Dead Living (40 page)

“I’m sorry Richard! I’m so sorry!”

I ran up the stairs, taking two at a time. As
the top of the stairs drew closer I realized I was an idiot for
even being there. A quick picture of Tammy on the floor flashed
through my mind. Whatever was in her house attacked her, and here I
was trying to find it.

“Hello?” I called out.

Another scream. It came from the end of the
closed bedroom at the end of the hall.

I passed a bathroom and Tammy’s room on the
way down the hall. I recklessly threw the door open. I didn’t
expect to see anything. I thought in the back of my mind I’d see an
empty master bedroom, that way I could question my sanity for a
while. But I was wrong.

In the corner next to the bed was a woman.
She cowered with her legs curled up to her chest and her arms
trying to shield her face. Standing over her was a large man with
his back to me. He held a long belt in his right hand.

“Please, Richard! This isn’t you!”

“Oh it’s me, you bitch.”

He swung as hard as he could. The woman
managed to get her arm up, but the belt still struck her face. She
cried out in pain. I was so stunned I couldn’t move. I just stood
there with my mouth open. It wasn’t until the man brought his arm
back for another swing that I managed to reach out and grab the
belt. He felt the resistance on his arm and spun around.

The man’s face was twisted in an expression
I’d never really seen before. Rage mixed with hatred. His lips
almost curled into a snarl. He focused his gaze on me.

“What the fuck are you doing in my house?!
This is my house!”

I backed up a step and bumped into the door
frame. He took a step toward me with his arm in the air.

Then he vanished.

It wasn’t a poof-vanish thing. It actually
took a second or two. He just slowly faded away. I didn’t realize I
covered up with my arms to protect myself.

The woman looked up at me from the
corner.

“How did you do that?”

It took me a moment to answer. “Uh, do
what?”

She shook her head and quickly climbed to her
feet. She was still terrified. She looked around, as if the guy
could come back at any second.

“You have to get out of here,” she said. She
grabbed me by the shoulders. I was surprised that I could actually
feel her hands. “The demon has him now. And it’s getting stronger.
I’ve tried telling them, but they can’t hear me. I shouldn't have
asked for your help.”

“Whoa, wait. Who? Demon? What’s going
on?”

Sadness crept over her face. “Richard. My
husband. Please believe me when I say he was good. But not now. You
have to go. Please-”

She didn’t get to finish. She vanished just
like Richard did. Suddenly I only saw the master bedroom. There was
nothing out of the ordinary about it. Pictures of Tammy and her
parents were on a large dresser. A clothes hamper was near the
closet. Some nice white curtains decorated the windows. The only
thing unusual was that I just got done talking to a ghost.

Then there was that creepy voice.

“You can’t have her. She’s mine.”

A loud scream came from downstairs.

I turned and ran. It only took me a few
seconds to move across the hallway and down the stairs. I grabbed a
hold of the railing and stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes fell
on the living room.

There was blood everywhere. On the carpet,
the walls, the couch, everywhere. Near the dining room table was
Richard and his wife. She was already dead. He straddled her on the
floor. He stabbed I don’t know how many times. He’d raise the long
knife he held, thrust it into his wife, laugh, and then start over
again. Where her chest used to be was nothing but a large gaping
hole. The force of each thrust would make her head move just a
little.

I looked at the front door, just ten feet
away. I didn’t have a clue to what was going on, and I didn’t want
to know anymore. I just wanted to get away.

Richard suddenly stopped laughing and
stabbing and turned to face me. I realized I was holding my breath.
I tried to let it out without making a sound.

“I told her. I told her she was mine,” he
said. He was talking to me. “But she wouldn’t fuckin’ listen. I
didn’t want for this to happen. But she brought it on herself. I
had to put a pillow over her head while she was sleeping. Then I
cut her up just to make sure. You can never really be too
sure.”

He stood up and dropped the knife to the
floor. Then he turned around and stared right at me.

“Wait a minute. You. You’re . . . on her
side, aren’t you?”

He took a step forward. The blood-soaked
carpet made a squishy noise. I took a step backward up the stairs.
His eyes filled up with hate.

“I’ll put you in Hell with her!”

I ran back up the stairs. I remembered seeing
a window in the master bedroom. That was my goal. Get out of the
house, and keep on running till I couldn’t run anymore.

I didn’t get the chance. As I passed by
Tammy’s bedroom a hand reached out and grabbed me by the arm. I was
pulled inside and tumbled to the floor. I looked up to see
Richard’s wife closing the door and locking it. No blood, no stab
wounds. She looked fine except for the panic on her face.

“He’ll be up any second. Maybe you can help
me!”

“H-How?”

“If you can see us, then you can help. You
can act in our world.”

I didn’t understand a word she was saying.
She reached down and grabbed my hands. For some reason I expected
her to reach right through me, but that didn’t happen. Her hands
were warm to the touch.

As she helped me up there was a pounding at
the door.

“Oh Susannnn,” Richard said. “Open the door
sweetie.”

“No!”

Another voice. The one with no sex that I
kept hearing. Susan heard it too.

“Open the fucking door!”

“That’s the demon,” Susan said. “Richard
wasn’t always this way. The demon did it.”

“That’s right. And now you’re both mine.”

