Tandem of Terror (21 page)

A haunting sigh escaped the thing as its
mouth gaped, a black void filling it.

"
What the fuck is that!"
Mathew screamed, stumbling back against the wall, his knees
buckling.

"
Quick, help me," Gerald
said as he slowly eased his way to his worktable. "We've got to
take its head off."

"
What in God's name are you
talking about?" Mathew could barely contain his hysteria. "What the
hell is going on---"

"
Goddammit Mathew, pull
yourself together. We can't let it escape."

The thing took a swing at Gerald, its reach
incredible as it smashed embalming fluid across the floor. Gerald
leapt on the table, knocking his equipment to the floor and
immediately scrambling after the runaway tools.

The thing howled again, setting its black
eyes on Mathew this time.

Arms and legs twitching, Mat threw himself
out of the thing's gaze and followed after Gerald, dropping to his
hands and knees and crawling the rest of the way. "Not real...not
real...not real..."

"
Get something sharp,"
Gerald ordered. "We gotta take its head off."

The defiled corpse floated towards the
doorway, moaning eerily as if with sorrow.

Gerald spotted it and with a bone saw in hand
jumped to his feet and cut the thing's escape off. With a sharp
slash, he drove the bone saw towards the thing. It raised its arms
in defense, deflecting Gerald's blow. Instead he struck the thing's
naked leg, hacking into it.

A yellow-red puss spurted across him and to
the floor as the thing wailed. In rage it swung hard, catching
Gerald across the face with its razor like nails. Gerald hit the
floor, the bone saw skidding out of his hands as his cheek oozed
with blood. A yelp escaped him as he stammered for his weapon and
looked for Mat.

The corpse howled again, its wounded leg
dropping from the rest of its body in a gush of yellow fluid.

"
Christ Mathew, where are
you?" Gerald dragged himself to his knees, spotting his weapon on
the other side of the hovering corpse.

Mat let out a screech and came bolting
straight for the creature, a rib cutter in his hands. His fear
caused him to hesitate as his eyes met those of the creature's. In
that moment the corpse took the opportunity to seize him by the
throat. Its strength was immense although the skin on its hands
felt like tissue paper wrapped delicately around Mat's throat.

The rib cutter fell to the floor with a
clatter as Mat's eyes began to bug and his lips turned blue.

"
No!" Gerald yelled as he
dashed for it again.

Mat was launched across the room with one
toss, crashing into the examining table and smashing it in two. The
pain shot through his back and the room spun madly as he watched
the old mortician face the thing again.

Gerald was no match, much too weak now. With
another quick swing it slammed Gerald to the floor before letting
out another howling wail. The windows in the room exploded as the
glass showered to the floor.

The monstrosity turned and glided out of the
room, vanishing down the hall. A loud cracking and tearing echoed
in the distance before the silence drowned the room again.

Mat shook his head and managed to climb to
his feet, wiping the bits of wood and glass from his clothes. His
breathing was just beginning to return to normal. He looked up to
see Gerald sitting on the floor against the wall by the door, the
blood running down his face in rivers.

"
That is why we sew up the
mouths of the dead," Gerald said.

"
What-- is-- going on?" Mat
kneeled down to the old mortician and offered his hand. "Are you
alright?"

"
I'll be fine but God help
us all. It's started all over again. And we've been so
careful."

"
What exactly was
that?"

"
We don't really know what
they are. We just know that they come from the Murk."

"
Murk woods? Are you talking
about murk woods." Mat felt an icy chill seize him. "The woods that
I can see out my back windows?"

"
That would be them. They
just showed up there about fifty years ago. They exist as some form
of mist, without bodies. I was about your age when the epidemic
nearly destroyed the town. Ya see, they have no bodies of their own
and they are jealous of ours so they invade the body of the dead,
they enter through the mouths.

It seems they can only enter a vacant body so
they had waited for someone to die. Once the one was with a body it
tried to give them all bodies by killing the rest of the town.
Guess we weren't dying quick enough for'em. Impatient bastards."
Gerald chuckled a bit then coughed.

Mat sat silent with astonishment, unable to
compute all that Gerald was telling him.

"
We discovered that if you
sever the head, the core of their ability to control the body, they
are evicted so to speak and they head straight back to Murk,
waiting patiently for another screw up, like this."

"
How could I know...I
just...this can't be real." Mat pulled his hand away and covered
his face. "It just can't---"

"
It is, very real and now
it's escaped." Gerald pulled himself to his feet, grabbing a towel
and putting it against his leaking face. "It will increase its
number. It will begin to kill people in the town to give its
buddies bodies...God damn it. I've got to tell the
mayor."

"
I can't believe this is
happening," Mat said, turning away from Gerald and staring at the
destruction in the room. The evidence was too real to ignore. "I
saw your frigging ad in the paper and moved my entire family here.
I just wanted to be a town mortician, It's all I've ever wanted to
do. This isn't supposed to happen, you were supposed to retire and
I was supposed to take your place. Life is supposed to be
normal."

"
But death isn't Mathew, not
always." He could hear the cracking in Mat's voice, he wondered how
long the young man would be able to hold it together. "We've got to
get moving, the town needs to be warned. They handled it once, they
can handle it again. God, this is going to be a bitch." Gerald
shuffled down the hall, Mat remained rooted to his spot, simply
staring.

He ran through Murk woods, fighting his way
through the darkness, the tree branches reaching for him like
hands. Behind him he could hear their wails, their sorrowful wails
calling to him, demanding that he give up his body, vacate it, exit
it so they could experience the physical world.

The mist crept all around him, Mat could not
see his hands in front of his face but he stumbled on, through the
void. The cold filled him, the dampness clung to him, Mat could
feel them closing in on him, he turned to look over his
shoulder.

