“It’s me. I’m calling from a phone booth…don’t ask, okay? Just please come and get me.”
She was upset. I had been asleep and had only just woken up. I hadn’t even heard her leave.
“Where are you?”
She paused.
“Outside of Leopard Street.”
Her voice was clipped, impatient, the way it got when she was trying to act tough, but was really scared.
Leopard Street was a strip club. It was in a bad neighborhood, full of backward glancing people and not the kind of place a pretty girl needed to be after dark. The sun had already fallen behind the buildings. This was not good.
The fact that her cell phone was gone was really not good. I couldn’t help but imagine what might have led to that. Damn.
“Is there any place you can wait until I get there?”
“I can wait inside the club. I know the bouncer.”
I wanted to say no. I wanted to yell because she knew that this was exactly how bad things got started. But I also knew that there was no other place around there for her to go, so I closed my eyes and tried to speak calmly.
“Alright, but wait for me at the bar. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Okay. I…”
The “I” slid out like she wanted to say something, but let doubt hold it back. Between her hesitation to complete the sentence and the fact that she had not hung up, I was caught again in the exquisite hell of waiting to see which direction my life was about to go. Would she say it? Would she hang up? I couldn’t stand the thought of waiting to find out.
“I love you.” I said it and waited.
When her voice came back, it was brighter, like a weight had been lifted.
“I love you too.”
I let go of the sheet I had balled up in my fist.
“Good. Now go inside. I’ll be right there.”
I hung up. I took a deep breath and held on to that bright voice.
We had been fighting. We fought over our insecurities. We fought over work and we fought over other people, but these were all just clever ways of avoiding the real problems of the drinking, the drugs and the general state of chaos that our lives existed in. Right now our future was measured at zero, but I was working on that. We just had to make it through a little longer.
I pulled on the same clothes I had worn last night. It didn’t matter. Black was black and if it was dirty, well, there was only so much you could see in the dark anyway. My mother, wherever she was, would have just shaken her head. I grabbed my wallet, was out the door and halfway down the hall by the time I heard the door slam shut behind me. It was a sound I had come to associate with my life. I was tired of that sound.
***
The streets were busy and we were stuck. I yelled at the cab driver for not taking the West Side Highway. He yelled at me for not speaking Hindi. By the time we got to the club, it was well after dark and half an hour after I said I would be there. I paid the cabbie, tipped him lovely and told him that he smelled like a goat. I said it in Hindi. He smiled and gave me the finger as he pulled away.
I paid to get in to the club and went straight to the bar, holding my breath the whole way. There were more reasons than not for her to not be there. And then I would be left standing in a strip club, late for my shift and out the money for a cab ride across town and a cover charge. But I wouldn’t care. I wouldn’t even think twice about it, because more than anything else, I would be heartbroken.
Then I saw her.
There are defining moments in your life that truly shape the person you are to be. The decisions you make during these moments can lead to your grandest successes, your most profound regrets, or maybe you will just choose to do nothing and wait for that moment to pass by you in the dark, a great unknown. But you will never forget it.
In that moment, I knew that I loved this girl. I had loved her the whole time, but now I finally realized what it really meant. I wasn’t going to let us hurt ourselves any more.
Joey smiled back at me and that smile held everything. Things were going to be all right, I knew that now.
She hopped off of the barstool and came to me. She wore a tiny summer dress with motorcycle boots. Her keys hung on a leather cord around her neck, and she was the absolute picture of a hot mess. She leaned up and kissed me and I don’t know how else to describe it, but it felt like home.
I looked at her for a long moment. Then I grabbed her hand.
“Let’s go.”
She just nodded and we left.
***
New York City is a bitch in the summertime. It gets hot and the humidity sticks between your skin and clothes like a fine layer of glue. A woman in my building, a neighbor who had all but adopted me, had always described it as “close”. That would be one way to put it; totally miserable was another. But like everything else here, there’s no use in fighting it.
When it gets hot, everyone gets cranky. When I first moved here, I figured it was because out on the street, everything smelled like piss. After a few years of being here I could tell you a hundred more reasons why people were cranky, but I think I pretty much had it nailed on that first day.
