The Forbidden Place

    While I sat on my cozy, white love-seat, watching an old episode of Tom and Jerry, a cool breeze entered through the open door.  The flower patterned curtain fluttered like a magic carpet about to embark on a mystical journey. 

    Completing the last of my tuna sandwich, the room's comfortable temperature dipped at an alarming rate.  A dark shadow fell over my 50-inch plasma television.  I knew that a pair of ominous white eyes observed my every move.

    "What do you want?"

    They almost never spoke.  A robust figure stood by the door glancing at me and then outside.

    Besides the cozy love-seat, my tiny apartment featured a wooden, folding table and a small, wall unit surrounded by bright, yellow, butterfly orchids which added color to the plain white walls.  Concerned for my orchids' safety, I muttered, "What is it now?"
   
    The last time this spirit appeared, he led me outside to the park where I managed to catch a boy as he was falling off a tree.  "Don't tell me there's going to be another child falling from the sky."
   
    He stroked his long, brown beard and looked away to the front gate, again.  His pale face hid any sense of urgency.  He glanced at me and floated outside.

    Meanwhile, on the screen, Tom chased Jerry and slammed his head through a door.

    "This better be good, Jack." I called him Jack on account he reminded me of a lumberjack.  I went to the door and spotted Jack by the gate, looking sad.  When I reached the fence, my new bride, Valerie, jumped at my sudden appearance.
     
    "Jesus! Honey, you scared me."

    I took one of two bags of groceries she was carrying when an icy chill caught my attention.  I scanned the street, spotting the usual parked vehicles.

    "What is it, Ray?" Valerie's soft voice matched her petite frame.  Her ivory complexion contrasted with her black ensemble. 

    A lump formed in my throat.  I peeked back at Jack who had a menacing scowl, kind of like a guard dog trying to ward off a prowler by utilizing a mean growl.  I stared out into the streets but all appeared normal.  "Nothing, my little buttercup." Then, I bent over, kissed her lips, and followed her inside.
   
    Valerie asked, "Any word about the missing girl?"

    I glanced back at the open doorway to see Jack's reaction to the question but he was gone.  I wish Jack could talk so I can find out Cynthia's fate.

    Even though Valerie was sweaty, her perfume lured me close to her until I wrapped my strong arms around her delicate waist. I kissed her neck.  She turned and planted her tongue inside my mouth.  Just when I wanted to lift her onto the counter, she whispered, "Stop."  I ignored her and worked my lips down her neck.
     
    "You're going to be late for work," she said. 

    "So what?"

    "I need a bath." She gently pushed me off her and smiled, "After dinner I'll be the dessert."  Her chocolate eyes beamed, melting my heart.

    "Alright, tonight then."

    My journey towards work included a trek through a park.  Its perimeter featured a modern track where hardworking couples jogged together, overweight women walked, chatting about the day's gossip, and youngsters stretched and laughed at each others silly deeds.

    Posters of Cindy Vargas, a cute dark-haired ten-year-old with dimpled cheeks and a sparkling smile, hung on almost every tree, reminding me that life was far from perfect.
 
    I went inside the building and when I continued my chores, the strong pine scent filtered through my nostrils making me wish I was out in the country enjoying a hike in the woods.  Instead, I dipped a mop in a pail, pushed a lever and waited for some of the excess floor cleaning solution to trickle back into the bucket.  A wet slopping sound echoed throughout the long corridor.

    Using a consistent side-to-side motion the white tiles began to sparkle.  I continued working while humming Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  All of a sudden, nature added its own musical orchestra when a strong gust of wind wreaked havoc with the locked doors.  I could swear an invisible intruder was desperate to gain entry.
 
    As a school janitor, I took pride in leaving St. Agnes Elementary School clean.  I worked from two till ten at night so I knew many, if not all, of the students.  A cold chill ran through me when I reached the orange lockers.  A picture of little Cindy Vargas,  holding her favorite doll, lined the hallway's walls. 

    Last week both the child and her doll went missing.  Cindy had a reputation for being a loner.  Too tall for her age, the other students ridiculed her.  I made several attempts to befriend her and was making progress when she disappeared.  According to Cindy's mother, the little girl went home without being able to retrieve her doll from the locker.  That Friday a gas leak forced Principal Wilkins to evacuate the students and all personnel.  Cindy's mother happened by and took her home.  I read in a newspaper that Cindy did not want to be without her doll for the long weekend; so, she snuck out of her house and headed to school.  Her mother was the last person to see her.

