Come Get Me (30 page)

Great, Jim thought, the Goatman was almost
there. Maybe he could talk him into putting him out of his misery
since no one else seemed to want to. For someone who said she
wanted him dead Maria was sure taking her time. But hey at least
the Goatman was on his way. Yup, Pete was still crazy. Leave it to
him to think some mythological creature was on the way. Forget all
about going for actual living, breathing help. Not that it mattered
much anyways since, if the thing was real, it wanted to kill him
almost as much as Maria did if not more. Jim was still slowly
processing everything when he was startled and almost smacked his
head on the floor as shots split the night and pieces of wood
started flying from the window frame where Pete’s head was.

“Damn he’s a fast little bugger!” Maria
exclaimed. “Think I got him that time though. If not oh well.” She
turned her attention back to Jim and smiled.

“I’ll just deal with him after you and I are
finished.”

Jim’s concentration was lost as a result of
the gunfire but he still tried to focus his eyes enough so that he
only saw one Maria instead of three. One was bad enough, but three
was enough that he almost asked for the gun to kill himself for
her. It was too much trouble trying to see her so he just closed
his eyes and rested his head on the floor. It was making his head
hurt worse anyways. He figured he might as well be as comfortable
as possible if these were going to be the last few moments of his
life. He didn’t like giving up but there was nothing he could do.
There wasn’t much he could do with one arm and no weapon. Maybe if
the army or something came in right now they might live but as it
stood now he could barely move his head without passing out much
less fight for his life. Maria held all the cards. Opening his eyes
he looked her way to see what she was doing and was saddened to see
tow of her standing across the room from him. Gun in one hand,
gasoline can in the other. Not a good mix. She saw the direction of
his gaze and smiled. “Don’t worry; it’s still the axe for you and
the tart. I can’t use the gun on you. It wouldn’t fit the story.
Remember? The Goatman carries an axe not a gun, silly.”

Nonchalantly tossing the gun over her
shoulder she slowly sauntered over to Jill. Staring at Jim she
slowly began spilling the contents of the can around Jill’s feet.
The smell of gasoline slowly reached his nose making him sneeze.
This just added more agony to his already tortured body. He was
clear headed enough to wonder how the whole house wasn’t an inferno
by now. Between the two of them rolling around a little while ago
to the gasoline it was a wonder they weren’t toast by now.

Squinting he saw the interior actually did
look a little darker than he remembered. He assumed the darkness
was a result of his head injuries but that apparently wasn’t the
case. Adjusting his head he saw most of the candles that had been
lit the last time he’d seen them were now scattered, smoking as
they died. Maria must’ve taken advantage of the time he’d been
unconscious to extinguish most of them so she could draw out her
little plan as long as possible.

In his mind he still struggled to regain
enough of his senses to mount some kind of resistance; he couldn’t
let it end this way, but his body wouldn’t obey him either. He was
still having a lot of trouble breathing and his arm was still dead.
His hands and knees were the farthest he’d been able to make it
since his pummeling had begun. He didn’t know what to do. If there
were ever any option he hadn’t seen them. Now all he had to pin his
hopes on was a creature that didn’t exist. Oh yeah, said creature
wanted to kill him so there went that idea.

Through a haze of pain he watched Maria as
she danced around the room dumping gas here and there like it was
water instead of a flammable liquid. While most of the candles were
out he knew some were still burning otherwise they wouldn’t be able
to see. It wouldn’t take much for a small flame to become a big
one. Especially in an old place like this. It would go up like it
was made of paper.

She made it most of the way around the room
when she suddenly stopped and tossed the can to the ground. Bending
over she shifted some boards and papers out of her way, let out a
small squeal of delight and stood up.

“Looky what I’ve found Jimmy!” she shrieked
happily.

Shit, Jim thought, she found the damn axe.
Why couldn’t Pete have made himself useful and grabbed the damn
thing before he left. At least then he would have been of some help
instead of running around spouting stuff about the Goatman. He
really did sound like some kind of freak when he did crap like
that.

