The Birth of Bane (38 page)

“
Hello,” she
said after a time. It didn’t seem to matter that I’d been staring.
Maybe she was used to men appraising her; after all she was very
pretty.

“
Hi,” was all I
could manage as I cleared my throat, glancing away with the back of
a hand against my mouth. I was suddenly self-conscious in only my
pajama bottoms and torn slippers, feeling brutish and coarse with
my scraped-up arms and scuffed back.

She was
pristine.

I was a
ragamuffin.

She gestured in
a placating sort of way. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but I had to
act decisively. Bore isn’t someone who moves placidly.”

I peered at her
through the corner of my eyes, a sarcastic remark upon my tongue,
but I held it instead. It seemed barbaric to be rude at a time like
this, in a place as outlandish as the alley with her, as beauteous
as she was. “It’s… its just t-this,” I began, eyes darting about,
indicating where we were standing. “This all takes a little getting
used to.”

She laughed. It
was musical, somehow melodic, entirely captivating. An errant hand
came up to her chest, about her collarbones, long, delicate fingers
touching her pale skin.

I could only
watch. I was speechless.

Her cheer
trailed away and only the odd sounds of the alley filled my ears -
the drip of water into a puddle, the rustle of paper though there
was no breeze.

Our eyes found
one another. The bunching of skin around her eyes diminished as her
smile slowly left her face.

I could feel the
onset of a blush.

Somewhere, far
away, there came a scream. It was an agonized keening. Like those
at the end of a long session of torture, drawn-out with the hint of
weeping and a shred of hope that the anguish would soon end. It was
the sound of the very end of faith.

It wasn’t at all
like the howl of the man called, Bore.

I was stunned to
see her blue-green orbs turn to fire. The set of her jaw altered as
if she were on the verge of grinding her teeth. One end of her
upper lips rose and fell in rapid succession. “I had to do it, you
know,” she muttered through a clenched jaw.

The wail came
again, longer, more desperate.

I remained
silent, unmoving.

“
They would’ve
killed you all… done worse to the women…” It was a thought voiced
aloud. Maybe I wasn’t even supposed to have heard it.

I cleared my
throat for a second time. “I-i-is Lenny here?” I tried to ask
nonchalantly, but there was no way I could do it with so much spit
muddling my tongue, threatening to choke me.

Her eyes were no
longer any color near blue. They were crimson, deep, bottomless
sanguine as if reflecting a lake of blood. They rippled with a
non-existent wind. They were filling beyond their banks. “He is
where he needs to be, Jeremiah Favor.”

“
Here?” I
queried and a final shriek echoed throughout the alley. This one
was cut short, only a gruesome gurgling followed.

She nodded.
Somehow she looked bigger than she’d been when I had first seen
her. I could’ve sworn she’d been no more than an inch taller than
my shoulder. Now, we were looking each other in the eye.

I was about to
ask why, but she spoke before I managed to get a word
out.

“
You should
leave now.”

“
But
-.”

“
It isn’t safe here for a b- -
a young man
- such as you.”
She tried to smile reassuringly, but failed. There was nothing soft
in her glare. “You should go. I do not think I could ward-off Bore
a second time.”

I frowned, but
nodded in agreement all the same. “I would, but I’ve come so far.
It’ll take some time before I find my way back.”

“
There is only
one way back, Jeremiah.”

“
I know, about two miles
that
way,” I replied
pointing down the endless expanse of the alley, and its’ gruesome
inhabitants.

Her head tilted
to the side. There was a wicked gleam in her eye matching her
sneer. “Really? That far?”

I bobbed my
chin. “Yeah, I’ve been walking for almost an -.” The words turned
sour in my mouth. My tongue felt as though it weighed ten times
greater than it should.

When I had
turned to follow the end of my finger, I did not see the limitless
track with the hundreds of doors I’d passed as I blundered my way
through the alley and its’ endless side passages, looking for any
sign of my demented father. There was no garbage, no broken glass,
and no trash bins – only the door to the basement of the house on
Lincoln Drive stood before me. Through it, I could see my mother
and my siblings clinging onto one another, frightened to
tears.

I grimaced with
misunderstanding, trying to figure out what had happened. What had
she done? And how?

“
Jeremiah, my son, oh my god, where have you been?”
It was mother speaking, hoarse emotion,
nearly choking her. She was distraught with fear. Her face was
ashen in the afterglow coming from the alley.

I ran toward her
without thinking, passing through the threshold of the basement
door and into her warm embrace, feeling tears of my own toppled
from my eyelids. Her arms, her small body never felt better than
they had that night. I breathed deeply smelling the scent that had
calmed me a thousand, thousand times, feeling the beat of her heart
below mine. I could only think of one word, and yet, it filled me
to bursting with meaning.
Mommy.
I was holding my
mommy. I was back.

Suddenly, we
were crushed from either side by Valerie and Elijah. Their small
limbs engulfed us as far around as they could go. My sister was
weeping against my side. Her head was nestled behind my arm as she
clutched me about my back. I could feel her fingers, splayed wide,
trying to touch as much of me as possible at one time. Elijah was
at my waist, his little head plastered to the outer portion of my
abs. It didn’t feel like he was crying, but he held onto me as if
his life depended upon it.

“
Where were you?
You were gone for so long,” inquired my mom, arching back from me,
so she could look me in the face.

I shrugged to
the best of my ability. “I went after him.” I didn’t know what else
to say. “I searched for hours.”

Her brow furled.
Her body stiffened. Her expression was bemused. “What do you
mean?”

