After Death Read Free Page A

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    The room was instantly different, like a projector slide being snapped into place.
    The wallpaper leaned away from the walls. The mirror was dirty and cracked. The air stank with that horrible stench. Behind Jackie, the shower looked alive with insects crawling over themselves in a towering pile among tile that had fallen into the stained and rusted tub.
    He looked up at Jackie, began to direct her attention to the horrors around them.
    He was staring right at her when she became diffused around the edges.
    What was happening?!? Was he losing his mind?!? How could this be???
    Before his eyes she simply dissolved into the air and he was alone.
    My mind is breaking , he thought. The pressure had finally done its job… I’m… I’m…
    Snap! Another image slammed into place, replacing this one.
    He peered around the instant darkness — Where was he?
    His breathing was ragged, his heart thumped in his ears so loudly it felt like his eardrums would burst.
    His eyesight began to adjust and there was Jackie, in bed next to him. She was awake, reaching across even now to turn on the lamp on the nightstand.
    The glare blinded him for a moment and he was again disoriented for a few seconds. He recovered to find Jackie staring at him with a much different look than he had experienced a few minutes earlier. She was groggy and annoyed and her voice was sharp with a shrill edge.
    “Another nightmare, what a surprise.”
    She reached across him again to the nightstand and lifted several books, one after the other. She turned their spines towards the light.
    “Blood Feast… Blood Flesh… Blood Fiesta…”
    She shook her head, rubbed at her tired eyes.
    “Gee, I wonder if these could be contributing to your sleeping problems?”
    He swallowed, rubbed at his scrubbly neck. He felt like an utter imbecile. She must have seen the dismay on his face because she softened.
    “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe horror isn’t your genre? That maybe you’d sleep better if you wrote a comedy? Or a drama?
    He knew she was saying this because she cared about him and didn’t like to see him like this but it still bothered him. No matter how many times they’d talked about it, she never seemed to understand that he was absolutely certain on this point. He had been fascinated with horror stories since he was a child. It was so much a part of who he was, it was almost impossible to explain. Why didn’t she get it?
    He wanted to shake her and say: Aren’t you listening? This is me — This is who I am and what I love! But on this subject, he’d never been able to get through to her. And now, as he remembered this, he realized it would be better to not to even try — just keep it simple.
    “Horror’s what I do best.” He said quietly, avoiding her probing eyes. “If I can’t make it in horror, I can’t make it in anything.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    “Your obsession…”
    She was dead-on accurate again — his obsession. The all-consuming almost ever-present line of thought he could no longer deny. That door of opportunity he had seen closing before was almost shut now. He played the only card he had left.
    “This is it, alright?”
    He looked her square in the eyes. She had to know he meant it this time.
    “One last shot. This doesn’t work we go back to being Mr. and Mrs. Normal. Normal teaching job, normal hours, the works.”
    It was a long difficult moment of indecision for her and she tried to read the level of sincerity in his face. He held his breath.
    “One more and you promise?”
    He could not have been more sincere. This was it and he meant it.
    “Yes. I promise.”
    She nodded slowly, then flipped off the nightstand lamp and curled her warm body around him.
    “I don’t want you to give up, sweetie.” She cooed softly. “I’m not saying forever… Just if this doesn’t work out, give it a break so we can catch up on some bills, okay..?”
    He marveled at her in the darkness. Even after how understanding