The Post Graduation Scene
The Post Graduation Scene
The Post Graduation Scene
Though the sky was bleak that day, the students of Silent Cliffs were on high spirits. It was their graduation day, and they were determined to make their last day of being classmates a very memorable experience.
Caleb looked up from the sea of heads to find his friend, Issa. She had gone for only a minute and he was already missing her. The last day…the last day…the last day…. he kept repeating to himself. This would be the day he would finally speak up…to reveal his feelings for his long-time friend.
Unconsciously, he kept undoing his red and black tie, only to redo it again; he can’t seem to decide which style would make him more appealing. He sighed and with his mind made up; he tugged at the tie and allowed it to be loose around the neck. At least he wouldn’t be choking when he faced her.
His name was called for him to come up stage and receive his diploma. He didn’t hear it at first—he was too busy deciding the exact words to say. In fact, his name was called twice and if Alexei didn’t nudge at his ribs, he would have been called for a third time. He rose and approached the stage, aware of the eyes looking at him, and the taunting smiles they didn’t mind showing. He breathed slowly and focused on mounting the number of steps on the stage.
There was no booming applause for him, and through all the polite claps, he knew that only two people were really cheering for him. Alexei and Issa. He noticed the latter as he stood in the stage to have his picture taken. She was standing close to the stage, camera phone in one hand, with her other hand waving for him to look her way. He blushed slightly and was a bit shaky when he went down the stairs.
“Lemme look at that!” Alexei demanded, trying to make a grab for the two medals Caleb held. Caleb nimbly dodged his friend’s hands. He had received a medal for excellence in Literature, specifically Journalism, and another one for his excellence in Arts. Second to him in the latter award was Alexei, so understandably, he had been dying to at least touch the little trinket.
“Will you guys knock it off so I could get a pic!” Issa scolded while laughing. She was constantly moving her phone to get a good angle at the two.
The boys settled. Caleb held his hand high, both for presenting it and keeping it out of Alexei’s reach. After that, and several more poses, Caleb tried to speak with Issa, but she had more friends to capture on film, so she constantly flit from one group of girls to another, trying to get pictures.
Alexei sat down next to him, allowing their feet to dangle on the edge of the stage. Caleb was watching Issa as she and her friends passed around cameras to a teacher begging him or her to take a picture of them.
After Issa went to a group of her favorite teachers, Caleb got impatient. He jumped down from the stage and grabbed Issa by her arm and dragged her out of the gym.
“You can let go now…” Issa said impatiently. Caleb had taken her to the middle of the compound, away from every building and anyone who had chosen to take pictures outside.
Caleb let go and turned to face her. “I-I’m sorry…” he stuttered, “I wanted us to be alone…”
“Wait—” Issa raised her phone to Caleb’s face and took a shot.
“Listen!” Caleb gently pushed her hand away. He held her by the arms and looked at her gentle green pools. “Issa…I want—no…I—” he tried to swallow the thing at his throat, but it wouldn’t budge. Issa was looking at him, bewildered. “Caleb…what?”
“Issa, I—”
“You shit!” a shout echoed through the huge compound. The two turned and saw a big man, with his back towards them. He was talking to Philip, a similarly bulky student. Father and son… Caleb thought. They were shouting at each other, and based from what they heard, it was because Philip graduated without any award.
Philip finally lost it. His hand dove in the waistband of his pants and withdrew a snub-nosed revolver. He raised it at his momentarily paralyzed father and fired until all six chambers were emptied.
Caleb jerked backwards as three of the bullets struck him at the chest. Issa was screaming as blood spurted from the three holes.
“No!” she dropped down beside him and cried, “You can’t die….No-no….no….”
But Caleb smiled, “You can’t live with three bullets in your chest, Issa. You know that….” Blood was flowing out through lips now, and pretty soon, his fair skin was filled with scarlet blossoms. “I’m sorry…” he muttered, “I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me…”
“HELP!!!” Issa screamed, tears flowing down her cheeks, “Oh, Caleb…don’t die!” Tears fell and mixed with blood, the two fluids swirling for a second before flowing down Caleb’s face as one… “You mean so much to me, you idiot!” she cried, “Don’t you die…I won’t survive it….Not you, Caleb…Please!!!”
