She Has A Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be - J.D. Barker Page 0,132

couldn’t, though. The gun was already out of reach, and when she tried to force her legs to walk back to it, they didn’t obey. Instead they stepped backward, as instructed, until they reached the edge of the bed.

“Sit down, Elfrieda.”

She did.

The three intruders stepped into her bedroom, her private place, uninvited.

“Are you real?” she asked.

He tilted his head and smiled again. “We no longer need you to watch the boy. Do you remember when I asked you to watch the boy, all those years ago? I was a child myself then. They made me phone you, so impersonal.”

“Yes. I remember.”

“You knew my parents.”

“Yes.”

“What were their names?”

“Keith and Jaquelyn Pickford.”

“And my name?”

“David. You’re David Pickford. You’re a beautiful man, David Pickford.”

He smiled again. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Elfrieda Leech stared past him.

We no longer need you to watch the boy. Not they. Charter had told her the Pickford boy would never leave his room. Could never leave his room. Held against his will. He should hate them, despise them. There should only be they, not we.

How could he be standing in her bedroom?

Elfrieda Leech eyed the butt of the .38 on the edge of the dresser. She wanted to push past these people, take the gun in her hand, kill them all. She couldn’t move, though. Her body wouldn’t obey her. “Why aren’t you wearing white?”

Unlike the other two intruders, David Pickford wore a black leather jacket over a deep red tee-shirt and denim jeans. If he carried a gun, she didn’t see one. Nothing clipped to his belt, no shoulder holster.

“I don’t like white,” he replied. “White is a non-color, the absence of color. A canvas waiting for a stain.”

“All the monsters wear white.” She found the words difficult to speak. Like movement, they fought her, but she got them out.

“Not all the monsters.”

“Your parents…what you…”

“Shh.” He knelt down in front of her and took her hand in his. “We’re not here to talk about my parents.”

She tried to respond, but her lips, her mouth, wouldn’t move.

“I’m sorry, you may speak,” David said.

Whatever spell, his spell, broke.

“Why are you here?” she was able to get out.

“Charter dropped the ball, I’m afraid. I’ve decided to step in, to correct the matter, clean up the mess.”

“Okay.”

He went on, “You’re a part of that mess.”

“I know.”

He squeezed her fingers until they turned white. “When we leave, you’re going to wait three hours. Then you’re going to take your gun, put it in your mouth, nice and deep, and pull the trigger.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, what? Tell me.”

“When you leave, I’m going to wait three hours. Then I’m going to take the gun, put it in my mouth, nice and deep, and pull the trigger.”

“Are you afraid to die, Elfrieda?”

“No.”

He released her hand. It dropped limply into her lap. “Do you have regrets?”

“I never had a child,” she replied without hesitation.

“Maybe you should have.”

“I couldn’t pass it on. But I wanted a child.”

He thought about this for a moment. “I was told you had no reaction to the shot. You have nothing to pass on.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, I had no reaction.”

“So you have nothing to pass on,” he said again.

Elfrieda said nothing. From the corner of her eye, she could see the gun. She willed herself to get up, to jump toward it, to grab the .38 from the dresser. Her body ignored her. She began to tremble.

“Your limbs are as heavy as lead. If you attempt to do anything other than what I ask, you will feel as if you are on fire. Understand?”

“Yes.” Elfrieda looked away from the gun, looked at him, stopped fighting, stopped trembling.

“I’d like you to tell me where I can find the others.”

“There are no more ‘others.’”

“Don’t lie to me, Elfrieda. It’s unbecoming of a woman such as yourself. Lying can also be quite painful. Telling a lie might feel as bad as, say…” David thought about this for a moment, then he had it. “Lying feels like swallowing a thousand fire ants, their stings as they ravage your throat from the inside. Wouldn’t that be just horrible?”

Elfrieda Leech nodded.

“Tell me where I can find the others.”

“There are no more…” But even as she said the words, the pain registered on her face. He skin went taut and pale, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. She screamed horribly loud.

David seemed to find enjoyment in this. He gave her a moment, he let her screams die away. “You know, telling the truth can have the opposite effect. With the truth, all