Uncollected Blood (12 page)

He slammed both his fists into Eric’s chest and dropped him on his butt. Eric leapt up and started choking him. The two tumbled down the hill into a tree.

“I’m going to spit in your mouth!” Eric tried but missed; though it was just as bad he left Dave’s cheek soaked.

Dave’s swift retaliation was a kick in the balls. Eric toppled over while Dave ran down the hill. He ran for the bridge.

“I’ll kill you!” Eric clutched his swollen privates and lay in the dirt for a good while.

Eric struggled back up to his feet, though he still crouched in agony. “Towel head,” he cursed.  Then something grabbed him, wrapped their thick arms around him and held him. Whispered into his ear,

“I don’t have to hurt you.”

With a few violent twists he scraped and fought himself free. Whipped around and heard the woods shake as someone dashed into them. Eric was frozen. Terrified. He stared into the woods, knowing he should have started running already. Should’ve started yelling for Dave. But he didn’t. He just looked as a soft breeze stirred all the leaves and the hiss of traffic up on the bridge him strain to hear any little movements or the breathing of whoever had grabbed him.

The woods replied with laughter.

He ran as fast as he ever could, his feet slapping against the worn path. He sprinted passed Dave on the walk bridge back across the James River.

“Hey, dick breath.” Dave said as he threw a late attempt to trip up Eric.

“Run! Just Run!” Eric hollered almost all the way to the other side of the bridge already. Dave would never catch up to him.

“Hey, where are my dad’s binoculars? Oh, come on you left them!” Dave was furious. He stopped dead in his tracks.  He turned and looked back over his shoulder. It was so dark back on Belle Isle. He knew he couldn’t just leave the binoculars. Someone would find them and steal them. It was just passed 9 P.M. now. He still had plenty of time to grab them and get back before his parents checked in on him as they always did. He ignored Eric’s fading calls to run, and turned back.

All alone on Belle Isle it seemed even darker. Dave searched the woods where he tossed off the Binoculars. Finally finding them, he dusted them off and checked the lens to see if in his anger he had cracked them. Lucky him, he had not. A wind came off the river, it brushed the smell of rotting catfish up to his nose and he turned his head away, turned his head northeast. He looked out where he had seen the dark cloud rising from the city. Where he saw it staring back at him. He knew Church Hill was a place he should never go. His parents warned him. His father had grown up there. He heard about it on the news. Every night. It sounded worse than Gotham City. There wasn’t just some evil clown. It was everyone.  Richmond needed Batman.

Dave needed to get back home. He shouldn’t have been out there. His parents would ground him for the rest of his life. The thought was enough to keep him moving back up the hill and into the woods. He had forgotten how dark it was around him for a moment, but then the woods reminded him. 

Just the wind, Dave thought, his hands tight on the binoculars.

He decided he’d look again. No use being afraid. Not if he was going to save Richmond one day. As stupid as that thought sounded to him, he still hoped it was possible. That he could make a difference one day. But then he thought he was probably better off just leaving when he was grown up enough to do so. After all VCU didn’t even have a football team so why go to college there. He pulled the binoculars to his eyes without another thought. He searched the night sky. Stared into that orange bit of pollution hanging where it should be the dark of night.

There was nothing.

Nothing to be afraid of at all.

He put the binoculars down and managed to scare himself with a thought. What if whatever he had seen had left Church Hill? What if it is on its way here to get him?

He slipped down off the hill, and tried his best to dust off his shorts. It was no use. Hopefully he could cover up how he got them dirty by sneaking out the house in them again tomorrow and sitting on the ground in front of his mom. She’d never know the difference.

He thought how they wouldn’t understand that he was out trying to do some good. They’d think he was like other kids, getting into smoking and drugs and stuff. But he knew better. They never gave him credit.

“I don’t have to hurt you.”

Dave fell on his butt. He twisted around and saw a dark figure, mostly naked, or just wearing short shorts and a tattered shirt staring down at him from the hill where he had been. The man stepped down the hill carefully regarding each step, not to be tripped up in the night.

