Nightmare on Third Street - Chapter Thirteen

I spluttered out a choking gasp as I jumped back, away from the person. This wasn't possible. It couldn't be. I wanted to believe it, I really did, but it was just impossible. I turned my back on the person and stared at the wall, my emotions running wild. This was all just too much. Just too freaking much. I clenched my eyes tightly closed, willing the images of Elrick's tortured body out of my head. But everytime I closed my eyes, the image was still there, forever imprinted within me. I wasn't going to be forgetting it anytime soon. And the blood. My eyes shot down to look at my pants. The blood...was gone. I couldn't believe it. It was like it had never been there.

"Bryan," the person said again. I could only shake my head in disbelief. They grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to face them. That damned voice echoed into my mind again, saying the famous words, "You're mine". I stared the person in the eye, tears filling my own as I took shaky breaths. This was just way too much all at once. "Bryan, look at me. Are you okay?"

"No...You...I," I spluttered, before I pushed away. "You're dead. You're dead. I just saw you...you're dead."

"Huh?"

"You're dead...I just saw you...in the kitchen. You're dead. Oh God...you're dead."

Elrick frowned at me, a towel wrapped around his waist. "What are you talking about?" he asked, looking genuinely confused. Elrick was standing in front of me. Elrick...was in front of me. Elrick ws alive. Alive. He wasn't dead. Oh God, he was alive. He was alive, he wasn't dead. This was too good to be true.

Wait. Too good to be true. No. Wait. It was the voice. It was just playing tricks on me. Yeah, that had to be it. There was no way Elrick was standing here, talking to me, when his corpse was decorating my kitchen. I rounded on the Elrick look-alike with the knife, my eyes ablaze. It was one thing to kill Elrick. But then to impersonate him? That was just beyond low.

"How could you?" I seethed, swiping at him. He stepped back, away from my blade. "You killed him." I lunged forward. "You fucking killed him! You bastard!" I knicked him again, this time in the chest. He winced and backed away again, narrowly escaping the blade of my knife.

"Bryan! What are you doing?"

"Killing you," I said. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Why?"

"You killed him! You killed him, you bastard!"

"...Killed who?" he was genuinely perplexed. It caught me off guard for a moment, but I quickly glared again, seething inside.

"Elrick! You killed Elrick! Don't act like you don't know!" I was so pissed and upset that I was seeing red. "You murdered him, you fucking murderer! You killed him!"

He caught my wrists again as I swiped at him. "Bryan, calm down. Calm down, okay? It's me. It's Elrick. What are you talking about?"

"Stop lying to me! I know you're that stupid voice. You killed him, don't act like you didn't," I growled, struggling to move forward. He held me back easily. My body was trembling, I was so upset and frustrated. I wanted to believe that this was Elrick, I wanted to believe it so badly, but I had just seen him in the kitchen. He was dead. God, he was dead. This wasn't him. The voice was just playing with me. This was beyond cruel. "You killed him!"

He turned me around so that my back was against his chest, and crossed my arms in front of me so I couldn't move. "Bryan," he spoke softly, "you have to calm down, okay? I swear to you, I'm Elrick. Whatever you saw, whatever happened, it wasn't real. I promise. I swear it."

I fought him. "Liar," I whispered. 'Elrick's dead. Stop using his voice. That's not fair. That's just cruel. Please, show some other form,' I thought to myself. "You killed him."

He sighed heavily, his hot breath running across the back of my neck. I shivered against him and fought to get away, but he held on tight, forcing me against him so he could keep a hold of my arms and prevent me from moving. "Calm down. Let go of the knife, Bryan. Let go. You're going to hurt yourself if you're not careful. Put it down."

It seemed strange that the voice would care what happened to me. Was this really Elrick? I wanted to believe it...I wanted it to be true, but it wasn't. How could it be true, when the images from the kitchen were still fresh in my mind? All of the blood, the gore, Elrick's pale face, his sightless eyes...I couldn't rid myself of the image, of that haunting memory. I couldn't believe this was Elrick, not while a body in the kitchen told me otherwise. I wasn't sure if the voice could act dead or not, but whoever was in the kitchen was certainly dead. Of that I knew.

Elrick grabbed the knife and pulled it from my grasp. I held on tightly, fighting against him, but he won out in the end. "Please, calm down. Can I let you go yet? Or are you going to try and kill me again?"

I said nothing. He sighed and released me. I shoved forward and went down to my knees, tears flowing from my eyes. To hell with being weak, my emotional state was shot to pieces. Everything had happened so fast. Too fast. The concert, finding Elrick dead in the kitchen, coming to the bathroom, this little fight...It was all too much, too fast. Unable to keep my fear and inner pain in any longer, I cried. Right there in the middle of the bathroom floor.

Elrick knelt down next to me, as if unsure of what to do. "...Bryan?" he asked slowly. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

I looked at him through blurry eyes. 'This is Elrick,' I told myself. 'It has to be. The voice wouldn't be this caring. This is Elrick. The voice would have killed me had I come after it with a knife. This is the real Elrick. Oh, thank God.' I clenched my eyes tightly closed and took in shaky breaths.

Elrick put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" His voice wasn't demanding. He was giving me a choice of whether or not to answer. His voice was filled with genuine concern. The voice wouldn't have been genuinely concerned, I told myself. This was the real Elrick. He was alive. He wasn't dead, lying in my kitchen. He was alive. He was okay, and he was here.

"I thought...you were dead. Coming home, the scene in the kitchen..." I chewed on my lower lip. "It was too much."

Though he looked kind of confused, he nodded his head in understanding. "The voice likes to play tricks on you. I'm sorry you had to see whatever it was that you saw. Whatever it was, it must have been bad."

"You don't know the half of it," I murmured, wiping tears from my eyes as I took in a deep breath. "So...that was...the voice? In the kitchen?" Was that why the blood wasn't on me anymore? It made sense, in a weird, unreal kind of way.

Elrick nodded. "Yeah. Wasn't me. I swear. I'm not some hallucination or ghost. Ghosts don't bleed." he showed me where I had knicked him. I smiled weakly.

"Sorry," I mumbled. He nodded his head, accepting the apology, and then rose to his feet wtih a frown.

"So. Exactly what did you see in the kitchen?"

It was about that time that footsteps echoed down the hall. I rose to my feet in the blink of an eye, my heart racing around wildly in my chest. Elrick stared at the bathroom door as the doorknob began to turn. He bent down and grabbed the knife, and then shoved me behind him as the door began to open.

I saw the relfection in the mirror, and I screamed. I couldn't help it. I screamed.