    I rinsed the mop and was ready to splash the floor, when a strange blotch in front of the lockers caught my attention.  I got on one knee and traced the outline with one finger in the air.  I wonder what made this mark?

    No sooner I asked myself the question, when the black outline began to fill with red liquid.  What the hell?  My sweaty palms made it difficult to hold the wooden mop handle steady.  The lights flicked on and off until they shut down altogether.  Then, the doors rattled something fierce. 

    Oh crap, it's happening again.

    The door was opening to the forbidden place.  The place my mother warned me not to visit. 
    When I could stand the noise no more, I yelled, "Enough!"

    The doors stopped rattling and the lights went back on.  Still, the air remained cold.  I glanced at the wet tiles and although the mark remained, the bloody outline disappeared.  I used all my strength and managed to get the stubborn patch of brown to almost vanish. 

    It was near quitting time when my relief, Carmine, entered with a red thermos filled with coffee.  "Hi Ray, anything new?"
   
    Carmine was the exact opposite of me.  His pale skin and five-foot, slender frame made me look like a bronzed Adonis.  It would take both his thighs to equal one of mine.
 
    "Everything is pretty much the same." I tried to smile but my energy waned.

    His beady eyes made smaller by his overgrown forehead and scarce hairline distorted his face.
    He opened his thermos and poured a bit of coffee into the cup.  "Hey, any news about the missing girl?"
 
    I winced at hearing his annoying, nasal high-pitched voice.  Rubbing my shoulder as if it hurt, to explain my facial expression, I nodded, "No, I haven't heard anything about Cynthia Vargas."

    "Too bad.  That little filly is going to be one fine chick when she grows up.  I saw her mother on the news the other night.  She sure is a looker."

    "Hey, I'm almost done here." I said.

    "Don't worry.  I'll put that stuff away for you." His smile revealed two missing front teeth.

    I shook his hand and said, "Goodnight Carmine."

    On the way back to my small garage apartment, I crossed through the part of the park that featured a large playground with red swings, a slide, several trees, wooden benches and an orange merry-go-round.  The chilling night air made it difficult for me to breathe.

    It didn't take long before I spotted a couple sitting on the top railing of a green bench, their feet resting where their behinds should have been. The male wore a black raincoat and a tee-shirt boasting, Live Free, Die Well.  His curly blond hair rested just above his shoulders.  He must have been wearing contacts because his eyes glowed like a wolf's.  The female, sported long skintight leather pants and a red tube blouse.  A black jacket matched her short hair covering pale skin.

    I thought about nodding at them but realized it would be a mistake to reveal my ability.  There was no way they were among the living.  The strong breeze shook the swings hard, catching my eye.  When I glanced back at the odd couple, the male stared at me but the female was gone.  I sensed movement behind me.  The woman stood on the merry-go-round enjoying the wind propelled ride, licking her lips and staring at me through dark orbs. 

    Creepy.  She studied me as if I was the anomaly.  Her dark eyes triggered a memory from my past.



  As a young child, my father's untimely demise forced my mother to work and leave me with my grandmother who lived out in the country.  Her youthful appearance and easygoing manner made me feel safe. 

    I remember as if it was yesterday how her vanilla cream skin illuminated when a full moon hung over a darkening sky.  We'd sit on the grass and pet the wild animals.  I didn't learn until later that deer, rabbits, and falcons were unapproachable to most humans.  They gravitated to my grandmother like a favorite pet to a kind child. 

    "Little one, listen carefully to what I tell you."  Her green eyes matched the grass surrounding us.  Her pink dress, cut off an inch above her ankles in the rear, fluttered about in the warm breeze.  She wore blue, thin layered sandals which snaked around her legs just below her knees.
 
    Rifling her fingers through my black curls she said, "You are blessed with the power to see what many can't and you must learn to embrace your ability."

    Her hypnotic voice lulled me to a deep slumber.  Coupled with her soft touch, the warm air made me feel as if I floated so near the moon that touching it became a possibility.

    She continued, "Your mother is a foreigner.  She does not understand our ways.  Like your father and his before him, you are a bridge between two worlds.  You need not be afraid of the dead if you have wronged no one, instead; be wary of the living."

