Call of the Void

The Call of the Void

“It’s grandpa. They say it’s bad.”

“Wait what happened? Man, I just got home from St. Jude’s.”

“Why were you here?”
Did he say here?

“Hello?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I didn’t.

“Well whatever, man, I’m sorry but you gotta come back.”

“Why are you there?”

“I told you. It’s grandpa. He fell. Hit his head, they say it’s fractured. Grandma says they cut his insurance. Do you need me to pick you up?”

They pulled the plug with his sons and daughters and their sons and daughters gathered round, crying and muttering about how untimely his death was. His last words were, “My legacy can’t save me”. I saw it in that moment, swooping in from the ceiling. Made of shadow, a thin and spindly form with a scaffolding of wings outstretched from its back, like bones without the flesh to spread across. It reached a wispy tendril and caressed my grandfather’s forehead.
“I know you,” I said.

Turning its formless face my way, it spoke in a whisper. “As well you should. Most people don’t escape my clutches the way you did.”
“So, you came back to haunt me?”

“Wherever you go, you will sense that I follow. Consider my presence a reminder. You are forever in my debt.”

Everyone cried at the funeral when they lined up to see grandpa’s face one last time. It didn’t feel real. I went home and kept having vivid dreams about dying.

One time I fell into a vat of lava, another time a hammer hit me in the head. Soon it became clear the dreams were here to stay. My phone rang no less than 12 times a day. Each time I answered, the line would be dead. There was silence, then the call would drop. No one ever talked at the other end.

I encountered a bewildering number of cats and they all hissed and hurried off when I passed. Is it any wonder? I was a freak. I was keenly aware I had stared into the void and closed my eyes. I survived when I shouldn’t have. Death Incarnate was punishing me.

Everywhere I went, I went there sleepy. Such was my plight. The dreams picked up steam so that I could no longer sleep at night. My entire life became one long nightmare from which I would not wake.
I witnessed a horrific accident after weeks without sleep. It was late, and I was wandering again - a nightly tradition I couldn’t break. I was at a dark and silent street corner, waiting for the light to tell me it was safe to cross.

A motorcyclist sped through the intersection heading the same direction I was. Right at the exact center of the street, a heavy truck sped through the red light and collided with the rider who flew clear from the bike. While the rider was airborne, the air was ripped from my lungs.

Time froze. And after an eternity of anticipating the crash, down smashed the man. Momentum carried him 10, 15, 20 feet past me, skidding and sliding on the helmet that was meant to save his life.
In a minute, the neck that supported the travel quit.
With a sickening snap, the sliding ceased, and the man tumbled further.

It couldn’t have been less than 30 feet when he finally laid still. He did not move. He did not tremble. He did not cry. That was the end of his life.
I stayed with the body until officials arrived. I dragged the lifeless form from the road, held it in my arms, and I wept anonymously. I didn’t bother with searching for his wallet. Let the cops handle that. I only wanted to honor the loss of a life and wonder why it hadn’t been mine. How close it was, how simple it could have been to be released.

This is not where my story ends. Not yet.
If my tormentor was watching me as closely as it seemed, then I would go to meet him. This experience could not have been coincidence. The cats, the calls, the deaths, they followed me, reminders of a life debt. I would have to pay it sooner or later. I went home and cleaned my cluttered apartment. I told everyone in my contacts that I loved them and turned off my phone. I tried to sleep one last time.

That night, the dreams were serene. I saw my ex, in an alternate universe where our relationship hadn’t soured. We lay in bed for hours, and we had incredible sex, and we saw our friends. Everyone was there. In this dream, everyone I had ever loved never left.
Death was there, and he welcomed me with a warm embrace.

I don’t think I can remember ever having a sleep better than that. I awoke with a spring in my step and a sense of purpose, this was the day. I took a bus to the city center where all of the tallest buildings gathered to scrape the sky. There were people everywhere, bustling here and there. Fresh smelling hipsters with hundred-dollar-hair and rancid homeless with blank stares. I picked the tallest of the buildings, the one boasting the name I had to see every day, the one I can read from my home miles away.

I entered through the revolving door like I knew what I was doing, ignored stares from fancy suits and security. A button panel set in the wall called an elevator car from somewhere in the building. I rode to the top, making all the stops along the way, men and women filing in and out to start their day. I knew I would need to get creative to reach the roof. Luckily for me there was a stairwell that would take me the rest of the way. To my dismay, it had been propped open by a maintenance cart. I slipped inside and climbed the stairs. I hoped I didn’t meet anyone at the landing.

When fresh air stung my face at that altitude, I felt a rush. There was a massive helicopter landing pad with a shiny late model Eurochopper, blades gleaming in the morning sun.
A short walk to the edge of the roof made me gasp and stomach drop. The city was sprawled out before me like I’ve seen a million times on maps.

This was it- the void. I’d finally arrived to greet it again, like an old friend. This is where I would make amends. This is where my story ends.

I backtracked at the helipad for a running start and sprinted like my death depended on it. Because it did.
My foot slipped at the precipice.
I tumbled forward into the abyss of open air, and my body went limp. There was no going back now. My flight was cut short. I hit feet-first on some ledge not far below. And I tumbled all the way down. I don’t remember hitting the ground.
I awoke in a fluorescent, sterile place permeated with a frenzied energy.
No. Not again!