BLOODBURG Page 26

  “What about me?” Allie asked nervously.

  “You’re not important,” Marcus replied cruelly.

  “She is to me!” Joseph snarled.

  “I know,” he said, slowly changing back into Patience. “That’s what makes this fun,” she said, grinning as she held up the sword in front of Allie, staring into her eyes, ready to strike. “To be killed by your own flesh and blood. That’s got to be rough, don’t you think?” she taunted sadistically.

  “If you’re going to kill her, then just do it!” Joseph roared, trying to get Allie’s attention by wiggling his good fingers in the air, hinting that her ring was already active.

  In any other situation, Allie would have felt stronger and more confident, even somewhat righteous to know that Joseph’s spell would make her ring deliver a kind of justice—almost a sense of karma—to those about to be killed by their own evil deeds. But this time, it was impossible to feel anything other than despair. As if seeing what appeared to be her own sister standing there, ready to kill her wasn’t bad enough already, now knowing the moment Patience pushed the sword forward, it would end up going right through her sister’s body made her feel like she would be killing Patience herself. It was far too much for her to bear. Allie broke down. “Please…no. Not like this.”

  Suddenly, without any further hesitation, Patience quickly thrust the sword forward, piercing Allie’s stomach until the bloodied tip of the blade protruded through her back.

  “No!” Joseph screamed, seeing the look of terror in Allie’s eyes as the weapon tore through her flesh.

  Allie gasped as she looked down in amazement at the spreading pool of blood at her feet as Patience slowly withdrew the sword. The ring hadn’t worked. She fell to her knees as the pain and trauma to her body quickly overcame her.

  “Allie!” Joseph cried out. “Stay with me!”

  Patience shook her head dismissively as she walked back toward Joseph. “You honestly thought that was going to work, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, I did, actually,” Joseph snapped. “So, it must have been that sword.”

  “Oh, it wasn’t the sword.” Patience walked over and pulled out a gun from a small drawer in a workbench at the side of the room and pointed it at Allie. She fired three times, puncturing Allie’s arm, leg, and shoulder, sending her helplessly onto the floor in agony as tears slowly fell down her cheeks.

  “Stop it!” Joseph begged.

  “Or what?” Patience laughed, dismissively, tossing the gun back into the drawer. “Face it! You’ve been beat, Joseph. Your little friend is going to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  “But…how?” Joseph asked, dumbfounded as to how he could have misjudged his adversary this badly.

  Patience casually reached in the open drawer of the workbench and pulled out a ring that looked exactly like the one Allie was wearing and tossed it on the floor directly in front of Joseph.

  “Is that—?” Joseph started, but he already knew the answer.

  “Yes. That’s the real one,” she replied arrogantly. “Thanks to Marcus and his memories, I knew you’d try to activate the real ring to protect your little friend, so I made an exact replica of it and switched the rings before you arrived.” Patience walked over to the edge of the barrier to face Joseph. “The looks on your faces…definitely worth it.” She grinned, completely proud of herself.

  Joseph knew that there was little time, if any, to try and save Allie. In his mind, there was only one thing left he could do—be himself.

  “You know, I’ve always admired those old-fashioned dresses…” he began, smiling slightly as he tilted his head, “…the ones from the 1800s. Completely covered every inch of a woman’s body from head to toe. Extremely stylish, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to wear something like that all day long…especially in summer. It must have been absolutely brutal.” Joseph shook his head in disdain. “But lucky for women, times changed. And over decades of progress, they could eventually wear less and less…even began choosing what they wanted to wear themselves, instead of having the men decide for them. It must have been satisfyingly liberating, don’t you think?”

  “What?” Patience asked, completely dumbfounded.

  “Your clothes…well, Patience’s clothes, I mean. She always loved wearing those free-flowing, hippie-style dresses, didn’t she?” He smiled. “You know, I doubt she’s even owned a pair of socks in the last two decades.” Joseph chuckled as he stared down at her sandal-covered feet. “It’s quite sad really. I could never quite pull off wearing any form of sandals, myself…but I’m so glad she could, wouldn’t you say?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Patience looked down at her feet and then back to Joseph, totally bewildered at why he was talking about her clothing and her lack of socks at a time like this.

