Dark of Night - Flesh and Fire (37 page)

* * *

Todd lay on his back, his eyes wide open. Except for the gentle hum of the ceiling fan’s motor, dark silence filled the bedroom. Anna faced the wall. All she'd said since coming home was that she just wanted to lie down.

They’d spent the day in the hospital, getting their wounds looked at. The doctors all said that neither he, Anna nor Katie were seriously injured. All day, Todd kept thinking that was a lie. All three of them were deeply hurt, but in places the doctors could never see with their instruments and X-rays. Todd knew as he lay on top of the blanket, the cool breeze of the fan providing little comfort, that their wounds would leave permanent, profound scars.

Few words were exchanged between Todd and his family throughout the day. Katie had shot him several sympathetic looks as the hours went on, but there was nothing else from her. There was even less from Anna. He’d done most of the talking, telling the doctors and the police that they were attacked. No, he didn’t know their attacker. No, nothing had been stolen. Yes, he’d be willing to look at a lineup. He didn’t voice that he knew it would do no good. Samael was long gone. Anna and Katie seemed to know that somehow, too. He made no mention of Chloe. It disgusted him how good he was at lying.

He turned over and focused on the back of Anna’s neck. Her dirty blond hair lay splayed across the white pillow. She smelled like her strawberry shampoo. They’d showered separately; she’d spent nearly an hour in there while Todd waited for her to come to bed. Now, despite her silence, he knew she was awake from the restless way she breathed. He said her name once.

“Don’t,” she replied.

Todd returned to his back. His eyes had adjusted well to the darkness. The ceiling was a chilling shade of gray and offered him no answers. Looking within only yielded emptiness. He didn’t sleep for a long time.

~Chloe~

Cold mud slid down Chloe’s skin as she crouched in the filth that covered the floor of Samael’s cave. Her flesh crawled with the lingering feel of the previous violation. Samael took a handful of her hair and raised her head to make eye contact with him. The motion was almost tender, but because it was done with his hand, it exuded menace. He stared at her with eyes not full of fire, but ashen soullessness.

“Clare, my sweet Clare, have you learned your lesson?”

“I’m
not
her. Stop…”

He tightened his grip on her hair and tilted her head back. Above her on the ceiling, gutted bodies of the damned bled and shat down upon the floor. They should have been dead, all of them, but they wailed in their immortal suffering.

“You are who I say you are, whore. I’ve died for you. I’ve tortured and killed for you. You are mine.”

She watched the suffering above her, fastened by their ankles in the stone ceiling. They writhed and howled, sounding like wounded animals. Thirty years in Hell and she never got used to seeing them. She supposed she never would.

“Tell me you’re mine. I’ve fought for you and won.”

“You’ll believe that whether I tell you or not.”

He pulled harder on her scalp and took her by the throat with his other hand.

“Tell me or…”

“You’ll kill me? I think we’ve gone far past that.”

He dug his fingernails into the soft skin of her neck. The five fresh wounds stung and trickled warm trails of blood down her exposed breasts.

“There’s no escape. You can’t tell me that you haven’t learned that already.”

“I escaped before. He’ll call to me again. Or I’ll find another way.”

“Sweet Clare.” He ran his tongue across her face, licking the filth from her cheek and sucking the tears from her eyes.

“That’s not my name. Clare is dead.”

He pushed her into the muck below. Shit and spoiled meat filled her mouth and nose, and she came up coughing.

He straddled her. “Say you belong to me. I need to hear it.”

“Fuck what you need.” She cringed fearing another onslaught of physical violence, but instead he grinned.

“Remember when I used to leave you alone down here, sometimes for days or weeks at a time? Soon enough, you remembered you belonged to me. You called to me. You let me call you Clare, told me you loved me, because as horrible as you say I am, nothing is worse than being in Hell alone.”

She crawled backwards away from him.

“This is your last chance. Swear you’re mine or I’ll leave you down here again.”

“Go to Hell.”

“I’m afraid there’s no deeper Hell than this. Enjoy your isolation, slave. Call to me when you’re ready to mind your manners.”