But Caleb’s eyes were only staring at the eternal expanse of blackness that awaited his soul.
“He didn’t even say goodbye…” Issa was crying in front of Caleb’s coffin, an ornate shiny black box, riddled with fantastical characters of myth. Inside the box itself lay the cold dead shell of Caleb. Issa was leaning on Alexei, who was trying his best to support the weight of the near-unconscious girl.
“He told you that he loved you…” Alexei said, “That’s better than a goodbye, don’t you think?”
“I won’t survive it, Alex…” Issa sobbed. Her friend understood; she was not new to the experience of being near someone who just got killed, but that didn’t make her prepared for this. Her father was the first. Three bullets all over his chest as a jealous company colleague fired his gun at him. Issa was there for what the firm called ‘Bring Your Child To Work Day’ where all the parents brought their little ones to work and show them how things worked in the place. She saw it all happen from behind his desk. The angry man was about to turn his gun to Issa but thought better of it…he stuck the barrel instead into his own mouth and fired.
“Yes,” Alexei held her firmly, “You will survive this! You are a strong girl, you can live through this…”
Issa was not listening.
Caleb found himself staring into the cold hard road in front of him. The sky above him was gray and the air was thick with ghastly fumes. Ash was falling lightly on the ground like snow. All around him were shattered buildings, broken until they were indistinguishable from the heap of trash that littered the place.
He silently wondered where he was. Thinking that he wouldn’t be able to find out by standing here, he started walking around, looking for a sign of some sort that would tell him where he was.
The sound of snare drums made him look up. A float was slowly making its way through the road towards him. He looked at it curiously, wondering what festival involved having a skull shaped by white roses in a black float. Halloween was already over…
It took him awhile to notice the number of strangely dressed people marching behind the float. Some wore masks shaped like skulls; some were wearing tattered clothes, its colors not different from the fumes that enveloped the area. Caleb approached it carefully, taking all the details he could manage.
Atop the float were five men, playing their instruments, keeping the march alive—which was not saying much: all of the ones marching looked like they had the life sucked out of them… And when Caleb was close enough, he could see that the eyes peeking through the eyeholes of the masks were cold and dead. Only the musicians seemed to be the ones that had life.
Then he finally understood. He knew he was dead; he felt the bullets hit him and remembered after opening his eyes; he was here in this place.
With purpose he approached the parade more quickly. Only the people on the top of the float took notice of his participation. They were skeletons, he finally noticed. Skeletons dressed in black uniforms. One of them, the one holding a baton with his left hand looked at him and a glint flashed within its hollow eye sockets. He gestured with his gloved hand towards the front of the parade, beside a woman wearing a gas-mask and a tattered gown. The frame that was supposed to hold the gown for it to balloon was fastened outside the dress.
Caleb followed the slow advance of the parade.
He looked at the woman beside her and asked, “Who are you?”
The woman didn’t reply. Instead, a man wearing a soldier’s uniform approached him and said, “She’s the mother of all the wars in the world. She collects all of us,” he jabbed at the bullet wound at his chest, “All of us who died in the war…”
“Mother War?” The woman wearing a gas mask looked at him briefly before turning to face the float once more.
The man nodded, “I got shot in the Omaha beach…so I belong to her jurisdiction…" he shrugged.
“I’m Michael…” the soldier said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “But call me Mikey…every else did…”
“Caleb…”
Issa lay on her bed, eyes blankly staring at the ceiling. She was dead. Blood was seeping through her dark blue sheets. A box cutter lay on her icy hands, blood blotched the thin blade.
“Yeah, so what?” a big man growled at Caleb. “I don’t care how many people I killed, or how many suffered for their death. The only thing I care about is that they wronged me and they deserve to die.”
Caleb, being dead, was not afraid standing next to the murderer. He was wearing a dirty black and white jail clothes. Limp black hair hung over his pallid face. His eyes were glowing a sickly red and were rimmed with black rings.
“So how did you die?” It took a while for feeling comfortable in asking the question but the people didn’t seem to mind Caleb asking.
