999_ Twenty-Nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense - Al Sarrantonio [116]
“But you terrified me.”
She put a hand against my mouth and I found myself trembling. “And yet you fed me when you had to, you held me and rocked me even when I vomited all over you. Herman never went near me. He loathed me, just like Dad did.”
“But that afternoon—I hit you.”
“Yes, and I loved you all the more for it.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple, Billy. I struck you and drew blood.”
“But you couldn’t help it. It was just you spazzing—” I broke off, shame flooding me anew.
“It’s all right, Billy.” She caressed me. “Don’t you see, you reacted as if I were a normal person. You treated me like you would anyone else who had struck you. Even Mom, who loved me so desperately, couldn’t have done what you did, because she pitied me so. You never pitied me, so when you reacted you did so from your true being. For that I was so grateful, Billy, I cannot begin to tell you.”
“Oh, Lily—” Bitter tears of remorse and self-loathing slid down my cheeks. “I never suspected what was underneath. That you had—” I gestured at the paintings.
“But you did, Billy.” She took me over to a painting of a forest glade drenched in sunlight and in something intangible that, just like this reality she had created, was so much more. “That afternoon when I drew blood and you hit me back was our connection, our communication. Before then, I was plagued by bouts of despair and black thoughts of suicide. You reaffirmed for me my right to exist, my own humanity.” She smiled. “Vav, Gimel, Daleth—they’re all pieces of my personality and they all love you unconditionally.”
I was overcome with shame. “My God, I never imagined—”
“How could you?” she said gently. Now she seemed to be holding me as, moments before, I had been holding her. “That was okay, you see. Because I could see underneath your facade. I knew what was there.”
“But I never came to see you.”
“And yet we never lost touch, did we? Because Donnatella would tell me all about you.”
“She’d talk to you about me?”
“You were all she talked about, Billy. And she was so good at it, it was like having you in the room with me.” Her dark eyes looked into mine. “She never stopped coming, even after the divorce.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“She’s here now.”
I looked around. “In this house?”
Her voice grew soft as a candle flame. “No, at my bedside. The moment has come, I’m dying, Billy,”
“No!” I pulled her close to me, wrapping my arms around her. “I won’t let it happen. I won’t lose you now, after I’ve just found you.”
Lily shook her head. “We all have our time, Billy. Mine has come and gone.”
“Then we’ll stay here, in this fantastic world you’ve conjured. I’ll keep you safe here. Nothing can harm you.”
“Oh, Billy.” She shook her head as I took her back out into the hallway. But I recoiled as soon as I looked over the banister. There was nothing below us. The entire ground floor had vanished into an odd kind of pearly-gray mist.
“What the hell—?”
“It’s going, Billy. I’m growing weak. I can’t maintain this world any longer.”
“Then, teach me how to rebuild it,” I said. “I’m strong. I’ll do whatever it takes.” Already I could see the mist curling up the staircase. Everything it touched instantly melted into it. It reached the second floor and the entire right wing vanished. I took Lily’s hand, and we raced down what was left of the hallway. “Quick! Tell me how to rebuild this!”
“It won’t work, Billy. You can’t cheat death.”
“But I don’t want you to die!” Behind us, the rooms with the wondrous paintings of our childhood were one by one being devoured in the mist.
“And I don’t want to leave you,” Lily said as we reached the master suite, “but I must.”
“There must be something you can do,” I implored her.
Now it was she who led me inside. “Close the door and lock it,” she said. When I did what she had asked, I saw that she was very pale. She collapsed into my arms, and I carried her