“You seen ‘em ain’t you?” The man said.

Dave knew he was probably homeless, he should be helped, he thought. Then he panicked, if he’s homeless he’s starving… and his imagination ran off while the rest of him was petrified on the ground.

His heart pleaded him with Eric’s echo, “Run! Run!”

“Sorry mister, I don’t have any…” his voice shook, “…money, I gotta go home okay…” then his voice cracked with bravado, “ I know kung fu, learned it last summer.”

“That won’t do you any good.” The man swatted his long thick hair away from his face and kept coming closer. “The gods don’t respect kung fu.”

Dave found his feet, planted them and lifted himself upright.

“I’ll see you later, Mister. Good night.” Dave started to run the tall grass bowed before him. He could make it to the bridge; he could out run plenty of adults. If not, he’d hit him with the binoculars, they were heavy enough.

He leapt over the mound of dirt meant for bikers and almost tripped on his landing. But he was flawless in his recovery and found more energy, he ran faster and faster against the grass. Crickets cheered him on as he blew on by them.

He turned and looked behind. The man had stopped. He was coughing hard. The man almost collapsed but caught himself on his knees. Dave smiled; he could out run every smoker he ever knew. He heard vomiting. It came in loud wretches, splattering on the ground.

Dave was almost at the bridge. He was free from the tall grass.

So close.

He stepped in something thick and wet. It swept his foot away. He tumbled hard into the packed path. He felt scrapes form on his knees and chin. He slid a few feet and then felt the terrible wetness. It invaded his nostrils and sought to gain his contribution. He picked his face up and rubbed the throw up from his cheek. His own vomit tried to creep up his throat.

The man was singing in a low terrible growl, “… duck my head in shame, I don’t know your name, I keep following you just the same…”

How had he caught up to Dave?

“Stay back, mister!”

His singing increased in volume and madness, “My faith follows you down, down, down to the town, I’ve been watching you walk, walk, walk around, Duck my head in shame, I don’t know your name, I keep following you just the same,” The singing stopped, he said Dave’s name like he had just heard it, “Dave. Davey boy.” He laughed a laugh that would’ve been pleasant had the circumstances been such. It was as if he had just recognized the name of a dear old friend.  “I don’t have to hurt you.” He poked towards Dave.

“You’ll have to kill me first!” Dave regretted his boast and decided to run again. His leg immediately caught and he tumbled back into the ground. Around the man’s arm, the man wrapped a rope, round and round. It tugged at Dave’s leg. Lifted him up and dragged him back to the man.

“You don’t scare me!” Dave kicked. He reached for the rope and grabbed it, a waste of more energy. It only made is easier for the man to pull him. The man seemed mused and started to hum his song again, bits of the words popped out of the hum at random.

“…your name…following…”

“Please…” Dave began to beg, he could no longer control himself. He was sobbing, pleading, dealing, praying, apologizing.

It did no good.

“What were you doing out here, Davey?”

“Just playing…” He cried.

“But this is the real world, only gods play in the real world, are you a god, Davey?”

Dave didn’t answer; he was trying to stop crying.

“But Davey, do you want to be a god? Gods are worshipped; gods are everything and all things. That’s why I’ve followed you.” He hummed the rest of the tune before he said the words, “Down. Down. Down to the town.” He opened his mouth and his horrid jagged teeth were filled with the stench of his vomit. “I’ve seen you in Church, Davey. You don’t believe do you?”

Dave wanted to tell him, he’d never seen him, and he had the wrong guy. But he still couldn’t stop sobbing.

The man answered for him, shaking his head and singing the response with bravado, “No!” He tugged the rope over his shoulder and began to drag Dave towards the darkness. The absolute darkness.

“Why don’t you remember anything, Davey?” the black surrounded them. He couldn’t see past his own chest, he tried to claw at the ground, but the man never noticed, never caused a hiccup in his march through the dark.

