Tess led them through the foggy streets, somehow remembering the turns. Carl kept holstering and unholstering his gun. He hadn't fired a shot with it yet so he didn't trust it. Normally he would have found a far off target and pegged it, but not now. He feared what the sound of a gunshot in open air might do to the town.
The theatre was on the opposite side of the town. It was a tiny multiplex, appearing to have only three screens. Not far from it Carl could see a Walmart. He stared at it for a bit, for one brief moment glad he was not going inside. All those doors chained shut made the building seem dangerous. Tess walked to the front door and stopped. She stared through the window.
"What is it?" he asked.
"One of your secrets is inside," she whispered.
"What are you talking about?"
"You'll see," she said. She reached out and pulled open the door, holding it for the man. "After you. You'll find Cameron inside, but not as you think."
Carl looked at her, his mind debating. He wanted to force her to tell him how she knew this. Another part was too scared to know. He went inside to look for his daughter.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
The velvet ropes had faded to a dull crimson. The single cash register was open and empty of money. Carl looked around, seeing life-size caricatures of Yoda and Luke and Austin Powers. All had their eyes burned out. The glass before the candy machine was broken. He glanced inside the popcorn machine. Hundreds of red seeds filled the powerless contraption. He shuddered, not wanting to know what type of popcorn might come from it.
The first theatre he checked was dark and silent. He called out his daughter's name. None answered back. When he exited Tess approached from the lobby, her arms crossed. She kept staring at Carl with a dull expression in her eyes.
"She's in the third room," the girl whispered. Carl glared at her. He marched into the middle room.
"Cameron?" he shouted. "Cameron, are you here sweetie?"
Again his voice met no response. He left and shook his head.
"We might still have time to leave," Tess said. Her arms were wrapped around her chest as if she was cold. "I don't want to go in there, but I'll follow you if you do."
"I have to find her."
He went inside. Tess followed.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
The room was dark, just like the other two. Carl trudged down the aisle, willing to search further because of Tess's apprehension. As he walked the whirring sound of the projector broke the silence. Light burst onto the screen, dull and yellow. Carl and Tess froze as a silent movie began. Tears ran down Carl's face as the first image was of his little girl, smiling and waving as if she was in a home movie.
"She is a beautiful girl," Tess whispered.
"Where are you, baby?" Carl said to the screen.
The scene changed. He saw his house and the forest behind it. The house erupted into flame, yet it did not burn, only melt like wax. The trees withered and died. And then came the flood. A mighty river covered the house and flame. Only the trees withstood its flow. And from within the river hundreds of arms reached out, caked with mud. They all stretched their fingers to the screen, as if hoping some watcher might aid them. As one they slipped underneath the water. The whole time Carl stood there, his arms shaking.
"Why do they show a flood?" Tess asked.
"I'm afraid of rivers," Carl said. "Potamophobia is what it's called. This town, this fucking town, just wants to torture me. Cameron isn't in here is she?"
Tess looked once more to the screen.
"No. I think she is."
The tornado siren pierced through the thick walls of the theatre. Carl drew his gun, his eyes lingering on the fading flood. All around the curtains turned to wax and dripped to the ground. The screen melted, pouring muddy water across the floor. The man screamed and shoved his back to the far wall. Painful light filled the room as door of the emergency exit came off its hinges and fell. He glanced back at the other door into the theatre, looking for some way to bar it. It had no handle and no lock.
"Something's coming," Tess said, staring at the open door. Carl turned around, both hands clutching the hilt of his gun. A human shape came crawling through and onto the platform before the screen. It crawled on its knees, having had its feet amputated at the ankles. Barbed wire wrapped around its neck in multiple loops before trailing down and embedding itself into the flesh around the knees. Every time the thing stretched its arms forward to walk the barbed wire around its knees forced the creature to do a bowing motion. It looked directly at the two with sunken eyes loosely hidden behind dirty hair. Inside its mouth was a black ball gag.
"Who did that to it?" Carl whispered.
Tess looked at him and then the creature.
"I think it's always been like this. It was made this way."
The creature crawled toward them. Carl kept his gun trained on its head, hating the subtle shaking of his hands. He'd always been a sure shot when hunting.
