Organ - Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty Four
Oscar walked the streets in circles for a long time after he left Katie in a heap by the hotel room bed, successfully removing the memories from his mind while he sought out his next move in a town that was frothing at the mouth with rabid hunger to swallow him once and for all. Sirens going off behind him finally snapped him out of the mist that covered his boat with debilitating choke.
“Not safe. NOT SAFE!” his attached partner shouted into the solitary air.
Oscar panicked, and his mind conjured only a simple thought but a thought he had hoped would have buried itself with the memories of Katies limp body. The hiding place for his crimes, the tunnels, he made for the nearest breach in buildings to hide from the road and pried open a muddy metallic drain cover, seeing no ladder in place he had but one choice and lowered himself down before dropping the final six to seven feet. Ankles crunched beneath him, and his weakened body struggled to hold his knees in place, it was dank and stinking of rot, but he knew he deserved nothing more that day, as the siren faded into a light wail off in the world somewhere Oscar assessed his surroundings and made for a slow march across the ventricles of the universe.
“Wet” it called out in the dark to him,
“I know we are fucking wet, leave me alone. Go back to sleep” Oscar snapped back fiercely at the being living inside.
Looking about he saw the signs of familiarity from his previous adventure of hellish events into the sewer system beneath the hotel, the lost murdered wadded from light break to light break that dangled down invitingly from the streets above and enticed him in with moth like glow,
“Wet. Cold” it called out to him like a pathetic child searching for a comfort from an ignoring parent.
“Shut the fuck up” Oscar called to it and felt a tinge of guilt at his harshness, “I am sorry” he whispered “We just need to wait until they are gone, and we can get out of the wet” the reply seemed to quiet the voice without its own body and Oscar took that as agreement in patience.
Suddenly his mind began to burst with white blinding flashes, splitting screeches of pain shot around his head as the world spun into a swirl of the surrounding brickwork and dark corners only illuminated by breaking moments of dirty yellowing light.
“Thomas” a voice called through, Oscar fell to the floor in a heap and crashed into the water, half submerged above his stomach in the rancid waters of waste, “Thomas are you awake?” the voice called out again, it was familiar and yet he could not quite make it out as if someone long forgotten was speaking to him through a veil.
“What is happening to me?” Oscar cried out into the dripping air, losing his grip on the bricks that kept him afloat and slipping under the river of run off momentarily, his head submerged a face raced for him through the disturbed water.
It was a vision of a man’s face shouting for his attention and the ghostly greying image only vanished as Oscar resurfaced pulling himself to a slumping seat with his back now propping him against the walls of the tunnel.
“Trouble” the voice spoke out.
Oscar was unsure as the water drained from his ears and nose whether it was the abnormality living inside him or the voice that was calling him from the darkness.
“What is happening?” he asked aloud without reply.
“Thomas” it called out again as the lights flashed white and red in his eyes, blinding him into a haze of a sickness that threatened to knock him out.
The nausea loosening his grip on the world.
“Thomas you are going to be late” he heard again now slipping away as the flashes of white became a blanket of static interfering with his brains regular activity. “Thomas wake up” a woman said.
Oscar rolled over possessing the body of this man being awoken from his sleep. Rolling over to address his human alarm clock, Oscar saw the person speaking to him was in fact his mother, though much younger and prettier than he remembered her from the last time they spoke at the house. Oscar was experiencing some sort of throwback to his parents life together, imaginary or otherwise he was powerless to stop the images flashing across his mind just as he did during his dreams of Boothes office all those days ago, he braced himself in the present with hands clasping as holes in the brickwork for support as the lights flashed on and off in his vision blinding him from the world he inhabited and instead moving his psyche into the realm of lost memories.
“Thomas are you awake?” Mary asked again gently rubbing her husband’s shoulder, Oscar felt the touch, his body shivering with warmth that only love that real could exhume.
“I’m getting up” Thomas spoke as Oscar mimed the words aloud in the tunnel.
Mary lent in and gave her awakening husband a soft kiss on the lips holding her breath in to avoid a bout of morning mouth blowing up her husband’s nose, the softness was felt on Oscars lips as he shook his head slightly to avoid the kiss himself in the world of the living occurrences.
