Mark Tufo - The End Has Come and Gone

“Do it.”

“Talbot! NO!” Tracy yelled.

“You sure man?” BT asked in disbelief.

“Do I look sure?” I asked him, my eyes red-rimmed.

“I don’t think so,” Gary said. “What? He asked!” Gary replied when BT looked at him sideways.

“Damn, I thought the whole Captain Obvious was my strong point,” Justin said. “It must run deeper in the family than we thought.”

Tomas came up beside me, “You will want to lie down.”

“Is this going to hurt him?” Meredith asked.

“Extremely.”

“Wicked pissah,” I said.

Tracy walked away, her arms folded across her chest. I couldn’t be sure from my position, but it looked like her shoulders were shaking with sobs.

I lay down, saying the Lord’s Prayer in one last vain attempt to possibly keep a dialog open with the Big Guy.

BT held my hand tight. “Let’s just go out guns blazing, Mike.”

I looked over to my sons’ very concerned faces. “I would if we were alone my friend.”

“I get it, I do. I’m sorry it came to this, buddy,” BT added.

Paul and Alex stood guard over my prone body as Tomas leaned in. It was Henry that almost stopped everything. Where he had been and what he had been doing I’m not sure, probably basking in the sun and sending out his own ozone melting flatulence.

He jumped across my chest, his back legs by my left arm pit and his front paws down by my right side. Froth formed on his muzzle as he barked and growled incessantly as Tomas approached.

“I will kill him if you do not remove him,” Tomas said, stopping his progress.

“You kill him and I will drill you in the eye with my Ka-Bar, Tomas,” I told him.

“Perhaps you would Michael. Now move the dog so that we can get to the business at hand,” Tomas said, still not moving, maybe because he was fearful of the dog or me.

Justin grabbed the big Bully and hefted him back. Travis stepped in to assist and still they almost lost control of Henry.

“Put this in your mouth,” Tomas said as he handed me a piece of rubber roughly the size and shape of a cigar. “And do not concern yourself where it has been, germs will no longer be a problem of yours.”

That almost made this whole scenario a worthwhile endeavor.

Tomas moved down to my neck. I had an instant of paranoia thinking that he merely wanted to get this close so that he could rip my throat out. And then he did, at least that’s what it felt like. Sparks of pain ignited in my throat like my veins were igniter cables and the fuse had been lit. Fire spread through every portion of my body. I arched so hard only the heels of my feet and the back of my head still made contact with the roof.

So this is how your soul was removed, it was burned out. I could smell burning cordite as my teeth struggled to cut through the guard. Muscles spasmed with a force that put my body into contortions that must not have been anything near to normal. I couldn’t register it then, but even BT was looking away, not able to stand what I was going through. Although I’ll give him this, his hand never left mine and I know I must have put enough force on it to crush a normal man’s.

“Th..th..thisss thu..thucks,” I chattered to BT.

He squeezed my hand tighter. “It’s no bargain on this side my friend,” he said, still not looking down.

Tomas had strode away at some point, could have been five minutes or five hours. Having your soul seared kind of takes your mind off of time.

“Dad?” Travis asked.

I gave him a nod but there was no guarantee that I pulled it off. My muscles were firing independent of any messages I was sending them. For all I knew, I could have stuck my tongue out at him.

“You stupid, stupid bastard,” Tracy said, cradling my head gently.

“Is it over?” I asked.

“You passed out a few minutes ago buddy,” Paul said.

“You said “goodbye” right before you went under. We were scared,” Alex said. “Do you know what you were referring to? Did you have a vision?”

I shook my head no, but I did know what I was referring to. It was the loss of my humanity, my mortality, my personage, my soul. I was less of a man now and more of a demon. And I had never felt weaker in my life.

“We need to clean his neck and stand him up before Eliza gets here,” Paul said looking nervously towards the door. “Tomas said this would look too suspicious if you were on the ground,” he said, looking at my confused face.

“I’m… I’m not sure I can stand yet, at least on my own,” I said. I don’t think I could have held up Eddy’s slight frame in this condition.

“Just lean on me,” BT said, picking me up like a rag doll.

“I think she will know something is up,” Mrs. Deneaux said, “with you carrying him around like a ventriloquist’s dummy.”

BT had one arm wrapped around my waist and had me pulled into his side, this I could tell because my head, which seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, was pointed straight down. Like a new born baby I couldn’t even hold my head up.

“At least I’ll be able to see Durgan’s boots as he kicks me with them,” I said. Gallow’s humor.

“Not funny man,” BT said as he dragged me around the roof. I’m not sure what he was trying to achieve but he kept doing it. Pretty soon he was going to scrape the tips of my hiking boots clean off.

“I’m not a junkie. I don’t think walking me around in circles making sure I stay awake is going to work in this situation,” I said, still looking down at the rooftop.

“Can’t think of anything else to do man, and I’m nervous as hell, so you get to go for a ride.”

“Wheee,” I said cheerlessly. “How much more time do you think we have?”

“Never enough,” he answered.

I was able to finally move my head upwards by degrees as we heard Eliza coming up the stairs.

“I’m in trouble,” I said, almost able to pull my head into a horizontal viewing position.

“If you’re in trouble, we all are,” BT said grimly.

“If I can’t stand by the time she comes for me, make sure you save one of those bullets for me.”

“Will that work? I mean now?” BT asked me.

“I think if an overzealous horsefly came right now, he could finish me off.”

“Mike, you’re not instilling me with confidence in our group decision.”

“You think?”

“So you lose your soul but not your sarcasm?”

“That might have hurt if I could muster up the strength to care.”

“Do you think this was a trick?” Gary asked.

I hadn’t known it before but he was walking behind us the whole time.

“I mean, maybe he just weakened you so that you had absolutely no chance. I mean, it seemed like he set his sister up, maybe he did the same to you,” Gary finished.

“Well, you’re just full of good cheer,” I told him. “Maybe he even injected me with a little zombie plague for shits and giggles.”

“It’s possible Mike,” BT added.

“Nobody thought to voice these friggen’ concerns before I let Bat Boy bite me?”

BT shrugged his shoulders but since I was attached to his hip my feet now dangled four inches off the ground as he made the gesture.