"Don't remember deer looking this fucked up before, though," Carl muttered. He chuckled.
"Don't kill it," Tess said as he prepared to fire.
"What? Hun, I don't think that thing wants to give us a hug."
The thing grew closer, making the same bowing gesture as it came. It was almost as if the thing were worshiping them.
"Please. I don't want you to kill it."
Carl wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. The creature was close enough to smell now. It was powerful, a scent he recognized clearly from those many nights spent with his wife. It was the stench of dried semen. He put a bullet between its eyes. Tess screamed and hit him. He hit her back.
Tess cowered in the corner, holding a hand to her face. Her lip was bleeding. He had hit her with the butt of the gun. Blood poured from the bowing creature, which lay dead in the middle of the aisle. Carl stared at the thing, breathing heavily.
"I'm sorry, but you can't hit me, girl. Don't hit me."
"You hit your daughter, didn't you? That's why she ran."
Carl glared at her.
"I never, ever laid a finger on her. Your father may have been a twisted fuck but I'm not. And you're fourteen. You're old enough to know better."
Tess stood, licking the blood from her lips.
"Hit me again."
"What? No."
"I said hit me."
She approached, a strange gleam entering her eye. Her fear of him had vanished just as quickly as he had hit her.
"Are you crazy? I didn't want to hit you the first time, it just, you know…"
She lewdly pushed her body against his.
"But doesn't the kill excite you? The town, the fear, you're alive aren't you?"
"Get away from me," he said, pushing her.
"You're not married."
"And you're not even sixteen."
"Since when has that stopped you before?"
He backhanded her across the mouth. She looked at him, not in shock but in pleasure.
"I was never willing with daddy, but I'll be willing with you. You can be my master. Hit me again."
Another bower came crawling through the emergency exit. Tess reached out and pushed her hand against Carl's crotch. He grabbed her wrist with his free hand, his gun trained on the second creature.
"Stop it," he whispered. "You belong here. You're sick. I just want my daughter."
A giant blade tore through the second bower's back. The thing writhed in silence, the ball gag keeping all but the most desperate of screams in. The blade turned, gore covered the ground, and then the butcher with the pyramid head entered the building. Carl let go of Tess's wrist and aimed at the butcher's chest.
"Not this time, bud," he said. "Everything else dies around here, so you can too."
Tess glanced at the thing and smiled. She ran down the aisle, away from Carl and toward the butcher.
"Tess!" Carl screamed. "Tess, get back here, he'll kill you!"
The butcher yanked free his blade and hoisted it onto his shoulder. It made no further movements as Tess flew across the platform and wrapped her arms around his waist. Carl felt his gut sink at the sight. The butcher moved its free arm, at first as if he was to hug the girl. Instead a giant hand grabbed the girl's long hair and tilted her head back. Tess gasped. A violent jerk spun her around and down to her hands and knees. The giant weapon fell to the ground with a thud. Metal scraped against metal as the butcher turned the edge around and lifted it with one hand. Tess's breath was quick and heavy as the bloody edge pressed itself against her exposed throat. When the butcher yanked harder on her hair and ran the blade up and down across her neck without drawing blood Carl could not believe what it was he heard. The girl was moaning.
"Enough of this," he muttered. "That's just enough."
He fired into the arm that clutched Tess's hair. The bullet hit, punching a small wound in the arm. No blood came. The wound sealed back up as Carl watched in horror. He fired again. The bullet hit the strange helmet and ricocheted into the wall. A third shot to its leg buried into flesh and remained there. Still no blood.
The butcher released Tess. She sat on her knees and turned, whimpering. The thing ignored her. It dragged its blade across the ground behind it as it strode up the aisle. Carl plugged four more shots into the butcher's chest. The impact didn't even slow it. Just before he ran Carl saw Tess stand and laugh at him.
"He told me your secret," she said. "I know where your girl is."
"Where is she?" he shouted.
"I told you my secret, but you didn't tell me yours."
He swore and fled out the door, the sound of the blade dragging across the ground not far behind.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
The lobby was full of the bowing creatures. They turned toward him at his entrance. Some cowered, while others crawled toward him, moaning into their gags. Carl shot the closest two and then ran to the door. He let out a cry when he slammed against it. The door wouldn't budge. Through the glass he could see chains and a padlock wrapped around the outer handles. Someone, or something, had locked him in.
