Blood Red

“Oh!” She dropped the brown bag, her heart thudding hard at the sudden appearance.

He looked at her, his eyes hidden in shadows, a smile threatening to form on his mouth.

“You scared the crap out of me.” And listen to her! She was laughing! It was amazing what one small, kind act could do to renew her belief in mankind.

He nodded amiably and then moved. One second he was standing easily fifteen or twenty feet away, and the next he was in front of her, his hand grabbing at her neck, lifting her from the ground.

She looked into the dark pools where his eyes should have been and thought she saw something in there that looked back with contempt.

“Shhh, child. We have things to discuss, you and I. Things best said in a private place.”

He carried her weight with ease, and pulled her away from the park and into the darkness.

And in the darkness she felt pain, and the rhythmic pounding of the surf became her lullaby.

V

The Listers paid better attention to the doctors the second time around. They also decided to leave their son in the hospital, despite their mutual dislike of medical facilities. At home he was their son. At the hospital he was patient number L-00041- 30038. There was a little problem with having their only child looked upon as a number in a large field of numbers.

Doctor Alex Houston convinced them that he would personally supervise every action that took place regarding Teddy’s well-being. They took him at his word. He’d been Teddy’s physician since the boy was born, and if they had to trust someone, he would have to do.

Kelli was not nearly as convinced. Especially when she heard him say that the problems might only be in her young charge’s head. Teddy had never been that excitable in her eyes. He also didn’t look like he was suffering from a sudden wish to not go to school. Even now he was paler than she had ever seen him.

He woke up for a while and complained of being hungry. Kelli had been prepared for that and pulled a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich out of her purse. It was warm, but he at least tried to eat it. When it came to the hospital’s culinary offerings, he simply pushed the grayish-brown lump of what was supposed to be meatloaf around on the plate and etched lines into his pasty mashed potatoes. The only thing he ate was the Jell-O, and then only because it was cherry-flavored.

While she kept him as entertained as she could, his parents argued with the hospital staff and made clear that if anything should happen to their boy, there would be Hell to pay and a few demons sent along to charge interest besides.

Visiting hours ended at nine P.M.; Kelli left for the Lister house at five after, her eyes almost crossing from exhaustion. By the time she got to her room, she was wide awake again. She couldn’t get past the very idea that Teddy might be “willing himself sick.” The doctor was an imbecile. Just because they couldn’t find a physical cause for his ailments didn’t mean there wasn’t a legitimate health risk.

The Listers got home a few minutes after she did, and Michelle immediately went up to her office. She’d let her work go all day long and now she needed to catch up on a few briefs. Kelli understood. Bill was less pleased. He had attorneys in his office that could take care of his cases for the day. Apparently his wife didn’t have the same resources in her own firm.

They both sat on the porch, Kelli and her employer. She looked at the gray house across the way and saw no sign that anyone lived there at all. Bill lit a cigarette. He’d smoked three times as many in the last day as he normally did in a week.

“I don’t think it’s psychosomatic, Bill.”

“There’s no way it could be, Kelli. He’s a good boy and his mind is as sharp as a razor.”

She nodded in the darkness. “I think something bit him and he’s having an allergic reaction.”

“It’s possible, but the doctors already gave him a wide spectrum of antibiotics and enough Benadryl to keep him from sneezing for the next six months.” He shrugged his broad shoulders and inhaled deeply. Most people would have thought he was perfectly calm, but Kelli knew all of the Listers well enough to see the worry in his actions, even if he never let it show on his face.

She sighed. “I hope he’s okay, Bill. I’m so sorry this happened.”

“It’s nothing you did, Kelli.” He looked her way and smiled for an instant. “You’ve been wonderful. Remind me to give you a raise.”

“Oh, no. No raises. I’ll be perfectly fine with having Teddy back here and safe.”

“You’re too good to us, Kelli. This is two days in a row where you had to miss school.”

“I’ll be fine, straight As and all of that.” She dismissed his compliment and waved it away like a pesky gnat.

Theodore Thomas Lister was declared legally dead twelve minutes after Kelli went to sleep that night. The cause of death was undetermined.

The body disappeared sometime during the night.

Chapter 7

I