Forever After - By David Jester Page 0,32
not letting on that he didn’t. “Are you all grim reapers?” he said, indicating to Chip and Naff.
“I’m a tooth fairy,” Chip said simply.
James laughed loudly, only stopping when he saw that no one else had even raised an eyebrow.
“He’s being serious,” Naff offered.
“Oh. And you?” he asked Naff.
“Records department. It’s--” Naff opened his palms as if to begin a lecture and then quickly closed them again. “It’s complicated.”
“And boring,” Michael added. He turned to James, “Tell us what happened out there in the forest.”
Chip groaned, sensing that he had just lost his playmate.
“OK,” James placed the controller down on the floor, much to the dismay of the small man next to him. “I have a little place out in the woods for when I turn. During a full moon I can’t control it, I can’t stop myself from turning and I have no control when I do. I tell my wife I’m going on a business trip.” A flicker of emotion entered his eyes and then departed. “It’s just a tiny shack really. I don’t spend much time there and it keeps me away from the centre of town after I turn. I was there this afternoon, preparing. I took off all my clothes and lay down on the bed.”
“Was the naked thing necessary or just for dramatic effect?” Chip wondered.
James looked at Chip with the look of someone who wasn’t sure if he was talking to a joker or an idiot, not realising it was probably both. “They rip and tear, and what’s not ripped and torn is usually covered in blood, mud or shit by the morning.”
Chip nodded, “Fair enough,” he said, indicating that James had his permission to continue.
“So, I was lying in my bed waiting. I heard a car pull up outside so I went to investigate.”
“You get many visitors there?” Naff interrupted.
James shook his head, “First time I've seen anyone else. When I looked I saw two men climbing out of a car and heading my way. I didn’t know what to do, I thought maybe they were police, I didn’t know, but I panicked. I couldn’t really hide from them, I mean I make so much noise and I can’t control it. So I just ran.”
The attention of the room was on him.
“The next thing I remember is being hot, like a pinprick of heat all through me, no pain at first, and then a massive surge of agony.” He looked off into the distance as he recounted. His hands worked up and down his body as he remembered the agony that had coursed through it during his demise. “I slowed, staggered. I realised they had shot me. I saw the wounds, but then they shot me again and again. I fell, then...” he shrugged. “Next thing I know I was up and running again. No pain. No heat.”
“You were dead,” Naff stated the obvious.
James nodded. “Apparently. I couldn’t run though, something pulled me back, forced me to stay. Luckily the men weren’t near and weren’t rushing.” He pulled his eyes back to the group, to Michael. “Then I saw you guys.”
“Did you get a look at the two men?”
“Not really. They were both tall, muscular. They wore dark suits, dark sunglasses. Same height. Same hair. Same build.”
Michael looked a little unsure. He turned to Naff, “Any ideas?”
Naff shook his head. “Could be anyone. We can rule out the police though, whoever did this knew what they were doing and they had information on who they were doing it to.”
Michael nodded, “OK, great, now what?”
****
A pitiful morning sun wrapped its faded rays around the deforested urban jungle, providing little light to the world awakening to face, with great reluctance, another day on its dismal streets.
A woman tottered along the path with a high heeled shoe in each hand. Her face a testament to a night on the town: her mascara smudged, her hair matted, her short skirt riding up her thigh to expose a faux tan-line and the ghostly flesh above.
A serendipitous dog scavenged the street for food, finishing a half-eaten kebab on the street before stumbling across an opened, barely touched, chocolate bar. Dinner and dessert within three flicks of a mangled tail.
In a second floor flat, above a sparse business either closed down or on its way, a bedraggled tenant poked his face through thick curtains, checking to make sure that yes, the morning had started and no, he hadn’t died in his sleep and escaped another miserable day.
From his vantage