He spun, firing. Three more of the bowing creatures fell. Then the butcher entered the lobby.
"Aw hell no," Carl muttered.
He emptied his clip into the thing's chest. The bullets gave him little pause. Carl reloaded as the butcher cut off the head of a nearby creature. Seeing nowhere to go he kicked one of the bowers away from him and ran into the bathroom. There were three stalls inside. He fired two shots into a window above the sink, grimacing at the noise in the confined space. As he shoved away pieces of glass he heard movement from the stalls. Blue children appeared from the stalls, already tearing at their sown lips. One succeeded, and with its mouth free it vomited. Carl expected blood but instead saw muddy brown water. When finished the child faced him and spoke.
"Daddy?"
He put a bullet in its head, tossed his gun through the window, and then climbed through.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
The sky was a furious red. Directly in front of him was the Walmart. Hundreds of flying shapes circled above it. Carl grabbed his gun from the ground and glanced about. He had to find somewhere to hide until the siren sounded once more. He saw a large storage shed behind the theatre. He took a step toward it.
The butcher shoved its enormous blade through the window and swung. The tip sliced through the back tendons of Carl's right ankle, snapping his Achilles heel. Carl screamed, collapsing to the ground. He forced himself to roll amid the pain, desperate to stay out of reach of the giant weapon. He clutched his leg with both hands, unaware he had dropped his gun. The pain was unbearable. He'd broken limbs before, even snapped his collarbone in half once, but nothing compared to this.
"Get up," he muttered. "You gotta get up."
Hands wrapped around his body, pulling him upward. With his good leg Carl pushed, keeping all weight from his injured leg. He looked about groggily, seeing Tess holding him by his arms.
"Come on, this way," she said. He leaned gently upon her as the two hobbled their way to the storage shed. It was unlocked. Tess opened the door and helped Carl sit down inside. Then she entered, slamming the door shut behind her. For a moment all was dark. He bit down on his hand, trying to hold in his sobs. The sound of metal scraping against metal remained ever prominent.
Carl was leaning against something, what he did not know. He pushed against it, checking its height. Not too bad. He sat down upon it, doing his best to keep quiet. He pulled out the flashlight from his pocket.
"I'm turning on a light," he whispered. Tess gave no reply. He placed his hand over the end and then flicked the switch. Dull yellow light lit up the ceiling, muffled by his fingers. It was enough to see. Boxes of cups filled one side. Stack in another corner were nacho plates and rags. Bathroom cleaner, mops, and twelve packs of toilet paper occupied another. Carl sat upon a sealed cardboard box. The side simply red Cinaplex. Tess sat by the door, her black eyes staring at him in the dark.
"Tell me what your secret is," she whispered, unafraid of the scraping metal sound from outside.
"Please, I'm in too much pain," he whispered. "Get me some of those paper towels, will you?" Tess gave him a roll. He wrapped the brown paper around his bleeding ankle. It grew soggy and weak almost immediately.
"Tell me," she said again. "Tell me or I open the door and scream."
"Why would you do that?" he asked. "Why?"
"I want to know," she said. "I'll do it. You know I will."
Carl leaned back against the wall of the shed, gasping in air. Much of his vision was tiny blue dots swirling before him.
"Fine. Sometimes I…I didn't take Kelly's death too well. Kelly was my wife. I drank a lot, not as much as I do now, but I did. And that made me do stuff I don't want to say."
"Say it," Tess said.
"Please," Carl begged. "Please. I can't."
"Say it. You fucked her, didn't you?"
"I didn't fuck her!"
For a brief moment the scraping sound outside halted. The two stared at one another. A minute later it resumed.
"I touched her," Carl said, burying his face into his head. "I only touched her."
"She ran away from you because you couldn't keep your hands off your own daughter. That's how she ended up here, isn't it?"
He nodded.
"I quit my job just two days before, stayed home drinking. I shouldn't have, you know, shouldn't have kept drinking but I didn't have anything else. I must have been bad. I don't even remember much of that day. Poor Cameron, she probably got scared and ran off. By the time I knew she was gone it was too late. I haven't seen her since."