“You know how to show a girl a good time, don’t you?”

He turned away and walked off into the darkness. Above her, the damned wailed and gnashed their teeth.

~Todd~

He woke, alone and in pain. Tight knots bulged in his neck muscles. Opening and closing his mouth came with great effort. He sat up slowly, afraid any sudden movement would break him. He felt like he had run a marathon where at the end the spectators got up and beat the shit out of him.

Something rustled in his closet.

“Anna?”

No response.

He staggered to his feet. Dizziness overtook him and he almost collapsed back to the bed. He put his hands out to steady himself and took a deep breath that brought a stab of pain to his ribs.

More moving came from the closet. He crossed the bedroom, slid the closet door open and walked in. Anna knelt stuffing clothes inside a suitcase. He should have seen this coming. He almost said nothing at all.

“I guess I can’t blame you,” he said.

She turned to look up at him. Redness filled her eyes. Her lips were twisted in a disdainful expression. Her hair was up, but in a mess. Todd sighed, trying to find the words to comfort her.

“I’m not mad at you.” He knew she was lying, but he let her. “We need to stop kidding ourselves. This hasn’t worked for a long time.”

Todd watched her shove a pair of stockings in the zipper compartment.

“I had an affair. I guess I’m still having one.”

The pain that struck him felt more obligatory than genuine. The events of the previous day had numbed him. “Who is it?”

She looked away, buried her gaze in the contents of her suitcase. He watched her teeth sink into her lip. Fresh tears filled her eyes. She said one name: Keith. Todd had met him a few times, at parties put on by her company. Keith was at least ten years younger than her. He didn’t bother asking how long it had been going on, but she told him anyway: over a year. He nodded slowly, taking it all in.

“I started because… I don’t know, you stopped being the man I married.” A cliché, but she was right. “You were so hopeful and full of life when you were younger. You had your music, your dreams. Then you just started to remind me of my father and your father.”

“I thought that was what you wanted, someone more stable. Someone…”

She shook her head. “Just stop. It’s too late to try to fix this. I’ve moved on. It looks like you tried to. I don’t know who that girl or that
man
was… What were you a part of?”

“If it’s too late, what’s the point in explaining? You wouldn’t believe it anyway.”

For a moment, her mouth opened like she meant to protest. Then she shook her head. “I guess you’re right.”

“Yeah.”

He sat down on the bed and watched her pack. He kept his hands folded in his lap and expected every article of clothing placed in her suitcases to gouge him emotionally, but instead he felt nothing, which was worse somehow. She continued as if he wasn't there. When she finished, he helped her take the bags downstairs.

“Did you already speak to Katie?” he asked.

“Yes, while you were sleeping. She’s not happy with me.”

“What about Dale? Have you called him?”

“I’ll do it later.”

“He’ll probably tell you it’s about time.”

Her face twisted into a grimace.

Their feet made a hollow sound on the hardwood steps. He glanced at his studio in his periphery. The door was closed. He wondered if he’d ever open it again.

“I’m going to my mother’s first. I don’t know what I’ll do after that.”

Todd opened the front door and let her out. He followed, dragging his feet. The hot sun beat against the top of his head. One of his neighbors, Mr. Morris from across the street, watered plants and stared at them as they walked. Todd bared his teeth and said, "Why don't you mind your fucking business?"

Mr. Morris dropped his gaze and continued to water.

Anna frowned at Todd. "At least I know this matters to you on some level."

"Of course it does. Everything matters. I'll miss you and I'm really..."

"Please don't apologize. It doesn't sound good coming from you."

After the car was loaded, they stood awkwardly in front of each other saying nothing. She shrugged and reached out to hug him. He returned the stiff embrace. She broke away, slid into her car, and slammed the door. He watched as she drove away.

* * *

Todd limped back inside and shut the door against the sweltering day. Anna had driven away rather quietly. No squealing tires, no angry moan of the engine. It was like she had already shut herself down from the emotions between them. And why shouldn’t she? he thought. She owed him nothing.

He looked around. “Katie, you home?”