The man looked down at him and growled, “Tried to escape prison…still had a few scores to settle, ya know?” he shrugged. “Smart-ass cops sent dogs to catch me—but not until they shot me in the leg…”
Caleb did notice the eternal trickle of red that flowed from the man’s left leg.
“Dogs?” Caleb thought it ironic that this blood-hungry wolf was brought down by dogs…
The parade was slowing down—slower than normal. Caleb looked on and saw that there was a man in a gurney, surrounded by several nurses and a doctor. The man plucked the IV lines out of his left hand and slid down the bed. In moments, the baton-wielding skeleton welcomed the patient into the parade.
Caleb watched as the man with matted black hair look around, bewildered, as Caleb had when he first realized where he was.
Two women, whom he had come to know as Fear and Regret, held the man by his arms and accompanied him towards the parade.
“Uhh…” he tapped on Mikey’s shoulders, “Why are Fear and Regret with that guy?”
Mikey shifted the strap of his rifle and replied, “All the man’s life he had gone through nothing but fears and regrets. Fear of his sickness, I guess…and I bet he’s felt a lot of regrets in his life as he contemplates them everyday in that hospital bed.” He shrugged, “That’s just an educated guess, mind.”
Alexei poured Caleb’s favorite drink over his gravestone. He had just come from Issa’s funeral and he thought of dropping by to see his other late friend.
“So many deaths…” he muttered as he bagged the empty bottle. He smiled wanly and said, “At least they graduated before all of this…”
The parade was slowing again. Caleb looked to his left, where a path had appeared.
“What’s this?” he muttered.
Mikey sighed, “Another unexpected death…” They had passed several of those who had ‘unexpected deaths’ several times.
Issa stood on a mound of wooden shreds that was a house. She had no idea where she was. She was utterly terrified and clasped at the edge of her dress in fear. The smell here was unbearable. The amorous scents of sewage pipes, blood, and nuclear waste stung her nose.
The pile of garbage beneath her shifted, and she screamed when a hand shot up. It was quickly followed by the a head and soon the entire figure of a man stooped in front of her.
He was completely featureless: his eyes were only tiny dots on his face; his bald head was filled with pins and needles. Cutter blades were sticking out of the back of his hand and hooks were pierced on his fingers. He was wearing a shredded straitjacket, its buckles hanging loosely at his sides. Piercings riddled his otherwise featureless face: a huge ring on his lips, two tiny rings on each of his brows, and a skull tipped pin on one nostril.
A huge manic smile split from his pallid face, revealing yellow teeth alive with algae. He said, “Well aren’t you a pretty doll?” he took a lurching step forward and managed to grab Issa’s hand. The hooks on his fingertips dug at Issa’s skin and she screamed.
He stuck out an impossibly long tongue and licked at her pale hand. Issa felt a bump among the slick muscle. Apparently, he also had a piercing on his tongue.
“Let go of me!” she screamed and struck at the man’s face with her free hand.
Caleb heard the scream. His skin crawled when he realized it was Issa’s voice. Pushing aside all the questions that popped up on his head, he rushed ahead of the parade and when he reached the place, he noticed that the short run had greatly drained his energy. He also noticed that the place was even more amorous than the other paths they had taken. The smell of rotten flesh mingled with the reek of blood and the nuclear stench among other things. He clamped his lips and tried to stop his gag reflex.
With his hand over his mouth and nose, he looked up and saw the thin man with pins on his head holding Issa high in the air, his long tongue wrapping around her like a tentacle.
“Let go off her!!!” he shouted and rushed at the man.
Strong arms held him back.
“Stop it, kid!” It was the baton-wielding skeleton. “Let him…”
“Let him what?” Caleb demanded.
“Cleanse her…” his voice was a rattling whisper, and seemed to echo within his skull. His hand left Caleb’s shoulders, but another replaced it. “She is…dirty,” he said walking towards the man.
“Dirty?"
Mikey caught up, “Yeah…that girl, she killed herself…” he looked at Caleb, “And nothing can murk up a soul like suicide…” Issa did look dirtier than all of the people Caleb had seen in the parade. Even dirtier than the big convict he had conversed with earlier.
“Killed herself?” Caleb’s knees buckled. Strong arms dragged him away from the scene.