The scraping sound grew more and more distant. The two relaxed, apparently safe inside the cramped building.
"I guess you're not as bad as daddy," Tess said, picking at her dress.
"Of course I am," he whispered. "There's no ranks when it comes to what I did. No this is worse or that isn't. I betrayed her trust. Ever since she ran away I've prayed for another chance to show her it won't happen again. And then I get a call from her, telling me to come to this god-forsaken town."
They fell silent for a bit. The minutes passed, quiet and painful. Carl kept changing the towels around his ankle, praying for the pain and bleeding to finally stop.
"What about the flood?" Tess asked, breaking the silence.
"I told you, I have a phobia of rivers."
"You're lying."
"Why would I lie about that but not about what I did to my little girl?"
This indeed seem to puzzle her. She began twisting her lower lip with her fingers.
"Why would you lie?" she asked. "Why would you lie about the river?"
Carl sighed.
"Please, just let me be for awhile."
Ten minutes later Tess came to her conclusion.
"You're not aware you're lying," she said.
"What?"
The girl stood, hovering over him. Her black eyes shimmered in the dim light.
"You don't know you're lying," she said. "But I know who will. Cameron will."
"What are you doing?"
The girl paused, her hand against the door to the shed. She giggled.
"I'm going to take you to Cameron. I know where they're keeping her."
Carl tried to sit up. A wave of dizziness slammed his head. He shoved more paper towels against his ankle, wondering just how much blood he had lost. When he tried to speak his words came out slurred.
"I need to rest a moment," he murmured. "Just, give me a sec to rest."
The flashlight slipped from his hands and fell. Tess reached down and grabbed it. She flicked it off with her thumb. In the darkness Carl leaned against the wall and succumbed to weakness and sleep.
"I'll watch over you," he heard the girl say. "Until I know for sure, I'll watch over you."
v..v..v..v..v..v...
Carl awoke to the sound of the tornado alarm. He opened his eyes to see total darkness.
"Does that mean its safe or…?" he asked.
"You haven't been out long," Tess said. "And yes, it is now safe for you."
Light streamed in. The girl pulled the door fully open. Pale light and fog filled the cramped shed. Carl glanced down at his leg. His sock was a mash of paper towels and blood. He placed a tiny bit of weight on the foot. Fire screamed its way through his nerves, eliciting a muffled cry from his throat.
"Don't walk on it," Tess said, watching him. "I will help you walk if you need me to."
"Are you sure you can?" he asked. The girl nodded.
"I'm stronger than I look. Most people are." She reached out her hand. Carl took it. Gently she wrapped his arm about her shoulders and lifted him from his perch atop the cardboard box. He put all his weight on his left leg. His right he kept hovering an inch above the ground. Together the two hobbled out of the shed. On the way down Carl brushed his foot against the ground. The pain sent him to the ground, Tess with him. The girl made not a sound. Instead she stood up, grabbed his arm, and pulled him from the ground.
"We don't have time," she said once his arm was around her again. "We must find her before the town changes again."
"Sure," the man muttered. "So where are we going?"
The girl pointed to the Walmart.
"Inside."
"God I hope you're joking."
"I'm not God, and I'm not joking. Come on."
Like some three-legged creature they crossed the parking lot, to where the chained and shut store loomed like a sleeping thing.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
Tess let the man sit on a chair bench while she examined the sliding glass doors. She fiddled with the chains across the front. They were placed in a hurry, and whoever had done so had left them far too loose. Tess stretched them around the handle. The metal fell to the ground, clanging atop the concrete. She tried to pull open the doors but they refused to budge.
"There's a second lock," Carl said, watching her. "On the inside."
Tess hit the glass with her fists. It remained firm. She looked at Carl.
"Where's your gun?"
"I think I dropped it when that…thing…cut my ankle."
"I'll be right back."
The girl ran across the empty parking lot towards the tiny movie theatre. She returned a minute later, the gun cradled in her hand. Without a word she braced herself in front of the door, aimed, and fired three times. Hundreds of veins filled the door, spreading out from the holes of the bullets. Tess kicked. The glass bowed inward, stretching more like rubber than glass. She put two more bullets into the door and kicked again. Half of the door came crashing in, splaying shards across the floor. Tess ducked inside, turned, and scanned for the lock.
