SHUDDERVILLE THREE Read online

  Cassie couldn’t speak. She was on the verge of throwing up. When he plucked the piece of gravel out of his eye and casually tossed it aside, she backed away shrieking and nearly toppled into the rock pool.

  “Cassie, don’t panic,” he said, holding up his hands.

  Don’t panic?

  As soon as he opened his mouth, she could see that all of his teeth were broken. His beautiful teeth. He leaned over and spit out a jellied blob of coagulated blood.

  “Ma’am? What’s going on?” the operator said.

  “He’s not dead,” she screamed into the phone and hung up. It started to ring almost instantly. She opened the back compartment, ripped out the battery and threw it away.

  Cassie watched with astonishment as the blood began to seep out of the ground, hundreds of viscous bloody blobs defying gravity. They rose up in the air like magic, spinning and whirling, and then spooled their way back into his open wounds, sucking back into his veins.

  She couldn’t believe her eyes. His wounds were healing over. The skin was stitching itself back together. His eyeball had already regenerated inside his empty eye socket, and the exposed cranial bones of his skull began to repair themselves, eggshell fractures inching together with jigsaw precision. The sliced-open flesh of his scalp knitted itself together, and soon all his hair had grown back. And then he stood up. And there was nothing wrong with him. Absolutely nothing.

  Cassie spun on her heels and ran through the dazzling yellow woods.

  “Cassie, wait!” he shouted.

  She jumped over a muddy stream and pushed her way through the tangled underbrush, scraping her arms and legs on gnarled vines and thorny branches. She spotted the Range Rover in the clearing, burst out of the woods, and flung herself inside the vehicle, where she locked all the doors and sat shivering in the front seat with her jagged breaths fogging all the windows.

  After a moment, Ryan knocked on the glass. “Cassie?”

  “Go away!”

  She could hear his knuckles rapping softly on her window. “What?” she barked.

  “I had to show you what it was like for me.”

  She felt a sticky dampness all over her body as the horror of what just happened began to congeal inside her heart. She would never forget it. She could barely wrap her mind around it. He was dead. She had seen his ruined body. She had spent a lifetime of grieving in a matter of seconds.

  And now here he was, expecting her to go on as if nothing life altering had happened. Knocking innocently on her window and asking to be let in. She rubbed a circle in the foggy window and peered out at him. He didn’t look dead anymore. His bones weren’t broken. His teeth were intact. His deep-set eyes were as beautiful as ever. She couldn’t detect any scrapes or bruises on his body. He seemed perfectly okay as he waited for her outside the Range Rover with his hands thrust in his jacket pockets, his youthful face rosy from the fresh air. He gave her a sheepish grin and said, “Let me in. Please?”

  Her anxiety slowly died. She felt the emotion draining out of her like a leaky tire, until her body grew heavy and waterlogged with exhaustion.

  “I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said. “But I had to show you what it was like for me. I can’t die, no matter what. It’s kind of hellish.”

  There was a snap of lightning, followed by a deep rumble of thunder, and the clouds released a hard driving rain that pelted the ground. Ryan raised his jacket collar and hunched his shoulders in the downpour.

  She felt sorry for him. She unlocked the doors and let him in.

  “I found this,” he said, cupping a broken eggshell in the palm of his hand.

  She knocked it away.

  “Cassie,” he chastised, slamming the door. “It’s a fucking nightmare being me. You have to understand...”

  “You’re a monster!” she shrieked, startling even herself. She hadn’t expected those words to come flying out of her mouth.

  “Who’s the monster?” he argued back. “You betrayed your fiancé and your best friend. Maybe you’re the monster? Did you ever think of that?”

  This tore her up inside. She broke down and cried, but it was the kind of rigid-faced silent sobbing that was even more disturbing than out-and-out bawling.

  He waited until her tears had subsided before he said, “Cassie, look. If you care about me, then I need your help. I need you to help me not be a monster.”

  “How can I do that?”

  He didn’t answer her question right away. Outside, the trees shivered and danced in the rain, and she felt an unbearable uncertainty about everything.

