Chapter Five
Peter woke up in a rush, sure that someone was right beside him. When he found Jody sleeping quietly there, instead of some dreaded monster, he sighed with relief.
"Damned dreams," he muttered as he sat up and put his feet on the floor.
He gritted his teeth against the wave of dizziness and pounding in his head and shoulder. Rising made him regret the movement, but he had to use the bathroom. When Mother Nature calls, one must answer, he thought sarcastically, or there's a heck of mess to clean up.
He had little choice but to get up and take care of the problem. At least he was cautious in his movements, slowly crossing the bedroom to the bathroom in a manner Jody herself would have been proud of. The dizziness wasn't as bad as once he got started, but his body was growing more sore with each passing moment, as if some malicious being was turning up his pain-o-meter without mercy.
Peter didn't even realize he was deliberately walking through a dark apartment until he got to the bathroom. The small room had no windows, so there was no source of outside lighting.
He felt along the wall until he reached the shelf above the toilet. His fingers moved slowly across the items until he found what he was looking for – a cheap lighter to use with the few candles he kept there. The soft candlelight flared to life like a welcomed friend, casting away the darkness without the need for electricity or mechanical means.
His bedraggled reflection in the mirror caught his eye, making him sigh. He removed his stolen hospital gown, which left him standing in his jeans and bare chest, and he moved to examine the dressing encompassing most of his right shoulder. It was bloodied and in need of changing, but more importantly, he needed to slow down the escalating pain from his shoulder and neck. He took a couple deep breaths before beginning the Shaolin techniques his father had taught him.
Sadly, the techniques didn't help much. Maybe, it was because his bladder was begging for release – or maybe he just wasn't a very good student of the mystical world his father existed in.
At any rate, Peter quickly took care of business, then went to wash his hands, turning on the hot water. He let it warm before he started in with the soap. He had just lathered his hands when he heard a frightened scream coming from the bedroom. The scream had no sooner died away than he felt a cold breeze coming from under the door, strong enough to make the flames flicker wildly.
"Jody," he whispered and pulled open the door. He took a step into the bedroom, and stopped as a maelstrom of flying paper and other lightweight objects froze him in place with their display of impossible mobility.
Through the bizarre scene, he could see Jody backed into the far corner of the room, hands and arms attempting to protect her head.
When she saw Peter, she called to him. "Peter, stay back. There's something sharp flying with all of the other stuff!"
Peter fidgeted helplessly for another moment before he screamed, "WHOEVER YOU ARE, GET THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!"
Unlike in the elevator, nothing happened. At least, at first, nothing happened. Peter took a step forward and Jody screamed. "Peter, behind you!"
He spun around and gasped as he caught sight of a whispery image. So ephemeral in appearance, it seemed to be a presence beside him, yet at the same time, was something not quite there.
"Oh God," Peter whispered at the sight.
"Nooooo, not Himmmmm," came the voice again, a thousand times creepier this time, and then maniacal laughter resonated within the room.
Peter swallowed back the rush of fear as anger overrode anything else he felt and he shouted, "Why are you doing this?"
The response took him by surprise as the frightening image spoke to him using his name, but it was in a tone that froze his heart in mid-beat. "Peeeterrrrr. Lossst. Lossst. Goooo now."
As if to accentuate its statement, a ghostly hand moved forward and then vanished from his sight, but not his senses. Peter gasped as the pain in his shoulder increased without warning, leaving him with a distinct sense of déjà vu. A repeat performance from back at the hospital was playing out again. He shuddered as it felt like someone was crushing his wounded shoulder. The unrelenting pressure was enough to drop him to his knees and he groaned from the discomfort.
He didn't stay on the ground long as an unholy howl resonated in the room, raising Peter from the floor to hang midair. The ghostly figure appeared again, an evil grin looming mere inches from Peter's face. Its grip on Peter's shoulder became unbearable as it held Peter above the ground, his feet dangling helplessly.