“They said you killed yourself…” Caleb said as he held the sodden girl’s hand. Issa held her hand up and looked at it as though it was an ugly toy that she’d rather toss in the garbage bag. On her wrist was a long gash, brown with dried blood. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, come to think of it…” Issa admitted.
“Why’d you do it?”
“I don’t know…” inky black tears were welling down her cheeks, “I just…didn’t know what else to do…”
Caleb pulled her into an embrace.
“You stupid girl…” he said rubbing his hands soothingly on her back. “What would your mom do now? Or Alexei?” They broke their embrace and they caught up with the march.
“I’m sorry…” Issa sobbed.
Caleb looked at her. He guessed now that since that man had cleansed her from the grime of the crime, she now regretted what she did.
“Just….” What? Don’t do it again? It was irreversible… “Just…stop crying…”
He squeezed her hand and pulled her closer to him, “And don’t let go...”
“You’re telling me,” Issa smiled, “You’re the one who let go first.”
“Not anymore…” Caleb held her hand, “I’ll make sure.”
A tailor walked towards them holding a long pair of bloodstained scissors and a roll of thread with a needle. He held both their hands firmly and began sewing them together. He smiled as he pulled the needle out of their skin, and he would even laugh when he stuck the needle through their hands. When he finished, he cut at the stray threads with his large scissors and declared, “It’s done!” He stroked at the perfectly seamed stitches, “Very nice…very nice…”
He was about to stick his tongue at their stitched hands when Caleb pulled them away. “Thank you, Fred…”
“Killed his wife with those scissors of his,” Caleb answered Issa’s wary look. “He caught her cheating one night…and well…things happened. He kills wife, wife’s lover kills him…I think the wife’s here somewhere…hiding.”
Issa looked at their connected hands, just as Caleb said, “I love you, Issa.”
The skeleton with the baton looked behind him and saw the young couple at the front of the parade. If he had lips, he would have smiled. He shrugged and tapped the end of the baton on the wooden floor of the float. “Let’s have a detour to where our good friends, the Demolition Lovers, live. They’ll have a very welcome addition in their domain…
“Oh and where’s the patient’s medal? We’re nearing his stop!”
END
Though the sky was bleak that day, the students of Silent Cliffs were on high spirits. It was their graduation day, and they were determined to make their last day of being classmates a very memorable experience.
Caleb looked up from the sea of heads to find his friend, Issa. She had gone for only a minute and he was already missing her. The last day…the last day…the last day…. he kept repeating to himself. This would be the day he would finally speak up…to reveal his feelings for his long-time friend.
Unconsciously, he kept undoing his red and black tie, only to redo it again; he can’t seem to decide which style would make him more appealing. He sighed and with his mind made up; he tugged at the tie and allowed it to be loose around the neck. At least he wouldn’t be choking when he faced her.
His name was called for him to come up stage and receive his diploma. He didn’t hear it at first—he was too busy deciding the exact words to say. In fact, his name was called twice and if Alexei didn’t nudge at his ribs, he would have been called for a third time. He rose and approached the stage, aware of the eyes looking at him, and the taunting smiles they didn’t mind showing. He breathed slowly and focused on mounting the number of steps on the stage.
There was no booming applause for him, and through all the polite claps, he knew that only two people were really cheering for him. Alexei and Issa. He noticed the latter as he stood in the stage to have his picture taken. She was standing close to the stage, camera phone in one hand, with her other hand waving for him to look her way. He blushed slightly and was a bit shaky when he went down the stairs.
“Lemme look at that!” Alexei demanded, trying to make a grab for the two medals Caleb held. Caleb nimbly dodged his friend’s hands. He had received a medal for excellence in Literature, specifically Journalism, and another one for his excellence in Arts. Second to him in the latter award was Alexei, so understandably, he had been dying to at least touch the little trinket.
“Will you guys knock it off so I could get a pic!” Issa scolded while laughing. She was constantly moving her phone to get a good angle at the two.
The boys settled. Caleb held his hand high, both for presenting it and keeping it out of Alexei’s reach. After that, and several more poses, Caleb tried to speak with Issa, but she had more friends to capture on film, so she constantly flit from one group of girls to another, trying to get pictures.
