Hello again! Nearly wrapping this one up, just this chapter and a short epilogue. Thanks to Cherylann Rivers, Evergreen Dreamweaver, Paulina Ann and Erin Jordan for the reviews to keep me going, they always make me smile!
CHAPTER 6
Frank glowered at the ice clogged creek, angry at its failure to respond to his rant. He circled the van, again, scouring the ground for a tire track, footprint, anything that could definitively confirm he was in the same place as before. Four inches of fresh fallen snow met his eyes instead. The sprawling oak was the same, though, same knobby tree house branch; and while more far more ice encroached on the flowing water, the protruding rock pattern appeared the identical. This was the same spot; he'd swear to it. For whatever that's worth at five o'clock in the morning from a guy plotting how to escape from a ghost while wearing his brother's boots.
He'd parked the van beside the steel bridge once again, but the stone one below was simply gone. Dropping to his knees, Frank rooted through the slush, cursing his lack of gloves as he felt for any remnants of the prior structure. If the deputy was to be believed, the bridge Frank saw only a few hours ago hadn't spanned Clemens' creek in decades, but something of the footers should remain. His stiff fingers finally met the half-buried edges of crumbled block, proving he had the correct location. He couldn't explain why digging out the foundation was so important other than perhaps as a touch stone to his brother. Or perhaps his faith in his own abilities was taking a battering tonight.
Frank rummaged through the supplies in the back of the van, frequently pausing to blow on his chilled fingers. He wasn't convinced it helped, but it was worth a try. Both boys typically kept foul weather gear in the vehicle, but he'd worn his coat and boots on his first foray into the water; the whole sodden mess now residing in the plastic bags of the Remsen police station. Joe had transferred his own kit to the sedan before leaving Bayport, but left his out of season snow boots. This was the pair Frank currently wore, his toes taking the occasion to remind him of his sibling's oddly small feet.
He crammed a knapsack with flares, a thermal blanket, cereal bars, water and a second flashlight, keeping the first one in his hand. He grimaced as he added the first aid kit, the need for it weighing him down far more than the contents. Stomping to warm up, he gazed through the forest, debating which way to go. If I'm this cold already, how frozen is Joe?...
Frank started upstream on his side of the creek, searching for a farmhouse light he had no reason to expect existed.
"Joe?"
"Joe?"
"JOE?"
"JOE?"
The calls went unanswered, Frank's voice once more transforming into a rasp. Carefully picking through the upper branches of a downed tree, he kept his vision firmly on the ground, sweatpants already soggy from a number of stumbles. His fogged breath increased in tempo, grey wisps lost in the silver and black predawn landscape.
"JOE?"
"JOE?"
Another fallen log blocked his path. Frank scrambled on top of it, trying to get his bearings in the dark forest. Splaying the flashlight among the trees, his heart sank. Nearly an hour of walking and he was inexplicably almost back to the bridge. The stone bridge, completely intact right down to the twin lion pillars. The modern metal span and his van had gone missing as thoroughly as his brother.
No... I followed the streambed. There's no way to walk in a circle doing that. "JOE? CAN YOU HEAR ME? JOE?" Only the wind in the branches answered him. Maybe I have to cross the bridge...
"JOE?"
You're getting warmer...
hee hee hehehehee
"What? Who's there?" Frank swung the flashlight in a wide arc, spotting only lazily drifting flakes. He gingerly stepped onto the cobblestone surface, caught off guard when the snow immediately intensified, harsh wind cutting through his thin jacket.
Step on a crack, break your brother's back...
The gale managed to shove him backwards, nearly landing him in the water again. "Is someone there? Come out, I can't see you."
Three blind mice, see how they run...
"JOE?" Each step along the bridge decking required more energy than the last, the air thickening to bar his way. The blizzard hammered at his shoulders as he bowed his head into the spitting ice, unseen pressure threatening to collapse his chest. Frank struggled toward the lion statue at the opposite end, afraid to glance away from the sculpture and lose his way.
"JOE?"
"JOE?"
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...
Frank couldn't hear himself over the incessant howling and yet the singsong cadence in his ears never relented, cresting in a peal of giggles when the stone feline winked at him.
Didn't see that.. I didn't... "JOE?!"
"F-Frank?"