“So, which one of you do you think I should
kill first?” Maria asked no one in particular. “Maybe I should do
the Eany, Meany, Miney, Moe thing. That always works in the movies.
Then again I could do the Rock, Paper, Scissors stuff but that’s no
fun alone.”

She stood thoughtfully for a minute.

“Oh! I know! We can draw straws!” she said
jumping up and down. “Wait a minute. Jilly isn’t awake enough for
that. This is really a lot more difficult than I thought it was
going to be.” She stood undecided for a moment before shrugging her
shoulders and walking towards Jim.

“Well,” she began sounding somewhat sad,
“since Jill won’t be awake for a while I suppose you and I will
just have to have our fun first. Nothing that will kill you or
anything like that. We have to wait until I kill Jill for that. Who
knows, maybe if we’re lucky your yelling and screaming will help
wake her up, then I can have some fun with her while you watch. You
have to watch you know.” Pausing again with a finger to her lips,
“No, I think we’ll just make sure you’re in a lot of pain first.
The fun stuff will come later.” She took a step closer fingering
the blade of the axe, “Let’s see, where should we…” she was
abruptly cut off as a tremor shook the floor. Jim could almost
swear he heard a ringing sound accompany it but he guessed that was
probably just from his injuries.

Dust sifted down from settling around them in
a cloud. Jim could hear groans of protest sounding from the upper
floor of the house. Maybe someone was looking down on him. If he
was lucky the house might come crashing down around them. If he was
really lucky it would just fall on Maria, killing her allowing him
and Jill to make their escape.

“What the hell was that?” Maria yelped.

Almost as if it had been waiting for some
signal the tremor rocked the house again. Pieces of plaster fell
from the walls this time. Jim’s hopes rose as he thought about
something falling on Maria. He also heard the ringing sound again.
It sounded vaguely familiar but he couldn’t remember from where

Maria looked unsure of what to do. Obviously
what was happening wasn’t part of her grand plan. She looked around
the room like a deer caught in headlights. Her eyes were wide and
darting all over the place trying to find the source of the
miniature quakes. He’d actually like to know himself.

Glancing at the front entrance to see if
maybe Pete was there causing this he saw nothing. He briefly
entertained the possibility that Pete might’ve been able to reach
someone and they come to the rescue like the proverbial cavalry.
Apparently that wasn’t the case. There was some other explanation
for what was going on. He just didn’t think he would be around to
find out what it was. His vision was blurring quite a bit around
the edges. If it wasn’t for the situation it might’ve been kinda
interesting but as it was it was just a bad sign of things to come.
Looking at Maria he could barely make her out. Between the drifting
dirt and dust and his failing eyes she looked more like a ghost
than an actual human being.

Jim knew the combination of all his injuries
were finally taking there toll on his mind. His body was telling
him it was time to shut down for a while and relax. But he
couldn’t. There was still a crazy woman with an axe he had to find
some way to deal with so he willed his addled mind back to the
brink of consciousness. He probably wouldn’t be able to talk her
out of killing them but he could try. At the very least he would
face his death awake just like his friends had.

“Come on,” he croaked, “this place is getting
ready to fall down around our ears. Let’s go. We won’t tell anyone
what happened. We’ll all just go our own ways.”

“You won’t tell anyone?” she repeated. “What
do you think I am? My name isn’t Johnny. I’m not some puppy dog
following someone around so close that if they stopped his head
would go up their butt. Give me a little more credit than
that.”

“You’re right,” he said gritting his teeth,
“obviously something isn’t going according to your plan. Maybe you
should just get out of here and leave us. That would work wouldn’t
it? Nobody would find us for days. We might even be dead by then.”
He couldn’t believe he was saying crap like this but he didn’t
really have any choice. A bum arm and a rattled head weren’t the
best things to have when trying to negotiate for your life. He was
about to say more when the house suddenly shook again worse than
either of the previous two times. Things fell from the roof, boards
splintered in the walls, a crash sounded from another room then
everything stopped. Nothing broke the silence but the echo of the
metal on metal sound he kept hearing. It still sounded familiar to
him. Almost like something from a dream he’d once had but he
couldn’t remember what it was about.