Alexei sat down next to him, allowing their feet to dangle on the edge of the stage. Caleb was watching Issa as she and her friends passed around cameras to a teacher begging him or her to take a picture of them.
After Issa went to a group of her favorite teachers, Caleb got impatient. He jumped down from the stage and grabbed Issa by her arm and dragged her out of the gym.
“You can let go now…” Issa said impatiently. Caleb had taken her to the middle of the compound, away from every building and anyone who had chosen to take pictures outside.
Caleb let go and turned to face her. “I-I’m sorry…” he stuttered, “I wanted us to be alone…”
“Wait—” Issa raised her phone to Caleb’s face and took a shot.
“Listen!” Caleb gently pushed her hand away. He held her by the arms and looked at her gentle green pools. “Issa…I want—no…I—” he tried to swallow the thing at his throat, but it wouldn’t budge. Issa was looking at him, bewildered. “Caleb…what?”
“Issa, I—”
“You shit!” a shout echoed through the huge compound. The two turned and saw a big man, with his back towards them. He was talking to Philip, a similarly bulky student. Father and son… Caleb thought. They were shouting at each other, and based from what they heard, it was because Philip graduated without any award.
Philip finally lost it. His hand dove in the waistband of his pants and withdrew a snub-nosed revolver. He raised it at his momentarily paralyzed father and fired until all six chambers were emptied.
Caleb jerked backwards as three of the bullets struck him at the chest. Issa was screaming as blood spurted from the three holes.
“No!” she dropped down beside him and cried, “You can’t die….No-no….no….”
But Caleb smiled, “You can’t live with three bullets in your chest, Issa. You know that….” Blood was flowing out through lips now, and pretty soon, his fair skin was filled with scarlet blossoms. “I’m sorry…” he muttered, “I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me…”
“HELP!!!” Issa screamed, tears flowing down her cheeks, “Oh, Caleb…don’t die!” Tears fell and mixed with blood, the two fluids swirling for a second before flowing down Caleb’s face as one… “You mean so much to me, you idiot!” she cried, “Don’t you die…I won’t survive it….Not you, Caleb…Please!!!”
But Caleb’s eyes were only staring at the eternal expanse of blackness that awaited his soul.
“He didn’t even say goodbye…” Issa was crying in front of Caleb’s coffin, an ornate shiny black box, riddled with fantastical characters of myth. Inside the box itself lay the cold dead shell of Caleb. Issa was leaning on Alexei, who was trying his best to support the weight of the near-unconscious girl.
“He told you that he loved you…” Alexei said, “That’s better than a goodbye, don’t you think?”
“I won’t survive it, Alex…” Issa sobbed. Her friend understood; she was not new to the experience of being near someone who just got killed, but that didn’t make her prepared for this. Her father was the first. Three bullets all over his chest as a jealous company colleague fired his gun at him. Issa was there for what the firm called ‘Bring Your Child To Work Day’ where all the parents brought their little ones to work and show them how things worked in the place. She saw it all happen from behind his desk. The angry man was about to turn his gun to Issa but thought better of it…he stuck the barrel instead into his own mouth and fired.
“Yes,” Alexei held her firmly, “You will survive this! You are a strong girl, you can live through this…”
Issa was not listening.
Caleb found himself staring into the cold hard road in front of him. The sky above him was gray and the air was thick with ghastly fumes. Ash was falling lightly on the ground like snow. All around him were shattered buildings, broken until they were indistinguishable from the heap of trash that littered the place.
He silently wondered where he was. Thinking that he wouldn’t be able to find out by standing here, he started walking around, looking for a sign of some sort that would tell him where he was.
The sound of snare drums made him look up. A float was slowly making its way through the road towards him. He looked at it curiously, wondering what festival involved having a skull shaped by white roses in a black float. Halloween was already over…
It took him awhile to notice the number of strangely dressed people marching behind the float. Some wore masks shaped like skulls; some were wearing tattered clothes, its colors not different from the fumes that enveloped the area. Caleb approached it carefully, taking all the details he could manage.
Atop the float were five men, playing their instruments, keeping the march alive—which was not saying much: all of the ones marching looked like they had the life sucked out of them… And when Caleb was close enough, he could see that the eyes peeking through the eyeholes of the masks were cold and dead. Only the musicians seemed to be the ones that had life.