The previously solid door hung half off its hinges as Joe staggered out of the farmhouse, the wind instantly assaulting him through his tattered clothes. Abigail grabbed at his heels, screaming for Constance when she failed to halt his flight.
The woods assailed the younger Hardy; the cragged bark of gnarled trees punishing any misplaced step, roots seemingly grasping at his toes, the frozen precipitation stabbing at his face and stinging squinted eyes. He gathered speed as he fled, headlong and directionless, away from the horror oozing from this place.
The scant light produced only charcoals and deep grey against ebony, the forest painted in a palette of decay. Snapping twigs behind him hinted at pursuit, keeping him moving in spite of a dozen different hurts vying to claim him.
He collided with another tree in the darkness, fresh blood again warming a swath from nose to chest as he dropped to his knees.
Ashes, ashes...
"Leave me alone!" The hoarse cry was absorbed into the snow, barely audible even to Joe.
"Oh, no, Joseph, I cannot." Constance's lilting tones still rang of charm and gentility, but her expression contorted into a snarl as she tackled him. The blonde curls fell in limp grey strands and the lace blouse was now scorched, glimpses of charred bone and muscle peeking through. Ancient wrinkled skin hung in random patches over a rictus grin, one of the looser strips grotesquely fluttering as she spoke.
"Please... let. me. go..." Joe dug his heels into the slick earth, desperately seeking leverage to buck the specter off him. Bony fingers remained clamped around his wrists as she pinned them to ground over his head. "Just let...me go..."
"Go where, Joseph? It is time to come home." She leaned closer, her fetid breath a nauseating warning before the lipless mouth kissed his forehead.
"That's not... my home." Laughter in that house sprang into his memory, but so did the pinpricked pain of Abigail's teeth. The more distance he traveled from farm, the clearer a second set of images became. A white house on a tree lined street. The dark haired boy haunted every recollection of that place. Joe could almost put a name to him now. Have to find him.. find out who he is... who I am...
"The children need to play, Joseph." She shifted her grip to the base of his neck, the grasp not enough tight enough to strangle but still stealing his breath. "You are coming home."
Joe gasped as coughing suddenly consumed him, the choked splutters combining with her laughter and then weakening. Wet, gurgled wheezes replaced any pretense of breathing as his vision tinted into grey, weary acceptance setting in. Too cold... can't run... cold...
"Joe?"
What? What's that?...
"That's it, love. Shhh. Go back to sleep... Shh.. Time to come home."
No... no... He gathered all his resistance into a single lurch, flinging the wraith off of him. "No. It's. Not."
He skidded down an embankment with the momentum of his escape, skeletal hands clutching at him as he rolled. Additional forms coalesced in his path, their childish fingers again snatching at his clothes, every touch spiking ice into his skin. He flung his arms and legs blindly, teeth gritted against the ensuing agony, fending off a rain of blows. Sharp teeth sank into his calf and shoulder, neither bite able to anchor him to his fate. Please don't let them catch me... please no... please... no...
His pell mell descent jarred to an abrupt stop as he tumbled into the water. The quintet retreated with an furious screech, Constance seemingly preventing the others from pursuing him into the creek. The hideous spirits surged around her, but the moment's hesitation permitted Joe to regain his feet. He sloshed through the knee deep stream, sensing the reluctance of the others to follow too closely. Fragments of the previously angelic faces flitted amid the trees, their dripping colorless hair limp over dead faces. Smaller stones pelted at Joe as he fled, the eerie chant again converging from every direction.
Come out come out, wherever you are...
Joe-eeeeey...
Ashes, ashes...
Joe-eeeeeey...
Come inside, Joseph...
"Joe?"
The cock doth crow for you, Joe...
Joe-eeeeey...
"Joe?"
We all fall down...
If you be wise, tis time to die...
"Joe?"
The maelstrom of sound wove over and through him, a vertiginous cacophony pounding away coherent thought. The groaning pleas invaded his soul, leaching away his will. Joe tripped over the uneven streambed again, sinking prone below the tumult of the water, the numbing ice muting the insanity with blessed surrender.
So cold... got away... c-cold...
"Joe?"
Go away... the others all went away... I'm tired...
"JOE?"
Have to sleep... just for a while... I'm so c-cold... leave me alone...
"JOE?"
Go away... have to sleep... I can't... I...
"JOE!"
Wait... Frank. His name is Frank... Joe shoved his elbows beneath him, forcing his head above the surface. "F-Frank?"