Susan looked at me again. “I don’t want to
die anymore.”

Richard kicked the door open. I jumped in
front of Susan, like I could protect her.

“Leave us alone!” I said. My voice came out
almost a whimper.

Richard stepped forward and thrust out with a
knife. I didn’t even know he had another one. I felt a pressure in
my stomach and couldn’t breathe. I looked in Richard’s eyes to see
an eerie red glow. He still had that sick smile on his face.

He pulled the knife out and I fell to my
knees.

“Hi, Susan. Now where were we?”

“I’m sorry Richard. I’m so sorry!” Susan
said, sounding exactly like she did earlier in the master
bedroom.

The first thing I felt was surprise. There
was no pain. My breath slowly came back to me. I looked down,
expecting to see me kneeling in a pool of my own blood. But there
was nothing. Not even a hole in my shirt.

Richard couldn’t hurt me.

Susan was cornered next to the bed. Richard’s
back was to me. I reached up and grabbed his shoulder.

He screamed in pain. It wasn’t just his
voice, but that other voice too, mixed in with his, both screaming.
I backed up a step, not expecting that at all. He dropped to one
knee and turned to face me.

He wasn’t smiling anymore. He was afraid.
Afraid of me.

“What are you?” he asked in the same mixed
voice.

Now I was afraid. I was
afraid of the question he was asking. A ghost was asking me what I
was? Not
who
,
but
what
? I’d
never been so confused and afraid in my life.

I reached out and grabbed his shoulder again.
His face took on a look of agony. He dropped the knife to the
floor. Suddenly my hand felt tingly, like it had fallen asleep. I
didn’t let go. Richard curled into a fetal position.

Suddenly my hand
went
through
him.
It felt like pushing into a bucket of water. Then a second later he
was gone.

I just stayed like that for a minute, my hand
on the floor holding myself up. Movement in the corner made me
flinch. It was Susan. I’d almost forgotten about her.

She searched the room. Then a look of relief
touched her face.

“He’s gone, isn’t he?” she asked. “The demon
is gone?”

As she said it I noticed I wasn’t cold
anymore. All the strange feelings I felt when first coming into the
house were gone.

“How did you do it? What did you do?”

I didn’t say anything. Maybe I was going into
shock.

“I’ve been trapped here for so long. I’ve
died so many times. Now I can finally move on.”

She helped me to my feet. She looked
different. Almost brighter.

“Thank you. I don’t know how you did it, but
thank you.”

I finally found my voice.

“That makes two of us.”

“I tried to get their attention. The parents
who live here now and their daughter. But I just couldn’t get
through to them. The demon was too strong. But you saw and heard.
How is that?”

I was getting frustrated with her asking the
same question.

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know
anything.”

She backed up a step. “I’m sorry.” She gave
me a second before talking again. “I’m a ghost.” She actually
smiled. “I’m sure you figured that part out by now. Richard and I
lived here in this house. Everything was fine until he started
changing. A demon slowly took him over. He ended up killing me and
himself. I was trapped here, until now. Now the demon is gone.”

She closed her eyes and raised her head up,
still smiling, as if looking up toward Heaven.

“Did I . . . kill it or something?”

“You tell me. I have no
idea.” A tear rolled down Susan’s face. ”I wonder if Richard is
waiting for me. The
old
Richard. On the other side? What do you
think?”

“I don’t have a clue.”

She reached forward and gave me a hug. I
jumped a little before returning it. Only one thought went through
my head.

I’m hugging a dead
woman
.

“You’re confused,” she said. “So am I. But
you’ve got some kind of gift there. You take care of it. I’ll keep
an eye on you for a while.”

Then she was gone.

I saw in my head pictures
of Susan, getting murdered over and over again in some kind
of
ghost limbo
. A
demon and a ghost fighting constantly with Tammy and her parents
living around them. And they were never aware of it.

I barely remember leaving the house. I do
remember glancing around and seeing nothing was out of order. The
pictures we knocked off the wall, the blood-soaked carpet, it was
like nothing ever happened.

When I walked out the front door I saw my
truck pulling up by the sidewalk. Alicia got out before Cindy even
parked. Tammy was right behind her, then Cindy. All of them looked
concerned. I had to try hard to remember where they even went. Then
it hit me, I told them to go to my house.

Despite bringing up the rear Cindy sped past
the others and got to me first. She gave me a quick hug then held
me at arm’s length. Alicia and Tammy stood at her side.

“Jesus, Alex, are you okay? They wouldn’t
stay away. They wanted to come.”

“He looks sick.”

“He’s shaking. What happened? Are you
alright?”

I didn’t say anything. I just stared at
Cindy, then Alicia. I had so many questions, but I couldn’t even
form the words in my head. But somewhere deep down, I knew I did
what I set out to. I helped the ghost in that house.

Tammy broke away a few steps and eyed her
house up and down. Maybe she was expecting to see blood drip down
the wall or curtains moving. I don’t know. But she didn’t get any
closer.

“Alex, I’m so sorry,” she said. “Nothing like
that has ever happened. Usually it just makes noises at night. And
when people come over it doesn’t do anything. I kept telling
everyone at school. They wouldn’t believe me. I live in a fucking
haunted house.”

I looked at her.

“Not anymore.”