Out of the Black - Lee Doty [32]
"This isn't you anymore," Jamie continued, undeterred. "Or it doesn't have to be."
This was not happening. The death of hope was not a moment she wanted to share, even with well-intentioned relatives. Without looking up, she said "Mn-hmn" in her most noncommittal voice. Please, she thought, let this end soon. Each utterance brought her closer to sobs, closer to the uncontrollable tears that even now burned behind her eyes.
"Anne." He said, voice deepening into the voice of a stranger. "Anne, listen to me... life is about the future. It's about what you will do now."
Shocked, she looked up, across the table, and into the dead man's sharp blue eyes.
"It's all up to you now... and I'm not even exaggerating when I say 'all' here." He said with a warm smile. She could find no malice in his voice or eyes, though the memory his face brought was of the blackest terror.
For an instant, the world was filled with rain.
Kind eyes and soft voice, he continued. "I see you, Anne. You. I know you can do this."
Rain. A hot spike of pain drove from neck to heart- she was running through white mists.
She must have blinked because now something was chasing her through impenetrable darkness. Unseen but not unheard, the wolf's howls grew louder and deeper with each occurrence. She stumbled and went down, her shriek filling the darkness.
"Wait just a minute there Anne..." a clear, playful voice from above. She looked up and saw a light dividing the blackness above as a very white man in a very white robe fluttered down from above. No kidding- he was actually fluttering with two feathery wings and a halo that must have been left over from someone's elementary school play. Sprawled out on the cracked, bloody concrete, she waited... this would definitely be worth seeing.
As he descended, she heard a choir singing some fairly strident church-type music. 'Hallelujah! Good tidings! Hey, check it out sista!'
The angel with the tinsel halo alighted on the car next to her. The car's roof crumpled as if he weighed several tons. Broken glass from the car's shattering windows danced on the ground around her.
"I bring you good tidings..." he declared with the upraised finger of piety she'd seen on a stained glass window somewhere. He stepped lightly onto the sidewalk in front of her and cracks radiated away from his feet. The unseen choir backed him up with a resounding "Goo-ood tidings sista!" Around them, the nighttime city spread.
Then she realized it was the dead man again. "Good tidings owv geweat zhoy!" He managed to finish around his mouth full of shark's teeth.
The choir concluded with an emphatic, "Gonna eat you like a sandwich sista!" Then there was silence.
"Wi you zhdop vhat?!" He exclaimed, probing his new teeth with his index finger.
But she was back in flight, really hauling too- as opposed to the normal dream flight mode where you felt like you were running in yesterday's oatmeal and moving in geologic time. The sidewalk, then grass, and then pavement blurred beneath her feet. She was in the suburbs now, passing donut shop after ice cream store after donut shop. She was getting a bit tired...
She skidded to a halt in front of a shop with a huge poster of a plate of donuts with a scoop of ice cream where the hole should be. "Heyyyy." She said. She pushed the door open and paused only briefly to make sure no one saw her enter such a den of iniquity.
Inside, she looked back out through the window. Something had been chasing her, though she wasn't sure what anymore. She'd think more about it over a snack.
"What can I get for you?" a friendly voice from behind her. She turned to the counter, "Well my man, let's start with a little bit of..."
The dead man stood behind the counter with a plate of ice cream topped donuts like the picture in the window. He wore a bright white and red striped uniform with a small white cap. His smile seemed genuine, but nervous like a kid on his first date.
"We really need to talk Anne. Why not do it over some err... donut ice cream?" He glanced down at his tray, then back