CHAPTER 13: CROSS THE FIRE
5:55pm – Sunday, October 9th/2016
The bedroom door creaks open, and the little boy steps inside the room. Wade remains fearful and does not make a sound. The boy closes the door and walks slowly toward Wade with a sad expression on his face. He sits in front of Wade, legs crossed, and whispers, "It's okay. She told me you're not a bad guy. But we have to be quiet, or they'll try to hurt us." Wade pulls his hands out of his lap and rests them on the floor beside himself. He asks, "Who's going to hurt us? Who were you talking to?" The boy replies in a quiet tone, "Julia told me that if we're loud, the bad men will come and take me away. I don't want to go back. I like it here." Wade pauses for a minute before replying, thinking about what to say. He conjures up a question for the boy, "Julia. Where is she?" The boy replies, "She's in my head." Wade's mouth opens wide. He stops himself from reacting and whispers, "Can she hear me?" The boy looks down at his hands. After a moment of silence, he says, "She said, she's sorry for choking you." Wade stands up in fear. He backs away from the child. The little boy says, "She wants you to know that she will leave you alone if you just listen to me." Wade cannot comprehend what is going on. His mind is in shock, and his body is moving back toward the wall. When he hits the wall, a surge of fear springs his body forward, and he falls on his knees in front of the boy. "Tell me what happened to her!" Wade begs to the child. His hands are held out in front of him, clasped together. "Please, where is she now?" he asks. The boy blinks innocently at Wade and stares into his eyes. A moment of silence passes, and Wade shouts, "PLEASE!" "Shh!" The boy responds. "Don't shout!" He grabs Wade's trembling hands and says, "She's right here, beside us." Wade looks around the room. He doesn't understand. He looks back at the boy and quietly says, "Is she dead?" The boy lets go of Wade's hands and stands up. "I.. I don't know.. she just speaks to me in my head. I'm scared." The boy hugs Wade as he kneels on the floor. Wade stands still, with his arms at his side, and starts to cry.
It's okay Wade,
I'm here with you now.
I believe in you.
You can do this.
Just follow my lead.
"Julia? Can you hear me?" Wade asks out loud. A shadow passes against the far wall in the shape of a bird flying by. "She can hear you." Says the boy as he lets go of Wade, wiping his tears. Wade looks at the boy and asks, "Why can't I hear her?" The boy replies, "I don't know. She says to just, listen." Wade pushes himself back from the boy and sits down. He takes a deep breath and says, "Okay. What do I do?" They are both cross-legged now in the middle of the floor, looking at each other. The boy looks down at his hands, and after a moment of silence, he looks up at Wade and says, "What's your name?" Wade looks at him for a moment in confusion. He then responds, "My name is Wade. Wade Russel. What's yours?" The boy replies, "My name is Benjamin," The boy smiles, "but you can call me, Ben." Wade smiles back. Ben's smile fades after a moment, and he says, "Julia calls me Benjamin." Ben looks down at his hands and says, "She says it's my true name, but I like Ben. My friends call me Ben." Wade leans forward and says, "Is Julia your friend?" The boy looks up at Wade and answers, "Yes, she helps me. But she still calls me Benjamin. It's okay. But you can still call me Ben." Wade smirks and leans back. He asks Ben, "Has Julia told you about me? She used to be my wife." Wade starts to choke up a little. The boy replies, "No, not really. She told me you would be coming. But I was still scared. You still scared me." Ben laughs a bit, wiping the snot from his nose. Wade smiles and asks, "I didn't know I would be coming here. I have been gone away for a long time. I.." Wade takes a deep breath of emotion and manages to finish his sentence, "..I didn't know she had died." Ben and Wade lock eyes briefly before Wade looks down into his trembling hands. Ben grabs Wade's hands and says, "It's okay. I think ghosts are nice. Julia is nice. Look, she helped me find this stuff." Ben stands up and walks over to the closet in the corner of the room. He opens the door and pulls out a cardboard box. He reaches down inside the box and pulls up a few candy bars and a bottle of water. "See?" Ben says, showing Wade his stash. "She told me where to find it. They are yummy. Want some?" Ben offers a chocolate bar to Wade. Wade smiles with gratitude, and the boy sits down next to Wade to eat. Halfway through eating the chocolate, Wade looks around the room and says, "This used to be my old home. This is my daughter's room. Her name is Rayne." Wade's emotions start to show, and he looks down at the candy and says, "I miss her. I miss her a lot." He looks back up at Ben and asks, "Do you know where she is?" Ben shakes his head no and says, "I don't know her. What does she look like?" With a heavy breath, Wade replies, "She is small, like her mother. Well, at least she was ten years ago when I left. She's probably all grown up now, and I don't even know what she looks like anymore." Wade's face turns sour, and he puts the chocolate bar down on the ground. He gasps and quickly says, "Oh! I also have a son! His name is Tao. And I.." Wade pauses before continuing to speak to look at the closed bedroom door. He stands up and asks the boy, "Will you come with me into his bedroom?" The boy shakes his head yes, and stands up. He carefully folds the wrapper of his remaining chocolate bar and tucks it into his jean pocket. Wade and Ben walk over to the bedroom door, and before opening it, the boy whispers, "Just be quiet, okay?" Wade nods his head yes, and slowly opens the door for Ben. They walk down the hallway and turn to the second bedroom on the right. Stopping before the open door, Ben asks, "Is this your son's room?" Wade whispers, "Yes, it was."