“Feed” the voice called out seemingly unaware of its hosts mental lock in to the past he was experiencing.
Thomas climbed out of bed and Oscar stood up mirroring the memory projected onto the inside of his minds walls.
“You are going to be late; I will get you some coffee before you go” Mary said gently as she slipped into her comfortable slippers that Oscar recognised before leaving the room and vanishing off.
Thomas wobbled into the bathroom and Oscar matched his awkward strides gliding through the waters still in the tunnels in body, Thomas pulled out his member and urinated into the toilet with relief letting out small sighs of relief, the relief was not found for his son as he voided his bladder into his already filthy trousers and copied the haunting sighs his father released from this lungs.
“Wet” the voice called out assessing the situation from inside the shroud of flesh.
Thomas looked into the mirror above the sink and assessed the edges of his face, Oscar copied, the man shaved and brushed his teeth as Oscar once again copied the movements in some haunting possessed ballet in the tunnels that became silent but for the sound of sploshing watery disturbances. Thomas left the bathroom but entered not back into his bedroom but instead climbed out of his van and onto the ground outside some building Oscar could not recognise, the entire time unknowingly marching his son off in the future down those soaking sorrowful tunnels.
“Breed” a voice called out excitedly to Thomas as he gathered some tools to start his job that afternoon.
Oscar scooped his hands into the waters as his father scooped his into the tool bag sat on the passenger seat.
“Can’t exactly breed with anyone at the care home can I?” Thomas asked in response to the voice.
Oscars mind raced with fear although still being handled in puppeteering, was his father hearing the voice externally through his body or was this simply another nightmare grabbing hold of him and dragging an inkling of soul left into the abyss. He gazed through the eyes of his departed father, controlled, and manoeuvred against his will by the movie of the past fluttering through his vision, he could not see how far he had lost himself in the tunnels, if he were in fact still lost in those tunnels. Thomas went about his day repairing several household appliances either at the care home which he was contracted for call outs, or several other properties Oscar watched his father arrive involve and leave over and over as he wadded the world blind but mobile with uncontrolled steps, controlled remotely by the spirit of his father’s memories infesting his mind.
“Not safe” it called out.
“What’s not safe now?” both Thomas and Oscar replied to the voice.
“Pain coming” it called out now louder.
“Well let me get to the van and we can take a break, I have been busting my balls today to get these jobs done” Thomas said, Oscar copied, into the scenery that changed like the stages of a quality theatre production.
Before returning to the safety of his driver seat, the lost in time father climbed the rungs of the ladder attached to his van and returned the small pop-up stepladder that leant against his van, Oscar climbed absent minded up the rungs of a rusted drainage ladder in the real world, clawing himself free and appearing on the surface still blinded to his reality. Thomas sat in his car and held his head as the headache set in, the voice predicting it and Thomas rubbing viciously at his temples with his grubby greasy fingers unwashed from several struggles with superfluous pieces of expiring tech.
“Better” the voice called out as Thomas took some pills from his pocket and knocked them down the tight of his throat with a swirl of car-warm water from the plastic bottle in the cupholder.
“It will be better soon” Thomas answered.
Oscar mimed the actions in reality and took swallows of dry imagination.
“Home” the voice mumbled softly, likely satiated with the pills making their way through the middle-aged body of Thomas.
“Yeah maybe we can go home now, only one more job and we can put that away for tomorrow” he answered scrolling through the papers on his clipboard, having been the type of man to scoff at technological advancements in favour of the ‘old school’ approach he was unlikely to have chosen a fancy computer to track his workload.
“Home?” it asked again having not received the concrete confirmation it desired.
“Let’s call it a day then” Thomas answered (Oscar copied) shutting the car door and throwing the old diesel engine into life with coughing roar.
“Home” it mumbled sounding almost satisfied with the outcome.
Lights continued to flash before his eyes, Oscar had stumbled out of the man hole with thanks to his father’s use of a ladder for his work pack up, but now lost in the world blind to dangers with the sole vision of his father’s life playing in his mind.
“Trouble” the voice out and Oscar knew this was for his benefit and his benefit alone.
