You Only Die Twice

Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT





“Did you see that?” Kenneth whispered. “She moved. I texted her and she moved.”

“I saw it. How far are we from her?”

“Hundred yards? Maybe more? It’s tough to tell with the goggles on.”

“Move forward with me. Keep your gun at the ready. Be as quiet as possible. She’ll hear us at some point and she’ll probably run. But she won’t get far. She’ll likely slam into a tree or something because she won’t be able to see, so don’t worry about it if she runs. OK?”

“I want her to slam into a tree, Ted.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“We don’t have time for you to rape her, Kenneth. Just keep low and keep focused. I need you focused.”

“I can’t focus. I’m starting to feel different.”

“You’re acting different, that’s for sure.”

“I wanted to eat those men back there, Ted. I wasn’t joking. I’ve never felt like that before.”

“I need you to be quiet.”

“But I’m worried. What does that mean? Why did I want to eat them? Part of me thinks that if I eat them and after they go through my body, they’ll be purified of their sins. If you hadn’t been there, I would have eaten the fat one. I would have started with his face.”

Ted turned to him. He put his hands on Kenneth’s shoulders and held him steady for a moment before he embraced him. “You’ve been under a lot of stress.”

“I don’t think it’s that.”

“It is that.”

“My head hurts.”

“Then it’s the stress.”

“I think that I’m changing.”

“Into what?”

“I feel like I’m being lifted onto a higher plane.”

“By whom?”

“By God.”

“Kenneth, you’re already on a higher plane.”

“No. Not like this. You can’t see those women. I can. Explain that to me.”

“I can’t. But then I never could. I think they’re hallucinations.”

“They are not hallucinations.”

“Do you see them now?”

“No. But I will. They’ll show themselves again. And they’ll taunt me. They’ll ridicule me. They’ll try to throw me off, but I won’t let them. I’ve been chosen.” His body relaxed against Ted’s. “For what, I don’t know, but there’s been a shift. Physically, I feel weak, which is not right for me. You know how strong I am. But there it is. My body feels drained on one level, and euphoric on another.”

“You haven’t eaten today.”

“It’s not that.”

“I think it is that. I think it’s the reason you wanted to eat those men.”

“I disagree.”

Ted parted from the embrace and on his face, Kenneth saw irritation. “What’s the matter?”

“If you’ve been lifted to a higher plane, then why haven’t I? I’m your elder. Why would I be passed over?”

“Maybe you haven’t.”

“I think I have.”

“I don’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Because we’re a team.”

“Then why don’t I feel different?”

“Maybe you will.”

“Whatever,” Ted said. “It doesn’t matter. Apparently, as you see it, you’re the Chosen One. Big deal. We have work to do. This is a conversation for another time―certainly not here, where she probably just heard most of our conversation. Focus, OK? I just need you to focus so we can finish this and get out of here. If we don’t, they will find us, Kenneth. Do you hear me? If we don’t leave the state soon, they will find us and they will bring us to their own sort of justice.”

“I won’t let you down.”

“You already have. Don’t do it again.”

They started to move forward. The earth was soft and gave beneath their feet. The air was crisp and smelled of summer’s death―earthy smells that weren’t unpleasant in spite of their decomposing state.

The orange blob ahead of them now was at a right angle. She was sitting upright. Was she listening to them? Could she hear them? After that conversation, she probably had. She also knew she’d been spotted―he told her so in the text.

So, what was she thinking now? Was she doing what she should be doing? Was she repenting her sins? Kenneth doubted it. After the way they watched her behave at that bar, drinking and laughing and dancing like the whore she was, and smoking outside when they left the bar, he doubted whether she even knew what a sin was. But she would now. The Lord would show her her sins, and then cast her away to hell, where she’d roast along with all the others who had failed Him.

The breeze rose against his back and rustled the limbs surrounding him. He looked above him and saw a canopy of stars, the moon off to his right, but no clouds, no pending storm. The breeze became a short gust of wind, which he welcomed in spite of how cool it was. The sound would help to muffle their footsteps.

“She’s doing something,” Ted said quietly.

“She’s moving around.”

“It looks like she made herself some kind of shelter.”

“How did she do that?”

“She’s a Maine girl,” Ted said. “She learned it along the way. This isn’t her first time in the woods.”

“Maybe so. But it’s her last time in them,” Kenneth Berkowitz said. “Let’s get her. Pull her out. And let me have some fun, will you? I want to have my way with her first.”