"Goooo now. Peeeterrrrr. NOOOOWW!" came the whispered warning across the howling winds, and then the image vanished completely.
With its disappearance, Peter dropped to the ground, along with the other objects that had been spinning in the air. Everything else fell as abruptly, as if it had been a carnival ride suddenly shut down. Jody took a step towards Peter, hesitating at first as if she was afraid the vicious windstorm could start up again.
Peter rose to his knees, then fell forward. He used his good hand to keep him from falling face first into the carpeting, his chest still heaving from the tremendous pain he felt. Jody came to his side and helped steady him, bringing him upright again.
After a moment, he wiped the residue of soap lather still on his hands across the legs of his jeans for lack of anything better to use. Finally, he looked up into Jody's silent expression and found her crying. "J-Jody, are you okay?"
She nodded, despite her tears and hugged him again, this time more tightly. "Was – was that thing what you've been dealing with all day?"
He nodded and answered her breathlessly. "Yeah, it has to be. I just never got a glimpse of it until now."
"Wh–what the hell was that?"
Peter grunted with sarcasm. "What the hell. Now, that's an apt choice of words, Jody."
"What's that mean?"
He moved to stand and Jody helped him to his feet. "It means I have a sneaking suspicion I picked up an uninvited hitchhiker of sorts from my weekend adventure," he said cryptically, and then glanced up to see Jody's confusion.
He sighed and put a hand on Jody's shoulder. "Sorry, it's a long story, partner."
Then, he stared at the bathroom, the sound of running water resounding in the silence surrounding them. "Let me turn off the water and I'll tell you all about it."
She kept her arm around him and they made the few steps into the bathroom without another sound. Peter was surprised to see the candles still burning and he reached to shut off the hot water when he felt Jody's supporting hold on his arm tighten suddenly.
Glancing towards her, he saw her staring straight ahead and he followed her gaze to the bathroom mirror. In the flickering candlelight, he could see letters smeared across the steamy mirror. "emoh og tsum tsol nomed."
"More gibberish," Peter muttered, reaching up to smear his hand across the letters.
Jody stared at the mirror so hard that it looked like the action was causing her pain. "That – that thing can write?"
"Oh yeah. It's quite prolific, but this is the first mirror I've seen it do," Peter muttered as he wiped the moisture on a nearby hand towel.
"What do those letters mean?"
"If I knew that, we might be on the right track to get it out of my life."
He faltered suddenly and Jody caught him. "Okay, Peter, enough of time on your feet. You need to rest again."
Peter shook his head. "We don't have time for that."
"No, partner, we don't have time to deal with complications of not taking a break. come on, rest."
She led the way back to the bed. He hated the weakness he felt that made him rely upon her strength for the short trip. She helped him to sit, and then started brushing off the papers on the bed.
"Oh my God, Peter...look," she said in a hushed tone.
He shifted for a better view and saw every scrap of paper on the bed was covered with scribbles. The same thing over and over, emoh. Peter tried to swallow with the sight, but his mouth had already gone dry.
It wasn't so much from the mere sight of the unique phenomenon, but more so because of what he felt deep down in the pit of his stomach. Without meaning to, his Shaolin senses were gathering a different sort of information, a sort usually denied to him because of his lack of focus.
Those senses warned him the writing was getting angrier, as if his wayward hitchhiker felt like it was being ignored and, like an unresolved child's temper tantrum, it was building in strength and severity.
Nervously, Peter glanced around the room, but all seemed quiet. With no immediate threat, the pain of his head and shoulder was too great to ignore. Jody must have noticed, because she gently forced him down to the pillow and helped lift his feet to the bed.
It was the last act of kindness he would remember for a very long time.
oOoOoOoOo
"Answer your goddamned phone, TJ!" Kermit shouted as he raced along the busy side streets with his siren blaring. His speed was excessive, but was guided by a practiced hand.
