burrowed deeply into my nostrils. Its thickness caused me to gag again, and my chest began to
