Coffee Bleeds Red

I didn’t expect to wake up in a cold sweat that morning, but I did. Leah was lying next to me, as always, but I was sure I had disturbed her in the night. My frantic tossings had done the sheets all up in knots, my clothes soaked and clinging icy cold to my flesh. The sheets stuck to my legs and the sweat pooled around me, as if I had been sleeping on a water bed that had suddenly sprung a leak.

I tried to not to disturb the rest of the house as I stumbled around in kitchen, making coffee that would only aggravate my already jittery hands. I couldn’t stop shaking. I didn’t understand why the visions still lingered in my head, snapping my eyes up every few seconds to make sure I wasn’t being watched. I could feel the itchy, prickly hairs standing up straight in the pores of my neck and shoulders, keeping my fingers trembling as I clanged the red coffee mug against the counter and attempted to pry the Foldgers lid off the container.

I knew something was wrong; I didn’t get nervous, ever. Even when Leah had our first kids – twins – I didn’t get nervous. But I couldn’t control this feeling. It was as if something from the Outside was hovering over my shoulder, watching my every move. I knew that They existed, but I never thought They would be so close to me, so disturbingly real. The mug shattered on the linoleum.

“Jake?”

Leah was standing there just above me in the stairwell, ever so elegant in her silk robe. Blond hair fell in untamed lengths around her beautiful face and slim neck, complimented artistically by the whiteness of her gown. I did my best to swallow the strange feelings fluttering in my stomach. I clamped the lid back on the Foldgers.

“Hi, Hon,” I dropped my staring eyes quickly and stooped, foolishly trying to scoop the shattered pieces of ceramic into my hands. Red pieces were everywhere, scattered across the tile and wedged in between the cracks.

“Oh Jake, don’t do that! Let me get the broom, honey.”

She was over by the front closet, her legs just in front of me from my hunched position. I must have looked ridiculous, down on all fours like a stupid mutt, scratching my fingers with every shattered piece I snatched up. But I couldn’t help myself.

I couldn’t explain my haste. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop picking up the pieces. Her beautiful legs, still as youthful as at the prom, were still in my line of sight; I found myself constantly glancing up at them, my eyes telling me to cease my panic and just look, while my fingers kept heeding my frenzy to continue groping at the mug’s remnants.

Leah was humored, laughing a bit at my hurried movements. “Honey, it’s okay, I’ve got it. You’ll cut yourself, let me get it.” Her legs moved towards me, stopping a few inches in front of my nose.

I stopped. The last piece of ceramic was digging into my fingers, making it bleed, but I couldn’t stop squeezing it. Her skin…it was so smooth. I could tell by the way it shone in the sunlight gleaming in from the sunroom window to my left. In my head, I knew I was acting strange, that I wanted the nightmares to end with one look into her deep gray eyes…but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. My brain wasn’t letting me. It was wrapped around those images, that tingly sensation lingering over my entire body. It wasn’t going to let me forget.

“I, uh…sorry I dropped it,” I managed, slinking up to my knees and trying to keep the shattered mug from slipping out of my hands again. “It was one of your favorites…”

Leah didn’t seem to mind. She had plenty of those anyway.  Why was I so jumpy, though?

Must be the warm weather, I attempted a shrug. Makes a man feel vibrant and ready for anything.

She laughed. “I suppose that’s why Kyle’s out in the pool so early?”

My stomach did a 360 inside me. Kyle was outside? Alone?

Even Leah couldn’t stop my terrified flight to the sliding glass door. I dashed for it opposite the kitchen, tearing at the screen in my haste. It was a cool 73 degrees on that sunny Tamp morning, but why did I feel so hot?

My brother was in the pool, sure enough, but he wasn’t moving. My brain suddenly blackened, only my eyes taking in the sights. I think I was screaming. Nothing inside me registered; I could only look on from the outside and see my body lunge toward Kyle’s, floating face down in the water. I could only dully watch as I dove under, his waterlogged limbs bobbing with the waves from my impact, watch my breaths raise his breathless lungs, once, twice, three times beforemy trembling hands slammed into his chest, throwing a desperate energy through the still muscles to the silenced heart.
I’m sure I was yelling at him, shoving my tear-stained face into his, breaking ribs as I pounded away at the still form that I half-straddled. I do know that his crystal eyes that had kept the girls close only stared past me, up at the sky that was bright and clear that morning.

I know I was screaming for Leah, but she hadn’t answered. In desperation, I flung myself off my kid brother and fled back to the house, only terror keeping me moving.

I slipped and hit the cold floor, barely missing the ledge of the counter. I was up again immediately, but the blow slowed me for an instant. I could feel the wetness on my bare feet.

The red. I tried to understand why my wife was no longer in the kitchen, why I suddenly smelled coffee and blood and terror. It permeated the room, contradicting the sunshine’s efforts to brighten it. I could feel the dampness, the dank sense of sweat and body fluid and pain. I knew she was gone.

When I saw It, I didn’t flee. I didn’t cry, I didn’t panic, I just stood there, accepting it. I knew It had done this, one of Them. I didn’t understand why, I didn’t know how It killed or who it targeted, but I knew that It had come for us. The kids were mutilated too, upstairs in their beds. It had come for my entire family. It killed them all. I knew, and I accepted.

It stared back at me from across the kitchen floor, Its back to the door from where It had entered. I didn’t know how It had got there, how It had managed to sneak past me, why It had killed my little brother, my little ones upstairs, my Leah in her silk robes. But it didn’t really matter. There was no stopping It. It was one of Them, the demons each of us must face, the demons each of us know intimately. I didn’t think I would have to face It that day, but Time had a different plan.

I suddenly realized It was lunging towards me, multi-taloned hands clawing at the air to snatch me from my frozen position. I felt Its hot breath on my skin, saw Its glassy eyes targeting my throat to tear the life-pulsing veins from my body.

But I wasn’t moving. I accepted it. My family had been taken, and It was going to take me too.

It was a calming thought.