Part 5 Adrian couldn’t bring himself to look at the house. But to see it, he didn’t have to. The house loomed clear in his mind. The front porch with boards missing in its picket-fence-style rail scowled at him, a gap-toothed grimace. The leaning doorway was a nose contorted by a snarl of anger. The second-story windows were empty eyes full of hatred. Centered above them, the attic window served as a third, all-seeing eye that had been watching him for most of his life. It was watching him now. He could feel the force of its glare pressing him into the seat and slowing the car to a reluctant crawl. Adrian set his jaw and glared back. Looking at the house for the first time in thirteen years, he wasn’t surprised by the condition of the attic window. The pane was defiantly intact. He parked the car and opened the door. As his foot touched down, an energy snuggled close, wrapping him in a welcoming embrace. Desire sparked at his core turning his thoughts to Emily for the first time since he had turned onto the property. “I’ll be back in a minute.” “Wait. You need me to come with you.” “No. This is something I need to do alone.” “But maybe I can talk you through –” He slammed the door in disgust. This wasn’t some mental game, something he had conjured up in his mind. This was real. And there was real danger here. He could sense it. Why couldn’t she? He turned away from the car and walked toward the house. He stumbled and swayed. With the attic window glowering down on him, his legs didn’t feel like his own. He took a moment to gather himself at the gate. When he finally summoned the courage to open it, the gate’s hinges screamed in protest. Leading to the porch, there was a concrete walk that lay directly beneath the attic window. It was pressed in on both sides by two squares of earth. The soil was as black as a shark’s eyes and appeared soft and fertile. But the life it once supported was long dead. Knee-high weed stalks, gray and naked of greenery, were nothing more than plant skeletons that had died vainly reaching for the light of the sky, died trying to escape the dark earth. The porch step moaned under his foot. The step, and all the wood of the house, was paintless and weathered, the gray color of rot. Black clusters of mold and mildew looked like varicose veins and appeared to pulsate within the wood, carrying black blood throughout the structure. Adrian stepped inside the open front door. He couldn’t remember ever seeing it closed. Always open, ever inviting guests that would never come. Well, one had come today seeking closure. And he wasn’t leaving until he found it. The foyer was small but opened into a large living room that boasted a hardwood floor, high ceiling, and a massive fireplace. An image in the corner of his eye caused Adrian’s heart to leap as high as he did. There was a man lying on the bottom steps of the staircase. No, not a man. A shadow. Adrian’s body shook. Oiled by fear, his knees became loose hinges that threatened to buckle beneath him. At the foot of the stairs, the newel post offered support. And strangely something more. The mound of wood was smooth, caressable, under his palm. Cobwebs, like a lover’s hair, tickled the back of his hand. He paused, thinking maybe he had gone far enough. The hot pressure behind the fly of his jeans – his arousal rising above his fear – told him he hadn’t. As he topped the stairs and opened the attic door, his mind yelled retreat. But his body was charged with a need so basic, so overwhelming; his mind was no longer in control. The window was across the room. A cross hung above it. Stepping inside the attic, Adrian turned a full circle. There was a cross on each wall. The stories had been true. He looked up, and there it was in the angle of the ceiling. The cross she had used to hang herself. His head lolled forward, chin to chest. Tears splattered dark in the dust at his feet. She had been misunderstood. A vibrant, beautiful woman who had chosen to live her life and express herself the way she wanted. If only she had been born later. In another time. If only – He shook off the painful thoughts of what could never be and walked to the window. He looked down on the car but didn’t see Emily. She was probably bent over picking up a dropped cigarette or her lighter. As he waited for her to sit up, Adrian reached out to the window. His fingers were about to make contact when he saw movement, a reflection on the glass. His anger flared as he realized Emily hadn’t stayed in the car. She just wouldn’t be denied her chance to do a haunted house call, practice some on-site psychotherapy. He spun around. “Dammit, Em –” Amy Lee pendulummed toward him. White dress. Bare feet not touching the floor. Head askew, tilted to the side on a broken neck, a neck encircled within a noose of white lace. Her black hair contrasted the pallid, gray skin of her face. Black veins bulged at her temples. On her forehead, two veins formed a “V” whose point was centered between closed eyes. Eyes that suddenly opened. Pooled in black, they were the eyes of a death somewhere beyond death. As she swung closer, she reached out to him. Her lips parted in a smile that allowed black blood to spill from her mouth. Her tongue slid out from between her lips to writhe on her chin. Almost bitten through, her tongue looked like an oversized slug dangling by a thin shred of putrid flesh. With her hands about to seize him, Adrian screamed and put the half step of space left between him and the attic window between him and Amy Lee. He expected his retreat to be halted by the glass. It wasn’t. Flailing and kicking with a second, more urgent scream, caught in his throat, Adrian fell through the empty window frame. Air ruffled his hair and whistled in his ears. Yet, he felt like he was barely moving. He tilted his head back and caught a glimpse of Emily sitting in the car. He watched in what seemed like slow motion as her jaw dropped and the freshly lit cigarette fell from her bottom lip. He wanted to keep looking at her, wanted her to be the last thing he ever saw. But he couldn’t keep from looking away, couldn’t keep from turning his head and looking at the concrete walk that would surely stop his fall and more than likely end his life. Gravity lost its pull when he realized his fear-fueled retreat hadn’t launched him straight out the glassless window. He was going to miss the concrete walk and land on one of the soft patches of ground next to it. Smiling at his luck, Adrian looked up to the attic window. Amy Lee stood in full view behind the glass he knew wasn’t there. With a Mona Lisa smirk that said she knew something he didn’t, she crooked her finger issuing yet another invitation for him to join her.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:06:26 +0000
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