Thomas arrived through his front door and jostled with the keys for a moment as his hands weight heavy with a day’s manual work, his son mimicking his movements still as a shadow in the real world he unfortunately inhabited unconsciously.
“Evening sweetheart” Mary called out as she watched her husband step through the door and shut it behind him quietly.
“How was your day?” Thomas asked leaning into his living wife for a kiss.
Oscar experienced another occurrence of those painfully bright mind altering flashing lights, blood red and milky white that covered his vision and sent gurgling waves of nausea through his stomach and throat, unaware of his location or any present dangers he could be encountering, his ears only hearing his parents conversing as they prepared a dinner long since digested and his eyes only seeing the pair laying plates and bowels upon the family table, miming these awkward movements himself and held to the holding dance by some unseen force either internal to his damaged system or external as the living phantoms had evolved into. Thomas sat down for dinner his wife placing a serving of food in front of him that seemed to be meat, it was bloody, he preferred it as close to the animals flesh as he could despite Marys reluctance to cook that way.
“Feed” it spoke out.
Mary seemed to miss it.
“I am eating now” Thomas replied aloud leading her to look up from her dish puzzled.
“Did you say something?” she asked politely placing a baked potato into her mouth.
“I said I am glad to be eating now” her husband replied with a smile.
“Always talking to yourself” she said bursting into a snorty chuckle that Thomas had adored since they had known each other.
They finished their dinner and slumped back into the warm soft comfort of the couch, Thomas flicked on a rerun of ‘Married with Kids’ and pulled his wife tightly into his shoulder for a warmer embrace. Mary nestled into her husband and felt the warmth of his body, tired as he always was after a day of work.
“You look really pretty” Thomas whispered giving her a peck on the head, hair always smelling of coconut shampoo and fresh clothes.
He felt ultimate comfort in her presence; Oscar could have sworn that even blind and deaf to the current world he too could smell her usual beauty products wafting around his face in a comforting spiritual swirl. Mary gave him a kiss in return but pulled her husband’s lips into hers and enjoyed a romantic moment of bliss feeling his tongue between her lips, they gazed longingly into each other’s eyes and shared the same thought that thankfully for Oscar spying on this unfiltered moment was not privy to.
Mary simply asked, “Do you want to go upstairs?” winking at her husband as she did and biting down on her lower lip inviting him into so intimacy that Oscar felt he would now never feel.
Oscar shook his head violently, the image of his parents undressing atop one another being the last thing he saw before the world came back to him with a freeing array of colour that was so heavenly is created some undeserved momentary sense of happiness. Much in keeping with the grace of his prose, Oscars moment of bliss having not witnessed his parents having sex was hurled smashing into the rocks of realties cruel realism, in his hands he seemed to be holding some soft spongey material that dripped in soaking blobs to the ground, he was sat upon his knees stinking of the sewers and something he could not yet place, the taste of metal filtered through his mouth as the lights flashing in his eyes grew further apart in spacing allowing him to view the real waking world in all its horrors.
“What the fuck is this?” Oscar said to the emptiness of his surroundings, a place he had wandered into by chance as his father’s ghost seemed to remotely control his son beyond the veil of death.
Before his eyes Oscar saw what had been done in his absence with the controls handed over to another, a body lay before him decimated and prized open with exposed ribs and viscera lying everywhere around him, the taste in his mouth now apparent to him, it was the mealy unholy taste of human blood and flakes of stringy meat that stuck out between the narrow gaps in his teeth, he recoiled and fell backwards smashing his head against some unforeseen hard surface suddenly the lights flashed again returning to save him from this action he had somehow taken in absentia. Mary draped over the bed with the satisfaction of their love making beaming across her face, smile from ear to ear as her husband walked about the room naked as the day he was born trying desperately to locate his shorts to hide his pale cheeks that bobbed in the strut. Thomas knew his wife was a natural beauty, she was the finest looking lady in his class at school and age was treating her very well, he always considered himself plain looking and the idea of getting to sleep with his beautiful wife had him cheerful at every opportunity it presented itself. Oscar was locked in but had mercifully missed the worst of the session his parents ignited in his mind’s eye, losing that tangible grip on reality, and momentarily being allowed to forget the torn apart body that was waiting for him in the world of the living.