  “She really did have wonderful ankles,” Joseph said fondly before lunging through the energy barrier, letting out an agonizing scream as he felt his entire body being ripped to shreds. Within seconds, all his flesh, blood, and clothing were stripped away, sending nothing more than a smoking, charred skeleton crashing onto the ground at Patience’s feet. But, just before he hit the ground, Joseph reached out and latched his left hand directly onto the skin of her leg, just above the ankle.

  Patience screamed out in torment as Joseph’s embedded crystals sucked the organic material—the skin, the blood, even the muscle tissue—from her rapidly decaying leg, channeling the nutrients back through his skeletal hand and into his forearm, re-growing it cell by cell.

  The decay had almost reached Patience’s knee before she had time to react. Using the bloodied sword, she hacked away at Joseph’s newly flesh-covered wrist until she finally severed it, sending her tumbling backward onto the floor in agony. Patience took the point of the sword and wedged it between what was left of her leg and Joseph’s hand, prying the fist off as fast as possible.

  “Joseph!” Allie screamed out in anguish, rolling onto her stomach as she feebly tried to crawl through the large puddle of her own blood to try and reach him.

  Patience struggled to get back to her feet. “It’s too late! He’s dead!” she howled at Allie before turning and hobbling painfully toward Joseph’s corpse. With all her might, Patience angrily kicked Joseph’s charred remains, sending his skeleton tumbling across the floor. “And now it’s your turn,” she said, spinning the sword in her hand as she limped toward Allie to finish her off.

  Suddenly, a loud, horrifying screech echoed throughout the basement, stopping Patience dead in her tracks. She turned around to see Joseph’s skeletal jaw wide open—as if he was screaming out in rage—while his eye sockets radiated a bright shade of purple.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Patience roared as she shuffled back over to Joseph’s writhing corpse, which was also attempting to crawl back toward her. The scorched skull continued its horrible wail as Patience raised the sword high up in the air, ready to sever Joseph’s head from his body. “Let’s see if you can survive this!” Patience screamed, swinging down with all her might.

  “No!” Allie wailed in despair, but couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw Patience slowly stumble backward, turning slightly toward her as her sister’s body fell to its knees.

  For a brief moment, Allie’s gaze met Patience’s haunting stare as her sister’s neck started to bleed in one long, continuous stream before her head slowly slid off her neck and bounced across the floor. As it tumbled away, the head landed on Joseph’s charred, skeletal right hand, smashing apart the finger bones, revealing one long portion of Joseph’s middle finger still resting within the center of his charmed, amber-colored ring.

  Allie collapsed onto the floor, crying softly and trying to block out the gruesome scene she’d just witnessed. The only consolation she allowed herself to feel was that this whole nightmare was finally over—she was ready for death to come and take her, too. She was heartbroken to think that
Kevin would never know the truth about what had happened to her. She figured he would probably assume she’d abandoned him and wondered if it would haunt him for years to come.

  As she felt her body growing colder and her heartbeat slow to a crawl, Allie heard a skittering, scratching sound coming from Joseph’s body. Although her vision was merely a blur through the slits of her eyelids, she could still make out Joseph’s silhouette as it began to twitch and wriggle, the crystal shards scraping against the cement floor as he moved, until eventually, she could no longer keep her eyes open, giving in to death.

  The blood from Patience’s decapitated corpse had flowed toward Joseph’s lifeless remains, eventually reaching the stub of his left forearm. When the blood touched Joseph’s bones, it was quickly absorbed into his skeletal frame.

