The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER SIX

28

A smile played on the face. Vicious sharp looking teeth were exposed to him. They were yellow and hungry looking. "Oh dear sir you've given me life once again, let me, let me give you a kiss as a reward." the girl's voice said.

Now the arms of the corpse reached out and slapped hard its hands onto the sides of his head and pulled him down. The face then kissed his mouth. It felt as if a hose was being plunged down his throat and was sucking the life from him. He gasped for air struggling to be free of the creature.

At last it let him go. He tumbled backwards into the mud. He then began to cough uncontrollably blood spewing from his lips with each expulsion. His hands were on his knees and oddly enough a smile was on his face. He felt renewed, reborn and overwhelmed by a need to please this being, which now stood before him.

Slowly now the nude creature moved toward him as if floating. Dirt, wet dirt, all cancerous looking at the way it clung to the china whiteness of the torso, still covered the thing.

There was no apparent genitalia on the being either though in every other respect it appeared to be a male.

"There are others about as you?" the small girl's voice questioned him, but now it was no longer wreathed with sweetness, it was now demanding and punitive. And it was true, he could not resist the voice.

"There are two, my mother and father." he said smiling. "Good, I must feed some more. Now my dear sweet sir take me to them!" the child's voice commanded.

Clay Reese then turned about, went and scaled the wall of the dark earthen hole. He staggered forth for several feet and then abruptly stopped and turning about like a man just awake searching to see if he had just dreamt what he'd witnessed.

A great white dog with a wild mane of hair stood behind him. It stared at him with those glowing amber eyes. 

29

 It growled menacingly. And then to his amazement he heard the child's voice once again and it was issuing from the animal. "Go, I command you, lead me to these others for I have a great hunger, GO!" she near roared.

"Yes...yes I will take you to them." Clay finally managed to say. So he turned yet again and led the way. He led the dog through the pasture and back to the fence, then onto the path and over the bridge on up to the farmhouse. When they were there Clay kicked the mud from his feet and they mounted the porch. 

 Clay then turned and looked at the dog now which made a deliberate movement of its head acknowledging him. Now he moved down the porch and knocked on the door.

In the kitchen Madeline Reese filled with energy from the exciting events of the morning went about preparing her two knights a delicious country breakfast. Vernon was in the living room adjusting the radio dial on the stereo trying to find some information over the airwaves concerning the storm. So far all he had attracted was static.

When he heard the knock on the door he was surprised by it. Madeline called to him from the kitchen. "Whose at the door?"

Vernon thought for a moment. "It's got to be Clay–damn did I lock that door?" he asked himself. He left the radio and went into the hallway and on to the front door. It wasn't locked. He twisted the knob and opened it.

He saw Clay standing there on the porch facing him through the screen door. "Clay why did you knock, this is still your home son, you don't have to knock, just–just come on in." he said as he pushed the door open and went onto the porch.

His son didn't look right to him. His eyes had a distant and dilated look about them and there appeared to be blood on his lips. "Son what is wrong, what happened to you?" Vernon asked him. 

It was then that he saw the dog. It stood down the porch near the swing away from them 

30

where it could not be seen from the open door. It was very strange, its eyes were yellow and wild looking and it seemed to almost be smiling at him if that was possible for a dog. It moved slightly toward him then.

"Oh hello father." the dog said and it had the voice of a little girl. Vernon was frozen with amazement. "How could a dog talk?" The dog moved again and with each movement it shifted itself back into the corpse that Clay had rescued from the hole.

The older man had no time to react, the corpse was on him immediately and sank its terrible fangs into his neck and then began to drink deeply the blood, which it had so savored and had so long contemplated.

Clay stood aside and watched this as if a party who sees an accident on the highway and is only interested in it because he is witness to the aftermath. He watched as the thing tore open his father's throat.

He watched admiringly at how efficiently the beast went about it. His father barely made a sound as the creature went about suckling his blood.

After several minutes the beast let go of the body which slammed hard onto the porch. Blood smeared the monster's mouth and then it snaked out its red tongue and licked at the stain as someone might do after a refreshing cool drink.

It was an appalling display, but Clay simply did not care at this moment. The beast then bent low and grabbed up his victim by his graying blonde hair.

"The other one?" it said now. Clay moved to the screen door, opened it, and led the creature into the house. The beast followed dragging the lifeless body of Vernon Reese by its side.

Madeline had heard something hit the porch. She stuck her head through the arched space that led from the kitchen into the dining room.

"What was that noise?" she asked the sound of what she thought were her two men who moved down the hallway and into the living room and on into the dining room.

It was a strange sound in some way, like someone pulling along a heavy bag or maybe even a 

31

body. She thought about it only briefly her attention drawn back to her breakfast preparations and resumed beating the eggs she intended to make omelets with.

"It was dad." Clay said from almost directly behind her. "What'd he do drop something?" she asked.

"Mother I want you to meet someone." Clay said now almost with a whisper. "Is someone here?" she asked as she turned about.

She saw the awful thing then standing there in the dining room. The black dirt still adhered to the creature's skin. Her husband's head dangled from the thing's grasp. His eyes were open and lifeless, his tongue drooped from his mouth, and his throat was ripped open and horribly ugly as remnants of his blood plopped and trailed from the wound.

She began to scream, but it did not last long for her son, her very own son, choked it off as his hands closed around her throat. He forced her backward now onto the table knocking utensils and breakfast preparations onto the floor. He held her thrashing body there as the monster moved forward and sank its fangs into her chest and drank directly from her pulsating heart.