Chapter 60 sixty

When Louis woke up, the glare of the sun dazzled his eyes, and he tried to get up, but the pain in his back made him grimace, it hurt too much.He lay on the pillow again and glanced at himself, he was still fully clothed, God, he went to bed without taking off his clothes last night. He lay down again for a long time, beating the stiff muscles in his body to strengthen himself, and then sat up. "Oh shit," he whispered.For a split second the room shook slightly and perceptibly, and his back throbbed like a broken tooth.He turned his head and felt that all the tendons in his neck were rusty, but worst of all was his knee, and the ointment he had used didn't help much.He was supposed to have given himself a cortisone shot, and his knees were so swollen that the pant legs were stretched like they had a balloon inside.

"It hurts so bad," Louis whispered. "My God, oh my God, I've never hurt like this before." He slowly bent over and sat on the edge of the bed, biting his lip so hard it was almost white, and then he stretched his leg a little bit, feeling the pain, trying to figure out how bad it was, if... Gage!Is Gage back? The thought made him rise despite the pain, and he searched the house, and he went out the door of his own bedroom, and went across the hall into Gage's room, but it was empty.He limped back into Ellie's room, which was also empty.He went into a spare room, the one facing the highway, which was also empty.but……

Across the road was a strange car parked behind Chad's truck. So what? Well a strange car parked there could mean trouble, that's all. Louis pulled the curtains aside and took a closer look at the car. It was a small blue car with Church the cat lying on the roof, apparently sleeping. He looked at it for a long time before he lowered the curtain.Chad has friends over, that's what it is... so what?Maybe it's too early to worry about whether Gage is back, it was almost one o'clock when Church came back from his resurrection, and it's only nine o'clock, nine o'clock on a beautiful morning in May, and he's going downstairs to cook some Coffee, then warm up a medical pad, wrap it around my knee, and…

What was Church doing on the roof of that car? "Oh, forget it," Louis said loudly, and then he limped down the hall, thinking that the kitten sleeps everywhere, that's how it is. But Church doesn't go across the road anymore, remember? "Forget it," Louis whispered.He paused for a moment halfway up the stairs, and said to himself, it's bad, it's... What was that thing in the forest last night? The question jumped into his mind automatically, causing him to bite his lip again.I dreamed about that thing in the woods again last night, and the Disneyland he dreamed of seemed to be naturally mixed with that thing in his dream, and he dreamed that that thing touched him and reconciled all the good dreams Will ruined forever, that thing was Wendigo, but he wasn't alone this time, Bill and Dim were there, and Chad was there, looking like a ghost, lifeless, with a sack in his hand Dog Spotter in the bag; Morgan and his bull were there, and for some reason Rachel was there too, she'd had some trouble at the dinner table, she'd spilled ketchup or maybe dropped a saucer of jam , because her clothes were covered in red stains.

Later, a huge monster stood up behind the pile of dead wood, with sallow skin, staring big yellow-green eyes, and ears that didn't look like ears at all, but big curved horns. This was Brother Wendi, Like a lizard born from a human.The monster pointed at them with its scaly-nailed fingers, and the men craned their necks and looked up at it... "Don't think about it." Louis whispered, and he trembled when he heard his own voice.He decided to go into the kitchen and make breakfast, as usual, a bachelor's breakfast, high in cholesterol, two sandwiches with fried eggs and a slice of onion in each.He smells very sweaty and dirty, but he's going to shower later, and it's not easy to undress now, maybe he'll have to find a scalpel and cut open his pants to get them off because his knees are so swollen Terrible, I have to use a scalpel, and neither the knife at home nor Rachel's eye scissors can get through the thick jeans.

But first, have breakfast. So Louis walked across the living room, went around to the front door and looked out, and he saw the little blue car parked on Chad's driveway, covered in dew, which meant it had been there for a while. up.Church was still on the roof, but no longer sleeping, and seemed to be staring at Louis with those ugly chartreuse eyes. Louis took a step back in a hurry, as if he was afraid that someone would see him looking secretly. He walked into the kitchen, took out a frying pan, put it on the stove, and took a few eggs from the refrigerator. The kitchen was well lit, the air was fresh, and it felt very comfortable.Louis wanted to whistle...whistling would help him focus at work in the morning...but he couldn't.Everything looks normal, but it's not quite right.The house looked lifeless and empty.Last night's work weighed on him again.Something is not right, something is wrong.He felt a shadow haunt him, and he was afraid.