Hundreds of them floated out of the mist,
onyx eyes piercing him, gaunt arms reaching for him. Their touches
caressed his hair, their moans filled the woods.

They gathered around him now, there was no
escape, Mat fell to his knees, unable to scream or see and--

The door to his bedroom flew open.

The sweat soaked him as he watched his wife,
Sharon, stroll into the room. "You've slept all morning. Aren't you
going to get out of bed today?"

"
Huh." Mat rubbed his eyes
and sat up. "Wow, I didn't realize how late it was. I'm up
now."

She pulled the shades up allowing the
sunlight to bath the room in warm gold. "Have you seen this?" She
waved the newspaper she held in front of him. "Two people have gone
missing in the town in the last two days. Isn't it incredible? They
say nothing has happened in this little town for over fifty
years."

Fear swelled inside of him again, remembering
that what he'd gone through the other night was not just a bad
dream. "Honey, throw that away, it's morbid."

"
Morbid?" she giggled. "This
coming from you, your life is dedicated to the dead."

"
I know, that's exactly why.
I think I see and hear enough of it."

"
Well, it must really be
something. There's a town meeting tonight, every one is going. Do
you want go?"

"
No," Mat answered
immediately. "And don't let the kids read that, toss it
out."

"
Mat, honey why are you
being so sensitive? The kids aren't babies, they know there are bad
things in the world."

No, no they didn't Mat thought. They had no
idea. None of them did. Mat could not bring himself to tell them
what had gone on recently, he couldn't accept it himself, he didn't
know what they would think. There was no need to panic. Just as
soon as he found another house he was moving them out of this town
any way.

"
Sharon!" the call came from
down the hall, a tapping accompanying it.

"
Father needs me, I've got
to go. Come you," Sharon called to her husband as she plopped the
paper down on her night table. "Time to get out of that bed." The
tapping thudded again. "Coming father!" she called as she hurried
out of the room.

Mat rolled his eyes as he threw his covers
aside, avoiding the newspaper on the table. They had been taking
care of Sharon's father for eight months now, ever since his heart
attack. It had left him totally dependent on them, and he took full
advantage of it. Mat hadn't remembered being able to spend fifteen
minutes alone with Sharon without her father needing her. A nursing
home was out of the question, just starting a new job and buying a
new house left money rather scarce. Mat swore, as soon as he made
enough money, he would be looking into it.

He walked into the kitchen and poured himself
some coffee, lifting his head Mat stared out of the window into the
backyard. In the far distance he could see Murk woods, it was as
dark and foreboding as ever, its mist seemed heavier and appeared
to move or was it movement of something else that he saw?

Shapes formed, shadows writhed, something
solid moved in the mist.

"
What are you looking at
dad?" Seven-year-old Collin stood behind his father.

"
Nothing." he yanked the
window shade down. "Why don't you go play with your sister. But
stay in today. Okay?"

"
Aw Dad, what did I do? Why
can't I go outside?"

"
Nothing son, I heard a bad
storm is coming. I don't want you two getting sick, now just do as
I ask, play video games in the den."

"
Really, okay." A smile
broke on his face at the thought of the electronic pulses and
flashing lights mesmerizing him and his sister, the outside was
forgotten. They weren't allowed to play the games often so this
would be a treat.

Mat watched him scurry out of the room as his
attention drew back to the window shade. His hands were quivering
already.

"
Did you find it yet?" Mat
said into the phone, lowering his tone as he crept around his
upstairs bedroom. His family was entertained by the television
downstairs, except for Sharon's father, Mat could hear him talking
to himself in the bedroom next door. The old man was losing his
mind along with his mobility.

"
No," Gerald's voice came
through the phone. "Haven't you heard? It's made two others. This
is only the beginning."

"
I know," his voice was
soft.

"
The meeting is starting
soon. We could use every able body."

"
I can't, I can't expose my
family to this. I can't even deal with this myself yet. How could I
ever---"

"
Mat, you need to face this.
Ignoring it is dangerous. If we don't stop them there will be more
and more until they wipe us out. They need to be
contained."

"
Gerald I'm sorry. I'm just
not ready...I'll be in touch." He hung up the phone and listened to
the rumblings of Sharon's father in the other room.

The darkness bled into the house as Mat
walked into his son's bedroom across the hall from his own. Parting
the curtains, Mat peered into the back yard. This time they were
plain to see. Three figures hovered on the outer edge of the woods.
They were cloaked in darkness but easy to see, Mat felt them
staring at him.

In a fluster he locked the window and pulled
the shade. He could feel the beads of sweat running down his face.
Into his daughter's room he walked and repeated his actions,
locking her window and shutting the shade.

In a panic he flew into the hall and began
down the stairs, almost stumbling down them. Behind him in the hall
he heard Sharon's father tapping and mumbling: "They're out
there...they're right out there."

He composed himself before entering the
family room where a chorus of laughter rang out. Casually he walked
to the front door and made sure it was bolted. It was, thank God.
What if they looked out back, what if they saw? There was no real
reason for them to go out there now, the woods were too far any
way. But he could see them, if he could then any one could. And the
things would only get closer.

He made his way past his family, Sharon eyed
him curiously, the kids paid no attention. He lifted the shade to
the kitchen window, which he had insisted remain closed all day,
and trembled.

They were closer now. Their outlines were
distinctly cast in the moonlight that now rose behind the clouds.
He could see them gliding closer and closer, the three of them, one
missing its leg.

"
They sense us, they sense
the life in the house," he said to himself. "They'll try to get in
and kill us...Jesus Christ in Heaven, what do I do. Sharon," he
murmured, his skin crawling as they drew closer.