After Death (34 page)

Frank let Argus lead and plunged into the undergrowth. As they moved, the dense bush seemed to rustle and part in the middle for them to pass, leaving the path clear and obvious. They continued for about a hundred yards until the path widened into a flat grassy clearing where a huge grotesque forked oak tree loomed over the expanse.

Frank jerked Argus to a stop and stared. Something
was
wrong with this oak — it
did
more closely resemble a pitchfork than any other tree Frank had ever seen. It seemed more appropriate in a modernist painting than in real life but here it was, large and commanding and perfectly at home in this murky surrealscape.

The light breeze that pushed and pulled the fog caused something white to flap softly against its giant base. A white dress!

Was it..? Could it be..? Yes, Jackie!

She lay, apparently unconscious, slumped against the tree, the moonlight making her skin appear a ghostly illuminated white that was almost the same color as the dress itself.

Frank couldn’t believe it —

His Jackie was here — He’d found her at last!

For a moment, all his fears and worries fell away and left him light and tireless.

His Jackie was here — Safe and sound!

He sprinted to her —

Yes, her chest was moving, she was alive — fine and alive!

He was just within reach, arms extended and hands outstretched — Joyous, buoyant, ecstatic —

— Eli’s transparent form appeared by her side and threw her body over his shoulder with inhuman ease and speed. Before Frank could progress even one more inch, Eli had darted into the surrounding hazy woods with his captive, only his gleeful mocking voice left hanging in the air…

“
Nice try, Franklin...!
”

And then Frank was once again alone with his dog in the foggy woods.

It was almost too much to bear — to have come so close to attaining that which he needed and loved so much — Only to have it snatched away like a toy from a child… His face contorted in black rage and determination. There were no coherent thoughts now, they had all abandoned him. There was only the familiar mantra, the power and resonance of it echoing through his brain with enough force to sweep all else clear.

JACKIE, JACKIE, JACKIE
.

He barreled wildly in the direction Eli had taken, arms pumping, hurtling through the nightmarish forestscape without plan or concept.

JACKIE, JACKIE, JACKIE
.

He raced under a thick clump of branches and suddenly found himself at the mouth of a vine-covered cave that was almost completely disguised against the mountainside.

His wits were slow, senses almost numb with shock and despair.

JACKIE, JACKIE, JACKIE
.

Slowly he took it in — He recognized this cave as though he had been here before — The details — The way the vines grew in a strange zig-zag pattern across the opening…

Slowly his mind was unclouding… And then he remembered —

Burt’s story! — It was the same — He had found it! — This was Eli’s lair!

At almost the same moment as this realization, a confirming black shape with glowing green eyes stepped from out of the cave mouth —

Blackie.

My God! He HAD been able to bring his dog!

Argus strained at the leash, fur bristling at this new rival — In his fervor, Frank had almost forgotten him.

Blackie moved forward, growling and dripping large gobs of saliva on the ground. There was something peculiar about Blackie’s form, something diffused and indistinct at the edges… There was no time to think on it further — Argus broke free of his leash and in his effort to protect Frank from this advancing creature, attacked.

The dog fight was a tangled mass of snarling spinning fur — but it only lasted seconds.

Blackie’s indistinct quality was revealed with finality — his shape was intangible — A specter the same as Eli. Argus’ teeth snapped at Blackie’s neck and head and legs — but slid through each time without contact or injury. Blackie, on the other hand, inflicted damage with every counter — every lunge drawing blood, his onslaught unstoppable and beyond mortal defense.

Frank leapt into the melee, desperate to save Argus, he yelled and flailed at the shadowy wolf-hybrid.

His swings went right through its body without impact and all he could do as his final recourse was to grab Argus by the collar in an effort to pull him out of the fight, out of the ghostly creature’s reach.

Argus bled freely in a dozen places, yet he tried once more to turn and protect his master, teetering back towards Blackie on shredded legs. Blackie bared bloody fangs and stepped forward again to meet him — only stopping when his master’s light and cheerful voice carried across to him —

“Desist, Blackie. Desist.”

Eli’s voice came again, this time from much closer and directed at Frank.

“Sorry about that, Franklin. But my pet comes before your pet…”

Argus could no longer stand and collapsed to the dirt. With one last lingering look up at Frank, he seemed to communicate sadness that he was unable to do his job, then lay down his head and died.

Frank crouched over him and stroked his battered head and wept.

When he finally looked up, Eli’s form slowly materialized in the mouth of the cave next to Blackie, waiting for him and staring at him fixedly. His clothes were the same as those he’d been buried in and all the details were the same; his wide-brimmed hat, even the carnation at the lapel that was now as shriveled and dead as his partially transparent flesh. Was he more transparent now than when Frank had seen him before? He seemed less defined, wispier — except for his raven-dark eyes that gleamed with desire — and willful determination.

“Welcome to my humble abode, Franklin.” He said, and beckoned Frank inside with a wide wave of his see-through arm. “It is with great pride that I bid you enter.”

Frank looked up from Argus, his dead friend. He could feel his features twist with sadness, disgust, and rising anger that he could no longer hide.

I will have my revenge for this
, he thought, and in his mind the letters were bright red and shining — written in dripping blood.
But first — to Jackie
.

He rose to his feet and moved woodenly after the ghostly figures of Eli and Blackie as they soundlessly turned and disappeared into the darkness of the cave.

