Machinery, Take Thy Dream

I was in rough condition after Chloe’s experiment. The incident laid me up in bed for three days. All the while, I found myself pining for Chloe’s touch. I found myself addicted to her; in the worst way. Although Isabelle saved me from sure death by electrocution I haven’t seen Isabelle since. This worried me.

Amy’s bedside manner was great. Actually now that I’m actually up and around, I kind of miss it. I was strange having the daily threesome without Isabelle. Although I noticed that Amy wasn’t as rough, it was obvious that Amy knows something I don’t. It shows on her face that something’s up but just what that something is I just don’t know.

I grabbed my keys and hopped into my car. Although this town was very small, I felt that I didn’t know anyone. I was hoping that I could find someone who was like me. Someone else who wanted to do something about this place. Someone else who wasn’t so deep in it; like Isabelle was.

Although destroying this town of dementia was moved to the number one thing on my to-do list I didn’t know how to go about it. Although Pound Virginia was a small town, houses were spread out all over the place. No amount of dynamite I could acquire would be able to blast the town (at least all places at once). Also dynamite was too risky, I had intentions of saving Isabelle.

The town seemed deserted. Pizza plus was closed, and although it was Friday everything was closed. The rinky-dink supermarket was closed, and so was the laundry mat. I pulled over my car and stood in the middle main street.

“Holy hell.” The words rolled off my lips just above a whisper. The only sound I heard was an organ. It was playing scales and arpeggios in a minor key. It was so loud I felt the pavement beneath my feet vibrate, “What’s going on?”

I race up the street wildly, franticly trying to fight the idiotic idea that I might be dead. Maybe I died on that table three days ago and I was somehow separated from the world of the living. I still had to perfect that damned machine; I had so many things I needed to fix!

Then I round a street corner; and all I can see is cars lining the street. I race down the dead center, running along the wooded street. The cars were all empty and parked in a haphazard manner. The closer I got the louder the music became. Then I saw in a clear green opening, a large white church sitting in the midst.

I then slow my pace down to begin walking, slowly towards the church. My heart was beating hard in my chest. So hard it was almost painful. Groping at my shirt I push open the door, to see about 120 people sitting the pews. They don’t look up at the fact that I interrupted their service. They just sit there with their heads bowed.

I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out. I’m shocked to see Sheriff Sheldon dressed in white at the alter standing with his hands outstretched. The organ player is cloaked in all black, a hood pulled over her face and I can’t see who it is but her fiery red hair gives me a solid hint.

“What the-” Suddenly, I stopped short. I realized that Sheriff Sheldon’s white robe was tainted with blood and that more blood is dripping from the altar. My eyes wander above Sheldon’s blood stained hands and at that moment I forgot to breathe. There was a life size crucifix hanging above the main alter and there was a man hanging on it. Only this man wasn’t Jesus. This man was still alive.

I stood frozen as the crucified man’s eyes met mine. I could barely see them because they seemed to be swimming around in his blood. He was wearing a crown of rusty barbed wire and I was left in a state of confusion when the music stopped.

One by one starting from the front, the people in the church filed up to Sheriff Sheldon. They each bow low before him and kiss his blood stained hand. Then, their heads still bowed low, they push past me and out of the door.

I just about had a heart attack when I felt a hand touch my shoulder. I turn around to see the organist dressed in the all black cloak. Her face was covered with the black hood which was pulled far down over her eyes allowing only her red hair to be visible.

She speaks softly, “The dream catcher is a gift. If you don’t use it then this will be the way we will rid our town of failures.”

I then tear my gaze from the cloaked woman and back to the crucifix. I watch as another woman dressed in white athletically crawls up the crucifix with a scythe in her hand. I watched in horror as the man’s head lolls off his shoulders bouncing onto the alter, spattering blood on a woman who was paying her respects to ‘Reverend’ Sheldon.

The woman clambers clumsily down the crucifix, and then as if in a rabid frenzy she frantically grabs for the head. Once it was secured in her greedy grasp she tosses it into a gold basin. Her skimpy robe reveals her chest and when she smiled and faced me, I recognized her instantly. The rabid executioner was Amy Sheldon herself.