He limped into the bathroom, downed two aspirins with orange juice, and was about to walk back to the kitchen when the phone rang. Louis didn't pick it up right away, but turned to look at the phone, feeling unresponsive, stupid, like a big fool in some game. Don't answer the phone, you don't want to answer the phone, because that's bad news, that line will lead you into the corner and into the darkness, I guess you don't want to see what's on the other end of that line, Louis.I really thought you didn't want to, then don't answer the phone, run, run now, the car is in the garage, get in the car, drive away, but don't answer the phone...

This voice kept ringing in Louis's head.He walked across the room, picked up the phone, put his other hand on the dryer, and it was Mr. Goldman calling, and just after he said "Hi," Louis saw the footprints in the kitchen, little Small mud footprints, his heart seemed to be frozen in his chest, he believed that he could feel his eyes protruding, as if the eyeballs were about to fall out of their sockets.He believed that if he had looked in a mirror at that time, he would have seen in the mirror the appearance of a madman in a 17th-century madhouse.Those footprints belonged to Gage, Gage had been here, he had been here at night.Where is he now?

"I'm Goldman, Louis—Louis? Are you listening? Hello?" "Hello, Goldman," Louis replied.He already knew what Goldman was going to say.He understood why the little blue car was there.He understood everything.The line—the line that would lead him into the darkness, along which he was moving swiftly now, oh, if only he could let go before he saw what was at the other end of the line!But this is his thread, he made it himself. "For a moment I thought the phone was disconnected," Goldman said. "No, the phone fell out of my hand," Louis said.His voice was calm.

"Did Rachel come home last night?" "Oh, back," Louis said.He thought of the blue car with Church on it, how quiet it was.Louis' eyes searched the floor for muddy feet.print. "I should talk to her," Goldman said. "Talk about Ellie now." "Ellie? What's wrong with Ellie?" "I really think Rachel—" "Rachel isn't home right now," said Louis harshly. "She went to the store to buy bread and milk. What's the matter with Ellie?"Say it, Goldman! " "We had to take her to the hospital," Goldman said reluctantly. "She had a nightmare, or a series of nightmares. She was hysterical. She wasn't recovering. She—"