The night cascaded into jumbled scenes of the spinning car, the uncontrolled crash into the creek, the flight into the woods only find himself in the nightmare of the farmhouse. Joe crawled though the water, groping his way from stone to stone, following the beacon of his brother's calls.
"Frank? You there?"
"Joe! Where are you?"
"Here! I'm here!"
Frank waded into the edge of the water, convinced he heard Joe that way. A few more steps and he froze, the vision before him rendering movement impossible.
Joe knelt in the rushing water, a half translucent shadow. His shredded clothes flapped in rags over bloated grey skin that half heartedly clung to rotting muscle and jagged bone. Chunks of the familiar blonde waves were gone, the dull glow of white skull glinting through.
"No... No... J-Joe?" Frank stood transfixed by the animated corpse that so clearly bore his brother's face.
"Frank? Help me... " Joe braced his hands against his better knee, forcing his way to his feet. He could see a perfectly solid Frank silhouetted in front of the stone bridge pillar, not fifteen feet away, but his brother made no move toward him.
Frank crept backward a half stride, unaware. "J-Joe? You're... Oh, my God... J-Joe?" He's a ... a... no...
"Frank? Help?... I'm freezing... Frank!? Please?" Joe tottered a step forward, stunned when his sibling retreated. "Frank?"
The dangling bare bone of Joe's left hand dropped free, clattering against a boulder before bobbing downstream. Oblivious, the younger Hardy edged closer to his sibling.
When a mangled forearm followed suit, Frank whirled to retch, hot bile spattering the snow. Panting as he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Frank? Help?"
Don't look... He sounds like Joe... Don't look... He clamped down on a still rebellious stomach and waded back into the water. Frank opened his eyes and carefully looked everywhere else. The stone bridge stood a few feet behind him, backlit with the first glow of morning. A dark shadow on the bank mirrored the lattice work of the larger steel span, but the metal bridge itself remained hidden. Smudges moved along the opposite bank, indistinct and menacing.
The fragments gelled together like a particularly complex equation, the answer both welcome and repulsive.
"Joe, you have to go back." Frank gathered his resolve and stared into his brother's dull grey irises.
"No, need out of the water... I'm c-cold, Frank... tired..."
"I know, but you have to go back." Acid surged into his throat again as a rib pivoted, the swaying end brushing across Joe's hollowed stomach. "You have to cross the bridge, not come through the water. Go back."
"I'm closer to your... side now... just help me..."
"No." The word sliced through Frank. "Go. Back. You have to cross on your own, Joe. I'm sorry. Hurry, the sun's coming up."
Joe shook his head. "I won't get that far... they won't come... into the water..."
"They who? Please trust me on this. You have to go back, right now." Please, it's almost dawn... there's no time to explain this...
"Too cold... hurts..."
"Kiddo, please trust me. The bridge isn't going to last much longer."
"But..."
"Please, Joe." Hurry... it's almost seven... hurry...
"Ok." Sometimes the amount of faith in one word is amazing.
Joe dragged himself onto the opposite shore, tidbits of fabric and flesh trailing behind him. The instant he was free of the water, the wraiths descended, grabbing at him as he scrambled onto the bridge. Their whispers resumed, snippets of a dozen rhymes blending to a constant drone.
Ashes, ashes...
Ashes, ashes...
Only Constance pursued him across the cobblestone, her decayed appearance repugnant to Joe who was unaware he looked no better. As he reached the midpoint she abandoned snatching at him and coiled a desiccated arm around his throat.
His head snapped back, exposing his remaining jaw and ear to her vicious teeth.
"GAHHHHHHHHH!"
"NOOOOO!"
Frank's scream underscored Joe's. "Leave him alone! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
Ashes, ashes...
Joe slammed his elbow backward through her ribs, ripping himself free as she doubled over, the trophy of a an ear tip wedged in her teeth.
She spat that on the ground, withered claw of a hand coiling to land a punch in his kidneys before he spun about.
Frank ran onto the stone span, unable to resist aiding his brother any longer. "Joe! Coming!" The smooth surface cracked the moment his foot touched it, forcing him backward the soft earth to wait. No, no, no, no. nonononoo...
Joe wheeled, his raised foot snapping into contact with her breastbone and knocking Constance to the ground. He fell on top of her in a heap, unable to scamper away when her arms closed around him.
