Hope and Undead Elvis - By Ian Thomas Healy Page 0,34
I might be dreaming. Maybe I pull this trigger, I wake up."
Undead Elvis took a step toward her.
"Don't! I swear to God I'll do it and leave you all alone here. You stay the fuck away from me, Elvis!"
Undead Elvis hesitated, and then took off his sunglasses for the first time since Hope had first met him. His eyes were as black and shiny as vinyl records, and yet they were beautiful enough to make Hope's breath catch in her throat. "I don't know a lot of things, Li'l lady. I'm just a simple southern boy. But I do know you belong here, and for you to kill yourself would be a great sin."
"I don't believe in that stuff."
"You don't have to. We can't be told what to believe. We gotta arrive at those conclusions on our own or else they're false and shallow."
"What do you believe, Elvis? If I pull this trigger, does my soul go to hell? Or are we already in hell and this is my punishment for a lifetime of sin?"
"If you kill yourself, your life ends, and for you, the world as well. Perhaps it does for everyone else too. Perhaps not." He raised his hands in a gesture of conciliation. "All I know is that I'm awful fond of you, and I'd miss you terrible if you died."
His words stung her with their honesty. As bad as she felt, she'd feel worse if she died knowing she'd hurt this strange, undead music icon that had somehow found his way into her life. She imagined what it would be like to pull that trigger anyway, to feel that misshapen lump of lead tear through her brain in the instant before the shock killed her. She wondered if it would hurt. Would her soul, if there was such a thing, leave her body with only a memory of pain to take with it?
So much pain, everywhere in the world, and it felt like all of it had centered upon her. If only she could find some respite, some place where the pain would fear to tread. She remembered back in high school, when they'd all had to read Hamlet. Most of the story she'd long since forgotten, but she still remembered his soliloquy. He had also desired to kill himself, but the fear of a disquieted soul had stayed his hand.
Hope didn't believe in souls any more than she believed in God or anything else. But she was afraid to die, afraid to pull that trigger.
Afraid it wouldn't end.
She lowered the Shepherds' pistol. "All right, for now."
"It makes me happy to hear that, Li'l lady."
She tucked the pistol away. The simple act of letting go of the gun helped her to calm her raging emotions. She would have to redirect them into something positive. "Come on then. I promised myself I wouldn't leave them like this. Help me get them down and dug under before I chicken out."
Hope was glad to have Undead Elvis's tireless help. He forced open the binders holding Mercy and Justice to the crosses and then caught the bodies as Hope loosened the chains. After a few minutes, the bodies lay side by side on the barren, ashy ground between the crosses. Overcoming her revulsion, Hope took Mercy's charred fingers and intertwined them with Justice's.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Undead Elvis brushed ashes away from his pearly jumpsuit.
"Yes," said Hope. "Maybe they were lovers, or friends, or just traveling the same way. But they suffered together and I want anyone who finds this ten thousand years from now to know that someone treated them with respect."
They used the stones which had spelled out SINNERS WILL PERISH to cover the bodies in a simple cairn. Hope took the chains which had bound the victims and shaped them into an M and J, draped across the pile of stones.
She addressed the grave. "That's the best memorial I can do for you. I wish I could do more. I won't forget you, Mercy. I wish I'd known you, Justice, but I'm sure you're both in a better place now." She turned to Undead Elvis. "Sun's going to go down soon. We'd better get back to the car before someone finds it and decides it would be better if they burned it up."
"You think whoever did this will come back?"
"No," said Hope. "Once they've burned something down, there's no reason to."
"You know we'll have to deal with them eventually, Li'l lady."