He fought the desire to toss the phone across the interior of the car, and instead he hit redial. On the third ring, TJ picked up. "Hello – "
"Where the hell have you been?" Kermit barked.
"Kermit? What's happened?"
"Peter left the hospital," he said tersely.
"Where did he go? I thought he was pretty banged up."
"Yeah, well, that's never stopped him before," Kermit cursed as a car almost turned in front of him. Deftly swerving past the danger, Kermit continued, "As far as where, my first guess is back to his apartment. After that, it would be a list of possibles that we will have to eliminate one-by-one."
"Can't we call him on his cell phone?"
"That stopped working this morning. I tried Jody's, because she was with him last I heard, but I just get a weird sound after the first ring, something like heavy breathing. That's not Jody's usual style of answering unless she's turned kinky on us without warning. Peter's home phone doesn't work either. I'm on my way over there now."
"I'll meet you there."
"Good."
Kermit ended the call and slipped the phone into his pocket. His fingers were clenching the steering wheel tightly enough for him to feel the early stirrings of muscle cramps but he ignored the sensation.
The streets were fairly clear for that time of evening. Without the need for constant attention to the road, his thoughts drifted back to the hospital. He had stayed at the nurse's station just long enough to hear a story about exploding light fixtures and unexplained power outages. That and the nurse's concern about her patient.
Kermit shook his head as he decided the nurse's concern might have had a healthy dose of lust laced in with it. The kid always has had a magical touch when it comes to the ladies, he thought with a roguish grin.
The grin quickly disappeared as reality struck him. Peter was in real danger. The kind of danger Kermit could do little about. He had to find him and find him fast. What was more, TJ had to be able to rid him of his bothersome visitor.
Kermit slapped the steering wheel in disgust. "Dammit, give me a terrorist cell to take down single-handed. Widespread computer fraud. Anything, anything but this," Kermit whispered to himself.
He drove on in silence, knowing that complaining would do little to change their situation, but there was one complaint he could do little to suppress and that involved worry about what he would find when he got to Peter's.
No, it wasn't really a complaint. More like a fear. A really big fear. But one that would be left labeled as a complaint, mostly because fears were something Kermit acknowledged even less than complaints.
oOoOoOoOo
Jody had barely moved Peter's feet up to the bed when Peter's soft breathing rhythm indicated Peter had already fallen asleep. She smiled despite her worry, relieved to see him getting some much needed rest. Unfortunately, gauging by the expression on Peter's face, he was on the edge of another nightmare instead of peaceful dreams.
Moving as quietly as she could, she gathered up the mysterious pieces of paper scribbled with gibberish. She stacked them into a pile and dropped them into a nearby metal waste paper basket.
She paused as she caught movement within the metal container. She shook it slightly, and the papers held inside burst into flame. "Oh, shit," she muttered as she snatched up the waste paper basket and raced into the bathroom.
Jody placed the trash can inside the shower and turned it on, twisting the knobs as fast as she could to douse the flames before they set off the building's fire alarm and awakened Peter.
Once she was sure there was no risk of danger, she turned off the shower and bent down to dump the water from the trash container down the shower drain. Jody gasped as the liquid pouring from the can was blood red. The viscous fluid had a malodorous scent emanating from the ashy remnants in the basket and she put one hand over her nose and mouth as she grimaced in disgust.
She stood, leaving the trash can inside the shower stall and rubbed her wet hands against her jeans, staring at the trash can in disbelief. "What in the world?"
Then she heard Peter screaming in agony in the bedroom. The tone of his cries indicated such great pain that she held her breath without realizing it. She drew her weapon, half expecting to see an attacker standing over him.
Her thoughts flew through her mind in rapid fire, but there was one that stood out. Namely, how a run-of-the-mill assailant would be much preferred to the disturbing trend of creepiness she'd seen so far. Unfortunately, she didn't think their luck was that good as she dashed from the bathroom.
oOoOoOoOo