The Day of Legion (3 page)

“Cool,” Jason said.

The traffic was light as they drove towards the school. John knew one of the reasons Janine was okay with him getting Jason to school was she knew how close his apartment was to the campus. They listened to the pair of morning DJ’s ring an unsuspecting man and pretend one of them was the man’s wife’s lover, while she waited on the line secretly listening. When the man began to get angry and was crying and swearing, the DJ’s let him in on the ruse, and the wife apologized on air. She explained she did it to get them a free trip away for the weekend, with five hundred dollars spending money. The man forced a laughed, but John could tell he was faking being happy because he knew he was on the air.

“Idiots,” John muttered.

“Idiots,” Jason echoed.

John found a parking space down the road from the school. They got out and, after handing Jason his bag, they walked in the same direction as the other children and their parents. The parking space wasn’t too far away, but they had a busy road to cross to get to the main gate, which meant John would have to drive quickly to his meeting. He knew if his presentation was successful, he would get a bonus big enough for the deposit on a house. There was no way he was going to be late.

As they got to the crossing and prepared to cross the road, John heard a shout from behind. It sounded like someone was calling out a name, but he couldn’t quite hear who. He turned, and saw a young boy in the same uniform as Jason running away from his father toward the busy street. The father was chasing him and shouting for him to stop, but the boy kept running. The man screamed the boy’s name in desperation, his face plainly showing anger mixed with fear.

“Alex, stop! Stop now!”

John could see the boy wasn’t going to stop. The road was busy with fast-moving cars moving through a green light. He held his hand out in front of Jason and told him to stop. “Wait here.”

As the other boy got to the edge of the road, John grabbed him before he could run into traffic. He was running fast, and there was no doubt he would have run straight into the cars had John not stopped him. He could feel the boy’s heart beating as he grabbed him. The boy nearly lost his balance, but John managed to hold him upright.

Then came the screeching of tires and a sickening thud. John was confused. He had stopped the boy from running on the road. There was no need for cars to screech to a halt. The boy’s father ran up to them and stopped. He didn’t say anything, or even look at John or his son. He put his hand on his sons shoulder and stared past John to the road.

A sudden feeling of dread came over him. Somehow he could sense Jason was no longer standing there. He felt sick; the world seemed to move in slow-motion. He knew something was wrong. He saw people running past him onto the road. He couldn’t hear anything anymore. As he turned it was as though he were moving through half-set concrete.

The sight that greeted him made him feel like the world had stopped and wouldn’t start again. Jason was lying on the road in front of a car with a caved-in windshield. Jason’s unnatural body position and the obvious injuries to his head told John he wasn’t alive. John couldn’t move; he tried to run to Jason, but his legs were like blocks of stone. People were standing around Jason, who was lying on the road. One lady was checking for a pulse, talking quietly in his ear. Another lady was on her cell phone calling for help. Others were standing there, staring at his tiny body, crumpled in the twisted mess of glass, plastic and blood. One mother shielded her children’s eyes, and moved them away from the scene as fast as she could.

The last thing John remembered was moving in Jason’s direction, then blackness. As he fainted, he realized his life was over. Nothing would matter ever again.

Chapter Three

Five weeks later

John took a taxi home. He was tired and sore, and had just been lectured by his doctor about correct diet, avoiding excess alcohol consumption and looking after himself. The beautiful nurse wasn’t there when he left; in fact she had not returned since their first encounter. He looked for her and hoped she would enter every time his door opened. Instead, he ended up with a very old, very fat and very angry nurse who had little patience for people who ended up in the hospital because they ‘couldn’t resist the temptation of the bottle,’ as she told him more than once.

He collected his bag from the trunk of the cab, then made his way to the door. The door mat he vomited on had been replaced by a new one. This one read ‘Welcome To My Home’ in bright blue lettering. Just as he wondered what had happened to the old one, the door opened, and Christopher was standing there, still dressed in the blue suit and tie, still immaculate, still smiling as though there was nothing odd about him being in John’s house.

“Ahh, what are you doing here?” John asked, knowing he’d probably been evicted for unpaid rent.

Christopher smiled and motioned for him to come in. “As you can see, the place is clean, and everything is fresh.”

“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing in my house,” John said, looking around, actually impressed with how nice it looked.

“Actually, technically it’s my place. Your landlord wanted to know where you were and where the rent was, last month’s as well as this month’s. I told him I’m a friend of yours and paid him the money. He still wanted to kick you out. I offered to take over the lease.”

John just looked at him, not sure what to say.

“I’m your new roommate. Due to the circumstances in your life, it just turned out this way. Life’s quirky like that sometimes.”

John picked up his bag and walked toward the door. Christopher followed. “Where are you going?”

John spun on his heel and said, “Anywhere but here. I have nothing here. All this furniture was here when I moved in and I didn’t bother with many clothes either. I’ll come back for them when I find a new place. Welcome to your new home.”

“You have nowhere to go, John,” Christopher replied. “Stay here. Your room is your room. It’s just a roommate situation.”

“No thanks. I’ll stay with my friends or family for a while. I don’t even know you.”

He stopped dead at the door when Christopher said, “You know you have no one to turn to. You know your family is not prepared to forgive you, so unless you plan to sleep on the streets, you have no place to stay.”

John stormed, “Who the hell are you? You show up on my doorstep as I collapse, you show up in my hospital room—which, by the way I’m aware you paid for—then you end up in my house. Not only inside, you are on the lease and are technically my new landlord. This doesn’t make sense; it’s too weird! It feels like a
Twilight Zone
episode.”

