Chapter 11


It felt every bit as bad as she remembered. Her head was splitting and someone was beating a very large drum somewhere between her ears. Unfortunately, Barbara realized, that was about the only part of her body that she could feel. It took her a little bit to figure out that she actually even had a ‘rest of her body’ that should be feeling. She tried moving her arm, with a keen interest in rubbing her temple, and it simply refused to work. Her legs did not seem to do any better and it was getting quite agitating because Barbara’s face was leaning up against something and, now that her head was not so numb, it hurt!
She managed to gain control of her eye lids and, slowly, she began to open them. Her left eye managed to get something of a view and, as far as Barbara could tell, it looked not all that different from when her eye lid was down. She also noticed that taking breaths was a bit of a job but, as time went on it became less so. That started to make Barbara wonder exactly how much time it had been since… Then she started wondering exactly what ‘had been’ was. As her mind sifted through a tidal wave of memories she began trying to pick out the ones that were the most important. Once again, Barbara found the more nagging question being, “most important to what exactly?”

Then she saw him. He was sitting right next to her. His uniform looked almost new even if it was the old kind. Then Barbara realized that the reason for the antiquated uniform was because her father had been dead for many years now. There he was though! He was sitting right next to her on the dunes. These were the same dunes that were right down from the station? Barbara shook her head and felt of the sand. How did she get here? 

She looked at her hands and they looked no different than they normally did. She pulled up her shirt and checked. The scar along the top of her hip was still there. How could that be? She turned to her father and he was just comfortably sitting there, like he had so many times before, and was watching the waves roll in. Barbara reached out and felt of his face. He found it amusing and she found it very real.

Barbara took a deep breath and then just asked, “Daddy?”

“It’s me Babs,” he told her. He smiled warmly at his daughter.

 Barbara felt a tear roll down her cheek and she grabbed the man with all her strength. He chuckled in delight and told her, “you’ve got to wake up sweetheart.”

Barbara drew back and in sorrow she said, “I know Daddy. I.. I miss you. I miss Mom, Eric, and Uncle Duke.”

“We know you do Babs,” he told her with a bit of sorrow and delight.

“Dad,” she put her hand gently on his arm and told him with regret and even guilt, “I’ve made a mess of everything. First I made a mess of my life and then Shannon’s. I’ve destroyed your legacy. I… I can’t do it Daddy.”
He actually chuckled and that surprised Barbara. Where was the man that used to tell her to keep that chin up? How could this possibly be the same man that told her to never let anyone see her cry? He answered the question before Barbara could even ask, “time can mellow a man kiddo. Maybe, when I told you all that stuff back when you were a kid, well, maybe I was wrong.”
That was not what Barbara wanted to hear. The tears started rolling and she told him in protest, “no you weren’t Daddy. I think I proved that pretty good.” She became self conscious as she told him, “when I ran off to Doris that time? Remember that? I should have never done that. If you only knew half the things I’ve done. When Mom died and…” Barbara looked away and when the tears began to stream down her cheeks, her creaking voice said, “I wasn’t even there.”

“You’ve still got something Babs,” her father said in a calm and reassuring tone. “Use it child. You use it for everything it’s worth.”

Barbara sniffed and tried pushing away the tears. He reached out and gently turned her head so that he could see her eyes. Barbara asked meekly, “what’s that Daddy?”

At first he did not answer. He just looked at his child and then he told her, “you always had your mother’s eyes.” When he went back to looking at the sea he finally told her, “you’ve got the future Babs. That’s all anybody really ever has. Make the most of it baby. Make the most of it.”

“DADDY!” Barbara fell to the floor. Her scream had required her to use a lot of extra muscles that had probably not even been working a second before. She was still not coordinated enough to survive the effort but, that was nothing compared to the fact that her entire environment changed around her in an instant. She was no longer sitting on the beach with her father or, anyone else for that matter.

When Barbara got back to one knee she felt tears forming and that caused her to yell one more time, “no! NO!” Her angry outburst trailed off into a fit of coughing that left her drained. Even during the spasm she fought back the urge to cry. She also fought to get back on her feet. 

As Barbara pulled herself up along one of the walls, in what she was coming to realize was a narrow corridor, she noticed what the walls were made of. As her vision cleared a little more she noticed how this entire place looked like stacked stones. The ceiling was arched and pretty low. The wooden beams, where she could see them, looked old and decrepit. How could that be?
As she moved from hand hold to hand hold, Barbara found herself running into a set of chains and manacles that were anchored to the wall. She studied them as best she could which, of course, was not saying very much. Not only was her mind still drifting but, the light here was very poor and the haze was even worse. She still managed to notice that the metal, not just the manacles either, but all of it seemed to be rusted.

Suddenly a thought pushed it’s way to the forefront of her brain. Barbara suddenly realized where she had been and was supposed to be. It was in direct contradiction to what she was seeing. The old rotted wood, the damp and moss covered stones, the rusted metal were all too old to be in this house. Roger had only built it a couple of years ago. There was the name! Barbara shouted in anger, “ROGER!”

