The Dead Parade (13 page)

James tightened his trigger finger, shuffled back a few inches and regained his position. His heart was really pumping now; he felt nervous all over. With a tremble in his voice, he said, “Get out of the elevator, Fatty! Now!”

“
No! And stop calling me names; I don’t like it. My name is Tina, Tina Comfrey, not fatty. And
you’re
the fuck-knuckler, not me.
You’re
the one that created this mess!
You’re
the bad guy here. I’m just an innocent bystander!”

The elevator doors tried to close a third time and James rammed his elbow against the door’s rubber casing. Behind him, Mia and Elmer stirred.

James glanced over his shoulder, making sure that Elmer and Mia weren’t moving in on him. They weren’t. He stomped his foot on the floor, and said, “Get out of the elevator, Fatty, and shut-up.”

“
No!”

“
Get out. Now!”

“
This is bullshit!”

“
Out!”

“
What are you going to do? Shoot me? I don’t think so, tough guy. I don’t think you’ve got the stones!”

“
I said out and I damn well mean it!”

All at once––as if Tina had rehearsed the moment inside her mind––she started yelling very loudly. “NO! IF YOU’RE GOING TO SHOOT ME,
SHOOT ME!
IF YOU’RE GOING TO KILL ME,
KILL ME!
DO IT! DO IT NOW!”

“
Get out of the––!”

“
NO! I DON’T WANT TO GET OUT OF THE ELEVATOR! YOU’RE NOT BEING FAIR! YOU KEEP PICKING ON ME AND I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG! I’M JUST AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER! I’M ONE OF THE
GOOOOOD
GUYS!”

“
Get out—!”

“
NO!
I DON’T WANT TO!”

“
Don’t make me—!”

“
FUCK YOU!”

Suddenly, Elmer’s face tightened into a ball and he stepped forward, screaming, “SHUT THE FUCK UP TINA YOU STUPID UGLY BITCH! YOU’RE PISSING ME OFF AND YOU’LL GET US ALL KILLED!”

James snapped his head around quickly, pinching a glimpse of Elmer and Mia. Mia looked terrified. Elmer looked furious and mean, like a man capable of doing very terrible things. And he was closer now. Too close.

Tina threw her hands in the air, shaking them like a football fanatic celebrating a touchdown at the Super Bowl.

Biting his lip, James pulled his eyes away from Elmer.

Tina screamed, “THIS IS TOTAL BULLSHIT! I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG! IT WAS YOU, JACKASS! NOT ME!”

James tightened his trigger finger without noticing it. He was sweating now and felt hot all over. He knew Tina was stupid,
but my God
, he didn’t expect her to be
so
stupid. She was being absolutely fervent. This was off the hook.

Under duress, James stepped back a little further; he kept his foot in the elevator doorway. He looked at Elmer for support, but Elmer couldn’t help him; he couldn’t control Tina. Not when she was like this.

The elevator doors tried to close again.

And once again, Elmer had moved closer. He was being sneaky about it, but he was moving in on James, getting within striking distance. If he wanted to make a move the odds were in his favor now. James didn’t like it, but what could he do? He was surrounded, and terrified. He had lost control of the situation and something bad was about to happen. He could feel it. Even the dog could feel it, and it barked. Once. Then twice. Then the dog was
barking.

Mia shuffled her feet in an attempt to calm the animal down. She said, “Quiet Bully!” But it didn’t work. Bully didn’t care what Mia wanted and Bully didn’t want to be quiet. The dog was acting on instincts now, and trouble was brewing.

The dog barked, Mia tried to stop it, sweat began beading on Elmer’s long forehead, James squeezed the trigger a little more than he intended, and Tina screamed, “NO! IT’S NOT FAIR! IT’S NOT FAIR! YOU’RE NOT BEING
FAAAAAIR
! THIS IS
BULLFUCKINGSHIT!”

