Terah woke up. He didn’t remember falling asleep. When he looked over at the hammock, it was empty. The fire was dead. At his age he had to piss with an apocalyptic urgency, but he knew he couldn’t do it here without offending Mich. He knew the trail to the “bathroom” but he had no light. Then he remembered the lighter.
Never a smoker, Terah had always envied his step-dad’s lighter. Fire on demand. When he’d found a Zippo, scared and battered, at All Saints—they’d probably used it to light their candlelighters—he’d pocketed it. He’d always considered it for starting fires, but where there was flame, there was light. He fumbled in his pack until he found it. Flip, zip! Let there be light! He walked as quickly as he could, his left hand squeezing his penis, until he found the place. His zipper was already down and he was out and jetting a stream of relief into the pit. He couldn’t help but sigh his satisfaction audibly. “Ahhhh!”
“Real classy.”
Overjoyed to hear Mich’s voice, he couldn’t stop the stream, even when Mich’s light came on, catching him in a private moment.
“Doesn’t feel good, does it? Bein’ caught unawares.”
Terah finished, tucked, zipped, and flipped the lighter shut. “Mich, I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep and I saw Wednesday again. He just materialized. He was coming at you, and he was naked.”
Mich said nothing. Terah couldn’t see his reaction, being in the flashlight beam. After a moment that beam pointed to the water pump.
“I’m sure I wasn’t asleep or dreaming. I saw him. I tried to jump him because he certainly didn’t have anything pleasant planned for you.”
“There were rumors,” Mich admitted, “that Wednesday’d sleep with anyone when the opportunity presented itself. The bastard was married, even. Couldn’t get enough.”
“Every religion has practitioners who enter it for the wrong reasons. Most, of course, try to do the right thing. Some, though, are opportunists. No discernment process can really get through to the heart. It’s just too easy to pretend.”
“You gotta see what I thought you were doin’.”
“Yeah, I know how it looks. Older guy, all jacked up from seeing people having sex, younger guy asleep in the same room. Looks bad, I know. I can’t help but wonder if that’s not what Wednesday wanted all along.”
“I never seen him try such a thing before. Of course, if I’ve been sleepin’ durin’ his attacks…”
“You said ghosts can move things. Do you suppose they could actually rape someone?”
“The experts say ghosts require energy to materialize. That’s why rooms go cold an’ batteries die prematurely. Sex is energy. Maybe if they can form enough substance—”
“I could swear that I felt him before I landed on you. I met with some resistance. It wasn’t like cartoons or movies where you simply pass through a ghost. He wasn’t solid enough to stop me, but he wasn’t just air.”
“I’ve been in this place so long I’d never considered that they might escalate their attacks.”
“You said before that they didn’t always play nice.”
“Nobody tried rapin’ me before. Least not that I know of.”
They began their trek back to the boiler room. “Friends?” Terah asked, holding out his chilly hand.
Mich shook it briefly. “Apology accepted.”
“I know it must seem creepy with me shacking up with a student of mine, then taking off when someone murdered her. I’m afraid life doesn’t come with an instruction book and I didn’t grow up with much guidance.”
“You can see, then, why I don’t exactly wanna integrate myself into that system.”
Along the way, Mich pulled out some provisions. He started the fire. They sat around it and ate.
“We should try to think of what to do if Wednesday attacks again,” Terah suggested.
“What can we do? He’s not physical—not completely, anyway. We can’t trap ‘im or lock him up. And we gotta sleep.”
“Maybe we should move out.”
“We?”
“Well, it’s just… Look, we’ve only just met but we seem to be able to help one another out. I don’t know much about you, but you’ve got the rundown on me. I can’t go back now after the mess I’ve made. Hell, I couldn’t even get a job as a professor with my experience and qualifications. With a label of ‘suspect’ I doubt my possibilities have improved. I do have family in western PA, but I don’t really want to see them. The two of us, though, we could find a way to get along. Together.”
Mich fell silent. Terah didn’t dare violate the silence. It lasted for some time. Finally he spoke.
“I don’t like to talk about myself, but the fact is I’m from around here. You probably figured that out. I don’t have family I can go back to, though. It’s just I was born here and I’ve never known anything different.”
Ever so gently Terah said, “I can help. I left home, maybe a little younger than you, to get away from a bad situation. Instead of finding an asylum, I went to college. Come to think of it, that might not’ve been so different. In any case, I never moved back home again. Sure, I stayed there on breaks, but during the summer I took jobs where I had to live in different places. I went to college close to home, but when it was time to move to a master’s degree I left the state and figured things out. Nobody helped me, but I’d like to help you.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“Companionship. I’m not asking anything of you beyond your wits and know-how. Two people together have a better chance that one guy alone. You don’t need to decide right now. I’m just thinking that if Wednesday steps up his game, one—or both—of us could get hurt.”
The fire crackled.
“There’s an abandoned convent a few miles west of here. Well outside of town, but close enough to get back and restock. We could maybe shift to it. This place is so solid, though, I’m reluctant to let it go.”
As it turned out, the ghosts had no intention of letting them free.
Comments
Post a Comment