Nashville III

I was dizzy from it all. Queasy too. I felt the occasional drop of blood from my ears that I mistook from rain. I awoke getting my bearings. I saw that we were under one of the last streetlights on this narrowed road. More trees blockaded the street than houses now. Short wide trees. Like little clouds of evergreen. No cars were around at this time. The only light was from that lone streetlamp and shimmering stars fading in and out. Or was that because of my blurry vision? I was tired. Sick. It felt like I had picked up interdimensional fleas from all that wading through realities. But here. It was peaceful. I wanted nothing more than to curl up here and sleep. I could feel that electric tingle, smell the smoke. I slowly put together what happened, how I was tricked 

This was a trap! 

I shot awake and saw Chewy coming to next to me on the bus bench. No sign of that shapeshifting succubus. Just us two in the middle of nowhere. Us and that electric taste. The power lines still crept ahead pushing back against this expanse of trees. Dark towers hanging over us. 

“You okay my boy?” I asked and felt him over, He nipped at my hand. 

“I told you not to trust her,” He said as he hopped off and started stretching. 

“Yeah,” I felt my naked neck. “She took my necklace.”

He hopped up halfway on my lap and looked at me. “Fuck.” He said as he confirmed that it was gone. 

“Left my gun though.” I said as I felt the steel in my waistline. “Why? Why would she do that? What’s going on?” 

“Whatever it is. We are stuck in the middle of it again. Played right into his hands.” He sat at my feet and we both shifted our view to above as a sparking power line splayed out fiery butterflies in the nightsky. 

“It wants us to follow.” I said, shuffling to my feet and heading up the hill. We followed them for sometime until they disappeared in the obsidian sky. 

~

We overlooked a water filled quarry with rough hewn sides. The perimeter of this mile wide lake was slabs of rock. Even in the darkness I could tell they were white granite from the moon's brightness. Their sheer faces stretched maybe a hundred feet up. Then foliage met with the rock as trees saddled up to the edge, almost tipping over. I’m sure the corpses of many trees were sunken below. That close to the edge a small wind would shake them loose. There wasn’t much topsoil to grip up here. Now they were half submerged with only limbs peaking above the waterline. Like skeletons crawling from the depths.

I’m sure this was more of a dump than a quarry. A water filled trash chute. I shuddered to think about actual corpses there. Drunks, or lost boaters, suicides, and poor luck stricken cliff divers. And now maybe me? 

This isn't right. Had she brought me here for the same reason?

I leaned against the very last power line pole on this edge. They had tracked along the road. I imagined they looked like the line of workers coming here once. Now no more. They were the only thing left of civilization here from what I could tell. Where we stood they left the dirt road and turned left into the woods. Probably to go to some abandoned mining camp. 

The cracking wood under my palm was warm but brittle. A twinge of sadness hit me. I was sad they no longer had a purpose. Leftovers from a different time. Bones of abandoned endeavors. 

“229,” A voice said behind me. I held Chewy's leash in one hand and the other went to my gun. It brushed against some fabric in my back pocket. I felt braver gripping it but turning around I couldn’t see where the man who spoke was. It was him. Hiding in the shadows. 

“That’s how many souls are down there. 229.” He repeated just a formless void around us somewhere. Chewy was sniffing the air, tail between his legs, but he couldn’t find him either. “Not bad for a quarry open close to 80 years.”

“Come on out here, let’s talk.” I shouted out. 

“Does the knowledge make you feel better or not?” He asked in a silky voice, he was a snake of a man indeed. “Or is it a burden of knowing the truth?” He asked.  

“229. I figured more.” I said, trying not to play into his tricks.

He chucked and it sounded like knuckle bones falling across a table. “You wouldn’t say that if you knew them. Like I. I met them all.”

“What do you want?” I asked. “You have us out here. You’re witch did your bidding. Show yourself!”

“Did you like her? She looked familiar right? People are trusting of things that look familiar. They can’t help it. It’s embedded in their caveman brain.” He paused, saying it with disappointment. “But you didn’t quite believe it was real did you? No, and how come?”  

“The eyes.” I said. “They weren’t right.” I breathed deep and pulled the gun free, pointing it across the road and into the darkness. “No more playing tricks on me. If you can bring her back, the REAL her, you do it now!” My voice echoed out into the night and Chewy added a howl. His fur bristled back. Together our voices joined and rebounded off the quarry’s walls. 

Finally from along the road a figure shifted towards me. With each step they changed more. Growing taller and longer and each stride revealed a new limb that swung forward. On their pale frame they wore a snarl of disgust that fit in with the long shadows on their cheeks. He wore jeans with rhinestones along the pockets, a leather jacket and a panama hat with a feather along the band. He placed it lower to his brow. There he stood before me. A slender man. His guise of mystique dripping away like venom off a fang. In front of me, with the world of darkness behind him as a cape, he laughed. Something sallow and sickened. A chuckle from death. 

“It’s always the eyes.” He hissed. “Shifting spells can never get them right. You know why?”

“Eyes change.” I said as I cocked the hammer back, so only a breeze would pull the trigger. “They change with what they’ve seen.” 