James felt dizzy. Each moment was louder then the moment before it. He heard the ringing of a thousand telephones in his ears. He heard a child screaming.

He whimpered under his breath, and said, “Oh shit.”

And finally, when he could take no more yelling, no more barking or fighting or ringing or screaming, no more chaos, no more turmoil or commotion, he closed his eyes and did something bad, something he didn’t want to do, something he didn’t think he would ever do… something exceedingly violent.

And part of him loved it.

46

Mathew let go of a green balloon and fell through the sky forever; he feared that all was lost. But when the forever had finished, his falling turned to drifting, and drifted became floating, and floating led to walking.

He walked through empty spaces and blank landscapes. He walked through sunless days and moonless nights. He walked across plains of nothing and baron wastelands. He walked a thousand years. He walked for hours. He didn’t walk at all. Time was askew. Time meant nothing.

And all the while his thoughts were beset by the demon with the black glistening skin and large soulless eyes.

It had infected his Uncle James; he knew this now. But James didn’t. James––who was on the brink of a terrible mistake, one he could never undo; a mistake that would lead him to madness––had no idea that he was infected. But he was. He was filled with shades of the demon’s rage, the demon’s thoughts––the demon’s curse. It coursed through his veins like hatred. It poisoned his mind like vengeance.

Mathew had to stop it.

He walked across farmlands with no crops and roads with no traffic. He walked through forests with no life and swam oceans with no waves. He walked through winters without frost and summers without heat. He crossed rolling hills and empty cities and desolate towns.

He then came to a place of great walls, a room in the center of a world filled with nothing. The walls were higher than any he could have imagined. They were higher than his eyes could see. They were higher than the sky. They were higher than time.

There was a phone.

There were thousands of them.

Mathew was inside a giant room of phones, a sea of phones, a world of phones, and all of them were ringing. He lifted one and screamed into it, knowing it was too late.

But maybe it wasn’t.

Maybe James would hear.

Maybe James would understand the ringing.

47

With arms waving madly, Tina prepared her lungs for another outburst of yelling. Her eyes were closed now, squeezed together like a pair of fist, not that it mattered much. A blanket of red was all she could see. The shapes and angles of realism had faded, leaving Tina alone with her fury, her wrath, and the accelerated pounding of her over-sized heart. This was her time to shine, her moment of truth, the climax of her dreary and uninspired life.

With grinding teeth and flexing strength, James stepped away from Elmer, and into the center of the elevator. He shifted the shotgun inside his hands. He tightened his fingers and raised the gun like a baseball bat. He arched his back and swung.

Both barrels of the weapon scraped along the elevator wall, digging a groove into the steel. Iron hit flesh. Tina’s head slammed back. A river of pain rushed through her nervous system, causing both of her eyes to pop open and both of her hands to jerk away from her body. A thousand tiny droplets sprayed into the air like red mist. Her jaw split wide enough to allow fragments of shattered teeth to roll through it. Blood splashed against the wall in an upward line.

Mia and Elmer gasped.

James grunted––thinking again that the shotgun was a mistake.

Tina fell to the ground like a sack of wet laundry, making a two hundred and sixty-five pound PLUNK on the floor. The elevator bounced beneath her. A second slipped by, and then she screamed a chain of screams. Her voice was no longer hoisted in spoiled brat rebellion, but lifted in pure incontestable agony. And with each horrific scream a gush of bloody gore ran down her face, and through her jaw, and over her fingers, and across her hands, and along her arms. Her rebellious nature had been cuffed. She looked like she was drowning.

Elmer decided to run. He took a couple quick steps towards the door that led into the 5
^th
floor hallway. He grabbed the doorknob and pulled. The door opened an inch and slipped from his fingers. A microsecond later the door clicked shut. As Elmer fumbled for the knob, a sad, faint groan escaped his lips.

The elevator doors began closing.

