Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Roger?” He knew what her response would be. His Maggie, his girl who could see ghosts, had had a visit from Roger Carlton. It seemed the vindictive bastard wasn’t ready to let it go, even still. Did he really seduce this innocent girl with deadly lies, all for revenge?

“I saw you, Johnny. The night Billy died. I saw you and Billy fall. Then I saw Roger. He was young again. Aren’t there any old spirits in heaven?” A fit of coughing gripped her, and Johnny looked frantically at the front entrance. Where were the firemen? Hadn’t Gus known Maggie was still inside? Maggie seemed unconcerned with her safety and continued on, coughing and struggling for breath as she spoke.

“Roger asked me where you were. Then he told me that I.... could be like you and that we would be together.” Maggie’s voice was raw, but it was her words that echoed with torment and filled him with anguish.

“He lied, Maggie. That sick bastard lied. If you stay here, you die. You go the way of the angels – the place where people like you and Billy go when this life is over. If you die today, Maggie, I will be without you, and you will be without me. We won’t be together, Maggie. People like me and Roger – I think we go somewhere else.”

A huge crash shook the rotunda, and glass shattered and popped above them from the heat. Johnny had to get Maggie out of the school. Honeyville hadn’t had much of a fire department fifty years ago, and he was guessing she still didn’t. If there were firemen here, no doubt they were concentrating their efforts on the East end, hoping to keep the fire from spreading and consuming the whole school. They wouldn’t succeed. The fire burned like a raging disease, and he could feel the school succumbing. When it finally fell, so would he.

Maggie was clinging to him, and her breathing was labored. He had to get her out, now.

“I love you, Johnny,” she whispered hoarsely. Her eyes were rimmed in red but they spoke the truth. “I won’t leave you.”

“I love you too, Maggie. Never forget that. Hold on to me now, baby.” With a guttural war cry, Johnny gathered every ounce of energy available to him and blasted through the front door, Maggie held securely in his arms.

Maybe it was the force with which he hurled himself into the void, but he was not repelled like before. He felt the swarm descend on him instantly– that writhing black mass of something Other devouring him as he pushed into the barrier between Purgatory and hell that had held him bound. He clung to Maggie, to her sweetness, to her goodness, and to his pure intent to save her life at all cost. He kept moving. He felt the splintering, all-consuming blackness curl around him and within him. Just one more step…and then one more…he felt himself disintegrating and his thoughts scatter into nonsense as he surrendered himself to the demands of death. But still he pushed forward, with her cradled against him, until there was only oblivion.

***

Chaos was rampant beyond the shaky perimeter the local police and fire fighters had erected. The ten kids who were responsible for starting the blaze had been detained and were in varying states of shock and hysteria. Parents had been called, on-lookers blocked the roads, and every Honeyville policeman was present, and their flashing lights adding to the surreal atmosphere of tragedy and mayhem. The police were trying to question the teens while maintaining order of the growing crowds lining the perimeter. The local fire crew and their small fire truck shot a steady blast of water into the fiercest section of the fire, and the trucks and crews from nearby towns had arrived to help, but there weren’t resources, training, or manpower sufficient for the inferno before them. Amidst all of this, Irene Honeycutt Carlton cried and begged for someone to help her niece, who was believed to still be inside the school.

Gus Jasper had tried to go back inside for Maggie after he had wobbled outside with his grandson on his back, but he’d been forcibly restrained and had fought his detainment until he’d collapsed and had to be carried to the ambulance where his grandson was already being treated. So Irene continued to plead with whomever would listen - soot and tears leaving grimy grooves down her cheeks. But her cries fell on helpless ears.

The police and firemen were doing all they could. No one had actually seen Maggie inside the school or even entering the school, although her haphazardly parked car was a good indication that she was there. At Irene’s insistence, several attempts had been made before the firemen had been called out and all manpower was concentrated on fighting the fire. The fire chief couldn’t continue to send men into a building of that size and scope, with no idea where to look, while fire blazed around them.

To those gathered watching the high school go up in flames, it seemed as if the girl simply appeared through the smoke and ash. It was late – almost one a.m. on Saturday morning, but the sky was lit with a red glow and filtered orange light shown through the haze. A shout went up among those closest to the perimeter.

“There’s someone there!”

“Look! There’s someone coming out of the school!”