“Well,” Maria said totally forgetting
anything Jim might have said, “I don’t have the slightest idea what
that was,” then to Jim, “but where were we?” She acted as if she
were trying to remember. “Oh yeah, that’s right you were begging
for your life like a little girl and I was ignoring you and getting
ready to start cutting off little pieces of your body.” She sound
really excited about this. “Let’s just make sure this is sharp,”
she said as she reached up and plucked some hair from her head. Jim
watched the dust cloud out from her head like a man on death row
watched his lethal injection be plunged into his IV.

The dust settled about her shoulders and
chest but instead of watching what she was doing a slight movement
in the doorway behind her caught his eye. He couldn’t see what it
was but his heart started beating faster with excitement in
anticipation of a rescue. Unfortunately this proved to be just a
little too much for his throbbing head and body. As the blood
pumped through his veins faster than he was used to a blinding pain
shot to his head. He almost thought Maria had somehow kicked him
again without him having seen her move. When the pain finally
subsided, through blurred vision, he looked past Maria to the door.
He could vaguely see the outline of somebody standing in the
doorway. No, he had to correct himself, whoever it was filled the
doorway. It must have been his injuries but Jim would’ve sworn it
looked as if the doorway could barely contain whoever it was.
Regardless of what it was it didn’t move. It seemed to be waiting
for something.

Maria didn’t seem to notice and Jim had no
intention of warning her about his possible rescuer. Instead he
stayed where he was and kept his mouth shut. His vision was really
starting to play hell with him. It was quickly giving way to
blackness. He knew he wouldn’t be able to remain in the world of
the wakeful and happy for much longer whether he liked it or
not.

Beginning to drift off he remembered what
Pete had yelled as he dove out the window earlier. He’d said they’d
called the Goatman and that he was coming just like they’d asked.
He just needed to wait a little longer. Jim was sure that whatever
his pain filled mind was telling him was in the doorway couldn’t be
much worse than the Goatman and was I all probability a whole lot
better so more power to it. Maria had finished her inspection of
the axe and quickly stepped closer to him covering the last few
remaining feet between them before raising the thing above her head
readying her swing.

“Any last words?” she asked.

“Yeah I think I do have some,” he said after
a moment’s hesitation. He’d finally remembered why the ringing
sound was so familiar. Unfortunately he couldn’t say anything since
a coughing fit seized him. Everything in his line of vision flashed
alternately between black and white. It didn’t help him much in his
efforts at remaining conscious. Maria obviously hadn’t expected
anything from him since the look of glee that had been covering her
face turned to a pout as she waited for him to spit out his last
words. Once he able to speak again he quietly whispered his final
words in this world.

“Goatman,” he said once, “Goatman,” he said
again gaining a little more volume, “Goatman,” he almost yelled for
a third time, “Come get me! And come get me now!”

It was the most defiant thing he could think
of doing at this point. He didn’t know why he’d said those words
but somehow it’d felt right. It was almost sad that this was the
most he could do in his current state but it would have to do. His
head fell back to the floor with a thud causing his vision to fade
even more if that were possible.

“What the hell was that all about?” Maria
scoffed after she’d made sure she’d heard what she thought she’d
heard. Jim barely heard her. The world was quickly leaving him or
he was leaving it. He wasn’t sure which. When he opened his eyes he
could still make her out but only just barely. He could tell who
she was but that was about it. Any details about her escaped him.
Not wanting to waste anymore energy he let his eyes shut until they
were just barely cracked and all he saw was a sliver of the world
in front of him. “Oh well,” she said seeing him drifting off, “time
to make Jimmy feel just a little bit of my pain!”