James spun around, pushed the doors apart and stepped out of the elevator. He re-adjusted the shotgun and pointed it at Elmer. Then he pointed it at Mia––she had not budged an inch.

Both Elmer and Mia froze.

James screamed, “Don’t move!” Spit fell from his lips.

Mia said, “I didn’t.”

And that’s when the door Elmer had been toying with flew open. A man emerged. He wore black pants, black boots, and a black and grey dress shirt. He had a little potbelly and long sideburns. His eyes were kind and his dark hair was slicked back in a crooner’s fashion. He looked like Johnny Cash.

Unfortunately his abrupt entrance was unanticipated.

It made James flinch.

And sure as shit, he pulled the trigger.

48

From inside an ocean of telephones, Mathew looked up. The massive walls that were higher than the sky began crumbling. Huge chunks of brick––chunks, the size of football fields––started to fall.

The phones stopped ringing.

And Mathew ran.

He ran through the sea of telephones. He ran through desolate towns, empty cities, and rolling hills. He swam oceans with no waves. He traveled forests without life. He ran through summers with no heat and winters with no frost. He ran through roads with no traffic and farmlands with no crops. He ran over baron wastelands and across plains of nothing. He ran through moonless nights and sunless days. He ran over blank landscapes and empty spaces. He ran a thousand years. He ran for hours. He didn’t run at all.

Time was askew. Time meant nothing.

All was lost.

49

The shell ripped a good-sized hole in Cash’s front and a massive opening in his back. Parts of his stomach and spine slammed against the freshly painted brick, which seemed to explode. He stumbled against the wall with a squeal and a gust of red mist spewed free.

Mia screamed and Bully barked non-stop.

Elmer reached for the door, which had just begun to close.

And James turned towards Tina. His thoughts were blackened and glistening with ancient evil. He pumped the chamber and pulled the trigger again.

Somewhere inside his mind he could hear the word ‘wait’ being said over and over again, like, WAITWAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT… But it was too late. Another explosion happened inside his hands, accompanied with a second deafening blast.

The shell caught Tina just below the chin. Blood exploded. The top half of her neck was destroyed and her head fell back; it hung by a loose thread of skin, dripping with gore.

James spun around, wide-eyed and frantic. He was shouting, “Stop!”

But Mia and Elmer were not listening to the orders of this madman, not now. Their thoughts were united with the idea of escaping. They burst through the doorway, Elmer first, Mia next. The dog followed.

James didn’t.

He watched in horror as headless Tina fell onto her side like an overturned keg. Blood and bone fragments poured from the stump of her neck, and along her shoulder––creating a pond on the elevator floor. Her legs twitched. Her fingers curled into themselves as if the loss of body fluids had dehydrated them.

Then Johnny Cash’s legs buckled and he slid along the wall to the floor. He was done breathing, done thinking, done holding his position.

James stood between the bodies like an executioner.

Somewhere in his mind the word ‘wait’ had vanished. It was replaced with four new words: What-have-I-done? What-have-I-done? What-have-I-done?

But the answer was simple: the answer was double murder.

50

James didn’t mean to pull the trigger and kill the man that looked like Johnny Cash. And although nobody would ever believe him, he didn’t mean to kill Tina either. In fact, it wasn’t even him, it was his character; it was Clint Eastwood.

It was…

No. These were lies.

He killed two people within two seconds (and liked it). He took hostages (and liked it). He made threats (and liked it). He talked tough and acted tougher (and liked it).

James was no longer an innocent victim trapped in an uncompromising position. He was a criminal. He was armed and dangerous. He had a smoking gun in his hand and dead bodies at his feet. His victim’s blood speckled his face.

Jesus, how apparent can a situation be?

And how the hell did this happen, James wondered. And why?

Answers, the new killer feared, were just around the corner of his mind. He figured he knew why he did the things he did, and how he arrived in this predicament. But he didn’t know he was infected. He didn’t know that the demon’s thirst was coursing through his veins.