Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

HAUNTING THE DEAD
RICK CHILLOT
back in college, he straddled his body and looked into
his own dead eyes. He feels dizzy. Is this happening now
or is he somewhere else, remembering it?
He raises a hand to steady himself, then reaches to
touch his own face through the glass.
Blue Palace Hotel, Third Floor, East Hallway
September 20, 10:45 a.m.
Ed stands in front of the phone booth, hands shaking.
He doesn’t want to remember anymore. He feels
stupid as he wonders who exactly he should call. The
Orpheus emergency number, he thinks, staring at the
keypad. He’ll just start dialing and the numbers will
come….
He feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up,
one by one by one.
Ed jerks his head and looks up and down the silent
hall. There’s nothing to be seen but rows of doors, all
closed. He takes a breath, then a deeper one. There is
a smell in the air. He sniffs. Something musky and wet
fills his nostrils. His earlobes feel hot. There’s a tickle
in his throat.
“What the hell is that?” Ed whispers, and backs
away from the phone booth. The smell—raw meat,
mixed with animal musk and sweat. The skin on the
back of his arms itches. His mouth is dry. There’s a
sound, somewhere, a noise that he feels more than
hears, a low rumbling.
A growling.
A formless dread rises in Ed, and he can’t touch it
with coherent thought. Do something! His body won’t
respond. He can’t make his arms move or lift his feet.
He’s a fly caught between two window panes, paralyzed.
Don’t move!
There, at the far end of the hallway. A shadow falls
across the floor. Angles. Curves. Motion.
Ed turns. Ed runs.
He’s barely aware of the doors flashing past him as
he pumps his legs forward, again and again, pushing
himself as fast as he can. He turns a corner, almost
( 238 )
6