 He paused, smiling. Then clapped loudly, “Hot damn!” He said. “That's exactly it! You are no buffoon. Well you still are but you have your moments I will concede. Especially back there at the Parthenon. Smart! Hilarious!” He danced around in a little circle and I realized he was barefoot.  

I was in no mood for these theatrics. I thought I’d hold more hate in my heart when I met him. That anger had burned away to confusion, pain. Wanting to understand more than anything. To die in a sense of peace. Now seeing him, maybe even that was asking too much. I was making him into something he wasn’t. He didn’t make sense. Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing either. 

“Tim.” I stopped him.

He saw my demeanor and settled down. I flicked my gun at him. Telling him to get back. He did so, walking back and sitting across from me. Atop a boulder, legs crossed like some therapist. “That is what you’ve been calling me. Nice to meet you formally.” He replied, bowing his head. 

“That’s your name,” I said.

“I’ve had many names.” He returned.

“I’m sure… Why’d you do it?” I asked with a frog catching me in the throat. I told Chewy to sit and he reluctantly did so. What are you waiting for, my dog's eyes pleaded.

“Well,” But then he stopped and looked up to think for a moment. Does he even know? 

Finally he had formed the words. He looked back at me with those dark eyes, I could no longer even make out the whites. “You are mine,” he said easily. “That’s simply it. It’s why I’ve done everything I have up to this point. Helping and harming you, I might add. For example I alerted those sunglass clad shades…” He said it with disdain. “Of you before I knew what you really are. Or I had maybe forgotten... Your true abilities, your power, your meaning. That is my mistake. I thought you were some vagabond but later you revealed yourself more of an equal, or was it earlier?” He tapered off. He was scattered-brain as ever. Not the evil villain I thought he would be. 

“You’re a psycho.” I snarled. “We are not the same.” 

“Hmm,” He grew perplexed. “I hate that word. I despise it.” He looked away for a second feigning hurt. “I’m disappointed in you. Maybe I have worked you up in my own mind a bit.” He fluttered his hands around his head. “But that’s more on my end. I can’t be mad at you for that.”

“Same here,” I said and I could tell that displeased him. 

“Hmm” He pursed his thin lips. “I wanted to meet you clearly and try to talk you down. Formally meet again. And I admit I have been trying to get that necklace off of you. Different tricks to get it out of the way. But the best way to do it was to follow the American model and outsource it, baby.” He shouted up to the heavens. 

“Lyra gave it to you, right? It looks very familiar. Her audacity to go against me.” He spat out her name with hatred. “I’m very happy you didn’t get busted by the suits. You know, we have been doing this exciting will they, won’t they, thing for the past… however long, now. I just didn’t want it to stop! Trust me you are better off with me then those suits. They can be a nasty bunch.”

“You sent them!” I hollered back.

“Me?” He said aghast. “That doesn’t seem like something I would do, you’re far too special to waste on them.”

“You did, I know it. No, you are playing your little games.”

“I will add it to the list. Heads up, they only bother with rule breakers, no dimensional jumping, no worries. I deal with much bigger picture stuff.” He corrected his hat and bowed slightly. 

“You’re nasty enough alright. But now...” I stepped forward. I wanted to press the gun to his skull just to make him know I was the one in control now. But I stopped myself in my tracks. “Now you look like a chickenshit. You're mine, not the other way around. I wanted to negotiate with you. But…”

Tim’s eyes settled up on me. “Even I can't bring back the dead. Not the way you mean.” He sighed. “God, you never stop talking about your fucking wife! I get it, she’s dead.” He pantomimed a crying baby. “Get over it. This should be about us! She brought us together, so I will not say sorry to you. Not that you want that…” He thought for a moment. “You know you’re partly to blame for all this. I was conducting business with your wife so things would go according to plan. Plain and simple. Doing my job. If you don’t like it, take it up with the higher ups.” 

“What fucking business?” I spat. “What fucking higher ups? What plan? What is going on?”

He gasped, surprised. “There you are.” He clapped. “Everywhere you go, there you find yourself... You said it!” He noted snapping his fingers. “Going on. Going on. And going on.” He repeated, then smiled viciously.

“You know... This isn’t that type of story.” I breathed deep and steeled myself. “I don’t have to know.” I pulled the trigger.

~

The gun went click. Click. Click. I pulled it again. The chamber of the revolver turned and the hammer went down consecutively but nothing happened. I went through all six rounds. All duds. I clicked three more times before he stood up. He reached out and grabbed the barrel of the gun. Yanking it away from me like he was taking a toy from an annoying child. He looked it over as Chewy and I recoiled. 

“Yes. Guns seem to have a funny way of handling when I'm around.” He shrugged and tossed it aside. “Funny you would even try. I think more and more maybe you are a buffoon. Do you even know who I am?” He sighed and stepped towards us. “I used to have a whole song and dance routine but I don’t have a boombox so I’ll say this. Do you know why Detroit has had 15 days without a murder?” He raised a curious eyebrow. But I was not meant to answer, I knew. 

