Authors: P R Mason
“Bring the monsters. Hurry,” I shouted.
Senji stepped out from in front of them and Zen lunged at the ogre to get him moving. The ogre took one step and then another, trudging forward. The ghoul kept pace with him.
The debris in the tunnel whipped around us and without glancing back I knew the vortex was at full strength.
All seemed to be going as planned until the ghoul spoke.
“Come to me, Kizzy.” The ghoul’s mouth moved, but the voice was that of Prince Leopold and it echoed through the tunnel. The effect was so startling, Petra gasped. The ghoul reacted by pivoting to the side and lurching into Petra’s face. “And you my delicious looking Petra must come too.”
Petra screamed and scurried away, giving the ghoul an opening in the “guard”. He pushed past her before launching himself toward me.
“He’s making a break,” Zen yelled.
Senji and Chase stood rooted to their spots with matching blank expressions. Rom moved to intercept the ghoul and positioned himself between the monster and me. Zen, who had been at the ogre’s back with his prod ready to make contact, made a slight twitch in Rom’s direction as if to assist him.
Taking advantage of the moment of inattention, the ogre rounded on Zen and swung a branch-like arm. The monster knocked Zen off his feet and he landed with a splash in a puddle on the floor of the tunnel.
Billy rushed forward clicking the trigger on his prod as he moved. The ogre stepped into the puddle and brought a snowshoe sized foot up preparing to stomp on Zen’s chest. While the foot was still on the upswing, Billy’s prod jammed into the center of the ogre’s chest and fired its electric charge.
The impact created the same burning flesh smell we knew well by now. But, unlike past strikes, the ogre made no scream. Instead, he twitched and shook before going rigid. His bulging eyes seemed to inflate almost to the bursting point before rolling back until only the greenish whites showed. The ogre teetered like a felled tree and began to topple. After a few seconds of wavering, he dropped face down and unmoving on the ground.
“Omigod.” I crawled to the ogre’s side and turned him on his back. With my ear to his chest I heard no heartbeat. “What do we do?”
The ghoul made an attempt to leap at me and Rom fired at him. The ghoul reeled with the impact to his hip area, falling into the wall of the tunnel. He pulled himself up and limped off down the tunnel in the direction of escape. Rom brought his arm up and aimed with both hands cupping the gun. He fired and the bullet ricocheted off a brick a foot away from the ghoul's head.
“No,” Zen screamed. “A shot to the head could kill him. We need him alive.”
The ghoul’s steps quickened and he disappeared. Billy threw down his cattle prod and dashed after him.
The ogre still hadn’t moved.
Electrocution
, I thought.
“Does his heart yet beat?” Rom asked.
Shaking my head I did the only thing I could think of: I pounded the ogre’s chest. Sitting with my knees on either side of the ogre's waist, I started regular compressions to what I assumed was his heart area. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the vortex decreasing in area and the jet engine sound faded.
“Somebody. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” I cried.
“No possible way,” Chase said.
“I’m with Chase,” Senji said. “I’m not putting my mouth on that thing’s.”
Zen shook his head. Billy and Petra were nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, my attempts to revive him had no effect. The ogre still hadn’t taken a breath.
“Rom? Please,” I said, panting with the exertion of keeping up the compressions.
Our eyes met and after a slight hesitation, he knelt by the ogre’s head.
“Hold his nose shut and blow into his mouth.”
Rom used his fingers to open the ogre’s lips. He inhaled and bent over the ogre. Putting his mouth over the monster's, he exhaled.
Was he a good boyfriend or what?
Well, except for that almost shooting me thing.
“Wait a few seconds and do it again,” I instructed.
After about thirty seconds I signaled Rom to stop. “Listen to his heart.”
After spitting, Rom wiped his mouth and put his head to the chest. I paused.
“Faint but a beat nonetheless.” Rom lifted his head.
Scrambling to my feet, I grabbed one ogre leg and Rom the other. We commenced dragging the thing. It felt like I was pulling three hundred pounds myself. When we got closer to the vortex whirlpool, we pushed at the ogre’s body. Praying his heart still beat, we pushed until finally the ogre reached the edge of the whirling area. The floor gave way under the body, sweeping the monster in and down as if he were water going down a drain.
As the ogre sank, a body bubbled up, surfacing. Franky’s body. Franky’s limp body.
At 3:15 a.m. there was no one around to see us as we entered the park with Rom carrying Franky. Rom laid our friend on the first park bench we reached.
“He looks like he’s sleeping.” Petra sniffed.
“No, like a balloon version of Franky,” Chase said. “Except with no air.”
“He looks dead,” I burst out harshly. “Because he's dead. Franky's dead.”
A sob broke from Petra and more followed until they came in great gulping succession. I, on the other hand felt cold, numb, removed. I couldn’t cry. I could only relive the past half-hour when no amount of attempts to revive him had succeeded in bringing Franky back. Eventually, Rom had dragged me away from him.