Christopher just smiled calmly. “It makes all the sense in the world. Things happen for a reason. People come into your life for a reason. Situations happen for a reason. Go with it and see what happens. Stay here for a week. I’m not a homicidal maniac. It’s just a roommate situation, as I said. Adults live together all the time. They may not meet like we did, but you know I’m reliable and pay my debts. It seems to me you could do with some company.”

“How do you know about me?” John asked. “You know about my family, my friends, my finances, and just about everything else in my life as well. Are you some sort of stalker?”

“No. See me as a guardian angel if you like. You know, ‘Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.’”

John didn’t return the smile. “Don’t get me started on the Bible, Christopher. God left me a while ago, and took a huge part of me with him. I’m not interested anymore. You are right, though, about my friends and family, and my money situation. I guess I’ll stay here for now and see how it goes.”

Christopher held out his hand. John shook it wearily.

“Welcome to the beginning, or the end,” Christopher said.

“Stop talking in riddles,” John replied.

He was tired, despite all his sleep over the last few days in the hospital. He took a shower and went directly to bed. He slept restlessly for about an hour before deciding he was hungry. He went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. On the middle shelf was a plate covered in plastic wrap. Through the plastic, John could see a freshly-made salad and some chicken. Next to that was a bottle of water with a note. He thought it would read, ‘Don’t touch – Property of Christopher!”

“Here we go, I knew it, one of those people who start out seeming normal, then little things happen like notes on food, locked cupboards and strange smells from the bedroom.”

He opened the note and was surprised.
A little fresh, healthy food for you for when you wake up restless – C.

He shook his head. This guy was a real oddball, he thought. He looked around the house for Christopher, but he was nowhere to be found. John ate the chicken and salad, drank the mineral water and went back to bed. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep again, but again it was a restless and light slumber.

He dreamed. Not dreams he wanted or hoped for, but dark dreams, memories and fiction rolled into uncomfortable, hot pantomimes in his head. He rolled back and forth in the bed, sweat dripping from his body, saturating his sheets, muttering in his sleep.

In his dream he was trying to shout, but his jaw was locked and would hardly move. His legs were solid as rock and refused to budge. He knew he had to run from something, but couldn’t see what. He could sense the darkness all around him, hear voices; some he thought he knew, but not most.

Intermittent screams emanated from the gloom, as though there were others suffering along side of him. He struggled and tried to shout, but the darkness got thicker and started to get in his lungs, eyes and ears. It was thick and sick and smoky. A thunderous rumbling sound boomed off in the distance. It sounded like a million horses’ hooves pounding on concrete, advancing toward him. Whatever it was, it was wicked and angry, and it wanted him. The screams and cries got louder and louder until it blended with the evil rumbling, reaching a vile crescendo.

Just as he thought he’d be trampled by whatever was threatening to pound over him, it and everything else—including the screams and cries of the others—stopped. The darkness faded and suddenly light shone in the distance. It was a cool, comfortable light which generated a peaceful calm outwards. There was nothing evil about it and he realized it was the complete opposite of the darkness.

He relaxed, and discovered he could move and his mouth worked again. He saw someone in the light coming toward him. It was in the shape of a man. He felt no fear or dread, and couldn’t sense anyone else around him as he had in the darkness.

It was Christopher. John knew he was dreaming, but was still glad. Christopher smiled at him, and stopped a few feet away. “We need to act quickly before the darkness comes back.”

“What was the darkness? Where did it come from?” John asked.

“Inside you, around you.”

John was confused. “I don’t have that inside me,” he replied, shaking his head. “Plus I could hear others with me.”

“It will all become clear soon,” Christopher replied. “You are dreaming, but I am real. It was decided that you would listen to me in your dreams, especially if we broke your suffering momentarily. I can turn it back, John. I can take you back to the day before Jason died, let you live it again.”

John shook his head. He didn’t understand. He didn’t want to. He tried to force himself awake just like he had done many times when he knew he was dreaming, but this time it wouldn’t work.

Christopher spoke again. “Imagine going back to that day, just before it happened. Wouldn’t you do it differently? Wouldn’t you want your life back? Wouldn’t you want Jason back?”

“What the hell is this?” John shouted. “Suppose you
could
do this. Why? Do I have to sell my soul? Is this one of those things where I have to pass it on like in the movies? Bullshit!”

Christopher remained calm. “Jason was never supposed to die. Not yet. Sometimes things happen out of order. Sometimes they are interfered with, but it can’t be undone by us. It has to be undone by you.”

“Who’s us?” John asked.

“Helpers,” Christopher replied. “There’s a natural order of things, and sometimes those who want to disrupt this order make little alterations by encouraging certain people. In this case, Jason’s death was the result, and it’s not right.”

“Are you saying demons or devils or something interfering, because if you are...”

Christopher interrupted. “There is dark and light. There is good and bad and a higher power at play. You’ve heard the phrase ‘a necessary evil’?”

John nodded.

“Well, it’s true. Evil is necessary for the balance of things. Evil is necessary to guide people to good, to justify good, and sometimes some people, by choice or by design, are attracted to do evil things. In this case, an evil force had a hand in things, but you can change it.”

John scoffed. “I’m sure there are more important things for ‘good’ to fix than the death of my son. What about wars? What about starving children, murders, genocides, infanticides, incest, rapes, beatings?”

“Don’t underestimate what one small break in the chain can cause. Yes, there are many bad things happening in the world every day, every minute, every second. All I can tell you is everything happens for a reason. Everything affects an individual’s growth. Everybody is tested and everybody faces judgment. We can’t control everybody’s actions, but we can give chances to those who deserve it.”