    She smiled at the look of confusion on my face and with her long fingernails, traced an outline of a cross on my chest.  She pinched my chubby cheeks and lifted me by my husky shoulders.  I spent many days and nights with my beloved grandmother who taught me how to be one with nature.


 
    As I crossed from the park to the concrete jungle, a redheaded man-child rode a Schwinn bicycle round in a circle.  A brown Doberman Pincher stared at the man in the bike, following him, moving his neck in a circular pattern. 

    At last, when I reached my apartment, my relief was short-lived when Jack loomed by the door.  I ignored him and let myself in.  My wife Valerie smiled, sitting on the love-seat, eating a plate of fish and chips.

    While my grandmother trained me to communicate with the dead, my mother taught me how to keep the door closed to what she called the forbidden place.  She encouraged me to watch television, but only cartoons and comedies.  The news and horror movies were off limits.

    I grabbed my plate of food and joined my beloved.  "What do you want?"  Jack never spoke.  The room's temperature dropped, signaling that a problem needed to be solved before my flowers wilted. 
    Thinking about the safety of my orchids, I muttered, "What is it now?"
   
    "Is Jack here?  Where is he?" Valerie asked.

    I pointed to the closed door and asked, "Is someone in trouble?" 
   
    His normally stoic face showed a menacing scowl.  Jack went through the closed door and out of my apartment.  I had a choice to make.  Obey my mother and watch television, or listen to my grandmother by embracing my talents and follow my ghostly guide. 

    Once I stepped outside, it was too late.  I had entered the forbidden place.  My dark acquaintance led me through the park.  The man-child and the dog were still playing out their eerie routine, but the park was devoid of freaks.  We stopped by a back entrance at the school.  "Why are we here?"
   
    An image of a bloody knife flashed before me when all of a sudden, a woman's scream made me jump.
    The ghost's eyes changed from white to black.  He pointed at a poster of Cindy Vargas.  My heart pounded.  Once again my guide went through a wall.  I took out my keys, fumbled for the correct one, and opened the door.

    The bearded ghost led me down to the basement.  I passed through a long narrow corridor.  Two light bulbs were on by an open wooden door. The top part of the antique door featured an opening where glass should have been, allowing a blue glow to illuminate part of the hallway. 

    As I stepped along the corridor, a musty odor infiltrated my nostrils.  A once green paint, now a dirty lime, divided the walls from the top beige portion rising to the ceiling, making the hall appear longer.
 
    Upon reaching the room, an unusual grinding noise reminded me of my last trip to the dentist.  I entered the blue lit room, which I had never seen before.  Carmine applied an electric saw on a twelve inch piece of two-by-four with relative ease.  He never heard me, so he jumped when I called his name.
 
    "Holy smokes, Ray, what are you doing here?"

    Sawdust stuck on his big forehead.

    "I lost my wallet." I couldn't think of a better excuse.

    "I haven't seen it," he said.

    "Neither have I.  Hope it's around here somewhere."

    Carmine's knees buckled as he ushered me to the door.  His grinned widened.  "I'll help you look for it.  Where were you last?"

    There was something about his smile I didn't like.  I scratched my head, "By the lockers."
   
    Jack's eyes remained black but a trace of red surrounded his pupils. 

    Carmine accompanied me upstairs to the main hallway.  I froze when little Cindy, dressed in a long, black dress, holding her doll, Betty, as if by an invisible string, waited by her locker.  The spooky doll was dressed in a white wedding gown.

    Carmine stopped his nervous chatter and dug his fingers into my shoulder.

    Cindy's sweet smile was replaced by a hardened empty stare.  Her pupils, taken over by her white irises, chilled me.  I looked at Carmine and saw the blood drain from his face.

    "No, it can't be." Carmine hid behind me as if my massive chest could stop the unimaginable wrath transmitted by her eyes.  All of a sudden, images shot into me causing my nose to bleed. 
   


    Little Cindy, dressed in a black dress to avoid detection at night, entered the school via a basement window.  She fought back tears and stifled a scream when pushing cobwebs off her hair.  The stench of dead rodents permeated through the damp, dark room.  She maneuvered around boxes filled with old documents which spilled onto the dirty floor.  Her hands trembled as she groped her way free of a narrow line of old typewriters and computers.  With her heart pounding, she tripped over a step.  It wasn't until her hands touched the railing that she realized she had found a stairwell.  Negotiating each step with trepidation, she let out a huge sigh when she found a long steel bar.  She pushed it and a door opened to another set of stairs where a large shadow towered over her.  Little Cindy almost screamed when she realized the dark beast was her own shadow.  Upon reaching the second floor, she sprinted down the well-lit hall and opened her locker.

