Madisonville Murder, Part 12
Dead or Alive?
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I’d heard people talk about feeling as if time were slowing down, but this was the only moment in my life that I’d experienced such a thing.
Both the car racing toward Ben and Gavin’s mad dash to get to him in time seemed to move in slow motion—an inevitable disaster from which there was no escape. I was much too far away to do anything more than watch helplessly.
Next to me, Virginia was raising her hand to do something magical—though whether she meant to save Ben or ensure his doom, I could only guess. I feared the latter, but I couldn’t bring myself to try to stop her. What if I was wrong?
Then reality jumped like a scratched DVD. One second, Gavin was too far away to reach Ben. But after a lightning-fast flash of red, black, and white light, Gavin was right on top of Ben, able to grab him and pull him out of path of the oncoming car just in time.
I must have been holding my breath without realizing it because my sigh of relief was more like a desperate gasp for air. Time resumed its normal flow, and I realized Gavin had gotten far enough away from Virginia that he was visible to everybody. Most bystanders had been focused on Ben and the car, so they probably hadn’t seen Gavin appear from nowhere. But they did catch his brave rescue, which created another, albeit far lesser, problem. Gavin was now surrounded by onlookers praising his bravery, a situation that would make it difficult to extract him quickly.
Ben still looked and sounded hysterical, even from a distance, but people would likely attribute that to his close brush with death. They still saw just a normal teenage, not an animated corpse. We needed to get him out of here even more than we needed to get Gavin out—but I’d rather have that problem than have to cope with the sight of Ben splattered across a whole traffic lane.
“This isn’t good,” muttered Virginia.
“Are you that disappointed Ben isn’t dead?” I asked, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.
She looked at me as if I were an idiot. “Ben is dead. My concern is with those flashes and the sudden reduction in distance between Ben and Gavin. That has to have been supernatural intervention—very big and very unusual.”
“You mean God?” I asked, not really wanting to hear the answer. I was already rattled enough without having to rethink my whole world view right now.
“There was a little white in those flashes,” said Virginia. “But the black and red were clearly Satanic. I think Satan intervened to protect Ben—and thus keep Ben’s father in line. If that’s the case, though, it means he is probably very aware of us. We’re safe for the moment because of the crowd, but he’ll be able to track us from here.”
“Your concealment—” I began.
“Isn’t strong enough to block Satan’s direct scrutiny.” She looked nervously at the street. “Gavin’s pretty close to traffic. At minimum, we should move him further from it.”
There must have been at least twenty people encircling Gavin by now, and I thought I could see the news van of a local TV station about a block and a half away but moving rapidly toward us.
Virginia saw it, too. “We need to get Gavin and Ben out of here. The supernatural community will be profoundly unhappy if Ben does something on camera that risks exposing us. And the longer we stay here, the longer Satan has to send thugs after us.”
We moved as close as we could get, close enough for Gavin to see us motioning to him. But his attention remained focused on Ben, who was on the ground, shaking.
“I’ve got you,” Gavin said quietly. “I’ve got you.” He had his arms around Ben, but I couldn’t tell if Ben was even aware of him. The kid’s eyes seemed to be staring up into the sky.
“Make him see the illusion again,” I said. “That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get him to pull himself together.”
"It’s a delicate adjustment,” Virginia replied. “Even assuming Satan hasn’t done something to block me, I’d still need to be closer to make sure I get the effect I want.”
The news van had pulled over a couple of doors down. Even worse, I could hear what I thought was an ambulance siren in the distance. Someone had called 911, and the paramedics were on the way.
Virginia glanced at the news van, then back at me. “Funny thing. The news crew just discovered their electronics are all haywire.” More quietly, she added, “The more advanced technology gets, the easier it is to damage it with magic.”
A light red haze had surrounded the news van, no doubt frying or at least blocking any electronics. I wasn’t happy with that kind of destruction, but I didn’t see any other choice if we wanted to keep cameras out of Ben’s face.