"Check near the top," Carl said. Tess found a metal jam and flicked it the other way. She pulled the doors open with her fingers and then smiled at the man.
"On your feet, lazy man. Your daughter is waiting."
Carl got to his feet on his own. He took a single step, and the pain was blatant across his face. He waited for Tess and then heaved his weight upon her.
"How do you know she's in here," he asked as they entered the store.
"The man told me," Tess said.
"What man?"
"The man with the pyramid head."
v..v..v..v..v..v...
They cut right immediately, past the soaps and deodorants. When they reached stacks of fake flowers and lawn ornaments they turned left.
"Where are we going?" Carl asked.
"Where do you think your little girl would be at?" she asked. The man thought a moment, trying to remember the trips he took with Cameron to Walmart.
"Stuffed animals. Barbie dolls. She always wanted to go to look at stuff like that whenever we went."
"See, you don't need me."
But he did. Every step he grimaced and forced his weight upon her until his good leg hit the ground again. He kept expecting her to buckle under his weight, but she was always firm. They passed the fake jewelry. Ahead he saw some pink My Pony toys. They were there.
"Cameron?" he said. He let go of Tess's arm and hobbled on one foot into the aisle. He grasped the metal shelving and stared. The whole aisle was pink. Pink dolls, pink clothes, pink animals. Sitting in the middle of the aisle, with hundreds of open Barbie dolls talking, working, and playing was his little girl. She looked up at him and tilted her head.
"Daddy?" she asked.
"Cameron," he said. "Oh sweet baby, come here."
She ran to him and latched her arms about his waist. Carl used his free hand to hug her. He tried to speak but a lump in his throat kept his words.
"I missed you daddy," Cameron said.
"Missed you too," he managed to say.
"Hello, Cameron," Tess said from behind them. Carl shifted so he could look at her.
"Thank you," he said. Tess ignored him, instead speaking to the child while keeping her hands behind her back.
"Cameron, I have a question I want to ask you."
The girl pulled her face away from her father's stomach, hair sticking to her tears.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Tess," the girl said, smiling. "Come over here, I want to ask you something."
"Stay here," Carl said, his wrapping tighter about her. "Just stay here for now."
Tess pulled out his gun from behind her, gesturing casually toward him.
"I need to talk to her," she said. A string of giggles escaped her lips. "I won't hurt her. Not at all. But you're entirely different. Now let her go."
"Daddy?" Cameron asked, glancing back at him.
"Don't do this," Carl said, pleading. "Please, don't do this to us."
"Come on over here, this won't take long."
His arm slid off her shoulders. The girl reluctantly left his side. Tess sat down on the ground, keeping the gun readied in her right hand. Cameron took a few reluctant steps toward her.
"In my lap," she said, tapping her dress with her free hand. Cameron glanced back before taking a seat. Tess wrapped her arms around her and pressed her cheek against the little girl's beautiful hair.
"Just answer truthfully, Cameron, good girls always tell the truth."
"Okay," she said.
"When was the last time you saw your daddy?"
"He was watching TV," she said, her eyes cast to the floor. Carl clutched the metal tighter, wanting to move, to do something, but between his leg and the gun there was nothing he could do.
"Are you sure? You ran away, didn't you? Why did you run away?"
"Daddy wasn't being himself. I didn't want him to hurt me."
"I'd never hurt you, baby," Carl said. Tess glared him silent.
"Is that why you ran away?" She nodded. "Where did you go?"
"I ran into the woods," Cameron said. "Bobby at school told me Unicorns live in the woods, and if I tried hard enough I could find them."
Tess giggled.
"What did you find in the woods?"
The little girl squirmed. When she said nothing Tess prodded her again.
"I didn't find anything. It started raining. I don't think the Unicorns liked the rain."
Tess shifted the guns aim higher, toward Carl's head. She spoke, asking questions that the little girl answered with soft nods of her head.