“That was great” Thomas whispered across the bed watching his wife naked only covered by the bed sheet wrapped across her bum to hide modestly.
“I do my part” Mary joked back at him throwing her hands above her head and framing her face with the back of her fingers.
She was truly beautiful when she was happy and Oscar watched through his father’s eyes with shame at the pain he had caused her in the future from this loving moment, doing all he could to avoid fixating on her bare chest or the reflection of his father in the mirrors dotted around the room.
“I really hope it happens this time” Mary said rolling onto her front and searching haphazardly on the floor with a dangled hand for her clothing to cover up.
Thomas now fully dressed and headed for the bathroom looked back at this wife and gave her the reassurance she sought,
“I have a good feeling about this, you sexy beast” he said letting her burst into laughter at his clumsy hilarious compliment.
Thomas stared at himself in the bathroom mirror and Oscar saw his father through his own eyes, locked in like some vegetable in a waking coma, his father rubbed some water over his face and washed his hands in the sink, the water ran red with blood but Thomas seemed unphased, Oscar knew this was in his head as cracks from reality began to form again, the only difference now being that Oscar would have given his life to stay in the fantasy and not return to the present world.
“Baby boy, praying for a baby boy” his father said staring up into the mirror and somehow fixating on the person he would father trapped inside his eyes.
Oscar was on his side when he woke up from the visions, the lights that brought upon these episodes blinking and dimming in his view as the world came back to him with the sickening realism that his imaginations had in fact been realities, the body was as shredded as he believed and the pool of blood beneath him reached far across the room soaking all in its path in human matter.
“God what did I do” he paused and considered the internal creature likely at fault for the visions “what did you do” he altered his statement.
“Feed” it whispered in satisfied and full gurgles that emanated from his gut and not the usual spot aside his body.
Beside his body lay a pool of vomit, likely from the pounds of flesh that seemed tangled up in his mouth and the litres of blood he imagined sloshed around inside his alarmingly occupied stomach.
“You killed him” he spoke into the room accusing this accomplice.
“Feed. Organs” it replied with a directness that sent shivers down his spin.
Oscar was noticing something uncanny and alarming with every interaction, this creature that somehow was tangled up with his father’s story had expanded its vocabulary with every passing day it spent living amongst his own organs, swimming through the fleshy parts of his abdomen that ached and hurt with the creatures movements.
“Did you do this?” he asked knowing this being was listening to him and possibly even understanding him thought he inches of Oscars flesh and skin between them.
“Oscar did this” it called out.
Our young lost soul froze in horror, blood still dripping down from his chin into the space between himself and the body that closer resembled a butchers table than a human being. It dawned on Oscar that he had no idea where he was, sitting in a carpet of blood that almost covered the seeable space he occupied with his buffet of bludgeoned human suffering before him, looking around the room and pulling himself up to his feet Oscar carefully walked through the room that covered him, he was inside and the room was dark but for the light that reflected from a doorway far away from the two of them, the body and the boy. Oscar pushed open the door that let in some light at the far end of the room, lights still occasionally flashing in his vision causing concerning wobbles of instability that, coupled with his pins and needles, left him feeling like a baby giraffe standing for the first time. Stepping out into the street outside he recognised his location immediately, that bile taste returning to his mouth, his latest location for murder was the very derelict chemist that had been his hiding space days before when Katie found him at deaths door. Rushing back inside Oscar slipped on the blood and landed flush against the hard floor, his head ringing as he slid on his back bumping clumsily into the limp body of the cannibals victim, lights flashed, and the redness swarmed across his eyes once again.
“Thomas come here for a second” he heard as the lights went back out in his eyes and he travelled back into this old timey family reel.
“Thomas, come here” Mary called out impatiently to her husband who was sitting in the garden enjoying some evening sunshine and reading his favourite Stephen King.
Oscar could hardly make out the words in ink on the pages as his head still rattled inside his father’s skull in painful tormenting springs. Running into the house and following his wife’s excited voice, Thomas finally found her sitting in the bedroom at the foot of their bed looking flush pink in the face, her hands shaking holding what could only be a pregnancy test.
