Uncollected Blood by Daniel J. Kirk Read Free Book Online

glass, from the wind, Paul suspected, just the wind .  The howling increased. Even the room seemed to swell, or was it just Paul’s head that began to throb in pain?
    The walls vibrated, the rattling of picture frames and plates and glasses in the cabinets filled the apartment.
    “Don’t go with them.” Paul heard Melinda say, but he knew it wasn’t directed at him. Her eyes looked beyond him. He turned to see if someone else was there, only the shadow of the vacuum, still waiting.
    The racket began to affect Paul’s heart rate. It sped up with his breathing. He fought to release his voice and finally gasped.
    “What’s going on?”
    “I’m sorry,” she said still looking through him. He twisted around and saw the shadow on the wall stand up. The shadow stepped forward out of the light and Paul could not see it any longer.  His heart pounded, he twisted back to Melinda.
    “You are wearing his jacket,” she said. “You can’t blame me for wanting this, blame me because I knew how to do it. But realize how happy you are going to make me.” This time she was speaking to Paul. Their eyes connected fiercely.
    “When we met you said you weren’t afraid of death. Do you remember our conversation that night?” Paul didn’t verbatim, but it certainly sounded like something he would say when he was drunk, but he knew in that moment it was not something he really believed.
    “What are you doing?” He asked the right question.
    “I’m swapping you out.” She bit her lips back into her mouth and cried. She whimpered something about how she thought it would be so much easier. “It’s what I want.”
    Was Paul paralyzed? His heart still pounded, his head was ready to burst, but his body could not move. He couldn’t even look back into the bedroom. Behind him he knew the shadow had joined them. The shadow loomed over him and suddenly it felt like a weight pressed against his shoulders. He hadn’t realized he had dropped to his knees until his view of Melinda changed and he was staring up at her.
    She began to move her lips, but the sounds coming out were caused from the smacking of her lips, not words at first, but soon a low hum formed and from it a tone, a primal tone, held sharp like the wailing of a teapot.
    At last the force of the shadow was no longer on his shoulders and he felt himself start to float back up to his feet.
    “No!” Paul screamed as he saw the top of his own head now beneath him. Soon he had risen to the ceiling and beneath him Melinda had not raised her view, she was concentrating on his body. The sounds she made reverberated around him, they sounded different, felt different. Like air rushing all around him he felt himself pulled away from his body.
    Melinda sighed; exhausted she fell back onto the couch. Her chest rose and fell deeply. She could barely keep her eyes open. They shut tight, and the only sound above her own breath and heartbeat was a ticking clock she’d never noticed before.  Before she could open her eyes, she felt Paul’s palm against her cheek. His warm hand cupped her cheek and his eyes greeted hers as she found the strength to open them again.
    “You.” She smiled.
    “Cutting it pretty close,” he said. “It’s two minutes to midnight.”
    Melinda found the source of the ticking and watched as it ticked nearer to twelve o’clock.
    “Had to.”
    “I waited all night.”
    “I’ve waited seven months.” She countered. The walls were still shaking around them. Paul’s head twisted around looking through the wall, knowing who was outside trying to get in, so many souls unwilling to leave. It was Melinda’s magic that had brought them to this place.
    “It’s almost over. A few more seconds.”
    Outside a bell chimed and the last tick that mattered went off. Melinda sat up and Paul’s lips kissed hers.  Finally , she thought.
    “Merry Christmas, Melinda,” he said.
    “Merry Christmas, Robert.”
    THE END.

 
 
THE PATH
     
     
    Game trails run all