The Seventh Day: Day Five

A little before five in the morning I woke up after having the dream where I killed Kris, but this time it happened in the middle of the living room floor with Tyler perched on the couch. He was pointing, laughing, coaching, telling me what to do, how to use the knife. I didn’t want to but I couldn’t stop. I was pleading with him to let me stop. When I looked to Tyler, the demon was behind him, patting him on the shoulder for a job well done. “This way we can be together,” Tyler said. With grim acceptance I nodded and continued my work.

Once I was completely sure she was dead, I went to the bathroom to clean up and looked in the mirror. While I should have be aghast by the visage, I wasn’t. Bloodied and grinning, it was not me that I saw in the mirror, only the demon. His large wings pulsed and opened slightly as the long, forked tongue slithered from between the large pointed teeth. Just as it began to lap the blood from my fingers, I woke up screaming. 

Bolting upright and sitting on theedge of the bed I buried my face in my hands and started to cry. Up until this point, the dreams with Kris had felt detached. The whole time I knew it was a dream, unlike the ones where the demon chased me around the apartment. Those felt more like a waking nightmare, almost like it was actually happening and sometimes based on the amount of overturned furniture I think it did. But now, the worst of the nightmares felt like that too. The feeling was so strong that I couldn’t force myself to leave my room for fear that I could actually find my slain girlfriend in the living room.

Eventually, the need to use the bathroom won out. The living room was indeed a mess, but no bodies thankfully. The morning’s real horror was in the mirror. My eyes which had been getting progressively darker were now completely black with an almost mirror finish. Reflective enough that when I leaned in close to the mirror, I could clearly see my reflection. When I first saw it, I jumped back and had to rub my eyes and try again three times to make sure I what I was seeing was real.

My reflection in the mirror was fine, save for the black eyes. But the reflection in my eyes was horrifying, because except for my face, the rest of me had turned into him. Black scales, wings protruded from my back, and claws were where my fingers should be.

It felt so unreal that I pinched my arm as hard as I could. It hurt which I took as a good sign but with my experiencesthe last few days I wasn’t sure and decided to get a second opinion. A call to Tyler went as expected, he didn’t answer. Kris was the last person I wanted to involve in my existential meltdown but I had little choice. She shouldn’t have been in class so after another check in the mirror to find no change in my eyes or reflection I broke down and called.

“Hey, sweetie. How are you feeling today?”

“Not great.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked clearly concerned.

“I know this is going to sound crazy, but … damn I don’t know how to say this. Can you tell me something, anything that can prove this is real?”

“What’s real?”

“This call. Like, am I awake?”

There was a long pause while she tried to talk several times but stopped, clearly not finding any words. “Okay, Josh. Let’s start over. What’s going on? Why do you think you’re asleep?”

“It’s hard to explain,” I stammered.

“Try.”

“I can’t really tell you.” I cursed myself for being such and idiot. I never should have called.

“Alright, I’m coming over. All I have to do is turn in a paper for my only class today so I’ll take it to the professor’s office early and tell her I’ve got an emergency then I’ll be over. Please don’t take this the wrong way but I think you need to go to the hospital.”

“NO!”

“Josh, you could be really sick and whatever it is could be affecting your mind. Do you have a fever?”

“No fever. Please, just stay away. It’s not safe!”

“I’ll risk it. As acute as you are, I can’t imagine you’re still contagious.”

“It’s not that. Please, Kris. Seriously, it’s not safe for you here and I can’t leave anyway.”

“And why can’t you leave?”

“He won’t let me.”

“Son of a bitch! I don’t give a rat’s ass what Tyler says, you can leave the damn house!”

I could tell Kris, was so angry that she shaking. “It’s not Tyler, I haven’t seen him since Saturday.”

“Then who the hell won’t let you leave?”

“The … it’s complicated. Just please stay away.”

“Nope! I’ll be there in a half hour so make sure you’re ready.”

She hung up before I could protest. As campus was only a few blocks away, even with traffic I had less than twenty minutes until she got here.  I quickly got dressed, hoping that a façade of normalcy would convince her I was fine before I moved on to more important things. I disassembled my pistol and scattered the frame, slide and barrel in different corners of the house and shoved the recoil spring into a box that, along with all of the knives in the house, were going to be locked in the trunk of my car along with my golf clubs too. There would be no risks taken today with Kris’ safety.

In a frenzy, I wasn’t paying attention when I pulled the chef’s knife from the block with my left hand. As my fingers made contact with the handle, they clamped on like a vise, and wouldn’t let go. “No! This is not happening! You hear me?” I screamed into the empty house. “You aren’t getting her!”

I pried at my fingers to the point I thought they would break but I could not get the knife loose. Nothing worked, not even half a can of cooking spray could loosen it one iota. As I started to use a butter knife to pry my fingers off the handle, I heard a car door close in the driveway and was immediately thrown into a panic. I flew to the font door and made sure both the knob and deadbolt were locked, the sat with my back to the door to keep Kris out. She tried the knob, then finding it locked, stuck her key in the slot.

“Kris, please for the love of God, stay away!”

 “No, I’m getting you and we’re going to the hospital! I think you’re having a psychotic break.”

She waited a few seconds, but I didn’t respond. “Josh, here’s what’s going to happen. You are either going to let me in so we can get you some help, or I’m leaving. If I leave, I’m not coming back.”

