Soul Survivor - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Maybe I should pull over.” Hayley bit her bottom lip narrowing her eyes in a futile attempt to see through the cloudy windshield.

The rain came down in sheets. A “cell,” Floridians called it—a small, localized area where the pellets of water were so thick people pulled their cars over and put their emergency flasher lights on. The windshield wipers on Hayley’s Explorer were on full speed, but couldn’t keep up with the deluge. Yet across the field, only yards away, the sun shone brightly.

“It’s gonna stop soon, Mom,” she heard ten year old Jason say from the backseat.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, she smiled at her two boys. Hayley knew Jason was mature for his age. She sometimes felt like he took care of her instead of the other way around. He’d been through things no child should have to endure, yet he had a special light within him.

“I can’t see very well.” She reached down to make sure the windshield wipers were on high.

Hayley didn’t know why the boys decided now would be the time to start an argument. She only heard little Joey’s wail. Concentration shattered, she yelled, “Jason! I swear to God I will pull this car over if you don’t leave your brother alone. And it won’t be because of the rain!”

The two boys momentarily stopped bickering. Glancing in the rearview mirror she saw Jason stick his tongue out at his little brother, while Joey slugged him on the shoulder.

“Jason!” Hayley lifted her foot from the gas pedal, slowing down. .

“But, Mom!”

“I don't want to hear it. You're older than him.” Ever since David lost his life in a car accident two years ago, cars made her nervous. Thirty-two years old and she had been a widow for two of the longest years of her life.

The storm surged around the car like a tornado encircling only them.

“I hate Florida,” Jason whined.

He’d been ripped from everything familiar to him. Hayley knew he missed his friends. One day after school, she had told him they would be moving from New York to Florida. He’d been upset, but she had figured he’d adjust.

“Don’t start this now, Jason. I can’t see and I’m really not in the mood.” A pang of guilt stabbed her when she saw Jason’s sad face. This move had been hard on him, more so than Joseph.

She was tired of her friends trying to fix her up on dates, and she was tired of seeing David at every turn in the house they had lived and loved in. She needed to move on. When the job offer came in from a psychiatrist in Florida looking for a partner, Hayley jumped at the prospect.

“You just haven’t seen the alligators, Jason. You’ll love Naples. Just wait until we come across one of those gators up close.” It seemed to cheer him up, but not for long.

“And the lizards, don’t forget them,” Joseph said excitedly. “I saw a lizard right by the front door, he was huge!”

“That wasn’t a lizard that was a frog.” Jason rolled his eyes at Joseph’s ignorance.

“No, it wasn’t. It was a lizard. He had lizard legs and eyes.”

“It was a frog.”

“Was not!”

“Stop! If he says he saw a lizard, then he saw a lizard. Jeez, Jason, why must you argue everything?”

“Me?” The word came out in two syllables. He turned to Joseph and mouthed the words “I hate you.”

“Please stop!” Hayley couldn’t see a thing.

The rain beat down stronger. The wipers, no longer able to keep up, thumped against the car like broken pendulums on over-drive. It was time to pull over.
A smoky figure stood directly in front of her in the road.

Hayley slammed on the brakes at the same time Jason screamed. She tried, but couldn’t stop the sliding Explorer as the car hydroplaned.

She turned the wheel hard to the right, as the tires found their grip, but had over-correcting the turn and headed into the grass, over a small hill.

Although the car hadn’t hit anything solid, the air bags deployed and the car seemed to turn in slow motion.

It wasn’t until cool water encased her legs that Hayley realized they had landed in a canal.

Out! She had to get them out! The car was sinking as the water rose higher. Craning her neck, she saw two small heads already submerged, the boys trapped in their seatbelts.

Hayley pushed down the orange button on her belt, freeing herself. She lunged to the back seat and tried the door, it wouldn’t budge. Joseph stared at her with eyes full of fear, pleading for help under the murky water.

Think! Her head hurt as she frantically searched through her memory of what to do in this situation. Try the windows. They didn’t work. She hastily unlocked their belts, grabbed one of Joseph’s toys and with one, quick jab, she slammed the metal Tonka truck against the glass. It didn’t break. She pulled back and tried again. Damn! I can do this! Glancing back down, she saw Joey’s eyes open, his body limp. Running out of time, the car almost completely submerged now, she pulled back and threw all of her weight into the blow. The glass shattered. Water, cold and dark filled the SUV to the roof, causing it to sink quickly to the bottom of the canal.

Hayley grabbed both boys by their collars and hauled them toward the gray light.

***
It all seemed surreal. Reality failed her, or Hayley simply let it fade away. She walked the hospital corridor in a daze searching out Jason’s room. Random thoughts cluttered her mind, memories flashed behind her tired blood-shot eyes.

The thin line between sanity and madness had been crossed.

