Peripheral Vision: A Supernatural Thriller(38)
I waited like this for hours maybe, but it seemed like days. Finally, when I could take the smell of the dead stinkin’ horses no longer, I managed to free myself and drag my dead, shot up leg and all, away from the horses, away from the bodies, and away from the red running Iktomi. I crawled outta the valley, and then that's when I was lucky and blessed enough to run into Miss Rita Dowring, and her fiancée, who as you know, brought me back here. James, I know what it must sound like, but I've never been one for stories. Something’s just not right out there. Not like the good Lord intended...not right at all.”
Sarah could feel the vision slipping away as Jonathan’s words seemed to mesh into Nick’s and the smell of the tunnel returned. For a moment both men spoke simultaneously from two distant worlds. And then she was back.
Nick continued. “That’s where they say the curse began, like something sinister followed Jonathan back up from the river, and has walked with your family ever since.”
Sarah nodded. Her lips silently mouthed the words. “It’s true.”
“Elizabeth told me that until her, no one in the family had lived to see their 49th birthday, and most weren’t even close. Your grandfather was 48 when he took a bullet and bled out on the kitchen floor. Your Uncle… and your mother… But Elizabeth was different from the rest of them.”
The world slipped again and the dark tunnel seemed miles away. Sarah saw something flicker in her peripheral. She turned her head and found herself back in the kitchen of the Bayard house. A young woman with long, black hair, who could have been Sarah’s twin sister, kneeled on the bloody tile floor next to her fallen father. Elizabeth.
“It's okay...” The dying man whispered.
And then, Sarah was standing next to the screen door, the cold night air drifting in. She looked up as Elizabeth pulled the trigger of the gun that was pushed up against the skinny boy’s forehead. The smell of gunsmoke hit Sarah first as the blood exploded on the wall behind the man, and the reverb onto Elizabeth’s face. Sarah followed her young aunt out of the kitchen and outside. She walked towards the river. Blood covered her face and was dripping down onto her blouse. It was cold out. Sarah could see her breath. But she saw something else too. A smile seemed to be forming on Elizabeth’s face. This seemed to trouble both women. In response, Elizabeth reached up with her hand, almost like she was trying to wipe the smile away, but instead, she wiped the blood across her lips and into her mouth and without thinking-she swallowed. Something immediately changed in her eyes. A visible surge of energy ran through her body. Elizabeth dropped to her knees by the tall grass of the river bank. Her back arched and her legs and stomach began to spasm involuntarily. She shook all over and then let out a low moan. Sarah stood beside her aunt, but she could still hear Nick’s voice from beyond her vision.
“She found an answer to the curse... A cure.” His voice came echoing across the boundaries of the other world.
Sarah found herself again, walking next to the river with Elizabeth, but now it was daylight, and her aunt looked much older. Elizabeth held a knife as she silently stalked a naked, long-haired man and a woman lying on a towel next to the river making love. They didn’t see her coming. Elizabeth crept behind the long-haired man.
“It’s okay...” She sliced the knife across his throat. The woman screamed and Elizabeth stabbed her in the neck. The woman gasped for air and fell to the grass. Elizabeth slowly sat down behind the woman and wrapped her arms around her, comforting her. The woman continued to gasp and bleed out, as Elizabeth put her lips to the woman’s neck and began to drink.
The vision spun again and Sarah was once again in the basement. She could see the face of a lifeless girl in the horse trough, and then the face changed to that of another girl, followed by the face of another, and another. It was the faces of the girls in white who had visited Sarah on the stairs-the six missing girls. Sarah turned and saw Elizabeth putting the old canning jars of blood up on a wooden shelf. The shadowy figure was standing next to her. The gas mask dangled from his right hand. He suddenly stepped forward into the dim light…
“Nick!” Sarah screamed in both worlds. She was back and he was standing in front of her smiling.
Sarah stared at Nick in disbelief.
“You… you knew what she was doing and you did nothing?!”
“It’s complicated.”
Sarah backed away from him. Nick took a step out of the grey shadows of the tunnel and into the dim light.
“It was you...” She whispered. “You helped her...”
“Sarah, slow down. Let me explain.”
“Explain? You…you killed those poor girls.”
“Sarah please... she needed me. Don’t you see? She found the cure, but she needed me to help her execute it. I owed her that. Elizabeth was like a mother to me. You know what it’s like to go through life without a mother. She asked me for help and I did it. It kept her young and strong. It’s the cure! She lived ten years longer than she was supposed to. And it’s done the same for me, Sarah. I am stronger than I have ever been.”
“No... how could you?” Sarah was crushed and repulsed all at the same time.
“Because she promised if I did this I would be rewarded.” Nick replied matter of factly.
“Rewarded? You did this for money?”
“No... for you.”