She continued to ask for an answer as I fought with myself. I wanted to let her in, but when I looked up tosee the statue sitting in the doorway only a few feet in front of me, I knew I couldn’t. I was too far gone and couldn’t risk it. I reached up and locked the deadbolt again, the click of the bolt locking into place silenced Kristi. She wanted in, but the darkness inside was too great. The only thing inside of this house was death, and I wasn’t going to let it get her.

The rain started to pick up as did the wind. With her hood now up and coat pulled tightly around her, Kristi waited silently on the porch hoping I’d change my mind and open the door. When I looked through the window and saw how sad, cold, and completely miserable she was I finally fought back against the dark urges churning inside of me long enough to open the latch.

The click registered in my ears, quickly followed by that unearthly voice again. “If you give her to me, I’ll set you free. Open the door, now!” Guttural, and dripping with almost palpable hate, the voice echoed through my head. I knew I couldn’t control myself so I reached up and locked the bolt again.

“Fine Josh, if this is what you want then congratulations you’re getting your way. I don’t know what Tyler has given you, or slipped you or what but when you come down I don’t want to hear from you until you are ready to get away from him and never look back. If not, then I guess we’re done.”

There were now tears running downmy face as what little remained of my world crumbled around me. I wanted to tell her everything, but she’d never believe me. “It’s not like that! I just can’t let you in, right now.”

“I guess this is goodbye, Josh.”

I continued to brace the door with my back while she got into her car and drove away. Staring at the knife in my left hand, I swore that he wasn’t going to win. I kicked the statue out of doorway on my way to kitchen. With the aid of the butter knife, I was eventually able to get my fingers free from the handle but managed to open the cut on my hand again.

I needed answers and at the moment Tyler was the only one who could give me anything, so I quickly bandaged the hand, got dressed and drove to the museum to confront him. Leaving the housewas literally gut wrenching, but I wasn’t going to give in. I pulled into the museum parking lot but didn’t see Tyler’s car anywhere. Since it was often brokendown, it wasn’t uncommon for him to bum rides with co-workers. I checked my eyes in the mirror before getting out of the car. Still black and still reflecting the creature with my face which was started to take on a gray pallor.

I tried to look as natural as possible going through the gigantic front doors of the museum but it was hard. With searing stomach pain, and my poorly bandaged hand stuffed in my coat pocket while still wearing sunglasses in the dim museum, I was sure I looked like a lunatic as I approached the font desk. The look on the clerk’s face more than confirmed my suspicions.

“Can I help you?”

I really wasn’t in the mood for attitude from the doofus with a neckbeard behind counter who was clearly annoyed that I interrupted his fantasy novel. “Do you know Tyler Sharp? Works in janitorial with kind of crazy hair?”

“Yes, I do know Ty.”

“Is he here?”

“I can’t release that information, sorry.”

My patience was exhausted daysago, so I was not in the mood for hipster attitude. “I’m his roommate and haven’t seen him in a few days. I really just need to make sure he’s ok. No one can reach him by phone and his mom’s getting worried, so it’s not really even forme.”  

“I still can’t –“

Blind with rage and desperation I pulled my left hand from my pocket and pounded it on the desk leaving a bloody spot. “Just tell me if he’s here damn it!”

“He’s not here,” the clerk said meekly.

I was getting ready to throw up my hands in frustration but caught myself before I spread blood drops all over the marble floor. After a deep breath I decided to try one more tactic to get the information I needed. “Do you have any brochures from the exhibit that just ended last week?”

“I think we threw them all away.”

“Check!” I hissed.

The clerk now looked very nervous and began looking in and around the deck for the pamphlets. From the back of a drawer he produced a partially crumpled brochure and nervously handed it to me. If the exhibit was big, like Ty said, then the very thin pamphlet was probably not going to showcase Johnny Two Wings. I flipped through it anyway but he wasn’t in there. With a low growl I crumpled the pamphlet and threw it back at him. “Is there a curator available?”

“Not for you,” he said under his breath.

I leaned partially over the desk and barked at the officious jackass, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Now afraid of the angry, bleeding stranger the clerk started looking for some help. He caught the eye of a passing security guard and motioned him over. I knew that dealing with the police right now wouldn’t help me a bit so with a frustrated sigh I gave the clerk a dismissive waive and left.

Out of options I drove home. Tyler’s car was of course still missing when I got there but as I walked in the door the recliner was rocking slightly and for a brief moment, I thought he got dropped off. “Damn it!” I yelled when I stepped around the chair. As I should have expected it was the statue, making the chair move by an unseen force. In frustration I picked it up and threw it across the room. It was having none of it and stopped in mid-air and lowered itself to the ground.

Before collapsing into the recliner, I went to the liquor cabinet and got a bottle of bourbon. Forgoing a glass, I mindlessly watched TV and worked on the bottle throughout the evening while periodically calling Ty. The creature mostly left me alone which was more frightening to me than the constant stalking, as that told me he had won. He had broken me and I was not long for the world. Right before I nodded off in the chair I heard the evil voice whisper, “Two days.” 

© 2018 Robert Crouse  All Rights Reserved

If you haven’t read the past installments the links are below.

I – II –III– IV– V–VI–VII–VIII– IX