“Where am I?”
“You are at my house.”
I slowly open my eyes but I see no one. I try to get myself up and off of the cold, stone floor but I can’t. I’m too weak to move and my body hurts. I look around and see grey stone everywhere. Stone walls, stone ceiling, and it’s cold. It’s so cold. I can hear the ocean, the waves sound like they’re beating upon the house. What happened?
“Are you still there?”
“I am.”
“Why can’t I see you?”
“You will see me when you want to.”
“What happened to me? How did I get here?”
“You had an accident and I brought you here to keep you until it’s time for you to leave.”
I can’t remember anything. Why can’t I remember? I remember saying goodbye to my family, I was leaving for college. I remember getting in the car and driving but that’s it. He said I had an accident. I must have fallen asleep and had a wreck or something. He probably seen it and brought me back here to his house. His house…it’s so cold. I can feel sweat on my forehead, I have to get up before I become even more sick.
I finally get myself up, I don’t hurt quite as much but there‘s still some pain, mainly my head. I must have knocked it pretty good. His house is completely empty, there are no chairs, or tables, not even a television. This guy must be one of those people who likes to hold on to the “old days” or else he’s just really weird. No windows either. There’s a door over there as I get closer to it I hear voices. That must be where he is.
“Who are you?”
I’ll just go ahead and admit it now, I’m a little scared.
“My name’s Richard. Are you okay? It looks like your forehead’s bleeding,” my God, this kid is so pale and looks half starved. This certainly can’t be the man I was talking to; he looks like he must be about fifteen or so.
“My name’s Thomas and I don’t know how I got here. I can’t find my parents or my baby brother. I…I don’t know what happened to me and there’s a man, he keeps talking to me and I…”
He trailed off and stared at another door that was in his room. I can tell that he is afraid of the man that brought us here. I wonder if I should be as well. His head is bleeding quite badly so I rip off a piece of my shirt sleeve and do what I can with it to try and help him out. He’s cold, just as cold as I am, I realize now that I need to get out of here. Whoever this man is that brought us here, whatever he is planning, it can’t be a good thing.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Okay.”
We walk through the next door and again there is someone there. This time it’s a little girl, probably about five years old, and she’s bleeding as well, only it’s from her stomach. It looks like she’s been shot.
“My God! What happened to you?”
“I don’t know, I was in my room coloring and when I woke up I was here. Have you seen my brother?”
“No sweetie I haven’t. I’ll help you find him though, okay?”
“Okay.”
The girl seems to be alright, she doesn’t act like she’s in any pain but I can’t see how that is. We walk through another door and again there’s another person who has been hurt. This time it’s a woman, she’s beautiful, at least she would be if it didn’t look like half of the skin on her face was missing.
“Who are you? What do you want from me? Just leave me alone!”
“It’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you. We’re trying to find a way out of here.”
“No, no, no, no. You can’t leave, not yet, not yet. I can’t find my medicine, I have to have it. I got to find it.”
“There’s nothing in this room other than the four of us. Let’s get out of here and I’ll help you get some medicine.”
“No! No, it was here, it was right here! I just had it and now it’s gone! I…you don’t understand! I have to have it! I need it!”
She’s becoming hysterical as she searches around the empty room. I think she might just be in shock but then I see the markings on her arm and I understand. She’s a drug abuser; her “medicine” as she likes to call it is probably just heroin. I leave her there. It’s wrong but she doesn’t want to come with us anyways.
The next room has a man in it and he’s sitting in a chair, looking through the window at the ocean. He doesn’t look like he’s hurt and then I get that sick feeling in my stomach and I know this is the man who brought us here.
“Who are you?”
“I am called many names but I am Donn.”
“What did you do to them?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean Richard.”
“You know exactly what I mean! Look at her, she’s bleeding and so is Thomas and that girl in there! Half of her face is freaking gone! What the hell is going on here?”
“You already know Richard. If you didn’t then you wouldn’t be seeing me now.”
“If I did then I wouldn’t be asking you!”
“Search your feelings Richard. You already know, you knew it when you seen little Audrey here.”
“Look, I don’t understand what’s happening here but all I know is it’s a miracle that she’s still alive.”
“What makes you think she is?”
Audrey looks at me then as she walks over to Donn and sits on his lap. It all came back to me in that little girl’s stare. I remember now. It was raining and the road was just too wet and it was pouring down so hard that I couldn’t see anything. I remember thinking that I should pull over and wait but I didn’t want to. The next thing I remember was hearing glass shatter and then my car went flying through the air. I hit my head on the window as the car came back down to the ground and after the rolling stopped I…no, no, I can’t be dead. I just can’t be.
“I’m not dead!”
“You’re family just had your funeral about two weeks ago. If they didn’t bury you then who was it?”
“If I’m dead then why am I still here? Why haven’t I gone to Heaven or Hell or where ever the hell it is that we go?”
“But you have Richard, I am a God, I’m the Lord of the Dead. I was placed here in this house to keep the dead until it is time for them to go to the other side. You know it’s true Richard, stop fighting it.”
“So what happened to Audrey then? How did she…”
“How did she get shot? Well, a sad story really. Little Audrey here was coloring in her room while mommy and daddy were in the kitchen fighting. Her older brother, Nathan, was in his room getting high and after he did that he went into his parent’s room, got his father’s gun and shot Audrey and then himself.”
“So where is he at then? Huh? If all the dead come to you then where is he?”
“He’s standing behind you Richard.”
I turn around and see a young man who has tears in his eyes. As he looks away from me I have to turn my head in disgust at the hole that has blood oozing out of it. This can’t be happening, it just can’t be.
“And Thomas?”
“Thomas’s family was driving the car you crashed into. He’s the only one who died, wasn’t wearing his seatbelt even though his mother repeatedly told him to buckle up and the woman in the other room is Audrey and Nathan’s mother. When she walked in to Audrey’s room she went crazy at the sight of seeing her two children dead. So she went to the bathroom and got rid of all the pain.”
“So why is her face half gone then?”
“Well, let’s just say that’s her husband’s way of letting her know how much he loves her.”
It’s too much to take in, too much to get a hold of, to even think about. Dead? I can’t be. This is all just a bad dream and once I wake up it will all be over. I look at Donn and his eyes say it all.
“I’m sorry Richard, it’s just the way it is.”
“So what happens to us now?”
“You wait.”
We wait alright, seems like it’s been forever and everyday that passes more come to the House of Donn. I apologize to Thomas pretty much everyday but he doesn’t have any hard feelings about what happened. Audrey loves that she gets to spend so much time with her brother and Nathan is just thankful that the two of them are out of that house. Poor kids. Their mom is still lost, she hasn’t realized what happened yet. I doubt she ever will. Most of all I feel sorry for Donn. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well and the poor guy is surrounded by all this death. It’s a sorry life he has even if he is a God. It must really suck to be reminded every single day that he can never die, especially when he is the keeper of the dead. I have come to understand now why we mortals are so special. We can die. We do. That’s what makes our lives so beautiful because we never know which moment might be our last and that makes them all the more enjoyable.
In a strange, sick way these people have become like my family. It sounds sort of morbid and twisted I know, but they are all I have now. I don’t know how long it’s been since I came here. Time isn’t important anymore but we are still here with each passing day, our lives still go on just in a more simpler way. Yes, we are still here. We are still waiting.
