one bloody thing after another . table of contents . about the creators
Chapter eight The reunion. -- Charlie took the elevator down, and the ghost stood beside him. She made the whole elevator cold. Even when she wasn't looking at him, when she was staring forward at the elevator doors, her black lips were moving silently, like she had given up on communicating and had simply gone mad in death. The knife was cold in his hand, too. Charlie just kept seeing Mitchie. Mitchie stuck in the corner. Mitchie trotting out of the woods, smiling. Mitchie flopping over on his side. The ghost would help him find Mitchie. This was something he had to do. He knocked on the door, and nobody answered. Inside, Martha Richards was probably sleeping. Charlie knocked again. The ghost waited. After the third knock, it occurred to Charlie that he could just go in. He was here to stab her. He didn't need to politely wait for her to answer. He could just go right in and put the knife into her. He pushed the door open, and a cold air rushed out to meet him. A different cold from the ghost. This was a natural cold, and Charlie could see the window beside the bed was open. The curtains were lifting slightly in the cold wind. Mrs. Richards was lying on the floor. Her face was the only thing he could see clearly in the light from the window. There were people all crowded around her. Black hair everywhere. Charlie turned the light on, and a girl came at him. Her face was all wrong. The eyes were young, but the mouth had too many teeth. And they slid into knives while the mouth opened too wide and sank into his shoulder. "So this is how it happens," Charlie said. Then there were teeth in his neck. There was a woman above him, much bigger than the girl. She pushed the girl aside with her face, like an animal might, and she leaned down and took another bite out of Charlie's throat. The cold was inside him now. He looked up, and the ghost was standing there, holding its own head to look down while the creatures went about their business. The two younger creatures had turned back to eating Mrs. Richards. But most of Charlie ended up inside the mother. She tore strips of him off, pulling along grains where the flesh separated. The ghost's face was still expressionless now, but Charlie was closer to death than life, and he could hear her voice. "Tell her I'm okay,” the ghost said. "Tell her I'm okay. Tell her I'm okay." The ghost could hear Charlie now, too. She listened to him moan and cry, and then, finally, when she thought he was beyond making any more sounds, she heard his voice from inside the largest creature. The mother. From inside the bloody thing she heard, "Jesus, Mitchie. There you are. Do you know how worried I was?" The end. ONE BLOODY THING AFTER ANOTHER image copyright emily horne 2008. text copyright joey comeau 2008. |