I sighed
wearily. “It was a big place. I went through so many rooms I lost
count.”

“
But we’ve only been waiting here for twenty minutes, Jer.” She
put a hand to my chest. “It was an
excruciating
wait, don’t
get me wrong, but it was only twenty minutes.”

“
But how is that
possible? The alley had no end.”

My mother shook
her head.

The question
hung in the air like a noxious fume. It wouldn’t go away no matter
how much time passed.

I heard her
weeping then. Not from anywhere close, but from within the alley.
Compelled, I turned to look.

She was sitting
now, leaning against an avocado-colored, 50-gallon drum. Somehow
her dress wasn’t soiled by the muck covering the ground. It
remained flawless as if she’d just come from a dressing room. She
had her head in her hands. The sobs wracking her small form made
her shoulders bounce. She looked like the petite, young woman I had
seen deep in the nightmarish passage.

The four of us
came apart. My family had finally seen the young debutante bent
over, crying.

“
I had to do it.
I had to. I had to do it. I had to. I had to do it. There was no
other way. There was no other way,” she was saying out of order,
but over and over.

It was Eli who
made the first move. His face brightened with joy at the sight of
her. He extricated himself the rest of the way from me and stepped
toward her at speed.

“
Stop!” she
commanded, her head jerking upward, her eyes intense. Her face was
streaked with wet runnels.

Elijah stopped
as though he was perched upon the edge of a crevasse, atop pointed
toes, his hands to either side offering balance. “But, it’s you,”
he accused in that manner only a child his age could pull off
without sounding petulant.

He face wrinkled
with hurt. “Not anymore, little one.” She still sounded on the
verge of breaking down.

“
But, I missed
you after all this time.” The little brother went
flat-footed.

“
I know, but
there was a reason I had to go,” she tried to explain, but it was
clear to me that Eli didn’t understand.

Hell, neither
did I.

“
You’re here
now, though.”

She smiled
warmly at the workings of my little brother’s ability to
extrapolate. “The Way has been sealed from this side. It would be
dangerous for you, any of you,” she glanced up at the rest of us,
“to come into the Breach now.”

Elijah would
have none of it. “Jerry went through.”

“
And he will be
the last, child,” she clarified sadly. “Anyone who comes through
now will be claimed. Bore will have it no other way.” Her look was
for me alone.

My brother was
about to say something more, but my mother came up, placing her
hands on either shoulder. He clammed-up at once. It was an old
method of hers. When employed, we were not supposed to talk
anymore.

“
Is it really
you?” asked Pillar, my mother.

The young woman
stood, brushing off dirt and grime that did not exist. “It had
always been me.”

They stayed
silent for a long time. We kids waited, unsure of the right thing
to do. It seemed like an encyclopedia of knowledge was passing
between the two women, though they never said so much as a single
word.

I stood there
one of my hands still holding onto one of Valerie’s, wondering
about the lady who had lived and loved where we had done precisely
the same. The house had been built for her, the property and
everything on it had been placed according to her specifications.
She had lived upon it her entire life, never leaving, never so much
as dreaming of selling. She had made love to her husband here. She
had raised her children here. She had watched them grow as she aged
and the decades passed. At last, she had died here, within the
sunroom as quiet and as dignified as one could pass away. Peaceful.
Content. Life had been good to her.

And then, after
years of disaffection and misuse, my mother had come along and had
fallen in love as well. My mother had rebuilt the house from the
shadow it had fallen under. My mother had restored it to its’
former glory. My mother had breathed life into what had almost
become a corpse. Pillar Favor had taken residence just as she had
all those years ago.

Though she
could’ve chosen to stay, with her beloved domicile, forever,
decided to stay young and beautiful, sustained for all time within
the bones of the old house on Lincoln Drive, she had chosen
otherwise. Like the lady she had been in life, like the mother she
had been while living, she chose to be something else. She chose a
path nearly every other person alive would’ve dreaded to traverse.
She chose to protect.

“
You’re leaving,
aren’t you?” asked my mother, finally. Her voice boomed in our
ears, making us start, though she hadn’t raised her voice in the
slightest.

The young woman
nodded.

“
There was a
price.” It was a statement posed as a question.

Again, the woman
nodded.

“
The house will
-, has been empty without you.” My mother bent down to hug Elijah
about the shoulders.

There were tears
in his eyes.

“
I
know.”

Valerie squeezed
my hand.

I turned toward
her and was surprised to see she was nearly as sad as my little
brother. She had hated the house when we had first moved in, was
deathly afraid of the bothersome poltergeist, and now… She was
changed.

I think all of
us had changed. The house had grown on us. It had become an
integral part of our family. It had become a sanctuary of sorts
whether it was from Lenny or anything else that might’ve bothered
us, personal or worldly. It was home. It was our home, the
house
we
had helped rebuild, and because if it – it was more
than important.

Out of it all,
her eyes found mine at last. They were infused with blood once
again. “You should close the door now,” she said,
sternly.

I nodded in
agreement and walked toward the massive door that should’ve led to
the root cellar, but instead led somewhere else. I reached for the
door, my fingers grasping the thickness of it. “Good-bye,” I said,
not knowing what else to say.

Behind me Elijah
burst into fitful weeping.

“
Farewell,
Jeremiah Favor,” she said through needle-like teeth that hadn’t
been there moments before. “You take good care of that little woman
of yours. I’ll be watching…” She pointed at me with fingers
horribly long, nails claw-like and razor sharp, blotched with
blood, crusted with dried flesh. Then, she turned away.