The Bright Road: Purgatory
Chapter Two
By: Roger Alderman
Jesse’s, now, the lifeless body lies
on top of a medical table, as the doors burst open. Roger and Victoria rush to
their son’s body, as their mournful tears and cries echo beyond the room. A
sorrow filled blood soaked doctor lowers his head and walks down the long
hallway away from his failure. Sarah dances and sways unseen to a rhythm only
she is aware of.
Time passes, as the mourning parents
are eventually lead from the room to allow the Coroners to take their son's
body. The last image of their son before his being taken is that of him
lifeless with failed medical devices attached to his small body.
The morning hours summon the day to
begin as Harold, the Medical Examiner, fumbles with his lunch box as he
struggles to open the morgue door late as usual for his shift. He searches his
pockets and sighs. “Damn it!” Harold declares. He turns and leaves through the
employee entrance to retrieve his keys to the door.
Deep inside the hospital morgue, in
the body cooler, numerous bodies with fresh autopsy wounds have been sorted and
stored. The bodies lay on metal tables or in wall mounted storage racks.
Plastic sheets and toe tags move gently as the cooling fans come to life.
Jesse’s eyes flash open and squint
against the bright glare from above. He sits up and looks around the cooler.
“MOM! DAD!” Jesse steps down and sees his corpse on the tabletop beside him. He
desperately rushes at the cooler door and pounds his hands against it
repeatedly.
Jesse collapses next to the door. He
shakes his head in confusion, as he stares at his body from across the room. He
sobs, “Please, someone open the door. I’m in here.” The light inside the cooler
comes on. Jesse looks up and slowly stands. He puts his ear to the door, as he
hears voices from the other room.
The door opens; Harold enters
pushing another table into the room with a fresh cadaver on it. “There you go.
Just sit tight,” Harold says aloud. Jesse stands behind Harold frozen in fear.
Harold turns to face Jesse and seems
to stare intensely at him. Suddenly Harold thrusts his arm through Jesse’s
chest. Jesse gasps and looks down at the arm piercing his chest. “Who keeps
changing this thing? They’re going to thaw and start to stink,” Harold
questions aloud. Harold adjusts the thermostat and exits. Jesse follows close
behind him.
Jesse sighs in relief and looks
around the sterile hospital morgue. He moves in front of the Medical Examiner
and waves his arms to get his attention. Nothing. Then without warning, Harold
walks through Jesse and enters his office closing the door behind him.
Jesse leans against an empty autopsy
table. He thinks aloud, “Why can’t he see me?” A shadow moves through the wall
near him and slowly rises taking on the shape of the ghastly little girl Sarah,
“Because you’re dead, Duh!” He turns in surprise to see Sarah sitting on top of
an empty metal autopsy table. She looks like a filthy old porcelain baby doll.
“You died. Your kind of slow, aren’t
you?” Sarah shrugs and seems amused by kicking her feet as they hang off the
tabletop. “I’m not slow!” Jesse answers.
Sarah smiles and shrugs at him, “You
got sick … it happens.” Jesse shakes his head and stares at Sarah in disbelief.
“Who are you?” Jesse demands. “I came to get you out before the phantoms come,”
Sarah responds, as she jumps down from the table and wags her tiny finger
towards Jesse.
Animalistic GRUNTS and ROARS echo
through the hallway outside the morgue. Jesse stares for a long moment at the
entrance door to the morgue. He holds a look of fear at what may lay beyond.
Sarah slaps Jesse to get his
attention, “Not good, they’re early.” Jesse rubs his cheek and looks at Sarah.
Sarah grabs Jesse’s arm and runs to the south wall with him behind her. She
fades through the wall. Jesse hits the wall with a THUD and lands hard on the
floor.
“Why would it be that easy?” Sarah
walks back through the wall and throws her hands up. She shakes her head and
stares at him. Jesse rubs his head and looks to her. “Don’t know that one,
huh?” she asks. Jesse points to the large air intake vent in the room, “Works
in the movies.” Sarah smiles and rubs his head, “Good job, let’s get out of
here.” Sarah pulls off the vent cover and they enter. Sarah pulls the air conditioning
vent close behind them.
Sarah and Jesse move with
determination through the rust and soot covered hospital air ducts. “We need to
put a lot of distance between them or they will sniff us out,” Sarah explains.
Jesse nods and follows. The pair comes to a stop, as the vent fills with a warm
brilliant golden light from behind them. “What’s that?” Jesse looks confused in
the direction of the air vent they entered through.
Sarah shakes her head, “it’s part of
how they hunt.” Sarah grabs his hand and drags him behind her. “I need some
answers or I am not going anywhere with you!” Jesse pulls away and sits down
crossing his arms in defiance. Sarah’s anger shows briefly, as she rolls her
eyes.
“Fine,” Sarah closes her eyes and
sniffs loudly. Her eyes snap open and she points, follow, but stay quiet”.
Jesse follows close behind hold a look of profound confusion on his face. She
sniffs the air and moves like a bloodhound on all fours following a scent. She
stops outside of an air vent cover and motions for him to join her.
