Dimensions of Genesis (10 page)

“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be
Thy name…” Gabe began; the entity giggled and mocked him as he
spoke.

“You know none of that crap works, don’t
you!” She spat angrily at him, her black eyes furious. She pouted
darkly for a moment, and then her demeanor once again altered to
the sly, taunting personality.

“Do you know why you became a priest?” She
asked, watching him intently. “Do you!?’ She yelled, provoking Gabe
to answer.

“Yes…yes, I do.” Gabe stuttered, not looking
her in the eye.

“Okay, you tell me your reason, and then I’ll
tell you mine.” The creature stated smugly.

Slightly annoyed, Gabe said defensively, “I
became a priest to serve God…”

“Nope!! Wrong!” She interrupted loudly.
“You’re afraid…” she whispered, staring intensely.

He shook his head and frowned, unclear as to
what she meant.

“You’re afraid to live, afraid to die, afraid
to love, afraid to hate…afraid, afraid.” Her voice trailed off as
she seemed to lose focus, her eyes wandering crazily around the
room as though she didn’t know where she was.

As Gabe listened to her words, he found
himself reluctantly considering them. Am I…just copping out on
life? He wondered to himself. 

“Mommy?” She suddenly whimpered, a little
girl’s voice emanated from inside the monstrosity. Gabe eyed her
anxiously, not sure if this was one of the entity’s games. The
young girl’s eyes appeared to be a normal shade now, and she looked
frightened as she examined the ties on her hands and feet.

Looking desperately at Gabe, she began to cry
and beg for him to let her loose. After several moments of
listening to her pleas, Gabe reached to loosen the ties on her
wrists. At that moment, Father Francis entered the room and
witnessed Gabe untying her.

“Stop!!” Father Francis roared. “It’s a
trick!”

“Please!” The young girl’s eyes pleaded at
Gabe.

Tormented, Gabe left the ties and dropped her
hands. The moment he dropped his hand though, he saw something move
near the girl’s head.

A shadow.

It appeared to coil itself around her neck.
Barely visible to the naked eye, Gabe squinted and leaned closer to
determine if he was just imagining things.

As he inched toward to the girl, his eyes
focused on the dark mist entangling itself around her neck, her
eyes suddenly flooded black again. The girl’s head thrust forward,
teeth gnashing and snapping at Gabe’s face. She spat and growled
furiously as she struggled, writhing on the floor.

Leaping back, Gabe decided he’d had enough of
this exorcism. Grabbing his things, he uttered his apologies to
Father Francis. Leaving the room, he glanced back at the terrible,
loathsome creature on the floor as she thrashed violently and
screamed obscenities.

“Coward!!! Coward!!! That’s all you are!
Afraid to live!! Hiding in the church so you don’t have to live!!
Hiding behind your bible so you don’t have to face the truth!!!”
The girl screamed, her hips bucking and head whipping back and
forth. She screamed so loudly that her mother had come running up
the stairs.

Gabe ran from the room, his heart thudding
against his ribcage. All he wanted was to get out of there!

Running passed her mother he couldn’t even
muster a polite good-bye. He just ran out the door and far away
from 16 Campbell Street.

Revving up his bike and putting on his
helmet, Gabe roared down the street, unaware of the dark shadow
following closely behind him.

Deceptions

David’s eyes fluttered beneath the cover of
his lids. Sweat beading at his hairline. His body convulsed
involuntarily as he fought the fear that threatened his unconscious
mind.

Liquid invaded his ears, smothering all sound
to a muffled hum. His heartbeat was the only sound he could
hear.

Black tides embraced his body like a vice.
The unforgiving pressure on his chest as his airways pleaded for
atmospheric nourishment.

Swimming aimlessly in any direction, David’s
sense of equilibrium would not guide him to the surface...if there
was one. He could not sense what was up or down.

‘the light…David…the light’ The haunting
voice echoed through the darkness, as though guiding him to a
hidden trapped door.

Frantic, David struggled to find the source
of the voice, his lungs screaming for air. With a final muffled
cry, he inhaled, feeling the cold, wet sensation ooze down his
windpipe.