“Because I have not visited them in that time. Do you know why Veronica Denales, a 93 year old retiree at Golden Palms nursing home, has not choked on her own spittle yet? Because I have not visited her. Do you know why a school bus carrying 33 kids has not tipped over a bridge in Taipei? They find little bodies and backpacks floating along for weeks afterwards. Weeks. And it has not happened yet because I was bored of doing that last week, so I'll do it next.” He was so close now. Towering above us. “Do you know why you stand before me? Still breathing?” He looked down on me. “Because I allow it.”

“Y.Y.You.” I stuttered. 

Quick as a whip he backhanded me. The force split my lip and I tasted blood. Stars burst around my vision as I reeled from the pain. Chewy lunged at him grabbing his leg and biting deep. Tim didn’t even flinch. He looked down disappointed and pulled Chewy free by the scruff. Chewy yelped out in pain. 

“This is not going well.” He said before Tim threw him back with a heaving motion. He flew ten feet, hitting the power line pole and windmilling him into the dirt. 

“Don’t touch him! Stay away!” I yelled. I backed off and circled around him. He laughed and stood tall. I dropped my revolver and pulled free something else from behind me. It was the fabric in my pocket, a red bandana from the witch, my blood still on it. I waved it like a bullfighter in front of me. He rolled his eyes. 

“Seriously?” He tapped his foot. I dropped the handkerchief away and held the charm that the bandanna had covered and cradled. He recoiled in surprise. 

“No one likes you Tim.” I said. “You have nothing. No one.” With the moonlight shining down on the leather gris-gris it was too bright for him, he looked away. He gasped like he was a fish out of water. 

“She was supposed to take it!” He shouted and wrapped his long arm around his eyes, like a spider in death throes, curling up to its own body. 

I planted myself into his waist and used my legs to try and throw him to the ground. “You bastard!” I shouted. “You think you can take everything from me?” I couldn’t get under his legs. It was like trying to knock over a bug, their spindly legs always righting them. He kept slipping and sliding back in the gravel. We both did. But he was cursing in pain.

He can’t stand being this close to me. I saw Chewy get up and shake himself off. “Get back Chewy!” I hollered as Tim tried to pull me free. “RUN!” I shouted. I felt my finger snap back as he grabbed at my locked hands at the small of his back. Trying to wrench the charm free and get himself away. His cold fingers popped back another one. I could hardly feel it but knew I could no longer use them. He would wriggle free any second. I gave one last heave and we both slid back against the metallic railing at the end of this road. The one with big x signs to mark the end. 

Then we tipped over.

And fell. We fell into the same place but a different when. 

~

Now the world was roaring. We had fallen into a nightmare reality. A storm wailed around us. It was so loud it was like a train was hurtling down on our spot on earth. Some siren was screaming off in the distance, it couldn't be the wind making that noise? We were ten feet down from the rim of the quarry. On a little craggly stone ledge which was hardly more than ten wide feet. Both scraped and bruised but alive. The next fall would not make us so lucky. Below was only darkness and splashing waves. We were being pelted by bits of rain so hard it felt like hail. I could hardly make him out with the darkness and the world of water that was whipping around me. 

“Get the fuck away from me!” I shouted. A branch smacked me in the thigh and almost took both legs with it. It would be a short time before something larger found me and knocked me to my death.

“A hurricane in Nashville!” He laughed. “You find the most interesting places!” He shouted. 

“But I can’t go to a world where you didn’t kill her! What good is it? What has it gotten me? Just more pain!”

“That’s a tragedy. It sure is.” He covered his eyes from the torrent and peered off the edge. Looking at the storm pulsating around us. “It is, but God damn is it beautiful!” Thunder cracked and lightning hit the forest across the way. A flame jutted out, green. Then it was quickly consumed. 

“I took her from you?” He shook his head in disappointment. Then quickly turned his attention to me. “That’s why I can’t stand you!” He fumed. “You never had her! She never belonged to you! Now you are mourning a future you never had! But you never had it to begin with! Did I rob you of your past with her? All you had before? No!”

“I wish you did!” I shouted out. He grew silent. Surprised. “I wish you did.” I said again. “I can’t stand all the pain. I can’t stand it.” I raked my chest with my hands. “I wish I had never met her. I wish I was still alone. Or that I was dead instead!” I huffed in my spot. “We had so much together.” I said meekly. “And… And it was cruel to take that away from me. I can’t go back to before. I can’t!”

He looked at me for some time. A lip curled up in disgust. He stepped forward pointing to the necklace hanging from my busted hand. “Then you came to the right man.” He waved his fingers, give it to me, he was saying. I held it loosely in my hand. 

Another lightning strike roared out. This time it was close. Right above us. Hitting the last power line pole. The thunder shook the ground and knocked rocks loose. They pelted us. Or was it just hail the size of golfballs? The wood and wired pole sprang to life with electricity and fire. It whipped its broken lines through the air. They cracked and sundered, falling forward in a well of fire and shards of wood. Tim looked up and shrieked as it timbered forward on top of us. His arms crunched under it and his body disappeared as the lines cracked around us in an electric roar. 

I was already falling back. No escape, nowhere to go but down.  

I was off the edge and waiting for the tumultuous water below to swallow me up.