The Terror #wattys2017 #TNTHorrorContest

Aftermath

They got Michelle on I.V fluids and said they would like to monitor her for a few hours while they ran some tests.  I stayed with her until they gave her a sedative and she became drowsy enough to fall asleep.  We talked about Heather and what she meant to us and how unbelievable it was that she was actually gone. This was my first experience with death, especially with someone I was close to and felt responsible for.

If we hadn't been in the canyon that night, she would still be with us. How many times did I ask Dale to drive up that hill? What if one of those times it was my fault? What if in the final analysis, I was the one to blame for all of this?  Perhaps that was the reason I was the one being haunted by Dale's head and followed around by his Merc.  Of course, poor innocent, beautiful little Michelle tried to convince me otherwise, but these were the things rotating through my brain like circles within circles, intertwining and turning in on themselves.  One thing was for sure, I was never going to be the same and neither would Michelle.

After she fell asleep, I assured the nurses I was fine and I decided to go down to the Cafeteria for a coffee.  Walking down the corridor toward what was Heather's room, things began to go strange, the lights seemed a little too bright and the floors to shiny. I was reflecting on what the Doctor had told us about Heather, "These things happen with burn victims, especially after descaling, it seems something triggers, that we have yet to understand and they just pass away." 

"Descaling?" I asked, "What is descaling?"

The Doc was trying to be gentle as he explained that for the last few days they had soaked Heather in the whirlpool and then used wire brushes to remove the scabs left by the burns.  "This is standard practice," He said, "We have to remove the damaged skin so that new skin could grow."

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, "Wire brushes, Really?" 

"I'm afraid so, it's very painful even though we give them a lot of pain killers. It may just have been more than she could handle"

I couldn't even conceive of what that might feel like, maybe dying was better. So there I was walking past her room in this haze of delirium and down the hall near the window, with the sun shining in through her nearly transparent dress was ...

Heather!

Looking quite alive and well, even better than well, perhaps glowing and beautiful. She looked like some kind of sexy princess ready for the ball, she seemed to be posing there against the window, playing with the light. I froze, I knew this could not be, that I was over wrought, losing my marbles, boxing with shadows but, there she was none the less. Once again I felt the tears rolling down my face without realizing I was crying. I could not make words, my mouth would not cooperate as I began to shake.  

There was no one else in the hallway, just me and this, this apparition, this image my mind was producing out of guilt and shame, punishing myself for my evil doings.  Presently I stood, mouth agape, drool at the corner of my mouth, as Heather turned toward me smiling. Now she was in those tight painted on hip huggers with a purple brazier, as she walked toward me she asked, "How bout this one Merrill, do you like the purple one?

I tried to step away as she approached, but my feet were like anvils, I could not move them,

"Maybe you like the yellow one better huh baby, How bout it, you like the yellow one?"

She was so beautiful and full of life, I began to wonder if the whole thing wasn't a bad dream, just a nightmare and none of this happened at all. That at any moment I would wake up and Heather would be fine, Dale would be alive and me and Michelle will have never even kissed. Yeah, that's what it was, I need to wake up and everything will be fine. I began to mumble 

"Wake up, w-w- wa- wake up Merrill, Wake up Merrill!.:

As Heather got closer and closer her face began to change, the left side of her face was like, boiling, the skin was bubbling and frying. Now she was bare breasted and parts of her body were on fire, as one of her legs collapsed but she kept coming, now on her knees.

"You always wanted to see my tits didn't you buddy boy, here they are, how do you like them? 

Now I was screaming at the top of my lungs, WAKE UP FUCKER , WAKE UP, WAKE UP." Slapping myself in the face trying desperately to make the vision stop.  I fell to my knees as she approached still, the flesh horrifically burned on the left side, perfect and stunningly beautiful on the right.  

"Do you wanna kiss me, Merrill, I know you do. You dreamed of the day I would see you as a man, come on Merrill baby, come and give Heather a great big kiss."

I smelled the burning flesh, she was close enough that I smelled the putrid breath of the dead, she raised her blackened arms to encircle me and I screamed as everything went black and a sense of relief filled me as the blackness overtook me.