"You tried to get out of the rain, right? But there was nowhere to go. It was raining really hard. You found a river, didn't you? But it was large and scary and moving fast…"
"I didn't want to jump in," Cameron said, tears sliding down her cheeks. Carl's grip on the metal was deathly strong. His eyes were locked on his daughter's. He kept shaking his head, pleading his girl to be silent.
"Why'd you jump in?" Tess asked.
"Daddy was screaming," she said. "He sounded mad. Really mad."
"What happened? Tell me, I won't be mad."
"I couldn't find her in the storm," Carl said, stealing Tess's attention away from the girl. "I looked and looked, but I never found her. It wasn't my fault."
Cameron only gave him the most hurt of looks.
"You did too, daddy, you did too find me!" She buried her face in Tess's chest. Tess wrapped her arm around her, smiling at Carl with a twisted smile.
"He found you at the river," Tess said, cold hatred burning in her eyes. "He found you and you called out to him. Why didn't you go to your daughter, Carl? Why?"
But Carl's sight was far away, despite his eyes staring into Cameron's face. He could feel the rain beating down upon him. Flood warnings had been issued for every county for miles. He remembered coming back from the woods, soaked in mud. He remembered screaming his daughter's name. But the river….the river…what happened at the river…?
v..v..v..v..v..v...
"Cameron! Where the hell are you, it's dangerous out here!"
He rushed through the trees, wincing as the branches tore at his skin. He could hear his daughter shouting something in the distance, although he didn't know what it was she said. Despite the horrible downpour no thunder sounded, giving him a slight hope of following her voice. The noise of the rain though…he'd never heard rain so loud. The drops were the size of marbles and falling so thick everything in front of him was a wall of liquid.
"Cameron! Keep yelling honey, I'll find you."
He stumbled across a falling log, scraping his knee. Blood dripped down his leg. He swore. He felt like a cold wet dog, and about as clumsy and smart as one as well. Damn it, why did she have to run out after he'd settled in for a drink in the warm house?
A loud, constant roar neared his position. His gut sank at the sound. He knew what it was. What he feared it to be. The trees ended. He broke into a tiny clearing just before a rocky creek. Except it no longer was a creek. The sudden rain had strengthened it into some roaring beast through the forest. And standing just beyond the reach of that beast was Cameron. Her back was to the creek. She looked at him, clutching a stuffed bear.
"I'm sorry," she said, her face pink and scrunched. She was crying.
"It's okay," he said, his eyes constantly flicking to the water running behind her. The falling rain rippled the top of the water as if a thousand bugs were skimming and diving across it. He felt a shiver crawl up and down his spine, again and again whispering certain death should he fall in. "It's okay, just come to daddy."
"You're mad," she said. "You're mad and you'll hurt me. I don't want you to hurt me anymore, please, I don't want you, you, please daddy…"
"Cameron, I'm not mad," he said, doing his best to keep his breathing calm.
"Please, don't be mad at me."
A sudden gust of wind pelted rain against Carl's back. The burst nearly toppled Cameron into the water.
"I'm not mad!" he shouted. "Now get over here, now!"
His scream dropped her to her knees. She cried there, so close to the creek, so close that it could reach out and grab him if he neared.
"Cameron," he said. "Cameron, stand up. Stand up and come to your father this instant!"
She stood to do as she was told. Another gust of wind came, one that Carl had to plant a foot forward to keep himself erect. Cameron lacked the strength to steady herself. She staggered back, crying out one last time before she fell into the water.
"Cameron!"
Carl ran to edge of the creek, his heart pounding. The entire creek was a mass of brown, just a step above mud. There, floating downstream, he could see Cameron. She was screaming. Her arms were reached out toward him. Carl took a step. He meant to jump in. He truly did. But the creek was roaring, the rain was howling, and when he glanced down into the water he knew, he just knew, he would die.
He ran. And he drank. And he forgot.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
"You're remembering, aren't you?" Tess asked. Carl leaned his entire weight against the shelf, his eyes blinking as if returning from a daydream.
"Remembering what?" he said. It was a horrible lie.
"I know what you saw," she said. Twin tears trailed down her face. "Your poor girl. You let her die, just because you were a pathetic drunk scared of the water."