Still, you don’t stay in New York because it makes you cranky or because you don’t want to be here. And, all things being equal, I was the happiest I had ever been. I hadn’t been fired for being late to work, Joey was safe and sitting at the bar with a couple of the regulars, and I had started planning what to do with the money I had been putting away. I made good money bartending, enough so that we could get our own place. We could get away from the people that were bringing us down. We could give ourselves a chance.
The regulars that Joey was talking to were kids from the medical school. There was a group of them that came in all of the time. They would drink until they were blasted and then let their brilliant little minds explode into unintelligible sentences and crazy ideas. Then they would stumble home so that they could get up early and learn how to be surgeons. I found the situation mildly alarming, but being the bartender, I knew what everyone else was doing too, and these guys were babes in the woods. Trust me.
Of course, I’d probably pay for it one day when I needed a new liver and I recognized the doctor, but I would deal with than then. One crisis at a time, that was my motto. Heh.
Derek was telling Joey something about an actor buried at a church. I was only catching pieces of it here and there, but she looked fairly amused so I leaned in to listen.
“He was like, the first famous actor. This was back in 1812, so it wasn’t like it is today, but he was really famous for back then. The problem was, he was also a huge drunk, so that part was exactly like it is today.”
He laughed at his own joke. The irony of it made me smile. He went on.
“Anyway, he was English, and he was scheduled to go back home, but before he could make it, he died. Cirrhosis…”
He looked at Nadir and they nodded like they concurred over the diagnosis. These guys were great.
“He’s the only actor in the plot, so it was quite an honor. Did you know that it’s the oldest surviving church in the city? Right. Okay, so he’s buried there, and that’s when the sightings begin.”
I perked up. Sightings are big in my business. Legends are huge, and rumors damn near trump everything. A good story that keeps the folks in their stools for an extra round is like money in my pocket. I pulled another beer for Derek and slid it in front of him.
Nadir was throwing a fit.
“Wait a minute! You said this guy has been around since 1812? And no one has a picture of him yet? We are so going to be famous.” Nadir was already a little drunk. The kid was funny as hell when he got drunk.
I looked at him and wondered what he was talking about. But before I could ask,
Derek had less than gracefully waved him off. He was little drunk to.
“Will you let me finish the story? Okay…when he died, he was buried and they had a ceremony and did all of the normal stuff, right? But, before they planted him, someone stole his head.” He arched an eyebrow and whispered. “The rumors say that it was taken back to England, to the very stage he had performed on countless times, and ever since, it has been used as the skull in Hamlet.”
Derek lifted his hand…
“Alas, poor Yoric. I knew it…”
I laughed “Time to cut you off, my friend. It’s one thing to study medicine a little tipsy, but I cannot stand by and let you butcher Shakespeare. Not in this establishment. No way.”
Nadir laughed. No, he cackled. It was hysterical. Derek mocked being offended.
“Oh, that’s just rude. Forsaking us in our time of need? But no matter, we have other, more important business to attend to!”
Nadir leaned back and chortled.
“Show it to them!”
Derek swung his head to look at him, considering the idea. He brought a forefinger and thumb up to his chin.
“I don’t know. Do they deserve to see it?”
Nadir screwed up his face.
“Oh shut-up and just show it to them.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. Give me some room here…”
He lifted his pack, set it on the bar and started rummaging through it. Then he started pulling things out.
Cables. Maybe a light. I looked at it and must have had an odd expression on my face. The other customers certainly did. Derek began to explain as he pulled the next item out.
“Behold, the common digital camera, slightly modified to allow it to record the infrared spectrum.”
He set it next to the light.
“Coupled with a hand-held flash, also modified so that it will highlight all fields of the infrared spectrum, thus allowing the camera to “see” what the human eye cannot.”
He pulled a computer out and opened it up, turning it on.
“And finally, your everyday laptop, upon which we may view any and all photographs taken. I give you…” He waved his hands in a flourish. “The ghost camera.”
Everyone stared at the equipment and I think we were all thinking the same thing; if it were anybody but the boy genius, I’d laugh. But now I’m a mite curious. Liquor has that effect on people. I watched several of them drain their glasses and set them out to be refilled. I loved the ghost camera.
Joey was first to voice the obvious question.
“Does it work?”