  Little by little, Patience’s entire body decayed and dissolved while Joseph’s regenerated itself, layer by layer, only this time, he no longer had the face of the farmer that had mistakenly found his charred body all those years ago. The rebirth complete, Joseph looked like a completely different person. His face was a little longer and slightly thinner. His eyes, nose, and wrinkles were less pronounced than before. And now, he had a full head of thick, wavy hair, which was a mixture of black and gray.

  He crawled to the bounty hunter’s sword and picked it up, knowing there was only one thing left that could save Allie’s life—the small green crystal that had once saved Marcus.

  He forced himself to his feet and staggered over to the replication generator. With every ounce of strength he could muster, he hacked at the machine again and again, trying to free the shard until suddenly, the generator sparked and exploded, sending Joseph onto the floor and singeing the front of his new body.

  “Ma’losta…centrano,” Joseph panted, haphazardly casting as much water from his hands as he could to put out the small fire from the explosion before desperately searching for the green crystal shard. He found it laying among pieces of smoldering debris scattered all over the top of a newly-soaked and crumpled sheet the bounty hunter had used to hide the replication generator when Joseph had first arrived.

  He grabbed the crystal shard and shook out the rest of the debris from the damp sheet and wrapped it around his scorched body as he hurried toward Allie. Carefully, Joseph rolled her onto her back, remorsefully noticing the blood-soaked hole in her stomach.

  “Allie, can you hear me?” he pleaded, softly slapping her cheek. “Allie! Wake up!” But as he checked her neck, he couldn’t find any sign of a pulse. It was too late—Allie was already gone. “Dammit!” he howled in rage, leaning somberly over her lifeless body, crying in agony.

  -25-

  “No!” Joseph snapped, refusing to give up. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose you, too.” He pushed the small green crystal deep into the gaping wound in Allie’s stomach. “Io’condes, arachi!” Joseph shouted, sending a surge of electricity throughout Allie’s body, but nothing happened. “Io’condes, arachi!” he screamed again, still failing to revive her.

  Suddenly, a wave of energy that he hadn’t felt for centuries came from the far corner of the room. He looked up and saw a wispy black mass in the shape of a robed figure slowly moving toward him.

  “But how?” Joseph asked in astonishment. “How are you even here? I thought I was the only one?”

  You’re not alone, the voice echoed through Joseph’s mind. I have received the Call to Death…and must obey. Her soul must be escorted to the afterlife.

  “No!” Joseph growled.

  There’s nothing you can do to save her now, the black figure calmly explained. You need to let her go.

  “But it’s my fault!” Joseph wailed. “She died because of me…don’t you understand? I need to make this right. Help me!”

  I can’t. You know it is forbidden for me to—

  “Oh, cut the ideological bullshit!” Joseph scoffed. “After everything I did for our people during the war, I think I would’ve earned at least this one request from your precious goddess, and you know it! Now, help me, dammit!”

  The black figure hovered for several moments before finally extending a wispy arm, emanating a green glow, and illuminating Allie’s body in a soft green light. Joseph quickly turned toward her lifeless form and shouted, “Io’condes, arachi!”

  Allie twitched and spasmed until her back had arched off the cement from the powerful jolt of electricity. Joseph watched with hopeful eyes as he and the black figure stopped casting, letting Allie’s body once again relax to the floor.

  For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, the tissue surrounding the green crystal in her stomach began to attach itself to the shard, rapidly healing the wounds in her body. Once the crystal was encased within her body, Allie’s eyes opened wide as she gasped for air.

  Joseph exhaled with relief as he turned to thank the ominous figure, now moving toward the small ashy pile of Patience’s bones left behind from Joseph’s rebirth.

  “W-Who are you?” Allie looked at Joseph, slightly alarmed.

  “It’s me…Joseph,” he replied reassuringly, helping her to sit up. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be okay, Allison.”

  “What happened to your face?” she asked, puzzled.

  “It’s nothing. I was burned when the generator exploded. It’ll heal,” Joseph explained, happy to be having this conversation with her at that moment.

  “No, I mean, you don’t look like you anymore.”