However, I didn’t want Virginia to do the same thing to the approaching ambulance. And even if she did, the paramedics would still get out to see what was up.
“Make me visible and audible,” I said. For once, Virginia did what I wanted.
I was far enough back that the crowd, still focused on Gavin and Ben, didn’t at first notice the difference.
“Everybody, we need to get Ben home now,” I said. People continued to pat Gavin on the back and fret over Ben as if I hadn’t spoken.
“Hey!” I shouted. That got about half the eyes in the crowd turned my way, so at least I was making progress. “Ben’s had a bad shock. Gavin and I will take him home so he can get the rest he needs.”
“That’s right,” said Gavin, lifting Ben in his arms and moving a step or two farther from the street. “Thanks for your concern, folks, but all this crowding isn’t helping.”
Gavin flashed one of his award-winning smiles, and the crowd, reassured, started to part.
“Shouldn’t you wait for the paramedics?” asked one woman, her brow furrowed with concern.
“It’s just a panic attack,” I said. “He’s had them before. More attention only makes them worse.”
It would be nice if Ben had played along, but he hung limply in Gavin’s arms, eyes closed. I couldn’t tell if he was conscious. Even to spectators who couldn’t see how dead he looked, that he might be unconscious undercut the panic attack story. I’d never heard of someone passing out from one.
But a lot of people in the crowd recognized Gavin from his high school sports hero days. That and his reassuring demeanor convinced them to stand aside.
“Need some help?” asked one of the guys in the crowd.
“No thanks, I’ve got this,” replied Gavin, flashing another smile. His bulging biceps certainly sold the idea that he didn’t need help carrying Ben. I did end up trailing along behind him, feeling awkwardly like a third wheel, but at least we got away from the crowd.
Virginia made a noise that sounded remarkably like a gun shot, causing the bystanders to look in the opposite direction from where we were going. Then she fell in line behind us and made us invisible and inaudible. The ambulance pulled up about a minute later, but by then we were gone—or so people thought. Even Gavin couldn’t move at maximum speed with that much weight in his arms.
“Ben,” said Gavin, looking down at the kid. “Are you conscious?”
Ben opened his eyes slightly. “I’m a monster,” he muttered.
“You’re just the same as you always were inside,” said Gavin. “We’ll explain. But we need to get you home first. Can you walk?”
“We need a protected location,” said Virginia. “We’ll be sitting ducks at his house.”
“I want to go home,” mumbled Ben. He tried to raise his head but didn’t quite make it.
“If we want to have a rational discussion with him, his house will be the best place,” said Gavin.
“It isn’t safe,” said Virginia, somewhat more loudly than before.
“Alma’s house is pretty well protected,” I said.
“She doesn’t want to put herself in the line of fire again,” said Virginia quickly.
“What then?” asked Gavin. “We’re on foot, remember. There’s no church or anything like that in walking distance.”
“Constitution Park,” I said. “It’s not exactly consecrated ground, but there are people around.”
“Not—” began Virginia.
“That’s where we’re going,” said Gavin. “When Ben revives a little, we can discuss other options. Speaking of which, Ben, we could get where we’re going faster if you could walk yourself. Do you feel up to it?”
Even the dead version of Ben’s face conveyed the idea that he wasn’t ready for much of anything. But being an adolescent male, it might suddenly have dawned on him that being carried halfway across town in another guy’s arms wasn’t exactly going to project the kind of masculinity his crush would appreciate. And he probably didn’t know that we were invisible.
“I think I can walk,” he said. Gavin let him down very gently. Ben looked a little shaky, but at least, he stayed on his feet.
We walked in silence for a while, partly to make sure we got to the park without Ben becoming hysterical again. I didn’t think Virginia had made the illusion effective on him, but he didn’t look down at himself. His dead eyes remained fixed ahead of him.
I was surprised he didn’t ask who we were. But perhaps that wasn’t all that strange. Discovering he was literally dead man walking had sent him into shock.