“You want answers?” Sarah asks
shaking her head. “Uh, Yeah.” Jesse nods. Sarah gestures for Jesse to look
through the vent in the room beyond. Jesse glances into the room and confusion
crosses his face, as he sits back on his heels. Sarah motions for him to
continue watching.
Inside the room, the children watch
as an elderly man rises from his corpse. Oscar Cunningham sits upright on the
edge of his hospital bed in his hospital gown and knee-high black socks. His
head hangs low, as he looks to a picture frame that sits on the nightstand,
“together forever.” Smiling lovers rejoice from inside the picture backlit by a
colorful city boardwalk.
Jesse looks to Sarah desperate to
understand what is going on. Sarah raises a finger shushes him before e can
make a single noise. Their attention quickly returns to the room beyond, as a
Thunderous Boom announces the arrival of a swirling tunnel of light. Jesse and
Oscar both allow the word, “Beautiful…” to slip from their mouths as they stare
entranced at the illuminated tunnel.
Terror fills Sarah’s face, as she
turns to Jesse. She slaps her hand over his mouth and clenches tightly. Jesse’s
expression of shock says it all, as Sarah defiantly shakes her head in
disapproval. She gestures at the room and motions for him to remain silent.
For a moment, Oscars' attention
moved to seek the origin of the words from the air vent, but the brilliance of
the tunnel regains his full attention. Oscar reaches out longingly towards the
tunnel, as he feels the warmth and subconscious recognition of what awaits
beyond this Bright Road in front of him.
The golden light of the tunnel
flickers and turns a sickly green that washes over the room’s contents. The
shadows come alive and devour any illumination brave enough to approach. Terror
seizes Oscar’s expression, as unearthly black vines surge across the interior
walls of the room.
Oscar shuffles away from the walls
and stops after bumping into the foot of the hospital bed. He raises his arms
defensively before himself, as he notices something stirring in the deep black
pools. Oscar’s fear grows, as six ghastly figures enter the room through the
dark pools.
Long slender spider like fingers
finds purchase allowing the figures to slowly pull themselves from the tar like
pools. Tall wiry obsidian like figures kneels just before each
light-obliterating void facing their very confused prey. The new arrivals utter
low long guttural growls, as Oscar glance in panic at each.
“What do you want?” Oscar begs as he
retreats to a corner near the head of his bed. Oscar raises his arms
defensively, as the ghoulish new arrival circle their prey. Jesse looks to
Sarah, “should we?” Sarah shakes her head defiantly and gestures for Jesse to
continue watching.
Jesse glances back inside the room
and immediately withdraws his attention in disgust. Sarah smiles and points at
Jesse a warp and twisted smile upon her face. “THEY… they …” Jesse begins, as
his eye dart about the rusty and trying to find an answer to a question he
dares not ask. “Well, that’s that,” Sarah snarky replies “survival of the
fittest and all.”
One of the gaunt assailants raises
its head and sniff at the air. Its attention moves to the air vent above the
room, as it releases a low deep growl. Sarah moves in quickly places a hand
over Jesse’s mouth and shushes him. He remains silent and confused.
“See what you did. Now be quiet or I
will feed you to them myself!” Sarah threatens. Jesse pulls against her vice
like hold of his mouth, but yield to her demand in his loss of an understanding
of this world or its rules. Sarah motions for him to continue moving through
the air vents, as one of the creature’s leaps atop the nightstand. Its
attention focused on the near inaudible children above.
After working their way upwards to
ground floor Jesse comes to a complete stop tired and irritated with the events
of the past few hours. Sarah turns to see Jesse sits legs crossed and shaking
his head. She moves carefully to his side, “fine. You want answers, right?”
Jesse nods in agreement.
“Fine. Here’s the short answer,”
Sarah blurts out sarcastically, “I’m Sarah. We’re dead and this isn’t heaven.”
Jesse stares his mouth hanging open at the abrupt and curt answer. “Can we go
now?” Sarah’s irritation hangs clear on her face.
Jesse’s eye dart about the inside of
the air vent in a desperate search for words squints his eyes, and gestures
back in the direction they came from, “What were.” “You’re the only one I have
ever come for that didn’t get it by now?” Sarah shakes her head in disbelief of
his loss of understanding the most basic of concepts, like death.
“So, you have done this before then?
You should be more understanding,” Jesse pleads. “Why is this so hard for you?
You died to get over it and move on or become Phantom Chow. It’s just that
simple,” Sarah glares at her companion. “There had to be someone better they
could send to take people to heaven,” Jesse demands. Sarah chuckles, “Never
said heaven.”
Jesse pauses before he swallows hard
and lowers his head, “Hell…” Sarah rolls her eyes at Jesse’s ignorance, “You’re
such a wimp.” Jesse’s face contorts with growing irritation of his companion
and shakes his head, “Well, I don’t feel dead?” Sarah clears her throat, “Have
you ever been dead before?” Jesse shakes his head in response. Sarah smirks,
leans in close, and playfully ruffles his hair, “then how do you know?”
Sarah turns from him and continues
to crawl through the air vents. “I hate you,” Jesse whispers. Sarah stops and
smirks, “Welcome to purgatory. You’re going to hate it here.” Jesse sighs loudly
and follows his would-be rescuer.
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