"Did they sedate her?" "what?" "Sedation," Louis said irritably, "did they sedate her?" "Take it, oh, take it, they gave her a pill, and then she fell asleep." "Did she say anything? What made her so scared?" Louis asked, clutching the white microphone tightly. Goldman finally said, "It freaked out her grandma, too. Allie said a lot before she cried, but after she cried, some of the words were unintelligible. Her grandma herself almost— -You know." "What did Ellie say?" "She said Lord of the Worth the Horror killed her mother, if only she hadn't. She said—she said the Lord of the Worth of the Horror. That's what our other daughter, Zelda, used to say, Lois, trust me when I say I meant to ask Rachel about this, how much did you and she tell Elle about Zelda? Did you tell her how Zelda died? " Louis closed his eyes, and the world seemed to turn gently under his feet.Goldman's voice seemed to come from a thick fog. Chad's voices are coming up again: you might hear voices, like human voices, but it's just the call of the Abbey bird as it migrates south, and those voices travel a long way. "Louis, are you listening?" "Is she going to be okay?" Louis asked.He felt that his voice seemed far away, "Will Ellie get better? Did you ask the doctor for Ellie's prediction?" "The doctor said it was a reaction to the funeral, and it was a delayed shock." Goldman said, "My own personal doctor came to see her. He said that Ellie had some fever and could wake up this afternoon. After waking up, she Maybe I won't remember anything, but I think Rachel should come back. I'm scared too, Louis, and I think you should come back too." Louis didn't answer, and King James said God's eyes were on the sparrows, but Louis was only a man, and his eyes were on those muddy footprints. "Louis, Gage is dead," Goldman was saying. "I know how hard it is for you and Rachel, but your daughter is alive and she needs you." Yes, I accept that, Goldman, you may be a stupid old guy, but maybe that day in April 1965 when one of your two daughters died and the other had nightmares, you became allergic too stand up.She needs me but I can't come because I'm scared, so scared, that I'm getting Ellie's mother's blood on my hands. Louis looked at his hands as he thought, and he saw mud in his fingernails, the same mud as muddy footprints on the kitchen floor. "Okay," Louis said. "I see, Goldman, we'll get back as soon as possible. Tonight if possible. Thank you." "We did our best," Goldman said. "Maybe we're too old, maybe, Louis, maybe we've always been the same." "Did Elle say anything else?" Louis asked. Goldman's answer sounded like a death knell in his heart: "A lot has been said, but I can only catch one sentence, she said, and Pascoe said it too late." Louis hung up the phone, then walked blankly towards the kitchen stove, apparently as though continuing to make breakfast or to put things aside.He didn't know which to do.Halfway through the walk, he felt dizzy.There was a gray scene in front of him, and Louis passed out on the floor. He seemed to have fallen from a cloud, rolling in the air.Then he hit his injured knee and came to life in such pain that he screamed in pain, and for a moment he could only curl up there with tears in his eyes. Finally he struggled to his feet and stood unsteadily for a while, but his mind cleared again, there was something there, wasn't it? He thought about running away again, stronger than ever, and he felt for the car keys in his pocket. He was going to drive to Chicago, pick up his daughter, and they would go away together.Of course Goldman would have known by then that something was wrong, that something had gone horribly wrong, but Louis was going to take Allie... take her, if that was not an option. Then Louis' hands were removed from his pockets, and he gave up the idea of ​​running away.It wasn't the futility, the guilt, the hopelessness and the exhaustion of his body that dispelled that thought, it was the sight of those muddy footprints on the floor that dissuaded him.In his mind he could see the mud footprints going all over the world.What you buy, you own, and what you own will eventually come back to you. Someday, when he opened the door, he would see Gage, only not his own son, but a mad monster like a replica of the original Gage, grinning with his cheeks deep and baring his teeth, Eyes that had been clear blue had turned a foolish, chaotic yellow.Or when Ellie opens the bathroom door to take a shower in the morning and finds Gage in the tub, all over his body covered in bump scars and protruding bumps, he may be clean, but he smells like a tomb. stink. Oh yes, there would be a day...he had no doubts. "How could I be so stupid?" Louis said casually to the empty room, talking to himself, "How could it be?" Grief is not stupidity, Louis, there is a difference... a small one, but a matter of life and death.The magic in that graveyard is still there, growing, Chad said, and of course he's right...and now you're a part of it too.The magic makes you grieve... no, not just grieve, it's double grieve, it's triple grieve, it's grieve to the nth power.And it doesn't just make you sad, it makes you mad, it makes you lose your sanity.This kind of rift is just unacceptable, but it is very common.The magic that took your wife and almost certainly your best friend and your son is what it is, and all you hear knocking on your door in the middle of the night is darkness. Louis thought: I'm going to commit suicide now, I think it's God's will, isn't that how God arranged it?I have suicide kits in my bag.This magic has arranged everything, it has been arranged from the beginning.That cemetery, Wendigo, whatever it is, it first drove our cat to the road, maybe it brought Gage to the road, and it brought Rachel home, but only when it Doing all of this on a scheduled time, of course, I want to do that... I want to do that. But things have to be set right, don't they? Yes, it does need to be corrected. Also think about Gage.Gage is still out there, somewhere. Louis followed the footprints from the dining room to the living room and back up the stairs. The footprints on the stairs were a little blurry because he didn't see them being stepped on when he went downstairs, and those footprints entered the bedroom again.He's here, he's here, Louis wondered, and then he saw his medical bag opened. He always put the things in the medical bag in an orderly manner, but now it is a mess.But it didn't take long for Louis to find that his scalpel was missing. He covered his face with his hands and sat there for a while, with a faint sound of despair in his throat. Finally he opened the medical bag again and began to rummage through it. Louis went downstairs again. Then came the sound of the pantry door being opened, the sound of a closet opening and closing, the sound of a can opener opening things, and finally the sound of the garage door opening and closing.And then the house stood empty again in the May sun, as it did last August, waiting for a new occupant to move in—as if waiting for some other new occupant to come someday, perhaps. They are a newly married young couple with no children.They may enjoy wine and beer, the husband may run the credit department at Northeastern Bank, the wife may be a lady with a diploma in dental hygiene, or an optometrist assistant with three years of experience.The husband may be chopping wood for the fireplace, and the wife may be gathering hay in Mrs Winton's field in her ponytail for a centerpiece at the dinner table.Little did they know that there was an invisible eagle hovering overhead.They'll pride themselves on not being superstitious, they'll probably tell their friends jokes about ghosts in the attic, they'll all drink some more wine or beer, they'll play dice or something. Maybe they also have a dog.