An evil laughter followed. Barbara, as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, tried to make out the direction. It was bouncing around and impossible to tell. The sound of it began to grow in Barbara’s head and she bent over in pain, clutching her ears, and screamed in anger, “get out of my head!”

A bone chilling breeze whipped down the corridor as if it were something actually moving through the air. It was not like some long continuous flow. Barbara actually looked up as it passed her. She saw the cobwebs along the ceiling moving as if something had pushed them out of the way. Then they fell back into place like nothing had ever even been there.

Then the breeze just stopped. It was not like it had moved on but rather, like it was just standing in one place. Barbara felt ice forming in her veins. The hairs began to stand up on the back of her neck. She watched a whirlwind begin to form and take shape It glowed and was transparent, all at the same time. Suddenly Barbara could make out details and she realized that it was not even standing on the floor. It kind of floated in the air and, worst of all, it was taking the shape of a man. That man was exactly who she now expected. It was Roger.

“You’re not real,” Barbara screamed in anger. “You’re in my head!”

He floated slowly towards her and in an amused fashion he told Barbara, “if I’m just an illusion then why are you backing up? Poor, poor, little Barbara. You never were very good at knowing what’s real and what isn’t.” Roger ended that sentence on a very angry note.

Barbara took another step back, still using both hands to steady herself along the wall. Her mind was still hazy but, she believed she had enough of her wits to do a little biting back, “oh yeah. I remember Roger. All those little bimbo’s you were picking up was just a mid life crisis, right? You were thirty-two!”

Roger laughed but not in an evil way this time. Barbara had to wonder which was worse. Then he said, “of course it was. I told you so. You couldn’t believe me after all we’d been through?”

“All we’d been through?” Barbara wasn’t really sure what this thing was talking about but, it was obvious that Roger’s memory of their short time dating was very different from hers. “I can tell you what I remember going through. Let’s see, there was Cathy, Cindy, Celia, and oh, let’s not forget big bouncy Caroline!” Barbara thought about those names for a second and then growled on, “and that was just the C’s!”

The floating Roger shrugged and replied, “well who else better to follow you?”

Barbara almost tripped as it got closer and closer. She grunted and looked behind her, desperately hoping to see anywhere she could duck into. Her mind was still hazy enough that Barbara was not even sure how long she had been looking over her shoulder. When she flipped her head back around, he was right in her face. She could feel the cold, bone chilling air, surrounding her. Barbara fell to the floor and began crawling backwards.

Roger looked down at her and said, “I know I had reasons to lie to you before Barbara. I fully admit that I did. I met you under false pretenses but, then I came to know you. I appreciated you. I loved you and that’s why I stayed. The others had nothing to do with us. They were just things that,” he chuckled at his own wit, “quite literally pass in the night. They all eventually split, you realize?”

Barbara began pulling herself back up against the wall. As she began controlling her breathing she spit in it’s direction and told him, “go to hell you sanctimonious little twit.” Then she thought about it a little and added, “oh and you had a small dick while we’re at it!”

The figured vanished in the flash of an eye. Barbara blinked twice just to make sure she had not imagined the entire thing. Even after the figure stayed gone, Barbara was not entirely convinced that she had not been dreaming. She rolled her back against the wall to rest and catch her breath once more. That’s when she found herself, once again, face to face with Roger.
His eyes narrowed as a cold wind blew. He got closer and he told her in a very sinister way, “and your attitude is exactly what got you here.”

Barbara fell to the floor once more. This time she crawled on her belly in the other direction. She managed to get to her knees and managed to pick up a little more speed. When she looked back she saw him. He was coming for her! His hands were out stretched and his maniacal laugh was echoing up and down the hallways.

When he reached Barbara she rolled up into a ball, closed her eyes, and screamed. She felt her legs shivering and burning. She could not control her body as it twitched and violently shook. Barbara flattened herself out on the floor. She looked up and saw Roger’s back, floating away from her. Was he really going?

Barbara got back to her feet and when she did, the apparition stopped and spun around. This time, without using the walls for support, Barbara stood her ground as the thing came back towards her. She told herself in a mumble, “it’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real.”

As it drew closer the figure began slowly morphing into something else. Roger began looking more like the angel of death with every passing second. The man that she knew was becoming a black hooded figure carrying a long pole with a glowing tip. Barbara gulped. She stiffened her spine, and she whispered once more, “it’s not real.”

Roger was gone when the dark hooded figure completely replaced him. He stopped, lowered his staff, and jabbed Barbara in the arm with it. She felt her body jerk and seize up. She lost all control of her muscles and fell helplessly to the floor. The only difference now was far more ominous. As the angel of death grabbed her feet and began dragging her down into the deep recesses of what she could only describe as a dungeon, Barbara might have been paralyzed but, her mind was rapidly clearing. She could sense and understand everything she saw.