Hayley’s mind was a blur. She had no idea how long Joseph had been dead or how long Jason, hooked up to machines, had been fighting for his life. Time meant nothing. She knew nothing of food nor did she remember eating. Sleep was a thing of the past. Or maybe she had never been awakened. She didn’t know anymore.
Her parents already passed, she only had her sister, Madison. She hadn’t been able to get a hold of her free spirited sibling. Had she even tried? Most likely she was off to save – God knew what – and Hayley was all alone. She needed Madison desperately and decided as soon as she could, she’d try to get a hold of her…somehow.

A lizard. The boys had been fighting about a lizard. Hayley remembered the oddest things now. Joey had been certain he’d seen a lizard, while Jason had insisted it was a frog.

If I had just pulled over when I couldn’t see, if that person wasn’t standing in the middle of the road…If I had never moved here at all. There were too many ifs, too many mistakes made on her part. Now Joey was gone.

Agonizing pain tore through her. She had thought she knew pain when she’d given him birth only six years ago. She knew nothing of pain. She couldn’t go on, couldn’t face the fact that her baby was gone. If she could just go back to that one moment in time when her heart had been ripped from her. She was a shell now, dried up and forgotten

Walking into his room, she cringed. Jason’s small body looked even smaller hooked up to the large machines which helped his chest move up and down.

She looked out the hospital window to see the sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico. She couldn’t see the water, but she knew it was there. It would be a brilliant sunset on the beach but she didn’t care about the beautiful things in life anymore. She faintly heard her Aunt Mary’s words in the back of her mind. “Listen, you’ll hear it sizzle when it hits the water.” Had she actually laughed? Now Hayley couldn’t remember ever laughing.

At that moment, her heart sank with the sun. Laying her head on Jason’s bed, grasping the crisp white sheets between her fingers, Hayley screamed and didn’t stop. She screamed until her vocal cords gave out and her heart stopped beating for a moment; she prayed it wouldn’t start up again.

With her voice gone, she cried. It was her and Jason, all alone in a world where no one cared when a woman screamed in a hospital room. No one came to comfort her. How can that be? Hayley wiped her eyes and blew her nose on some toilet paper. She looked around the room confused that no one came running in. A dream! Am I in the hospital, hooked up to machines, dreaming this up? God, please let that be true! Let it be me lying here with Jason and Joey waiting outside with Madison. Let Joey be alive! She shook her head immediately after the thought. Too much time had passed. It didn’t feel right. Of course an empty hospital didn’t feel right either.

“You’re not alone.”

Hayley jumped up and twirled around. A tall man stood behind her, a black coat hung low to the floor, which was odd on such a heated night.

“Who are you?” It seemed as if it had been forever since she saw another person and she should have been relieved. There was something about him though—something about the way he looked at her son that put her on guard.

“Name’s Lange,” he answered. Dark gray eyes stared back at her.

“Can I help you, Mister Lange?” Hayley covered Jason’s body with hers, resting her arms out broadly on the bed.

When her son moaned she turned to him. “Jason?” She grabbed his hand. It was the first sound she’d heard from him.

She glanced back to see that the stranger was gone. She patted Jason’s hand and walked toward the door, feeling a cold breeze slap her in the face. Shocked by the change of temperature, she glanced down the hallway, but it was empty.

Warm, ammonia soaked air filled her lungs once again. She brushed her arms with her hands and went back to Jason. Hayley grabbed a blanket off the bottom of his bed. She felt chilled to the bone when she had been so warm a moment before.
Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, she waited for Jason to utter some kind of noise again.

“Why is this happening to me?” she whispered. She knew all the medical terms. She was a psychiatrist. Post traumatic stress syndrome, depression, anxiety attacks. Breathing in deeply calmed her racing heart. She had already gone through this with David, but how—how could she go on after losing her child too?

She’d get through this, for Jason’s sake…she had to.

***
Hayley found herself at the canal behind her home with no memories of getting there. Am I that tired? An eerie light engulfed her. Not sure if the sun was about to rise or had fallen below the horizon she shook her head in confusion.

An urge to put her hand under the surface of the dark water overwhelmed her. She had a strange bond with water, most likely because it had taken so much from her. Reaching out to the calm, black liquid her fingers tingled before she quickly snatched them back.

She hated the water.

The sun rose higher in the sky proving it was morning as she walked up the hill.
Joseph’s face burned in front of her vision. Tears gathered in her eyes. Just when she thought she was strong enough, his tiny face would pop up in front of her. Feeling his chubby little arms around her neck, the smell of powder and dirt and whatever sticky things his fingers found caused her stomach to cramp and she bent over in pain. Bile rose in her throat, burning the soft tissue. She swallowed hard.
Grabbing her stomach, she knew she couldn’t do it. No matter what she told herself, she just couldn’t go on without David and now her baby. She thought about taking her own life, thought seriously about it, but there was Jason. He needed her so much.

“Plus it’s a sin.”

Hayley jumped back at his voice, tripped over a rock and landed on her behind. The wet grass soaked through to her skin.

The same strange man from the hospital appeared before her.

“What do you want?” She didn’t trust him. A cold blast of air accompanied him, just like at the hospital.