Then he finally understood. He knew he was dead; he felt the bullets hit him and remembered after opening his eyes; he was here in this place.
With purpose he approached the parade more quickly. Only the people on the top of the float took notice of his participation. They were skeletons, he finally noticed. Skeletons dressed in black uniforms. One of them, the one holding a baton with his left hand looked at him and a glint flashed within its hollow eye sockets. He gestured with his gloved hand towards the front of the parade, beside a woman wearing a gas-mask and a tattered gown. The frame that was supposed to hold the gown for it to balloon was fastened outside the dress.
Caleb followed the slow advance of the parade.
He looked at the woman beside her and asked, “Who are you?”
The woman didn’t reply. Instead, a man wearing a soldier’s uniform approached him and said, “She’s the mother of all the wars in the world. She collects all of us,” he jabbed at the bullet wound at his chest, “All of us who died in the war…”
“Mother War?” The woman wearing a gas mask looked at him briefly before turning to face the float once more.
The man nodded, “I got shot in the Omaha beach…so I belong to her jurisdiction…" he shrugged.
“I’m Michael…” the soldier said, pushing his glasses up his nose. “But call me Mikey…every else did…”
“Caleb…”
Issa lay on her bed, eyes blankly staring at the ceiling. She was dead. Blood was seeping through her dark blue sheets. A box cutter lay on her icy hands, blood blotched the thin blade.
“Yeah, so what?” a big man growled at Caleb. “I don’t care how many people I killed, or how many suffered for their death. The only thing I care about is that they wronged me and they deserve to die.”
Caleb, being dead, was not afraid standing next to the murderer. He was wearing a dirty black and white jail clothes. Limp black hair hung over his pallid face. His eyes were glowing a sickly red and were rimmed with black rings.
“So how did you die?” It took a while for feeling comfortable in asking the question but the people didn’t seem to mind Caleb asking.
The man looked down at him and growled, “Tried to escape prison…still had a few scores to settle, ya know?” he shrugged. “Smart-ass cops sent dogs to catch me—but not until they shot me in the leg…”
Caleb did notice the eternal trickle of red that flowed from the man’s left leg.
“Dogs?” Caleb thought it ironic that this blood-hungry wolf was brought down by dogs…
The parade was slowing down—slower than normal. Caleb looked on and saw that there was a man in a gurney, surrounded by several nurses and a doctor. The man plucked the IV lines out of his left hand and slid down the bed. In moments, the baton-wielding skeleton welcomed the patient into the parade.
Caleb watched as the man with matted black hair look around, bewildered, as Caleb had when he first realized where he was.
Two women, whom he had come to know as Fear and Regret, held the man by his arms and accompanied him towards the parade.
“Uhh…” he tapped on Mikey’s shoulders, “Why are Fear and Regret with that guy?”
Mikey shifted the strap of his rifle and replied, “All the man’s life he had gone through nothing but fears and regrets. Fear of his sickness, I guess…and I bet he’s felt a lot of regrets in his life as he contemplates them everyday in that hospital bed.” He shrugged, “That’s just an educated guess, mind.”
Alexei poured Caleb’s favorite drink over his gravestone. He had just come from Issa’s funeral and he thought of dropping by to see his other late friend.
“So many deaths…” he muttered as he bagged the empty bottle. He smiled wanly and said, “At least they graduated before all of this…”
The parade was slowing again. Caleb looked to his left, where a path had appeared.
“What’s this?” he muttered.
Mikey sighed, “Another unexpected death…” They had passed several of those who had ‘unexpected deaths’ several times.
Issa stood on a mound of wooden shreds that was a house. She had no idea where she was. She was utterly terrified and clasped at the edge of her dress in fear. The smell here was unbearable. The amorous scents of sewage pipes, blood, and nuclear waste stung her nose.
The pile of garbage beneath her shifted, and she screamed when a hand shot up. It was quickly followed by the a head and soon the entire figure of a man stooped in front of her.