Derek fairly beamed with pride.
“Well that’s what we are going to find out tonight, now isn’t it?”
Nadir was already typing on the laptop.
“Hook it up. Show them the veins.”
Joey arched an eyebrow. Derek arched an eyebrow back. “Why not?” He waved his fingers around like magic.
The he picked the camera up and turned it on. The flash was already pointed at Joey, but she didn’t realize it until he took her picture and it went off. She held a hand up, blinking after the glare
“Oh, thanks a lot. Now I can’t see a thing.”
Derek just smiled. Nadir was tapping away on the keyboard.
“Here it comes…Three…Two…One.…I think we have something for Cosmo…”
The image appeared on the screen.
Joey appeared with very pale skin and dark veins showing along her neck and arms. Her face was hollow, cadaverous, her eyes dull and shot through with veins around the irises. She made a terrible face.
“Take that off!”
“Hold on! Look at the walls! Look at the air, and the people behind you!”
Smoke hung in the background, though there was no smoking in the bar. The other patrons were covered in veins, the same as Joey. The walls glowed like light was seeping through them. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.
Nadir was clapping. Derek was pointing to the veins in Joey’s neck.
“They use the IR cameras in forensics to see bruises and ligature marks. They can even diagnose some types of cancer and tumors, that’s how we found out about it. But then we made this one stronger.”
Joey stood up and smacked Derek on his arm.
“That’s just gross. When I get back, that picture better be gone or you’re going to be wearing your beer. I’m serious.”
“Your awfully violent for such a pretty girl. And kind of cranky too…”
She ignored him and walked to the back of the bar. Derek threw a hand over his chest.
“Dude, why does she have to wear skimpy dresses with motorcycle boots? I can’t concentrate…I feel faint…”
I raised my eyes and pointed at him.
Nadir laughed. “What a dork. Now, seriously, look at this.” Nadir pointed at the smoke, “What is this stuff?”
Derek peered at it. “I have no idea.”
Nadir moved his finger
“Look at the wood. God, look at the walls. This is great! It’s like an instant haunted house. Just with no ghosts.”
Derek smiled. “Not yet…”
I had to admit, it did look really creepy and very cool. I glanced down the bar to take orders and saw something creepier. A couple of girls that Joey knew had just come in and were looking around for her. They were all strung out. I let my face and my voice drop.
I only had a few seconds… “She’s not here.”
The tone said; “You’re not welcome here.” The look said; “Get the hell out.”
They got the messages. Neither one said a word; they just turned around and walked out. The problem was, they would be back. And when they found Joey, they would beg her to go with them. They would try and guilt her, tell her they needed help and do whatever they could to drag her away from me, and right back into trouble.
Nadir was talking to me. He hadn’t even seen them…“Okay, so we go to the graveyard, take a few pictures and find out once and for all if we can photograph a ghost. Are you in?”
I looked back at him, just catching that last part. “What?”
“Are you in? Do you want to come with us and make history? It’s going to be so amazing.”
And then I was making decisions again. It was a slow summer night, and everybody was out to the Island for the weekend. Joey was making her way back toward us. It was just about midnight.
I looked over at James, the other bartender.
“I’m thinking about bailing. You got this handled?”
“All night long, brother. The more money I don’t have to split with you, the better. Ya’ll take off, and have a lovely time.”
He had seen what was going on. I gave him the nod. Then I looked back at Nadir.
“Yeah, why not. We’re in.”
He smiled. “Excellent.”
***
Another cab ride and a half hour later, the four of us stood on a sidewalk staring past an iron fence into a graveyard. It was not a large graveyard, but it was still kind of spooky, I guess. I considered saying something about where we were, and then decided to drop it. No one else was around, and they didn’t mean any harm.
“Set up over here so that we can get the best view.” Nadir was waving Derek over to a spot next to the fence.
I wrapped my arms around Joey and pulled her into me while they set their equipment up. Her hair smelled like the sun. She leaned back into me, put her arms over mine, and pulled closer. I knew then that I had made the right call. She had asked earlier what we were doing this for, and I had told her. She had just smiled then, and kissed me. Now we were together, holding each other, and I knew that things were going to be all right. I was going to make sure of it.