Hayley would have been terrified by the man a year ago, but now things didn’t seem to scare her as much anymore. Nothing could be as terrifying as losing your husband, one son, and the other comatose.

When he didn’t answer her she spoke louder, “Leave me alone!”

“You don’t want to be alone.” He lifted half his mouth in a smirk.

“You don’t know anything.” She pushed herself off the ground and walked past him toward the house.

“I know you’ve lost your husband and your son. Jason is next.” His voice came from directly behind her.

Hayley’s mouth dropped. “How could you…” She closed her eyes, feeling woozy. “Who are you? How could you possibly know that?” Hayley was afraid to turn around. She didn’t want to look into his strange eyes.

“I know more than you think I do, Hayley.”

Hayley’s pulse quickened. She wanted to flee as quickly as possible. “Please leave me alone,” she said over her shoulder. She continued to walk toward the house, trembling.

“I’ll be here, Hayley, waiting. You’ll come to me when you’re ready. But, I can’t leave you alone.”

Something had snapped in her brain. She was definitely the crazy person now. Clients sat on her couch—how long ago? Now she should be sitting on someone else’s couch telling them how she’d lost touch with reality. What a joke. No one can help you through this kind of grief. They didn’t understand, just like she hadn’t—not truly, not until now. She realized she couldn’t possibly have helped them through their grief.

A rush of warm air hit her as she entered the house. Boxes lay scattered in every room, marked and ready to be unpacked. Hayley looked around the empty room spotting a mattress on the floor. They had been on their way to the hardware store to get needed materials to set up the beds.

Lying on the mattress she stared up at the ceiling, afraid to go to sleep. Nightmares tormented her; demons surrounded her. She would rest her weary bones, not sleep.
Hearing a noise in the corner, she jumped up. Lange leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. One leg lazily draped over the other.

Hayley’s breath caught in her throat when he lifted the brim of his black hat with his index finger, his dark gray eyes seemed to glow. Now he terrified her. He knew everything about her. How? His gaze penetrated and crept through her like electricity down to her toes.

She began to cry. “What do you want from me? I have nothing left to give! Don’t you understand that?”

“You’re wrong, Hayley. You have one thing left to give and you’ll have to do it. You’ll have to give me Jason. Tell him to let me in.” He walked to her, a snarl on his face. “Tell him now.”

Soaking wet, she woke with a start and sat straight up in bed looking in the corner. A dream. Only a dream, she reassured herself. It didn’t stop her body from quivering.

She needed to see Jason. Dream or not, Lange obviously wanted something from her and she was pretty sure it was Jason. She wasn’t going to cooperate. He was Death and he’d come to take Jason with him, just like he’d taken David and Joey. She couldn’t let that happen.

***
Pushing open the door to his room, the light flickered above his bed reminding her of a strobe light. The television droned, tucked near the ceiling in the corner of the room.

Hayley pulled a chair up to his bed and grabbed his hand. “Please come back to me, baby,” she said, her voice cracking. “You’re all I have left.” She put her head on his hand and cried.

“Mom?” His voice weak--so fragile and small, she thought she had imagined it.

Hayley lifted her head to see him looking at her. “Jason? Oh my God, Jason! It’s going to be okay now, honey. Everything is okay.”

“I’m going to die,” Jason said, as a tear rolled down his right temple.

“Of course not, you are going to be just fine.” Hayley hugged him against her, ignoring the wires and tubes. He was awake.

“They’re coming for me,” Jason said, terror on his face, his sky blue eyes filled with fear. “They’re coming for you too.”

With a shaky finger, she hit the call button for the nurse, but no one came. Hayley rose and looked each way in the hallway. It was empty. “Where is everyone?” Her voice echoed through the corridor. She tried louder, “Hello?”

Phones rang in the distance. Computers flickered with no operators. Hayley looked up and down the hallway once again. There had to be someone around. This can’t be!

When she turned back to Jason, she saw dark, inky figures filtering in through the cracks of the window frame. They transformed from a flattened state to undefined silhouettes of blackness against the sharp white walls. They fluttered through the curtain hanging at the side of his bed, over him, under him, around him.

They are coming for me, his words echoed through her mind.

“Jason!” Hayley ran back to his side, batting the shadows out of the way. Her body temperature dropped drastically. She felt nothing as her arm whooshed through the black smoke seemingly dissipating in front of her and then re-forming a few feet away. One turned and flew straight at her. Hayley yelped and jumped backwards feeling the wall behind her. It had no face she could see; no eyes looked upon her, yet she knew it was studying her.

They are coming for you too, she remembered Jason’s words.

Evil, Hayley thought.

Swallowing hard, waiting for the creature to take her, she shut her eyes tightly and swatted at the air in front of her. “You’re not real,” she chanted with closed eyes.
It had to be something her imagination conjured. She opened her eyes and watched as they scattered and then disappeared back out the small crevice in the window where they came from.

“Jason?” He didn’t open his eyes or whisper her name.

It had been a long time. In fact, Hayley had stopped believing in God, but in that hour she held her son’s hand tightly and prayed.