Knock this shit off, Wade.
Do you really need a trip down memory lane?
You're going to be dead in a few hours, anyway.
You can reminisce after you've given yourself up to me.
Hurry the fuck up already.
Wade and Ben walk into the bedroom, and the boy sits in the middle of the floor, cross-legged. Wade takes a look around the room and then stares down at Ben. His eyes start to blur from the tears conjuring behind his sight. He pictures Tao in that exact spot with his toys and pouts out loud. "Are you okay?" The boy asks. Wade covers his face and shakes his head no. The boy stands up and hugs him. Wade grabs hold of Ben and lets out a daunting loud cry. "I'M SO SORRY!" Wade shouts. The boy says, "Shh!" and grabs Wade tighter. "Don't be loud!"
Wade covers his mouth to silence the cry and coughs very hard from choking on his saliva. He steps away from the boy and starts to spit blood from his mouth on the floor. As he does, the boy backs away from Wade and presses himself against the far wall. Wade kneels down on the ground, gagging. The boy says, "Wade! Stop it!" and Wade looks up at him as blood drips from his mouth and out his nose. The cough isn't stopping, and the boy looks petrified. Ben runs out of the room. Wade's body starts to give, and he falls to the floor. He catches himself with his hands and coughs blood onto the grey carpet. Ben runs back into the room with a water bottle and hands it to Wade. Wade lifts himself from the floor onto his knees and takes a swig of the water. He instantly spits it all over the room and onto the little boy. Droplets of water and blood roll down Ben's face, and he screams at the top of his lungs as Wade continues to cough. Ben backs up into the corner of the bedroom, scared. Wade runs towards the bathroom. When he gets a few feet away from the toilet, he vomits everything inside him toward the toilet. It misses the bowl and streaks down the wall beside it. Wade screams in pain as he presses himself up against the toilet and pukes again.
That's more like it!
That's the Wade I know.
Can't hold anything down.
Except the biggest lie of them all.
That one, you held in for a loooong time.
Glad it's all coming out, in it's proper spot.
Wade stares down into the toilet, becoming dizzy. He can hear the boy run down the stairs, crying. Wade attempts to shout at him but chokes again. Stopping himself from puking, he breathes in and out for a few minutes, hovering over the toilet. When his body has calmed, he steps up, feeling absolutely drained. With blood and spit dripping down his face, he puts his hands against the bathroom walls to hold himself up. Wade creeps out of the bathroom and down the stairway, holding himself up. His vision is blurred, but feels his way down to the main floor. He looks into the kitchen and yells, "BENJAMIN!"
Chunks of vomit fly from his mouth out onto the floor as he shouts. He doesn't hear an answer. He enters the empty kitchen and turns to the basement door on his right. "Benjamin! I'm sorry! Where are you?" Wade shouts, opening the basement door. He fumbles his way down the steep staircase into the dark. He tries the light switch at the bottom of the stairs, but the lights don't turn on. "Ben? Are you down here? I'm sorry, buddy. I didn't mean to scare you like that." he says in a soft tone. As he walks through the dark open room, he starts to make out some boxes in the corner and a pair of legs sticking out beside them. Wade slowly walks over to the boxes and peeks his head over the top of them. He sees Ben lying there, covering himself with his arms, shaking. Wade says, "Ben, I'm sorry." kneeling beside him. "Go away," Ben says without uncovering his face. Wade sighs and says, "Dude, I'm sorry. I promise that won't happen again. Please, I need you to tell me-" "JUST GET OUT OF HERE!" Ben shouts. Wade steps back and gives the boy a minute to calm down. He looks at the cardboard boxes beside Benjamin and notices 'Tao Russel' is written on one of them. Wade's heart skips a beat and reaches to open the box. Reaching in, he pulls out a pile of paper. Bringing them over to the basement window to see what they are, Wade realizes they are Tao's drawings. He holds them up into the light and inspects the details on the paper.
Those are drawings of our family.
Tao drew them while you were at work,
and continued to draw them after you left.
You'll notice how you disappear from the pictures, as do I.
You'll also notice how he stopped using colours.
The only drawings he wanted to draw after that were black and red.