Spider webs and stringy green moss that dangled from the cave ceiling hit Frank full in the face but he didn’t swerve or flinch, he was beyond such feelings. The old hatted man and faithful black wolf-hybrid lead him down the tunnel and he followed mechanically. The dirt floor was uneven, the air growing ever cooler and more damp as they continued ever sharply downwards, past an occasional candle wedged into a makeshift shelf carved into the walls.

They walked for what seemed like hours, the only sounds those of Frank’s footfalls and the dripping of moisture from the ceiling — the twin phantasms before him floated soundlessly — and still they continued downward, deeper and deeper still.

The passage began to turn and twist and there were the dark openings of other caves branching off in different directions — this was more than a single cave — it was a series of catacombs.

They stayed the course and, slowly, the tunnel they followed began to widen, almost imperceptibly at first, until gradually it became twice its former width.

As they moved around yet another sharp turn, a large space came into view, lit by what seemed to be thousands of candle flames from countless more shelves cut into the cave walls.

Frank came to a standstill, his mouth dropping in speechless awe. It took several moments to realize that most of the numerous candle flames and shelves were an illusion — there were three large old mirrors positioned against the walls at the end of the cave and it was this that was creating the effect of infinite flames and infinite shelves and infinite Elis and infinite Blackies and —

And infinite Jackies!

She sat, propped up in a chair and facing him before the mirrors at the end of the cave, pale and unconscious, her white dress torn and twisted and dirty and splayed out across one leg.

His beloved Jackie
!

She was just there, feet away! All he had to do was take three long strides and he could sweep her into his arms! But he had seen this trick before. Eli would not make it this simple. Frank froze and surveyed the cave warily.

There was no sign of a trap, nothing between him and his love.

Could Eli have made a mistake? Could he possibly have over reached himself and exhausted his power on earth and been pulled back into that other place, that other collective he had earlier been rambling about? It seemed too much to hope for… Still… She was just there, so close — to hell with it, he could get to her. If he were quick, nothing could stop him now —

But something did.

His feet had no traction and he pumped his legs in vain to reach her, but somehow he did not move forward, did not close the distance, even by as little as a single inch. His feet merely stirred the dirt on the ground, nothing more.

His forearms hurt and he looked at them and could see the white marks of invisible fingers against the skin. The grip was like iron and just as unyielding. He struggled and turned and twisted, sweat running freely down his face, neck arched — but he could not break free.

The same invisible force abruptly thrust him hard against the wall and held him by his throat several feet above the ground.

As he choked, a murky shape coalesced before him — irst just a hazy smudge, then gradually a shadow, and then, finally — the evil leering almost transparent face of Eli, his maggot-ridden nose pressed right up against Frank’s.

“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you, Franklin? You didn’t think you would actually
win
?”

Frank was aware of his fleeting thoughts being choked away. The idea that this was the same type of being his dog had fought and had lost to so utterly, and the ridiculousness in the notion that he actually stood a chance against such a force that had no corporeal form but that could wreak such devastation…

Eli clacked his black tongue in admonishment and relaxed his grip slightly so that Frank wouldn’t slip away to the comfort of unconsciousness.

“Life is something quite different than a Norman Rockwell painting or a Disney movie. Why do you insist on trying to hide from the truth of who we really are?”

Eli canted his head at an angle and raised an eyebrow — the cave walls and flickering candles clearly visible right through him. He leaned in further still to be sure Frank heard him clearly when he imparted the true secret of the universe.

“Hate
is why we live, Franklin.” He hissed. “The primal instincts are still in full force. The thrill of the hunt. The ecstasy of confrontation. The delight at the smell of fear hanging thick in the air. We are, before all else, predators. Which means, our ultimate goal, our ultimate pleasure is conquering — destroying our victims — beating the fucking life out of them! Watching them endure the snapping of bones and sinews, the bursting of veins and vessels — and finally watching them DIE! There is nothing more satisfying than that look locked on their faces when it’s over — the expression of total, uncompromised defeat. And the blood — the sweet, wondrous, mouth-watering, free-flowing blood of victory!
Ah, ecstasy!
”

Frank couldn’t move, couldn’t speak — locked face-to-face with such unadulterated evil and that gargoyle smile. He struggled but was unable to loosen the hold on his throat, unable to look away.

Eli laughed, his rancid breath further clouding Frank’s senses.

“Oh, don’t look at me that way, Franklin. After all —” He smiled and gave his most exaggerated innocent look. “I’m just a product of society.”

Frank managed enough space at his throat that he could move ever so slightly — his voice a hoarse whisper.

“Take me, Eli. Take me but let her go...”

The cloud that passed over Eli’s face was beyond any that Frank had ever seen before, a swelling of such pure and total rage that the air seemed sucked from the space, the vacuum charged with quivering negative energy. The monster’s hand tightened around Frank’s throat and squeezed with inhuman force and he shouted, the cave walls trembling.

“YOU BRING GENEROSITY HERE! YOU EXPECT MERCY FROM SUCH AS I!?! HOW DARE YOU!!!”

Frank couldn’t breathe, his vision swam.

Eli’s horribly twisted face tilted backwards, then came in fast — Frank barely saw a blurred glimpse of maggots thrown clear and skin sloughing off bone just before the head collided with his own and a sickening thud sent him spiraling into darkness.

***

Frank’s way back to consciousness was odd, there was no gradual return, just a sudden sense of being… wherever he was now… in complete darkness where strange sounds overlapped — rippling air, rushing wind, otherworldly echoes… Was he indeed conscious or was he simply dreaming this?