  “Oh!” Joseph exclaimed, forcing a smile. “Don’t worry. It’s only a side effect from the restoration process. My own DNA template was combined with the DNA strands from the bounty hunter, and this new appearance is the end result,” he explained to a wide-eyed Allie, who had no idea what he was talking about. “Think of it like this…I was tomato soup, but we’ve added some chopped tomatoes to the pot. I’m still mostly tomato soup, but now, I just look a little different. It’s no big deal. The only thing that matters is that you’re alive.”

  Allie looked down at her torn, bloodstained shirt, realizing all her wounds had fully healed as she rubbed her hand across her stomach. “But…I died.”

  “We brought you back,” Joseph said, offering a warm smile.

  “How?”

  “I used the same crystal as I did for Marcus.”

  “What about Patience?” Allie asked hopefully. “Did you bring her back, too?”

  “No,” Joseph replied somberly. “I’m sorry, Allie. There was no way I could save her.”

  Allie sobbed, again mourning the loss of her sister.

  Suddenly, the entire room was lit with a bright, whitish-green light as the misty figure created a small swirling ball of what looked like clouds and light collapsing in on itself directly above him.

  Joseph quickly turned around as Allie got her first glimpse of the shadowy figure that had helped revive her.

  “Who’s that?” she asked fearfully.

  “He’s one of my people,” Joseph admitted. “He helped me bring you back to life.”

  “What’s he doing?”

  “He’s helping the souls of the dead move on to the afterlife,” Joseph answered solemnly, knowing that Patience and Marcus would be among them.

  Allie watched in astonishment as one by one, small orbs of light rose from the piles of ash and scattered bones on the basement floor, floating gracefully up into the swirling cloud of light. When it seemed all the souls had passed on, two final balls of light emerged and drifted over toward Joseph and Allie, both standing as the orbs slowly manifested into full-bodied apparitions of Marcus and Patience.

  “I’m sorry, Patience!” Allie moaned as tears streamed down her cheeks. “It’s all my fault.”

  Patience smiled as she gently placed her hands against Allie’s cheeks. The kind and caring older sister mouthed the words I love you as she leaned in and wrapped her ghostly arms around Allie for a final embrace.

  “I love you, too,” Allie replied sadly through her tears. Af
ter a few moments, Patience released Allie and stepped back, slowly fading into a small orb of light. Allie watched in heartbreak as her sister’s soul drifted toward the light until it finally disappeared into the heavenly cloud.

  Meanwhile, Joseph smiled at Marcus, slightly tilting his head. “Thank you for everything. I would have never survived as long as I have in this world without you, my friend.”

  Marcus nodded with a grin.

  “Goodbye, Marcus,” Joseph said through watery eyes, clearing his throat.

  Marcus smiled warmly at Allie.

  “Goodbye, Marcus. I’ll miss you, too,” she said solemnly.

  They watched as Marcus gently reformed into a small ball of light and then retreated into the cloud. A few moments later, the misty robed figure raised its hand, closing the gateway to the afterlife. The robed specter moved to the corner of the basement, stopping for a moment to glance back at Joseph before vanishing through the wall.

  “Look, Allie—” Joseph attempted to speak, but was immediately cut off.

  “I need time to think,” she interrupted. Her expression was cold and unfeeling—as if this last experience had finally wiped away what remained of her interest to know Joseph at all. In fact, she regretted ever meeting him in the first place. “I’m…I’m going to go see Kevin,” she began, purposefully not looking at him. “And when I get back, I want all this bounty hunter shit cleaned up and out of my basement. That includes you, too,” Allie said with a clear hint of disdain in her voice as she walked away from him and headed back upstairs.

  ***

  When Allie walked into Kevin’s hospital room, she was relieved to find him still safe and asleep. She sat down next to his bed, realizing that there was so much for her to process, and she didn’t exactly know how to explain to Kevin what was really going on in her life. All she wanted to do in that moment was concentrate on their relationship and ignore the rest of the world entirely.