His body succumbed…sinking slowly, down into
the depths of the liquid black hole. Dark tendrils of water licked
at his face as his lifeless body sunk into the abyss.

As David watched his body being swallowed by
the darkness, he sensed something new, something he hadn’t felt in
his dream before. A presence…behind him…but who…or what?

As he turned to face this new anomaly, he
became aware of his body awakening.

No! Wait! He thought lucidly, I need to
see!

His eyes opened, hair drenched with salty
perspiration and heart beating.

“Dammit!” He swore loudly. David felt as
though he was on the verge of an unconscious breakthrough with that
one.

Sitting up, he wrapped his arms around his
knees, hugging them as he rocked back and forth until his heart
stopped racing.

He’d only been asleep for two hours when he
was awakened by the recurrent nightmare. The golf tournament would
be starting in an hour, so he decided to get up and force his weary
body to have a shower and get dressed.

If it weren’t a charity tournament, he
probably would’ve just called and canceled, but the hospital had
already put his name down for the four o’clock tee time.

His muscles felt unusually achy today as did
his head. He recalled the young lady he’d assisted in the emergency
room a couple of days ago, the one he’d diagnosed with food
poisoning. Considering he felt like he was getting the flu, he
wondered if he’d misdiagnosed her and caught whatever virus she
might have had.

Shaking off his hypochondria, he decided he
was just overtired.

Heading to the kitchen, David made himself a
pot of coffee. He drank slowly and appreciatively as the liquid
energy perforated his system.

As the caffeine coursed through his body, he
realized the coffee might have been a bad idea.

Considering he didn’t have to work the night
shift for another week, he could go back to a normal sleep routine.
Acknowledging that he’d slept all afternoon and caffeine made him
jittery; it all added up to a sleepless night.

“Idiot!” David cursed out loud. “Wonder if I
have time to run to the pharmacy for some sleeping pills.” He
muttered as he dumped the remainder of his coffee down the
sink.

Snapping his fingers, he remembered he’d
recently prescribed Ellen with some sedatives. He went upstairs to
her room to see if she had any left.

His hand on the doorknob to his wife’s room,
he felt strangely guilty. Rarely had he set foot in her room in the
last twelve years, he felt like he was entering enemy
territory.

Opening the door, he switched on the light
and was greeted by what resembled a luxurious catalog
advertisement. A king sized bed with a gold cover and countless
pillows. Ivory curtains hung with gold tiebacks from the bed’s huge
canopy.

An extravagant mahogany dresser decorated
with etched mirrors loomed at him from the left. Her make-up desk,
with its rows of fluorescent bulbs, sat to the right of him with a
half dozen expensive perfume bottles.

Rolling his eyes, he walked quickly to her
bathroom to see if the sedatives were there.

Searching her medicine cabinet, he came up
empty handed. Stopping to think, his brow furrowed, trying to
imagine where Ellen would keep her pills.

Duh! He thought, shaking his head. Obviously
the night table.

Opening the night table, he carefully looked
through the drawer. Pushing aside some neatly piled letters, he
discovered the pill bottle. He checked the contents and confirmed
that it was indeed the sedatives he’d prescribed her.

Tucking the bottle into his shirt pocket, he
glanced curiously at the piles of letters. Feelings of guilt washed
over him as he realized she could indeed accuse him of snooping at
this point.

It couldn’t hurt to have a peek, could it? He
reached into the drawer and grabbed one of the letters.

Taking the paper carefully out of the
envelope, he glanced at the bedroom door; paranoid. Laughing at
himself, he unfolded the letter and began to read.

Instantly he felt his mouth go dry and his
stomach drop.

 My dearest Ellen,

I miss you.

I want to be with you every day…not just once
a week. Life is too short for us to be apart like this.

Please tell David the truth? I know he’ll
understand. Your parents will forgive you…some day.

I love you and want to spend the rest of my
life with you. Please Ellen, ten years of waiting is long enough,
isn’t it?

Love forever,

Alex

David sat in stunned silence, shaking with
fury and his heart hardening with resentment. How could she do this
to him? What right did she have to keep, not one, but two men
hanging in the balance.