The full minute of silence that followed told him no, she was not. Her car parked in the driveway meant nothing. She could’ve been out with friends or that boy, Jake, or whatever his name was, the one who thought Todd was a square.

He stomped back up the stairs, needing to feel the firmness below him, needing to hear each step he took. He entered his bedroom and examined the bed where his and Anna’s outlines still made impressions in the sheets. He sighed and turned to the walk-in closet. It lacked a good portion of Anna’s clothes. Some still remained, but he doubted she’d be back for them. Viewing the empty spaces they’d left, something like a cold hand tightened around his heart. Looking at the expensive suits that now hung alone, he got the crazy urge to tear them from their hangers, pile them in the back yard, and set them on fire. He knew it was crazy, and he didn’t care.

He entered the bathroom where the towel from Anna’s prolonged shower still sat in a crumpled mess on the tile floor. Her toothbrush and other toiletries were gone. This was for real.

He looked at himself in the mirror. A day’s growth gave his face a prickly darkness. Red cracks filled the whites of his eyes. His features sagged under stress and a lack of sleep. He looked like he’d aged ten years in the last forty-eight hours. As he examined himself, a spirit of loathing crept into his thoughts. He hated the face that looked back at him more than anything. Even self-pity was more than that face deserved.

He lashed out. A cry of rage tore from his lungs and he threw his fist into the glass. Spider web cracks split the mirror and blood smeared at the point of impact. He screamed and punched again, ignoring the pain in his hand, knowing only the desire to destroy his image, to shatter it forever so that it could never return.

~Chloe~

Chloe couldn’t tell how long she’d been alone down here. The smells of death and shit made her woozy. The mouth of the cave had closed behind Samael and she had no way of escaping. Above her, the damned cried out in agony.

The creature of bone and magma levitated towards her. Vestments of ragged flesh dangled from his arms. Wounds on his torso pulsed and oozed with fiery blood.

“Has he left you here all alone?” the creature said in a buzzing voice.

Chloe had seen him before, in the memories Samael shared, but in person his presence was even viler. He reeked of decay and burning hair. His black tongue rolled over dying crustaceans that clawed at the inside of his mouth.

“You know who I am, I see.” His expression became something like a smile. “Then you know that I can get you out of here.”

She shook her head.

“Oh, I can, dear Chloe. That’s your real name, right? He thinks you’re his long lost love and maybe that’s my fault, but you’re not. You’re you, or at least you think you are. Are we ever who we think we are?”

Chloe spat at him. “Is that what you came down here to do? Play games?”

He buzzed in response. “My dear, I told you what I came here to do. I came to set you free. All you have to do is ask.”

So, it would be a game after all. “In exchange for what?”

The beast crossed ropey arms across his broad chest. He regarded her with eyes that switched back and forth from insect to reptilian.

“Now, why do you assume that I want something in return? Can’t I just offer you something out of the goodness of my heart?”

“Because you’re the devil, right? That’s what you do, make deals?”

“Devil’s a strong word, especially when you use such an official-sounding article ahead of it. The living tend to think there’s some kind of hierarchy down here, but I’m surprised you, with your thirty years of experience, see this place as anything but the chaotic wasteland that it is.”

“But you do make deals, don’t you? You don’t have the goodness in your heart to offer anything out of.”

“Well-played,” the beast said. “I suppose I’ll get down to business then.”

Chloe straightened, more interested than she wanted to be. It had been a hard day and maybe, if what he wanted was reasonable, she’d consider it.

“I want Todd.”

She shrunk back. “What? No.”

The beast cocked its bulbous head. “No?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And why ‘absolutely not?’”

She backed away from him. “No deal.”

“You love him? Is that it?” The beast made more of that wasp-like buzzing, but higher pitched and more frenetic. Was he annoyed? “Did you ever stop to think, Chloe, dear, that you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Is it? Maybe this time around you gave yourself up willingly, but would you have even had to if he hadn’t left you to die back when you two were kids? Think about it. If he would’ve been more of a man, we could’ve avoided this whole mess altogether. You know that’s true.”