Derek called out in a whisper that they were ready. We walked over and watched them get into position. Then we watched the screen.
A high-pitched whine built up for a second or two, and then the flash popped. Nadir gave the countdown.
“Three. Two. One.”
The first image appeared on the screen. It was amazing.
The leaves on the trees glowed. The headstones also glowed through cracks and it looked like a mist covered the ground. There were wisps of things floating around. For all I knew, they could have been ghosts. Joey pointed to the far let where half of a headstone was cut off.
“What’s that?”
We all stared at it for a second. Derek was the first to recognize it.
“It’s a knee.”
“How do you see that?”
“Look at it. It looks like someone is perched on top of the stone, and all we got was their kneecap.”
“Okay, I can see it now. But it’s big.”
“Here” he handed me the flash and moved around to set back up. “Hold it through the bars and point it straight at that headstone.”
The camera snapped again, the high-pitch sound built up and the flash popped. Three… Two…One. The image appeared on the screen.
Joey screamed and we all jumped. It was crouched on the headstone.
“Dude, it is staring right at us! What the…”
Joey pulled away from me and was stepping back, a hand over her mouth.
Derek pushed me at the fence.
“Hurry! Set back up!”
I was freaked out, but I was also fascinated. I looked back at the graveyard and there was nothing there. It was impossible. There was no way that a thing like that could really be there. I held the flash like an idiot, but we were all too shocked to think.
He clicked, the flash popped and we stared at the screen. When the image appeared, Derek’s eyes widened.
“Oh shit…”
It was pale except for the shining eyes. Its skin was smooth and hairless. It sort of looked like a man, but crossed with an animal. The head was animal. It had jumped off of the headstone and had moved closer us. I was just standing there staring. Derek almost knocked me over when he shoved me.
“Go, go, go!”
Nadir had scooped up the pack and the computer and was hauling ass toward the brightly lit street.
Joey was ahead of me, looking back to make sure she didn’t get too far ahead.
Derek passed by me at a dead run and I picked up the pace.
We tumbled out onto Broadway, under the streetlights with a bus driving by. We looked at each other, shocked, not knowing whether to freak out or laugh. We started to laugh, but only a little.
“That was crazy!”
“Crazy? What the hell was that thing?”
Joey grabbed my hand. “Let’s not stay here?” I agreed.
I looked around but there were no cabs around here at this hour. I was pretty sure no one wanted to wait around to call one. I knew a subway entrance down the block.
“Come on. We can catch the A back uptown.”
We picked up and quickly walked the block or so to the stop, dropped down the stairs and pushed through the turnstiles. We might have to wait a little while for the train, but it beat the hell out of standing up there.
Nadir was fishing the laptop out of the case. Derek was nodding, “Oh yeah.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to look at it again, but in the end, curiosity won over. We all looked back at the last picture. A shiver ran up my spine, chilling me to the bone.
“This is insane. What is that thing?”
Heads shook but no one said a word. A faint rumble sounded from down in the tunnel. We wouldn’t have to wait so long after all.
It was late and there were only a few people on the train. A couple was huddled at one end, oblivious to everyone else. A homeless guy was asleep at the other end.
We sat down in the middle and kept looking at the screen. It didn’t get any less shocking no matter how many times we looked at it. The thing was big and completely unnatural. I looked closer and it had crazy long teeth. Its nails were curved and hooked, its eyes were round and blazed with their own green light.
Someone started mumbling and I looked up to see the homeless guy swatting at himself. I whispered to the others.
“Crack head. Be ready to move on if he comes down here.”
I looked back at the screen. Crazy.
Joey laid a hand on my shoulder. The homeless guy was squirming. He screamed and jumped out of his seat, flailing his arms around like he was being attacked. Then he started screaming for real and I swear it looked like something was pulling at his leg. I stood up, pushing Joey behind me.
“Go. Walk to the next car.”
She started to walk to the other end. The other couple was staring now and looked like they had the same idea.
I turned around to see Derek holding the flash and the camera. Nadir was typing.
“Guys…”
The flash popped and I was frozen, staring at the screen. When the picture came up I think I screamed.
