LEFT OF SINISTER

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

While Candy was distracted by what he saw in the corner Earl surreptitiously brought his hands up to his mouth.  He held his hands up to where he could grasp the bottom of the tape in his teeth.  He now ripped upward making a tear there.  And suddenly now his brother moved off across the floor toward the two high windows where he would soon pass through the streaming light that angled in on the wooden floor there before the worn carpet making bright squares in that space there. At some point during the early a.m. his brother had evidently pulled the blinds up to the uppermost part of the windows and completely drawn the sheer curtains open. Seizing the opportunity given him Earl now once more using his teeth tore the tape on his wrists upward.  With this accomplished he now began applying pressure to the wrapping and managed to free his hands.  Done he now quickly reached back and grabbed his coat and hurriedly pulled it on.

Though the room was alight now there was still a drab gray quality about it given the oppressive quality of light as determined by the architecture of the domicile. And this oppressive quality was enhanced by the fact that the fire that once blazed away in the fireplace was now nothing more than dying embers mere orange dots succumbing in the black recess of the fireplace that stood to his far right in the large room.

His brother's footfalls now that he had once more donned his shoes sounded on the wooden floor as he moved ever more urgently to the that far corner of the room where he had seen the dark figures that he'd not recognized as some of his victims.

Earl watched him as he went trying as he might to deduce who these strange specters might be or what they represented. As his younger sibling moved ever closer there he focused on these forms and once more feeling the absolute loathing pulsating from them wash over him, and momentarily he knew well then why this was so. It was because he had long ago decided not to ponder upon the things he had done on the behalf of his son-in-law and his New England family's business. He was able to do as Candy had pointed out his grandson was incapable of, compartmentalizing, and had done so for quite some time.

At last Candy was over in the corner and there in that corner just as drenched in shadow as the one near the door were similar specters, similar to the one he had initially seen, haunting beings given to lingering about. And they were doing so with the same limitless hatred he had felt, hatred that was for him and which he sensed with the same intensity.

And so Earl was certain he knew why they had come, why they were there. Yet he could only conjecture, could only suppose that the evil his brother had begat had stirred the history of that which he had participated in and as a result of which some unspoken conspiracy was borne in the spiritual realm and had coalesced against the two of them to bring it all to a climatic conclusion in some sense at last to be resolved.

Watching him it seemed to Earl he was in some kind of conversation with them though he heard no sound coming from Candy or any of those loathsome specters.

After a moment Candy turned and looked at him, looked at him as if he had become aware of something pertaining to him. And in a moment he turned back and looked at the specters once more. And within a few moments the specters moved back toward the darkest part of the corner and faded from view.

Candy turned around again just as he was about to reach into his breast pocket.  "Don't do that or I'll shoot you right now!" Candy warned stopping momentarily to aim the gun at him.  "Alright, alright." Earl replied pulling his hand back.   

Candy now with the gun raised moved with profound deliberateness back to where he was. And as he approached his brother who was now rubbing at the cramps in his upper thighs the result of his legs being bound at the ankles so long his face took on an aspect of angry satisfaction.

Arriving there Candy now walked to his own chair and sat down eyeing him suspiciously. "So you've disobeyed me I see.  "Don't think that I will fall for any nonsense now that you're loose." he told his older brother. "It was cutting off my circulation Candy.  You taped me up to tight.  I had to get some feeling back into my hands." Earl said then.  

"What was it you saw in the corner?" he now asked hoping to change the subject. "More ghosts." he said.  "Don't tell me you didn't see them too?" he now said accusingly.  "I did not see anything over there?" Earl declared quite loud.  "Well its just as I thought they have no connection to me. And though they said nothing I was able to sense they are here to stand in accusation, stand in accusation not of me, but rather of you dear brother."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Earl said his voice growing tense with anger. Candy bent forward in his chair shaking the Ruger at him.  "Oh just that my grand brother who is a role model for one and all, a wholesome man never known to harm anyone is my equal in ill doings. What is it Earl what did you do to those people?" Candy asked crossing his legs looking for all the world like some prosecutor confronting a defendant.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Candy." Earl insisted. "You know damn well what I'm talking about–you saw those–those goddamn things just as well as I did." Candy said. "I saw nothing, I saw nothing but you go over there and stand staring at an empty corner of this room." Earl said somewhat defensively.

"Bullshit Earl." Candy sneered. "I'm not sure anything either one of us has seen is nothing more than figments of our imagination. And we've been drinking alcohol and smoking some very potent marijuana." Earl said waving him off with a dismissive hand.

"That's bullshit too, Earl. We saw plenty of shit before any of our consumption of the booze and herb. You saw that gook kid when we drove up. I saw her too, but I wasn't going to confirm it for the fact that–well you know of course, by now you're bound to have figured it out, that she was my first kill. Maybe she didn't deserve it. I'll concede that–that maybe quite a few of my victims didn't deserve it, but hey the gook would have grown up in the most wretched poverty and would have likely died a young woman, worn out by the endless toil and drudgery. And the others–well goddamn it I did them a favor too. This world is a miserable fucking place brother. And what about that naked dame you saw?

And believe me I see them all the time, they're always hanging around trying to fill me with remorse for what I did to them, but you know that is quite useless when you realize I have no consideration for anyone. I can have affections for people, but not because I have any great emotional attachment to them beyond the benefit it brings to me.

But if something dreadful might should befall them, say perhaps if they might meet their end, it doesn't bother me in the least. I was married to Sage for all those years and yet it was no deterrence from what I did to her. I'm a cold blooded killer and so are you, so it seems by our new visitors. I bet they're out there right now pointing an accusing finger toward the house in your direction." Candy said standing up.

He walked over and stood defiantly in front of him. "Remember what I said Earl, what will happen if you try and run. I'll shoot you down on the spot." he warned. "Why are telling me that again Candy I know damn well that is what you'll do if I try and run?"  "Well because we're going to go the windows and have a look out there to see if what I propose is perhaps possible." And now using the gun urged Earl to stand up.

"Let's go brother let's go have a look out the window and see what we might see." he said gripping on his right arm. "For all I know, with your temper, you and I are cut from the same clothe. Shit for all I know you're a southpaw like me. I remember how grandma Dugan went about trying to change me into a right handed person. All her dire warnings about left handed people easily being compromised by dark forces. How do I know you weren't left handed too and somehow you were transformed into an ambidextrous person rather than a righthander? After all by the time I really became aware of anything you were already in school. How would I know whether or not you had ever favored your left hand?"

"That's nonsense Candy." Earl protested. "Let's go to the window and have a look Earl. Let's go see if any of them folks you turned into ghosts might out there?" he said.