Echoes

Part 29

I tried to pull myself together. I needed to get to Charles Rice as fast as humanly possible. In most cases, the quickest way to get to Boston from Banning was to take the highway. This, however, was not most cases. His office was in a portion of Boston that lay on the other side of Harper Hills, the small, hilly community that stood between Banning and Boston. Naturally, I chose to save time by taking the Harper Hill's Bridge into Boston.

As I continued to drive, I noticed sharp changes in scenery. Houses that were one color turned into another, buildings that had been brand new began to look worn, and buildings that had looked dilapidated were beginning to look refurbished. And the people were changing, too. The more I drove, the stranger they became. Normal skin tones gave way to grey, black, and translucent ones, and bodies and faces became increasingly grotesque and corpse-like. And where I had once been driving anonymously down the road without a single person noticing me, I now was under scrutiny. The further I drove, the harder they looked at me, and the more of them looked at me. The sky had grayed, and it was beginning to rain. Eventually, the weather became so hostile that I found myself running right towards the guardrail on the road. I slammed on the breaks and screamed in terror as I felt the car spin violently across the road. I was propelled forwards as it slammed into a large, wooden sign for Harper Hills Bridge and the airbag immediately inflated right smack into my face.

When I regained my senses, I saw that the monstrous people that had been increasing in numbers and staring at me were coming towards the car. I tried to start it up again, but the engine gave a hiss before issuing a sound not unlike death. I couldn't start it to save my life. And did I even want to save my life? I had gone absolutely crazy, if I was seeing all of this. Whatever Asher had been using had taken its toll. He hadn't handled anything I'd eaten or drank in quite a while and yet this kind of hallucination was befalling me. There was no telling what damage it had done to my body and how permanent and far-reaching it was. Most of the chemicals that could cause massive hallucinations also caused heart and brain problems, and the palpitations and splitting headaches I'd been suffering from increasingly over the past several weeks said that the damage had been done.

He was going to succeed in taking my baby. I knew he wouldn't have been stupid enough not to cover his tracks and that proving what he'd done would be difficult and perhaps impossible with my deteriorating brain. And even if he didn't succeed in taking Giselle this time, he was a Harrison. He'd keep trying until he got what he wanted. The only way he would fail was if I somehow managed to keep Giselle away from him, but that would never happen. He was her father; at best he'd get supervised visitation until they were satisfied with his behavior and then he'd regain all the chances in the world to be alone with her and work his ulterior motives.

There was no one to turn to. My parents were gone, and they didn't care whether they were here or not. I had always thanked God for my supportive sister, my wonderful best friend, and the fact that the love of my life was by my side. But he had never really loved me at all; money and security had always meant more to him than me. And my best friend, well, she was too busy thinking about her own needs to care whether she eviscerated me or not. And my sister, apparently, was on their side.

I had nothing left to lose, and I was left alone with nothing but misery and terrifying hallucinations that were just getting worse. I couldn't live like this anymore. Knowing I couldn't start the car back up, I made a run for it. I didn't know what I was going to do, I just knew that running had to be better than waiting for a bunch of grotesque, decaying people to corner me. They chased me, and as they grew faster and faster my terror hit fever pitch. I ran onto the large, wooden bridge, tripping and falling a few times but not stopping until the rain and the increasingly slippery ground caused me to fall and go flying forward as my body glided over the water. I screamed in pain as I felt the splintered wood digging into my skin. I turned as I considered what to do next, but to my surprise, the decayed specters that had been so vigorously chasing me were now beginning to lose interest. I picked myself up and slowly made my way towards the center of the bridge. The bridge was situated above the St. James River, the body of water that separated Banning from Boston and happened to cut a deep ravine through Harper Hills.

I looked down at the water below me. It was about one hundred feet from the bridge to the water, which was dozens of feet deep at this point. If I jumped, my agony would be over forever. I climbed over the railing and hovered forward. The only thing standing between instant death and myself was my grip on the railing behind me. All I had to do was let go, and I would be free. The sound of a familiar voice gave me pause.

"Shira! What the hell are you doing?"

I turned to see that Sam was on the bridge, looking at me like I was insane. Oh well. I probably was.

"Go away," I called.

"Shira, get off the damned ledge!" he shouted.

"It's okay, Sam," I called back. "My life is already over. Now it's time to make it official."

"Shira don't!" he shouted.

I wished I could listen to him, I really did. But I knew I couldn't. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I could hear the rush of the water and the mist it gave off that lightly touched my skin and caused it to tingle. I took a deep breath before letting go of the railing.