“Are we?” Thomas asked eagerly putting his hands on the back of his head to keep from waving them about in enthusiasm.
“We are having a baby!” Mary screamed in ecstasy jumping into her husband’s arms and lathering his face with kisses.
Oscar felt his mother’s weight across his back, the pressure and softness of her kisses on his face, all intended for his father, but Oscar could not help but enjoy the humanity that came as treats inside his world of horrific misery. Another flash of lightning white struck his face, his head swivelling side to side as it lay on the ground in the chemist cozied up by the carcass he had brought to being.
“Mr and Mr Rubens, I am very pleased to tell you that your baby is looking great” a doctor with the largest pompadour he had ever seen said with glee.
The couple held hands and Oscar again felt his mother’s touch through the void of the heavens.
“Would you like to know the sex?” the doctor asked with pep in his voice.
“Do we? Oh god I don’t know, should we?” Mary blathered out her questions ebbing and flowing one way or another with her decision.
“I think we should right? We can buy all the stuff one way or the other then” Thomas added with sensibility to his reason, in reality he was just far too impatient to not know the gender for another eight or so months.
“Yes please” Mary said to the doctor smiling up at her husband’s beaming face still scruffy from the day’s work.
“Well, you are having a healthy baby boy” the doctor announced.
Mary held her hands to her mouth releasing her partners and gasped with tears falling down her cheeks. Thomas ridiculously fist pumped the air and jump with glee, Oscar felt the excitement racing through his veins as he rattled around inside his father’s body tussling for control with his soul. Flashes and thrashes in both mind, vision and reality saw Oscar thrown further forward in time, his mother sat beside him in his father’s skin suit and the bump in her belly glowingly inflated with her beautiful, tanned skin that scarred with stretch marks.
“Do you think he will have your hair or mine?” Mary asked looking over at him, the peacefulness in her eyes something he had never seen himself.
It hurt him seeing how truly happy his mother was before all this started, shame and guilt foamed at his mouth competing for dominant depressing thought space.
“Oh, I definitely hope it’s yours, I’m likely to be bald before forty if dad is any indication, so let’s not gamble with our little bean” Thomas replied cracking a huge smile across his face and playfully poking at her belly.
Thomas pulled up the remote to the TV in front of them and flicked on the mute button, swivelled on his cushion to face his wife head on.
“I was thinking of a name” he said with hesitancy that she might shoot him down immediately.
“Exciting!” she yelped in delight trying to pull her huge body up and out of the slump she nestled into.
“I was thinking, Oscar, after my great grandfather” he said pulling back his cheeks as though bracing himself for a terrible response, her face went muted as though she was ruminating on the name and playing it out in various life events, then the smile returned to her face.
“I love it” she finally answered giving him the waving command to lean in for a kiss which he quickly obliged.
“Little baby Oscar” she exhaled out still unable to shake her smile away.
“Sounds good right?” Thomas pointed out with rhetorical rhythm allowing his wife to lazily nod back and forth in agreement.
They sat in silence for a minute letting the face this baby Oscar could have visualise in their mind, the name giving him a reality they had not yet experienced.
“You have done really well with the speech thing by the way, not speaking to yourself. I am really proud” Mary said breaking the moment they spent dreaming of their inbound baby boy.
“I didn’t really do much, it just sort of went away. You know weird thing is my Dad had the same thing and so did Grandad Rubens” he explained as she watched his face with odd fascination.
“Family of freaks and geeks” she joked back letting out a belly laugh that boomed louder with the added acoustic space Oscar in her womb as creating, they play fought for a while before sinking into each other’s arms.
Oscar woke up on the floor yet again, it was something he was no longer even shocked by,
“I need help, I want to go home” he whispered to himself.
“Go home” the voice called out to him, its voice sounding weird from the acoustics of the floor facing up into the darkened dusty ceiling.
Slowly he pulled himself up and gently pushed the massacred body away with the heel of his stained foot and felt at the thick blood slime that dried and coated his back, gazing over the horror he created and digested, the person he tore to shreds and then devoured, he could think of only one thing.
“I want to go home.”