He would spend hours in his room with Rayne,
learning about different ways to draw things.
Once we were gone, she stopped teaching him what the colours meant.
He grew very angry at us.
He grew especially angry at you.
He thinks you killed me,
but I know it's not your fault.
I forgave you a long time ago.
Wade slowly flips through the pages with his mouth wide open. He has never seen these before. He looks over at the boy. Ben is no longer covering his face and is staring expressionless at Wade. Ben loudly says, "They're at the hospital. Julia says to leave. You're not allowed to be here anymore." In shock, Wade asks, "What?" The boy stands up and starts to walk towards the staircase. He turns his back to Wade, saying, "You need to get out of here. Or the bad men are going to hurt you." Benjamin walks up the basement stairs as Wade stands by the windowsill holding Tao's drawings. Wade shouts, "Wait! They're at the hospital?!" He runs toward the stairs and shouts again, "Ben! Wait!"
The boy reaches the top and closes the basement door behind him. Wade runs up the staircase and tries to open the door, but it is locked. He shouts in frustration, "BEN! YOU LOCKED THE DOOR!" Jiggling the handle, Wade cannot open it. He slams his body to the side against the wood, but it does not budge. He steps back down a couple stairs, looks under the door, and shouts, "BENJAMIN! OPEN THE DOOR!".
While peering into the kitchen, the sunlight in the room goes dark, and Wade loses all sight of anything around him. He turns around and sits down on a step, breathing heavily. Suddenly Wade can hear footsteps walking up the stairs. Stepping up with his back against the door, he can start to feel breath on his neck. He squints his eyes and mouth and squeezes the papers in his hand. A voice bellows out in front of him, "Leave the drawings here." A hand grabs the papers and tugs. Wade doesn't let go. "YOU DON'T NEED THEM." The voice shouts as its hand reefs on the drawings right out of Wade's grasp. The swiping of a match is heard, and through the light of the flame, Wade can see a face. It's Julia.
Her eyes are all black, and she holds the match up toward the papers. "JULIA! NO!" Wade shouts. As he tries to stop her, Julia's other hand grabs Wade's neck and presses him up against the door. As he stands breathless being choked, the drawings are set on fire, and she chucks them down the stairs.
Oh, I like her.
She's a keeper.
Don't ever tell a strong woman what to do.
That's why you left in the middle of the night, wasn't it?
So you didn't have to face the truth..
that you are a weak, pathetic, undeserving coward.
The fire starts to spread on the carpet below him. It crawls up the steps as he's being held up against the door. He swings his arms around to try to get her off, but no physical contact is made to Julia. "Now listen, Wade. Before you ruin this little boy's life, you are going to get the fuck out of here, and never return. This is not your home anymore. This is Ben's safe place, and YOU, started to ruin that for him. Now, LEAVE." Julia slams Wade through the wood of the door and onto the kitchen tiles. He quickly stands up, shaking, and can see the flames start making their way to the kitchen. As he runs towards the front door, the little boy is sitting on a step in the foyer. Wade opens the door and shouts, "Get out of here! The basement is on fire!" Benjamin sits quietly and expressionless. He stares at Wade's panic in curiosity. Ben raises his hand, places his index finger pointing over his lips, and whispers, "Shh." Wade tries to grab the boy, but his hand goes right through him. He looks back to see the fire has spread into the kitchen, and Wade runs out the front door, closing the door behind him. When he reaches the front lawn, he turns to look at the house and sees smouldering smoke bellowing out the chimney. He hears sirens and looks down the road. A police car is speeding up the road towards him. Wade runs into the field beside the home and sprints around the back of the house. Reaching the back fence, he looks up at the bedroom windows. He can see Benjamin and Julia standing in the middle window, looking down at Wade. Julia wraps her arms around Ben and pulls him into the bedroom. Smoke starts to seep out the bedroom window, and Wade can hear the police say, "Check around back. I seen someone running away from the house." Wade panics and runs as fast as he can through the park and into the wooded area behind his old home. Sitting quietly in the bushes, he can hear fire truck sirens come down the street. His eyes are peering through the bushes at the fire. Wade can see an officer quickly checking from bush to bush. He takes one last look at the house, which is now engulfed in flames, and in a panic, he runs the opposite direction towards a plaza behind the park. Reaching the front of a convenience store, he looks around the parking lot and walks inside. Shaking, covered in blood, he stands at the store entrance when the clerk asks, "Can I help you sir?" Wade asks, "Which way to the hospital?" The man points to the map on the wall of the city. Wade walks over to it, and the man asks, "Sir. Do you need me to call you an ambulance?" Wade studies the map and remembers that the hospital is halfway across the rather large city. He thinks about it for a moment and says, "Yes, please. I need an ambulance."
10:10pm – Sunday, October 9th/2016