He was completely featureless: his eyes were only tiny dots on his face; his bald head was filled with pins and needles. Cutter blades were sticking out of the back of his hand and hooks were pierced on his fingers. He was wearing a shredded straitjacket, its buckles hanging loosely at his sides. Piercings riddled his otherwise featureless face: a huge ring on his lips, two tiny rings on each of his brows, and a skull tipped pin on one nostril.
A huge manic smile split from his pallid face, revealing yellow teeth alive with algae. He said, “Well aren’t you a pretty doll?” he took a lurching step forward and managed to grab Issa’s hand. The hooks on his fingertips dug at Issa’s skin and she screamed.
He stuck out an impossibly long tongue and licked at her pale hand. Issa felt a bump among the slick muscle. Apparently, he also had a piercing on his tongue.
“Let go of me!” she screamed and struck at the man’s face with her free hand.
Caleb heard the scream. His skin crawled when he realized it was Issa’s voice. Pushing aside all the questions that popped up on his head, he rushed ahead of the parade and when he reached the place, he noticed that the short run had greatly drained his energy. He also noticed that the place was even more amorous than the other paths they had taken. The smell of rotten flesh mingled with the reek of blood and the nuclear stench among other things. He clamped his lips and tried to stop his gag reflex.
With his hand over his mouth and nose, he looked up and saw the thin man with pins on his head holding Issa high in the air, his long tongue wrapping around her like a tentacle.
“Let go off her!!!” he shouted and rushed at the man.
Strong arms held him back.
“Stop it, kid!” It was the baton-wielding skeleton. “Let him…”
“Let him what?” Caleb demanded.
“Cleanse her…” his voice was a rattling whisper, and seemed to echo within his skull. His hand left Caleb’s shoulders, but another replaced it. “She is…dirty,” he said walking towards the man.
“Dirty?"
Mikey caught up, “Yeah…that girl, she killed herself…” he looked at Caleb, “And nothing can murk up a soul like suicide…” Issa did look dirtier than all of the people Caleb had seen in the parade. Even dirtier than the big convict he had conversed with earlier.
“Killed herself?” Caleb’s knees buckled. Strong arms dragged him away from the scene.
“They said you killed yourself…” Caleb said as he held the sodden girl’s hand. Issa held her hand up and looked at it as though it was an ugly toy that she’d rather toss in the garbage bag. On her wrist was a long gash, brown with dried blood. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, come to think of it…” Issa admitted.
“Why’d you do it?”
“I don’t know…” inky black tears were welling down her cheeks, “I just…didn’t know what else to do…”
Caleb pulled her into an embrace.
“You stupid girl…” he said rubbing his hands soothingly on her back. “What would your mom do now? Or Alexei?” They broke their embrace and they caught up with the march.
“I’m sorry…” Issa sobbed.
Caleb looked at her. He guessed now that since that man had cleansed her from the grime of the crime, she now regretted what she did.
“Just….” What? Don’t do it again? It was irreversible… “Just…stop crying…”
He squeezed her hand and pulled her closer to him, “And don’t let go...”
“You’re telling me,” Issa smiled, “You’re the one who let go first.”
“Not anymore…” Caleb held her hand, “I’ll make sure.”
A tailor walked towards them holding a long pair of bloodstained scissors and a roll of thread with a needle. He held both their hands firmly and began sewing them together. He smiled as he pulled the needle out of their skin, and he would even laugh when he stuck the needle through their hands. When he finished, he cut at the stray threads with his large scissors and declared, “It’s done!” He stroked at the perfectly seamed stitches, “Very nice…very nice…”
He was about to stick his tongue at their stitched hands when Caleb pulled them away. “Thank you, Fred…”
“Killed his wife with those scissors of his,” Caleb answered Issa’s wary look. “He caught her cheating one night…and well…things happened. He kills wife, wife’s lover kills him…I think the wife’s here somewhere…hiding.”
Issa looked at their connected hands, just as Caleb said, “I love you, Issa.”
The skeleton with the baton looked behind him and saw the young couple at the front of the parade. If he had lips, he would have smiled. He shrugged and tapped the end of the baton on the wooden floor of the float. “Let’s have a detour to where our good friends, the Demolition Lovers, live. They’ll have a very welcome addition in their domain…
“Oh and where’s the patient’s medal? We’re nearing his stop!”
END