Your parents will forgive you? He thought,
dumbfounded, What the hell does that mean? She’ll be forgiven for
being with someone who‘s not a doctor or makes less money? Or for
getting a divorce and shaming the family? He shook his head in
disgust.

How dare this, Alex, even mention David’s
name, like he knew him or something? David thought hard, searching
his memory banks for any recollection of meeting a guy named Alex.
He couldn’t recall one, but ten years is a really long time.

David’s body tingled with pins and needles
from the shock, his hand white from clutching the note so
tightly.

All these years, every weekend, she was off
with some other man! His thoughts reeled. She never wanted sex
from me! Why, why, why on earth would she stay married to me?!

Was money and prestige so important that she
would give up true love for it? Did this other man simply not make
enough money to satisfy her disgusting hunger for materialism? Why
did she have to ruin David’s life, his dreams, and his desire for a
happy family? He deserved that much didn’t he?

He didn’t know how long he’d sat there, his
mind whirling so fast he couldn’t see straight.

Ten years! They’d been seeing each other for
ten years! How could Ellen ever look him in the face? How could she
stand to lie to Tiffany, her only daughter, for ten long
years?!

He suddenly felt incredibly stupid. Used and
stupid. Well of course there was someone else. Where else would she
be going every weekend?

I have to calm down. He thought as an anxiety
attack crept its way through his system. Starting to
hyperventilate, he reached to his pocket for the sedatives. He
slipped two tiny pills under his tongue, enduring the grainy
texture and chemical taste. After a couple of seconds, a flood of
sedation spread throughout his system.

As his mind calmed, his thoughts moved
slower.

He realized he and Ellen hadn’t had sex more
than a handful of times over the last twelve years. Tiffany was
practically a miracle when you consider the statistical odds of
conception with so few sexual encounters! If Tiffany didn’t
resemble David so much, he’d wonder if she was his at all!

Ellen told him an assortment of ruses to get
out of having intercourse with David. Anything from headaches to
yeast infections, you name it, she’d found a way out of it. After a
while, David simply gave up and thought she might eventually come
to him…she never did.

His head spun while his heart pounded
erratically, nauseating him slightly. He had to get out of here; he
needed fresh air, time to think.

“Dammit!” He yelled aloud as he remembered
his promise to the hospital golf tournament. Maybe it would be a
good thing; it would help him get his mind off of this for a little
while.

Angrily, he threw the letter back and slammed
the night table drawer shut.

“Alex.” He said with a growl, “Well, buddy,
you can have her!”

With that, David suddenly felt a twinge of
pity for the man who had stolen his wife.

~

Driving haphazardly, David sped with a
vengeance toward the golf clubhouse. Normally a very cautious
driver, he was filled with bitterness and was in a mood bent on
destruction. Trees colored by autumn flew past his vision, creating
a blurred mirage of green and gold.

Screeching to halt in the parking lot
adjacent to the prestigious country club, he hopped out of his car
and walked to the outdoor bar. Not usually a big drinker, David
decided today was a perfect day to test his limits.

“Three rye and coke please, no ice, oh what
the hell, make them doubles.” David grinned and winked at the cute
barmaid. She blushed crimson, smiled and began pouring his drinks.
Handing the drinks to David, she purposefully brushed her hand
alongside his. She smiled bashfully at him and continued on with
her duties.

See, I still got it! He thought with a cocky
grin, Ellen is missing out!

One of the golf course employees asked David
for his name, checked the attendance sheet, and confirmed his name
on the list. The man produced a sticker with his first name
scrawled in capital letters, DAVID. Slapping it onto his chest, he
chugged his first drink, then picked up his two remaining drinks
and wandered towards the large group of hospital staff gathered
near the first hole.

As he approached his peers, he’d already
polished off another drink. Feeling the effects hitting him, he
giggled as he tripped slightly; spilling a bit of booze on the
ground.

David recognized a few familiar faces,
including Nurse Henderson and Dr. Maddox. They stared at him with
looks of disbelief. The crowd of peers seemed shocked that the Dr.
Blake they knew would have one drink, let alone enough to get him
inebriated.