I kept looking around, noting the occasional flickers of red that had to have been demonic energy. They became more and more frequent as time passed. Satan was brewing up something, but I had no idea what.
Virginia was uncharacteristically silent, and her face looked hard as stone. I was sure she would have preferred that Gavin hadn’t succeeded in saving Ben. While I understood her logic, I could never agree with it.
But what did I want to happen? I was no longer sure. I couldn’t kill Ben, who had demonstrated that he was still Ben and not a demon or lost soul plugged into what was left of Ben’s body. But the only way to get Dr. Curtis to stop manipulating other kids right into Satan’s clutches was to get him to break his pact. But if he did that, Ben would die. Or be more dead. Or whatever. My head ached just thinking about the whole convoluted situation.
It was late afternoon by the time we reached Constitution Park, late enough that the little kids and their moms were all gone. There were a couple of people jogging around the border of the park, but otherwise, we were alone. This wasn’t the scenario I had been hoping for, but at this point, walking somewhere else would be just as dangerous as staying.
We found a bench to sit on near where we had a clear view of the street and therefore the marginal protection of passing cars to make it somewhat less likely that demons would attack us. But we needed to get out of here before sunset, probably less than an hour away. Visibility would be much worse by then, and the demons would be stronger.
“So Ben,” said Gavin. “I need you to listen to us and try to remain calm. Some of what we have to tell you isn’t going to be easy to hear. But we’ll do whatever we can to help.”
“Am I…am I dead?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes,” said Virginia. Ben leaned forward and started sobbing. I couldn’t blame him.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” said Gavin. An embarrassingly long pause followed. My friend was seldom at a loss for words—but what could he really say in a situation like this?”
“If you think hard, you can probably find a hole in your memory,” said Virginia, ignoring Ben’s obvious distress. “The gap includes whatever accident caused your death.”
Ben looked up at her, his dead eyes clouded with tears. “But if I’m dead, why…why am I moving around? Why does…did everything seem so normal?”
“Illusions, mostly, just like your appearance.”
By now, Ben had stopped sobbing, and his eyes were fixed on Virginia. “How?”
I wanted to answer him myself, but the words couldn’t come out. Gavin remained silent, too.
“Your father sold his soul to bring you back. But Satan can’t really resurrect the dead, not even to fulfill a pact. The best he can do is fake it, as he did in your case.”
Ben’s eyes widened as the implication soaked in. “My father…sold his soul,” he said, each syllable filled with anguish. “How can he get it back?”
“If Satan can’t fulfill the conditions, your father’s soul will revert to him,” replied Virginia—a clear lie as far as I knew. People couldn’t really sell their souls, but they could believe they had. And given all the sins Dr. Curtis had committed to fulfill his end of the bargain, he’d damned himself, pact or no pact.
My mind was pretty sluggish, or I would have realized what Virginia was doing before the pieces clicked together in Ben’s mind.
Despite the amount of emotional pain he felt, Ben jumped off the bench and ran into the steadily darkening park as the sun dipped behind some of the taller trees.
Virginia had given Ben a misleading description of how to free his father from the pact. I had no doubt Ben would try to save his father—no matter the cost.
Gavin took off after him. With a flick of her wrist, Virginia sprayed red magic in Ben’s general direction. I heard Gavin curse and his running footsteps slow. I figured he’d lost sight of Ben.
“What did you do?” I asked Virginia through clenched teeth. Every muscle in my body was tense as a clenched fist.
“I made Ben invisible long enough for him to slip away from Gavin,” she replied as if it were no big deal.
“Why would you do that?” I asked, even though I had a pretty good idea. I wasn’t a violent guy, but I was finding it disturbingly easy to visualize punching her in the face.
“Because neither you nor your friend have the guts to be what needs to be done.” she answered in a chillingly calm tone. “With any luck, Ben will take care of that for you.”
Madisonville Murder is related to the Soul Salvager trilogy. (The action falls between the prologue and chapter one of the first book.)
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Wow...definitely getting intense...