Billy is being stubborn. Only 630 words this week. Apparently he does not want this story to end. But the end is coming whether he likes its or not.
To read the entire story up to this point click here BILLY!
Billy
Part VI
“We’re home.”
“No we’re not,” she said
as she shook her head. “have you looked around, do you know why nothing’s
working like it’s supposed to?
Billy shrugged as his
gaze was drawn once again to the poster over her bed. The shadows beneath the
tree were moving in a slow, sinuous dance, slithering over and around one
another with the patience of one who
was certain they would win. They had all the time in the world, and Billy was
sure theirs was running out.
“I don’t have much
longer,” she said as she lifted her hand, the flesh had grown translucent and
he saw the faint outline of the bones of her hand, the dark lines that were the
tendons, muscles and veins. In fact everything about her was taking on an
ethereal air and the darkness from the poster behind her head was showing
through her face. “I’ve been here too long.”
“Where are we?”
“We’re trapped between
the ticks of a clock, within a slice of time that will slowly fade to
nothingness, the echo of a moment that happened in the past. We have to go
back, we can’t hide here much longer.”
The darkness of the
poster had grown more pronounced through the reflection of her face and he
realized they were both about to become lost forever. Lifting his own hand he
saw the poster through his semi-transparent flesh.
“I’m afraid.”
“Don’t be.” She smiled,
“I’ll be with you no matter what happens.”
“You promise.”
“Have I ever lied to you,
no, don’t answer that,” she said as she held up her hand.
“What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you kill
yourself?”
“I,” she began then
stopped, searching it seemed for the right way to phrase it, how did one
explain the reasoning behind such an act?
“It all started in my
dreams,” she said, choosing her words carefully as she recounted her story,
“right after Dad got me the poster. They were calling to me, those things that
lived in the shadows beneath the tree, and I went to them, freely at first.
Later I had no choice, I had to go to them. They owned me then. I knew there
was no escape, well there was one way, but it was permanent. When they started
threatening to take mom, and dad, and you, I knew I had no options left. I’d
entertained them as long as possible but they quickly grew bored with me.”
“What are they?”
Here she shrugged, “I
don’t know, really, they always came to me as shadowy shapes that never stayed
in one form for very long. I know they’re older than the cosmos. They’ve been
around longer than the stars in the sky.”
“Does the light hurt
them?”
She shook her head, her
shoulders slumped, as her face grew even more transparent, and the shadows of
the poster behind her grew even darker.
“We better get going, we
don’t have much time left,” she said as she lifted her hand in front of her
face and smiled at him through it.
Pushing himself down from
her bed he crossed to the poster and stood staring at it for a moment. He saw those
dark shapes dancing beneath the tree as a chill danced along his spine. He
didn’t want to go in there, not with them, but what choice did he have. If they
didn’t do anything soon they would both fade away to nothing.
Taking a deep breath he
lifted his hand and pointed at the poster with his index finger. As before he
touched the surface of the poster that resisted him for a moment before it
slipped past the surface, into that nether region where the shadows of the
night waited.
To Be Continued!
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