  “It brings me nothing but pain,” he said softly. “This immortality business.”

  Another lightning strike shattered the sky, and the Range Rover’s interior ignited momentarily into a demonic, unrecognizable place. He put his hand on her leg, and she flinched. He drew it away and smiled sadly.

  The rain hammering against the roof of the Range Rover was oddly comforting. Gradually, she began to soften toward him. She felt sorry for him. Finally, she cupped her hand over his. His skin was warm and soft. They wove their fingers together. Forgiveness. Yes. What a relief. It happened so fast.

  He moved toward her and began kissing her, and she relished the surface tension between them, luxuriating in the give and take. She surrendered to her overwhelming feelings for him. She gave into the swirl and churn of her desire.

  After a while it stopped raining. They sat up. Buttoned up. Zipped up.

  Cassie listened to the steady drip-drip of the wet waxy leaves. “Ryan?”

  He turned to her questioningly.

  “How can I help you?”

  “You need to accept what I’m about to do.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. “What are you about to do?”

  He looked at her with solemn eyes. “Do you know what true love is, Cassie? Honest-to-God, deep down love and respect? When you’ve endured the worst with somebody, and yet you still love them? No matter what? Despite everything? When you’ve seen them at their worst and their most vulnerable and least appealing? When you know all their moral weaknesses? And yet you still accept them for who they are and what they’ve done? Simply because you love them? Unconditionally? And because you can see who they are in their soul, and your love makes them a better person? That’s real love. That’s true love. Love is total acceptance of the other person’s foibles and failings. Love is acceptance of their decisions and choices, even if it costs you. Even if it tears you apart. So? Are you ready for that kind of commitment?”

  She shivered all over as she recalled the pop and smack of his body landing on the rocks, his internal organs exploding. She remembered his broken teeth. His smashed skull. His cold ironic cruelty.

  “If you love me, Cassie,” he said, “if you really loved me, then you’d accept what I’m about to do. Completely. Without question. Can you do that? Can you accept what I’m about to do utterly and completely? Warts and all? Or do you want me to drive you to the airport? We can part ways. No hurt feelings.”

  “No,” she said, almost a whisper. “I accept.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She gave a reluctant nod. “I accept.”

  “Everything? Without question?”

  “Yes.”

  He smiled warmly at her. He got out of the vehicle and fetched a pair of Chucks and some dry clothes out of the back and quickly changed into the same basic outfit—jeans, a T-shirt and a jacket. Then the clouds parted and the sun came out, brilliant rays of light shooting down from the sky. Ryan smiled at her, keyed the ignition and stepped on the gas.

  They splashed through puddle-filled potholes, while the windshield wipers made a steady whisk-whisk sound. They took the two-lane road through the forested hills, where the yellow and orange leaves glistened in the sun.

  *

  They headed south to a town where a man named Hector Mendoza lived. Ryan wouldn’t tell Cassie anything about it. She had made a pact with herself to accept whatever he did from now on, to follow him blindly, even though she was dying to ask. She wanted to prove that she was capable of the ultimate act of love, and so she kept her mouth shut. She would accept him 100%.

  Hector Mendoza’s blocky brick apartment building was located on the east side of a sprawling suburb of Philadelphia, beyond a parking lot cratered with potholes. Inside the harshly lit foyer, Ryan leaned against the intercom button until a gruff male voice said, “The fuck do you want?”

  “Hector? My name’s Ryan. Tobias Mandelbaum sent me.”

  There was a slight delay before the door buzzer released the lock, and Cassie followed Ryan up a narrow flight of stairs toward the second-story landing, where they had a magnificent view of the weedy courtyard with its sand-filled planters and battered plastic chairs. Ryan knocked on 2–B and the door swung open.

  “Yeah?” Two gleaming, drug-addled eyes glowered at them from the gloom of the apartment.

  “Tobias said you might be able to help me out with my… ‘wish’ problem.”

