Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

HAUNTING THE DEAD
RICK CHILLOT
slams into the bus stop, a symphony of breaking glass
and twisting metal and screams.
University of Pittsburgh, North Side Campus
November 21, 7:33 p.m., Seventeen Years Ago
Ed opens his eyes and finds himself in a cramped
room filled with mismatched couches and chairs. A
television is on, but the sound is turned down. he tries
to sit up. His head aches. He looks around the room and
sees he’s not alone.
Three young men are sprawled on the sofas and chairs.
“Mike,” he whispers. “Mike, Dave, Jim…” They’re dead
already, asphyxiated by the carbon monoxide that has
been seeping into their room from a defective furnace. Ed
rolls off the couch and onto the floor, barely feeling the
impact. I can’t help them, he thinks. I have to get out. The
floor seems to be tilting and he crawls, almost swimming,
pushing himself toward a window.
He looks back at his roommates, lying motionless.
A dark figure moves among them, an animal shape
crouched low, sniffing first one of them, then the
others, then fixing its eyes on Ed.
Blue Palace Hotel, Back Courtyard
May 27,10:13 a.m., Thirty Years Ago
Ed is running down the hall. He is seven years old,
chubby and frightened, outside in the cold courtyard,
running over cracked cement. He looks behind him
and sees the dog, ragged and terrible, yellow teeth and
gray claws. Ed cries out, tries to run faster, then he feels
the terrible impact knock him down. “I’m sorry,” he
blubbers. “Don’t hurt me!” The dog is above him, its
mouth dripping, and before Ed can scream, it clamps
down on his face and neck, teeth ripping into his
cheeks, blood running down his throat.
Street Outside the Blue Palace Hotel
September 20, 8:00 p.m.
Terrence watches in disbelief.
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