"She's not dead," Carl said, his eyes closed and his face pressed against his forearm. That horrific image, of his daughter's hand reaching out to him from beneath the muddy water, refused to fade. "You were just talking to her. She lived somehow, maybe the river carried her here."
"She's not here, Carl. She never was."
Carl pulled back his head and opened his eyes. Cameron was gone. Tess sat alone on the floor, the gun cradled in her lap.
"What'd you do with her?" he asked. "Damn it, where is she?"
"She's washed up against ground somewhere down the creek," Tess said, venom dripping into her voice. "Frozen solid with water in her lungs. Bugs are in her eyes. Even the carrion dogs don't want her corpse. They left it all to the bugs and the beetles and the worms."
"Stop saying that you sick bitch!"
Tess giggled.
"This town called her spirit here, just as it called you and I. It called you to make you aware of what you did. It called me to…" She stopped, covering her mouth so keep in her giggles. "I think it called me to kill you," Tess said at last. She picked up the gun again and pointed at his chest.
"Don't do this," Carl said. He hobbled back on one leg. "It's this town, this place. I've never hurt you. I'd never hurt my daughter. Never!"
The girl stood and clutched the gun in both hands.
"I was wrong," Tess said, all emotion draining from her face. Not a shred of humanity remained in her voice. "You are just as bad as daddy was."
She shot him in the leg. His good leg. Carl fell to the ground, clutching the wound. He kicked with his other leg, succeeding only in tearing open the wound. Blood poured across the linoleum floor. Tess approached, the gun swinging casually in her hands.
"I never meant to," Carl whimpered, tears running down his face.
"You never do," she said. "But they always happen. You never meant to touch her. But you always did. You never meant to drink. But you always did. You never meant to die…"
The gun fired.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
Consciousness faded in and out like the ocean's tide. When he was awake he was aware of pain, enormous and without location. He might have opened his eyes once. He wasn't sure. If he did, then the world was as dark as when he kept his lids shut. Come and go. Awake and not. He heard a noise once, long and droning. It passed and then the pain grew.
Something was forced down his throat. It lodged halfway down. He coughed again and again, but gentle hands rubbed across his neck. The object remained swallowed.
Gradually he became aware of the pain as a more specific entity. His entire lower body was hurting. Water splashed across his face. Another object entered his throat, followed by cold liquid. He slept some more.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
When the pain was exact, and he was aware of his body, he heard the girl's voice amid the darkness.
"About time you woke up," he heard her giggle. "I've given you plenty of pain killers. You should stay awake, just enough to hear me. I've taken your eyes. You don't need them. Cameron will sleep better now, I think. And you will too. Stay still for me, like a good little boy, alright?"
He struggled, becoming more and more aware of his surroundings. He was sitting in a chair. His hands were bound behind him. He tried moving his legs but they too were tied. Not that it mattered. Pain shrieked up both of them, rendering them useless. He tried remembering what had happened. The gun had fired. The sound…the sound was enormous. The pain just hit him, seeming a strange unreal thing. She shot him in the stomach, he remembered that. She shot him and then let him bleed himself unconscious. And then the pain and the sleep. And now this. Tied.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"Let me go," he whispered. His voice was cracked and weak. "Please, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He heard her giggle. The sound echoed in the dark.
"I know."
A sharp sting pierced the left side of his mouth. Adrenaline surged throughout his body when he realized what that stinging was. He tried to scream. Fingers gripped his lips and stretched him. The grip was tremendous. Another sting, this through his upper lip. He felt his lips tighten. He struggled again, but his strength was that of a child. The stinging traveled its away across his mouth until his lips were sewn completely shut.
He felt soft lips kiss his sewn mouth.
"The town is going to let me leave. I might come back, though. There are plenty of people like you, like daddy."
Far away a siren sounded.
"Good luck," she whispered into his ear. Carl tried to scream. He produced nothing more than a shuddering groan from the center of his throat. There was no response. All was silent in the store.
Silent.
And then he heard the scraping sound of something heavy and sharp dragging across the floor. It was coming his way.
v..v..v..v..v..v...
v..v..v..v..v..v...
And that's it. Thanks to any who made it this far. I hope you enjoyed my (strange) little story. Feel free to throw in comments, tell me I rock or tell me I suck. It's all good.
David.