“Let us depart,” Rom said.
“We can’t just leave him here,” Senji moaned.
“He will be discovered.” Rom placed a hand on Senji's arm.
"I'll alert the police from the call box at the end of the park so he doesn't stay here long," Senji suggested.
“Then Franky may be returned to his family," Rom said.
“A lot of good that will do,” I muttered. “He’ll still be dead.”
Petra’s sobbing rose in volume.
"Do you think I want to leave him here?" I screamed to drown out Petra. "But if we don't, what would we tell the police? Franky's been in another dimension, and this vampire was holding him hostage, and…They'd put us in an asylum."
"The police may arrive momentarily." Rom embraced me from behind. "Even without Senji's call."
I shook off his attempt at comfort.
“Come on,” Chase said. “Rom’s right. The police could show up at any time.”
Zen had already thought about that. He’d taken off back in the tunnel. The big bad special ops guy ran away. What was with that? All he'd said was for us to reconnoiter tomorrow at o-nine-hundred. I personally wanted to reconnoiter all over his head...or the ghoul’s head, or Rom’s head, or Billy’s head…I just basically wanted to bash someone or something.
Franky. Oh God.
Crossing the sidewalk to a nearby trashcan, I put my hands on either side of the opening and kicked it as hard as I could. The pain shooting through my foot from the impact with the metal was a relief.
Between sobs, Petra kissed Franky’s forehead. She walked away with Chase’s arm around her shoulder.
“Bye, man” Senji touched Franky’s arm. After nodding to me, he also walked off.
Rom came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. I shifted to face him.
“Do you also wish to perform some ritual?” Rom led me back to the bench.
“No,” I said. “He isn’t here anymore. He won’t see it.”
“The doing of it may help you.”
Shaking my head, I turned and ran from the bench. I didn’t stop running until I was out of the park. Rom kept pace with me and when I slowed to a walk so did he. For a few moments we moved silently together.
My iPhone rang, startling me. After amazement that the thing was still in my pocket and in working order, I pulled it out and examined its face. I recognized the number: Billy.
“This is your fault,” Billy said after I’d answered.
“Did you call just to tell me that?”
“I called to tell you you’re on your own. I’m gonna get Juliette back my own way.”
“Fantastic. You do that,” I said with a full dose of sarcasm in my voice, but he’d already hung up.
Rom’s expression told me he wondered about the conversation.
“Billy,” I told him. “He's just spewing nonsense.”
“I will come for you on the morrow.” Rom spoke as we reached my house.
Nodding, I proceeded to scramble up the tree before entering through my bedroom window. As I pulled the sash down to close it, Rom walked away.
At the click of the switch of the bedside table lamp, light flooded the room. I jumped and whirled at the same time.
“Have a good time tonight, Kizzy?” Mom asked. The sarcasm in her question was sharp enough to cut glass.
* * * * *
Of course I didn’t tell my mother any of what had actually transpired that night, but I did tell her a version of the truth: that my friends and I had been trying to find Juliette and Franky. But I said we didn’t have any success—What an understatement.
Mom of course noticed how grungy I was. The stuff stuck in my hair? I didn’t even want to know.
“We were on foot and I fell,” I explained.
Mom’s eyes scanned the extent of the damage including the cut on my hand.
“I fell more than once.”
“But why go back out?” Mom asked. “Do you know how frantic I was when I saw you weren’t here?”
“I’m sorry.” And I was. Sorry about everything. I couldn’t even think about all I was sorry for or I'd lie down on my bed and never get up again. “I couldn’t sleep. It seemed more important to get Juliette and Franky back.”
“Oh, honey.” Mom took my hand, pulled me down to sit beside her on the bed, and put an arm around my shoulder. “You shouldn’t feel responsible for fixing everything for everybody.”
“That’s not how I feel.” Mom had no idea how truly responsible I actually was.
“I know you care deeply about your family and friends.” Mom gave my shoulder a little shake. “And while I definitely would like to see the end of that bitch-who-doesn’t-care-about-anyone act you’ve been performing the last few months, that doesn’t mean I want you to get hurt trying to make up for what happened to Adam either.”
Stiffening, I swallowed hard.
“Nothing can make up for Adam.”
Mom wrapped me in a tight hug and I could tell by the way she held her body so rigidly that she was trying hard not to sob. When she pulled back, Mom's eyes and nose were red, but no tears had escaped.
“Okay,” she said. “Promise me you won’t pull any more dangerous stunts like staying out until 3 a.m.”
“I promise. No more dangerous stunts," was what I said out loud. What I meant was: I promise I'll do anything I have to in order to get Juliette back alive. A stunt was some kind of lark. This shit was deadly serious.