“They used to feed the gods, with the nameless. Made them fresh and special, no one knew. But I’ve had to wait for you. I’m always waiting for you.” He stopped. Dave had no idea where he was, the screaming rapids meant he must’ve been parallel to the Hollywood Rapids, but it was dark, and there was nothing else he could see. It sounded as if the man stepped to face him. He could’ve been right over him, face to face; it was so dark he couldn’t see. But he could smell. He could smell the warm vomit on his breath.

“Can we make a deal, Davey? This needs to be our secret.” The man had to have been above him, he exhaled a heavy musk. It stung Dave’s eyes. He waited a moment, then thanked Dave, “Good choice. I knew it was you, Davey and not Eric. Eric could never do what I want you to do to me. That’s why I…” he broke back into his horrible song and dragged Dave along. The man’s heavy feet began to land on wood. A hollow sounding wood as they stepped further. They were coming out of the darkness.

Dave knew where they were; the flooded granite quarry on Belle Isle. On the platform the man dragged the crying boy to the center, then lifted him to his feet.

Dave felt the man’s hands feeling for his arms, searching the night air and then finally clasping onto them. His rough greasy hands couldn’t seem to make a firm grip.

“Do you understand what innocence is?” the man asked the same way his teacher’s had asked him in what years George Washington was president. Davey couldn’t think of either answer at the moment. He could feel his knuckles in his palms he was clenching them so tight.

“Innocence is blindness, ignorance. It’s a free pass. Keep passing Go, Davey, keep collecting two hundred. With blindness you cannot see the way things are, the way they really are.” The man had wrapped his greasy hands around Dave’s arms and was squeezing them with every syllable.

“I take away your innocence, the feeder of the gods is a God, Davey. Do you understand? Gods are not innocent. Horrible things will happen. They know your name now, Davey.” The man’s voice started to tremble; he sounded as terrified as Dave. “They know you name. They seen you staring at them tonight, they know you came here tonight. You will have to serve them. I can’t offer you a pleasant set of choices. Only one, serve them. I heard you saying you wanted to save this city. Save it Davey, you must.”

The world around them, shook to a silence, there was nothing in the air, no warmth, no cold. No rapids, no cars. No orange, no black. Time had stopped. Dave couldn’t even hear his own tearful breaths.  It felt as if the man was still speaking to him, yet he watched as the man’s lips did not move, only his eyes locked onto Dave’s and small gestures drew his eyes to the surface of the water. Something was starting to take place he could feel the man trying to explain it to him that what was happening was real. The water was so dark it seemed solid.

The black glass stretched out before them, it rose like a hand or a mouth and spread wide with long terrible teeth.

“Do you understand?” The man’s voice had a strange echo. Though Dave’s attention had been upon the shape forming he knew the words had not come from the man’s mouth. “Tonight it is your job. You wanted to protect this city, Davey. The city needs you. The gods need you.”

Dave felt the rope loosed around his ankle. But he did not seize his chance to run. He couldn’t take his eyes off the glassy form rising up behind the man.

“You have to feed it, Davey. You have to feed it or else HE will spread!” The man’s finger pointed back behind Dave. Dave remembered the horrible eyes that stared out of the blackness over Church Hill.

Before him was something far worse. He couldn’t stop looking. Couldn’t even blink. The sight was strange and terrifying, it was as if the earth was folding up towards the sky to form the horrible shape before him.

“It won’t take just anyone, do you understand?” The man looked at Dave giving away his sadness. “They tried, fed it soldiers and slaves as best they could, but it’s particular, and many were just wasted corpses to be tossed into the dirt, and it doesn’t want to over eat, it has to have a particular kind. You’ll know when you see them.” The sadness attempted to convey a warm compassion by smiling a crooked smile. Not from sinister intentions but from lack of hygiene.

Dave wanted to run, but he just looked up into the man’s beady eyes as they reflected the glow of night.