The creature had the man’s leg in its teeth. But it wasn’t exactly his leg…it was like it was biting at light being pulled out of his leg, and the man was trying to pull it back in… He was screaming bloody murder now, holding one hand out to us. Then he went down, face first onto the floor.
Joey screamed and I snapped out of the trance that held me. I turned and pushed her through the door to the next train. The air rushing past us was hot as we sped through the tunnel. We made it in to the net car and I looked back to see Derek and Nadir behind me. Joey looked back, but I pointed forward.
“GO!”
We ran through two more cars before the brakes started to squeal and the train slowed down. As soon as the doors opened we were out of there, running across the platform. We were at the Washington Square station, running up over the bridge and down the other end.
“Catch the F to 34th! Go!”
We made it down to the platform and waited. We just stared at each other. No one knew what to say.
The train pulled in right away, pushing hot air out of the tunnel and blowing us back a step.
As soon as it stopped and the doors opened, we jumped in. The doors closed. No one else was in the car.
The train started to move and we all just sat there for a minute in shock. Then Derek looked at me, and I nodded. He handed me the flash. I held it up. We had to make sure. He took the picture.
Three. Two. One.
It stared back at us, grinning, mouth filled with crooked fangs.
A pit formed in my stomach. I held the flash up.
“Keep taking pictures.” I said it with a flat voice. The camera clicked.
Three. Two. One…
It was crouched, grinning maniacally, stalking toward us.
“Take another one…”
Three. Two. One…
It was closer.
“It’s attracted to the camera.”
Nadir jerked his head back to look at me. Derek looked at him.
“No way.”
“Fine. Then you carry it.”
Derek swallowed. The train started to brake.
“When we stop, we jump off, but the camera stays!”
Derek was having trouble with the idea. I looked back at him.
“I’ll buy you another one! Just leave the damn thing!”
The train stopped. The doors opened and we jumped through; everybody but Derek. A second passed, then he left the camera in his seat and stepped out. The doors closed and the train pulled away, disappearing down the tunnel.
We just stood there in shock, hoping like hell that the thing had taken the bait. But nothing happened, and when the next train pulled in, we got on. We made two more transfers and rode all of the way uptown to the medical school and where the guys lived. Nadir had kept the computer, but no one wanted to look at any more pictures.
No one said anything about the homeless man, but I thought about it. I should have helped him, but I had no idea how. I looked at Joey as she stared out of the window and decided to let it go. I would take care of her and me, and that would have to be enough for now.
About an hour after we started, we reached their stop uptown. We climbed the stairs out of the station and stood at the entrance to the emergency room of their hospital.
An ambulance had just pulled in and two techs wheeled a guy through the sliding glass doors. He was screaming and writhing underneath the straps. It was too much after what we had been through.
I looked at Derek. “We’re going to catch a cab. See you later?”
“Yeah, Okay.”
Nadir didn’t say anything. We walked out to the street, and hailed a cab right away. I climbed in after Joey and we drove home through the empty streets of Manhattan.
***
We stayed up for a while, drinking beer and talking. I was glad she was talking at least; she hadn’t said a word in the cab.
We talked about what had happened, but the conversation wound back on us, and for one of the first times, I was really glad for that.
I finally told her how much money I had saved. I told her that I wanted us to get our own place. I told her that I wanted us to be together.
She hugged me then, and we just stayed like that for a while.
It was near dawn by the time we went to bed, and after the night we’d had, we were both out in seconds. But we were both happy and we held hands as we fell asleep. I drifted off, and even after everything that had happened, I was happy. Everything was going to be all right.
***
It waited until they were sleeping, perched on top of a worn out dresser, watching them hold each other and fall to sleep. It waited until their breathing was deep and rhythmic, for when they would offer little resistance. Then it crawled off of the dresser, slowly, and up onto the bed, hovering over them. It bit into the man’s chest first, into his heart and sank its teeth into his soul. The man shuddered in his sleep, lightly convulsing. The thing shook its head like a dog, quelling the soul, and when it had gone still, it began to eat. It took its time and only finished the sweetest parts. Then it moved to lean over the woman, breathing her in. She was fine and sweet and it ate her soul more slowly, finishing every last piece of it. When it was done, it left the bodies where they lay.
The sun would be up soon and it was time to fade back into the shadows, satiated.