Frank paced in a tight square, the tumbling pair indistinguishable as they traded punches and kicks. Every inch of him quivered as he hit clenched fists against his thighs in a staccato rhythm. Joe... please... you have to make to across... come on... come on... come on...
The bridge sloped downward at the near end, Joe landing there in a sprawl, Constance astride, her bloody mouth sunk deep in his shoulder.
"NO! Get off him!" Frank was frantic, able to do nothing. "JOE! Please... you're almost across... you can do this... "
"C-can't ..."
Ashes, ashes...
"JOE! You get yourself off this bridge! NOW!" Come on... Come on... Come on...
"I'll... try... " the grunted answer reflected the strain of holding the wraith off his throat and an undercurrent of pain that was almost a whimper.
"You can... promise me, Joe... Come on..."
Joe closed his eyes and flung both of them over the final foot of the side rail into the ice laden water. Completing the crossing wasn't going to do much good if the horror of the night was still literally clamped to him. Constance's squall silenced as she went under.
Her grey eyes stared up at him though the flowing quicksilver, a faint smile lighting her face as she transformed back into the young beauty that had first greeted him. The skin of her face smoothed, flawless porcelain touched with the shade of apricots. Her lips moved below the water, the soundless words easily read. "Help me, Joseph, don't let me drown. Help me."
Frank slid to the edge of the water, shoving his boot against her chest even as Joe held her down. "Go to hell."
The upper curve of the sun cleared the horizon just as she ceased moving, bones reappearing and crumbling into powder in a heartbeat, the fine dust carried away with the stream.
"Joe?" Frank choked back a sob, the daylight doing far too much to illuminate the state of his brother. Even Frank's nose screamed at him that this was a long dead corpse.
"Tired... don't think I can get home... this time... need to sleep..."
Sleep. The word triggered a final flurry of activity for the elder Hardy. "Sleeping before you're away from this creek is the one thing I won't help you do, Joe. Promise me, kiddo... no giving up now...
Frank grasped Joe's shoulders, gritting his teeth at the feel of blood and bone. Heaving backwards, he landed flat in the edge of the water, Joe pulled close into his chest. Not daring to stand again, he scampered backward, inching both of them onto solid ground. He collapsed into the snow, eyes closed in exhaustion, only aware of the faint movement of Joe's chest against his.
The sun was fully up before either of them stirred, Frank groggily sitting up and lowering Joe to the earth. Joe's flannel shirt and jeans were ripped and bloodied, his right ankle and left hand swollen double their usual size, teeth prints of distinctly different sizes marking his torso and neck. A diagonal bruise stretched over his left chest, trailing to his hip. No visible bone, no missing forearm, no torn ear. To Frank, he looked perfect.
The stone lions and the bridge they guarded were gone, only the steel span, a parked van and a twisted green sedan in sight.
Draping the emergency blanket over Joe, Frank extracted his cell phone from his vehicle, not surprised when the van failed to start. Not like it was going to go that well...
A police cruiser and ambulance responded to his call twenty minutes later. Frank winced as Sheriff Colin and Deputy Shuman emerged from the car.
"Mr. Hardy. I do not take kindly to being blindsided and locked in my own jail!"
The sheriff's yell roused Joe, his blue eyes flickering open with a moan. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at the orange sweatpants, but said nothing.
"Ah, no sir. I apologize for that. I had to get to Joe. I-"
"Are you suggesting it's ok to assault an officer if you've got a good excuse, boy?!"
"No, no sir." I knew I was in trouble... and I'd do it again... "May I please just ride to the hospital with Joe? After that, I'll do anything you say, I told the deputy I'd plead guilty and I will, but please, let me go with him."
The sheriff glared at the dark haired youth before turning to stare at the younger one. "This your brother?"
"Yes sir." Frank's gaze followed Joe as he was loaded into the ambulance.
"He alright?"
"I think he will be."
"Hmph. You know, any report I file on you would have to cover why you were out here in the first place, and why three emergency vehicles couldn't find a crashed car that's sitting right there plain as day."
"Yes, sir, it would."
"Don't believe that would reflect well on my department. You go on, son, stay with your brother."
Frank managed a smile. "Yes sir, thank you."
"But I don't want to see you in Remsen again, kid!"
To be continued...