  Hector stepped out into the hallway. He was tall and ripped and thick in the neck, and he could’ve snapped Ryan in half like a breadstick. His face was dense and meaty beneath his pockmarked, caramel-colored skin. “Mandelbaum, huh?”

  Ryan nodded.

  Hector gave him a disgusted look before motioning them inside. “Get in.” He glanced around to make sure no one had followed them there, and then he shut the door behind them.

  The place smelled like a gym locker. There was a foam mattress on the floor, incongruous floral curtains on the windows, careworn butterfly chairs and cheap Indian-print throw pillows. An overturned hubcap doubled as an ashtray, and the apartment reeked of cigarettes, stale coffee and pot.

  Hector rooted through his pocket and took out a jackknife. “
Help yourselves to whatever. Don’t mind me. I was right in the middle of something.” He bent over a cardboard box and slit it down the middle along the crease with a slender blade. His hair was black and thick as guitar strings. His eyes narrowed critically as he parted the box flaps and took out a large candle. There were a dozen more candles inside with their long wicks poking out in all directions.

  Hector cackled, resting the candle on his knee and paring off the wax. He worked the knife around inside until the candle cracked in half, revealing a plastic baggie full of white pills, pink caplets and black capsules. “Go ahead, grab yourselves a couple of beers,” he said, amiably enough. “This could take a while.”

  Ryan and Cassie sat nursing their beers while Hector pried open the candles one at a time. He pulled out the plastic bags and laid them on the floor, propping one against another. When he was done, he sat back on his haunches and counted his bounty. Then he picked up a bag and weighed it in his hand. He slit it open and poured some of the pills onto his palm. “You like X? You guys up for that?”

  Ryan nodded.

  Cassie nodded.

  Hector laughed. “Sure. Everybody’s always up for ecstasy.” He dropped the knife and stood up. He had a little strut in his walk. He dipped into the kitchen, where he grabbed a beer from the fridge and opened and closed a cupboard door. He strolled back into the living room and handed each of them a couple of pills. “Maybe drugs fuck you up in the long run, but the ride getting there sure is pleasant.”

  “Yeah,” Ryan agreed.

  “You?” He pointed at Cassie.

  “I’m down with that,” she said.

  He guffawed and repeated, “I’m down with that. Heh! That’s rich.”

  Cassie glanced at Ryan’s impassive face and watched as he swallowed the pills with his beer before she did the same. Outside, the night spilled its darkness over everything.

  “So?” Hector grinned as he plopped down in a purple canvas butterfly chair. “What’s this all about? Tobias sent you, huh? How is the old fucker?”

  Ryan ran a hand through his thick, dark hair and said, “He gave me a list of names, and you’re on it.”

  “List? What list?” Hector asked suspiciously.

  Cassie leaned forward, wondering the same thing. What list?

  “This one.” Ryan opened his wallet and produced a folded piece of paper, which he unfolded and handed to Hector. “He wrote down three names and said one of these people would be able to help me.”

  “Help you do what?”

  Ryan hesitated before saying, “Help me not be immortal anymore.”

  “Immortal, huh?” Hector laughed. Then he studied the piece of paper and nodded thoughtfully. “Remove the curse, heh?”

  Ryan shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t want to be immortal anymore.”

  Hector gave an impressed whistle. “What’s so bad about that, amigo? That’s a good one, man. Shit. Look at me.”

  Cassie looked at Hector, wondering what he had wished for, but it was left unspoken, and she was too afraid to ask.

  “I’m sick of living this way,” Ryan grumbled.

  Hector ogled Cassie. “What’s so terrible, man? Your old lady’s hot.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Cassie said smugly.

  Ryan sighed and said nothing.

  Hector studied the list again. “Okay. So Tobias is up to his old tricks again, huh? You realize what this means, don’t you?”

  Ryan nodded.

  “No. What does it mean?” Cassie nudged Ryan. “What does it mean?”

  He refused to meet her gaze.

  “It means he’ll be dead,” Hector explained. “For real.”

  “Dead?” she repeated numbly.