    "There you are.  I'm sorry for leaving you Betty.  Don't worry.  I promise nothing will separate us again." 

    She placed it by her ear, nodded and asked, "I'm in danger?"

    She closed the locker door and Carmine waited with a huge grin.  He licked his lips and said, "Hello little girl."

    Cindy tried to run but he grabbed the doll causing the terrified ten-year-old to fall.  Her front teeth cracked as she struck the tiled floor.  Blood oozed out of her mouth. 

    "Come on little girl, play nice."

    Carmine lifted her dress, unzipped his pants and stifled the girl's screams with one hand while the other encircled her throat.  The more she yelled, the tighter his grip.  He entered her and with each hard thrust, the girl fought for breath.  The doll, dressed in a pure silk veil, appeared to frown at Carmine.



    The blood stopped dripping from my nose and my vision cleared to see Cindy and the doll as they floated towards us.  Carmine's electric saw in her hands.  I said, "Hey, Carmine, you're on your own.  You sick bastard."

    "No, wait! Don't leave me."

    A bone crunching thud, followed by Carmine's horrified screams caused me to glance back.  His testicles bounced on the tiled floor.  When I returned my gaze to the exit, Jack, his eyes blood red, waved at me with frantic desperation.  I left Carmine to his fate and raced out the exit through the park.  Debris bounced off my body as the strong wind assaulted me.  Jack morphed ahead of me.  Visions of my orchids turning black along with the foul odor of death and decay caused me to gag.
 
    "No, don't let anything happen to her."

    I stormed through the gate and pummeled through the door.  Its wooden frame buckled and cracked under my two hundred and fifty pounds of desperation.

    In the bedroom, a man, dressed in black, lifted a blade in his outstretched hands high above his head.  Before he could plunge the knife into Valerie's chest, I dove, tackling him off the bed.  My left shoulder slammed against the tiny dresser. 

    The cretin slashed at me with his blade, ripping my shirt, cutting skin.  With my one good hand I squeezed his hand, crushing the bones in his fingers.  He yelled and dropped the knife.

    Then, I grabbed his throat and squeezed hard.  I continued, deaf to the world, my only focus was destroying this monster.

    A light grip tugged at my sleeve.  Valerie mouthed something.  At last, as her lips formed the words, the sound returned.  "Ray, stop it!  You're killing him."
   
    I didn't care.  The only thing I could see through his black mask was his bloodshot eyes.  The vermin went limb under my grip.  I tossed him like a rag-doll and watched his body fall in a heap against the concrete wall.
     
    As Valerie hugged me, her tears mixed with my sweat.  I was relieved to see Jack smiling at me through white eyes. 



    With that horrible night behind us, Valerie and I went on a cruise for our first anniversary.  As we lounged on the pool-deck, I whistled Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, relieved that Carmine's skull was used to make a hole behind the locker's wall.  The police found the little girl's remains inside the wall holding an angry plastic doll. 
   
      I smiled when recalling something from my past.  My grandmother taught me that things had a way of working out.  She called it karma.  Although mother fought hard to erase my true calling she could never have imagined that the forbidden place would find me no matter what I did. 

    "God, I can't believe that maniac was a serial rapist."   

    Valerie nodded in awe.  She stared at me and asked, "What are you thinking about, honey?"

    "I'm just thinking about my wonderful grandmother."  My eyes wandered to the bar.

    "Oh no, don't tell me Jack is here?"

    I guess she recognized the look in my eyes when I see one of them.  A little boy, the color of ash, stood on the bar, shaking, staring at me through dead white eyes.

    "No, Jack isn't here."



    Images of the ship's captain, caressing the boy, touching him in forbidden places, loaded my mind.  They played in the pool when suddenly, the captain dipped the child underwater.  At first, the boy kept busy, but when he attempted to rise and get some air, the captain, overwhelmed with pleasure, forced the child to remain under.  The boy scratched and clawed at the man's chest but was no match for the power crazed man.  When he was done, he released the boy who remained still.
    Upon realizing the gravity of the situation, the captain cried, "Oh my God, what have I done?  No.  Bobby, please forgive me."



    I didn't know how to tell Valerie that Jack was gone and little Bobby had other plans for us. 

- 3, 468 words