Chapter 8
"…and there you have it." I concluded.
Just when I thought my life couldn't keep throwing me curve balls, here I was, having a conversation with a girl who would soon "vanish" from her own life.
Speaking of which, this same girl was staring at me like I'd run over her mother. She had that naturally pale complexion that many redheads had, but she still blanched as I told her my story. Throughout it, kept making only scant, monosyllabic comments. "Wow." Or, "Damn." But, she didn't say much else. I couldn't figure out if that was good or bad.
Now, she just looked sick. "I vanish??" She finally managed to choke out.
She started to pace. "Oh God, I think I'm gonna barf." She moaned, placing a hand to her stomach.
I looked out her window. It was twilight. I had spent hours talking to this girl. It was great to let all this crap out into the open… But now, she looked as though she was about to have a heart attack. I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and remembered that I had just told her that she would completely disappear from her life- and probably within the next couple of hours.
She stopped pacing, and turned to me. "Do you think you'll be able to stick around Garrett? If I- if something were to happen to me, you should at least see what happens so that you can tell people." She managed to say calmly.
I watched her for a minute. A faint sheen of sweat had started to form on her forehead, but she was really trying to contain her emotions. I found myself to be rather proud of the girl.
"Sure," I replied quietly. "I'll hang around for awhile."
She sat on the edge of her bed, taking deep breaths. I took a place on the floor, in front of her. I looked up into her eyes.
"Well, tell me about your life." I said. "Why did you decide to take up toxicology?"
She smiled feebly down at me. Sighing, she said, "My mom had an identical twin sister." She hesitated.
Instinctively, I realized that I was treading on precarious ground, but I continued anyway. "What happened?" I prodded.
"The same thing that screwed up your life screwed up hers. White Claudia." Now, she was angry. "She got addicted to that shit, and joined up with those freaks from The Order. She also had a little girl of her own, but they made her…" She trailed off. The fate of her family was obvious.
Suddenly, from somewhere in the room: Thud-boom!
We both yelped.
"What the hell?!" I cried.
At the same moment, Delia shrieked, "Holy shit!"
Thud-Boom! The sound was getting louder.
We leapt to our feet.
Thud-BOOM! The sound was getting even louder…
And closer.
Her room rattled with each impact. Thud-BOOM!
We looked around. Delia looked petrified, and I was certain that if I had been corporeal, I'd have pissed my pants.
Thud-BOOM! The sound was becoming very distinct.
Seemingly at the same moment, we both figured out where the noise was coming from…
As one, we turned to her closet. We both froze.
THUD-BOOM! The closet burst open.
We both started to scream.
Pyramid Head suddenly shot out of the closet.
We threw ourselves against her floor, and we kept on screaming.
It exploded into the room- and wrapped its putrid arm around Delia's ankle.
Her screams started to crescendo. It began to drag her backward, toward the black hole that used to be her closet.
I was frozen to the floor.
"Garrett!!" She cried. "HELP ME!!"
I was incorporeal- what could I do?!
"GARRETT!! PLEASE!!"
Fuck.
I dove forward. My intent was to grab her wrists, but I fully expected to pass right through. But I couldn't abandon her. My instincts told me that this girl must survive.
To my surprise, I caught her. I gripped her wrists as tightly as I could. "Hang on!" I yelled.
"Oh gee, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?!" she roared angrily.
I was impressed. Here we were, getting dragged into our possible deaths, and Delia Carver was managing to be sarcastic.
I knew I liked her for some reason…
She suddenly interrupted my mental reverie. "Damn it, Garrett- PULL ME OUT!" she screamed.
Well, okay then. I started to pull.
Pyramid Head, now in the closet, seemingly hesitated. Then, as though it were laughing at our feeble mortality, it decided that it wanted to play Tug-of-War with me.
It jerked Delia backward, with me attached.
As we were both suddenly flying through the air, I realized that yes, it was laughing at me.
We were both pulled, howling like banshees, into Delia's closet…
I was back in the hospital…
"Delia." I whispered sadly. She must not have made it…
I felt tears start to slide down my face in hot tracks-
Somebody moaned. A female somebody.
I looked over the edge of my bed. And, there she was, Delia Carver, the irritatingly little-sister-like girl who supposedly vanished from existence. "Delia!" I cried.
She sat up, still moaning. "Wow, my head hurts." She grumbled.
I grinned like an idiot anyway. "Don't worry, you get used to it." I replied, half-laughing.
She climbed to her feet, and looked at me. "So I guess my "disappearance" is all your fault." She said crabbily, but she was smiling too.
We were alive! While Delia collected herself, and got her bearings, I took a minute to write into my journal:
May 9th: Rain. Stared out the window. Peaceful here- nothing to do. Still not allowed to go out all day…
"Yoo-hoo!" interrupted Delia, "You still in there cowboy?"
I looked up at her. I had planned on writing more in my journal, but she was right. There were more important things to get to. "Yeah, I should call for a nurse, shouldn't I?"
She was looking at me funny.
I squirmed, "What?" I snapped.
"When you were writing in that thing…you didn't look like you." She said quietly.
I didn't know what the hell she meant. "Pardon?"
"You got this bizarre, kind of obsessed look on your face." She was still eyeing me funny.
I chose to just ignore the entire conversation. I hit the call button.
Within two minutes, a nurse seemed to materialize into my room. "Can I help you, Mr. Daniels?" she asked.
I blinked at her, "Uh, yeah. My friend here needs a phone."
Delia smiled so sweetly at her, I snickered softly.
The nurse looked around the room, confused. "And, what friend would that be, Mr. Daniels?" she asked.
Delia's innocent smile evaporated. She looked pissed. "What- are you blind?! I'm right here!" she snarled. She strode angrily over to the nurse, and started to tap her on the shoulder.
Suddenly, Delia jerked away from the nurse.
"What?" I asked, worried.
She turned wide eyes to me.
"What's wrong?" I repeated.
"Excuse me?" asked the nurse. I ignored her, and focused on Delia.
Silently, Delia reached out a hand and brushed the nurse's shoulder.
All I could do was stare as Delia's hand passed right through the nurse's body.
I sighed, "Welcome to my world."