  “As a doornail. Instantly. He’ll be toast.” Hector turned to Ryan. “You realize that, don’t you? This’ll be the end of you, my friend. Sayonara. No foolin’.”

  Cassie felt a knock of horror in her chest. She reached out and touched Ryan’s arm. “We should talk about this,” she whispered.

  “Are you saying you can do it?” Ryan asked Hector with an edge of skepticism.

  The drug dealer didn’t answer. Instead he got up and wandered into the kitchen, where he stood with his head in the fridge. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, I’ve got a spare room, whatever.” He came back into the living room and finished off his beer. “Well,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’ll cost you.”

  “How much?”

  Cassie’s stomach churned sourly. “Ryan, we really need to talk about this.”

  He silenced her with a look.

  Hector was grinning. “Ryan, Ryan. Looks like your old lady wants to discuss things first, huh?” He laughed.

  “How much?” Ryan asked, taking out his checkbook.

  Hector shrugged. “Ten grand.”

  “Okay.”

  “Ryan,” Cassie said helplessly. It was all happening so fast. She had to stop him. “Ryan, wait.”

  “No checks,” Hector said.

  “You want cash?” Ryan put his checkbook away. “Fine. Ten grand? Be right back.” He got up and headed for the door.

  Cassie stood up. “Where are you going? I’m coming with you!” She stumbled after him—wobbled for a moment. She felt dizzy and hysterical inside. She chased him down the stairs, frantic to slow things down. “Ryan, wait up!”

  Outside in the parking lot, beneath the full moon, she watched him rip apart the inner door panel of the Range Rover and pull out a wad of bills from a hidden compartment.

  “What are you doing?” she cried. “What’s going on? Don’t you even care what I think? Can’t we talk about it first?”

  “Cassie. Stop it.” He stood up and rested his warm hands on her arms. “You have to accept this.” He reached up and stroked her cheek. “You have to forgive me, and you have to let go. This is what I want.”

  “Death?”

  “You have no idea how good that sounds.”

  She took a shuddering breath and sobbed bitterly and without shame.

  He held her in his arms and gently rocked her back and forth. His hands soothed her, and after a few minutes, her sobs bubbled away, and the anger took over. “When did Tobias give you that stupid list? How come I didn’t know about it?”

  “It was our wedding gift.” He handed her the list. “Here. Read it.”

  With trembling fingers, she unfolded the piece of paper. There were three names written in a palsied scrawl on ivory stationary, along with the accompanying addresses. “He gave this to you on our wedding day? Why?”

  “I don’t know.” He sighed cynically. “He enjoys tormenting people.”

  “But Hector said you’d be dead if you went through with it. Did you not hear that part?”

  He held out his hand for the list, but she refused to give it back. She hid it behind her, adrenaline shooting through her body. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t leave me like this. I gave up everything for you!”

  “Cassie. Nobody asked you to.”

  “But I’ll die if you leave me!”

  “No, you won’t. Don’t be foolish.” His demeanor softened. “You saw what happened on the mountain, didn’t you? How do you think that makes me feel?”

  Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

  “I was deeply in love once, and I watched her grow old. And you know what? I didn’t give a shit, just as long as we were together. But it tore her apart. She hated herself for this perfectly normal process called aging. She tried to stay young for me. She went to a plastic surgeon, and he bungled it. He ruined her smile. He destroyed her beautiful face. I won’t go through that again. It’s too painful.”

  Cassie crumpled up the list and threw it at his head, and he scrambled to catch it before the wind blew it away. He tucked it back in his wallet.

  She stood sobbing before him. “This is so unfair. I wouldn’t have made my wish if I knew you wanted to die. I love you, Ryan! Don’t do this to me. Please!”

  He held her by the shoulders. “Listen to me. My future is an endless pile of days full of pointless rituals, and nothing ever ends. It never ends. Want to know what I’ve discovered? It’s infinitely boring to be immortal. It’s like listening to a dripping faucet in the middle of the night. Drip-drip-drip. You can’t do anything about it. You can’t turn it off. So if you love me, Cassie, if you genuinely loved me… you’d help put an end to my misery.”