Subj: Twylyght Tyme Part 4
Date: 7/27/00 8:52:37 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Kallie
Note: Willie's thoughts here are written as he might have had them as a victim
of "The Stockholm Syndrome." It is a condition where hostages form a strange
attachment to their captors after being abused by them.
"Deck The Halls"
Time: December 1, 1969
Place: Twylyght Tyme Manor
Code brown! Nurse Porter chirped. Tyrone Slaughter just glared back intensely
at her with his black eyes. He hated this job. He hated cleaning up after other
people's messes. It didn't matter what cutesy names the nurses came up for it,
an accident, an explosion or the ever-dreaded code brown. It was a damn dirty
job. But being the janitor at an old folks home did have its advantages. It
was the perfect place for a small time thief. He couldn't believe how much valuable
stuff these old fogies had lying around. Gold watches, rings and other precious
jewelry, just ripe for the picking. It was so easy too. Half the time the missing
objects were simply forgotten about. The families of the residents were his
only real threat. But the theft of any missing item could easy be blamed on
the other residents themselves. Here at Twylyght Tyme Manor lived some of the
worst kleptomaniacs he had ever seen. Hell, he had it made here. Already he
had amassed a small fortune fencing his ill-gotten gains. And it wouldn't be
too much longer before he blew this pop stand. He smiled a crooked smile as
he thought, and then I'll never have to clean up anyone else's shit again.
"Mr. Slaughter!" Nurse Porter yelled, squinting her brown eyes at him in disgust. "Didn't you hear me? I said there is a code brown in room 4!"
"Can't you get that Loomis guy to do it for once?" He said without breaking his angry stare.
"That is your job Mr. Slaughter, Mr. Loomis is busy right now doing his own work. If you expect to continue working here, I suggest you get busy. Life's messy, now go clean it up!" And with that she stormed off down the hall.
Willie Loomis had spent most of the morning hanging Christmas lights on the old mansion. It was a very monotonous job. First he had to test the lights to make sure every bulb was working, then climb up the ladder, draping the string of lights over the old rusty nails left over from the previous year's decoration. But he could only reach so far from his precarious perch on the ladder. So back down he went to move the ladder over to reach the next section. Up the ladder, down the ladder, again and again, he had been at it most of the morning and was finally nearing the end of his task.
In the next section many of the nails were missing, or needed to be replaced. So he reached into the little pouch of nails attached to his belt, and got ready to hammer them in. After the first nail had been pounded into place Willie took a moment to admire his surroundings.
The beauty of the woods enchanted him. Amidst the thick sparkly crystalline carpet, the trees took on an almost magical aspect. Crowned in the delicate white stuff, they seemed to glitter like diamonds in the sunshine. He could hear the melting snow all around him as it ran down trunks and gathered in jewel-like droplets at the end of the pine needles. It was such a tranquil and soothing sound. Finally he had found a place where he could leave fear behind. He should be happy, but he wasn't.
As so often happen, his thoughts drifted back to Collinsport and the man who for so long had made his life a living hell. In those terrible early days he would have given anything to be free again and as far away from the man as he could get. But now he just couldn't stop worrying about him.
He had no illusions about what Barnabas was. The traumatic affect of being riddled with bullets, cutesy of the Collinsport police department, combined with all the unnatural terror of all he had been through before, had caused his mind to snap, erasing his memory of those things to horrible too live with. But when he came back from Wyndecliff, while he was taking care of Adam, all the old memories slowly came back to him. Trickling into his mind like poison.
He remembered the beatings, and the put-downs. But he also remembered the kind of life he led before he discovered Barnabas. The more he thought about it the more he convinced himself that maybe he had deserved those thrashings. He had seen the vampire's full fury unleashed on him and yet Barnabas had always chosen to let him live. Not that murder was a hard concept to swallow for the man. He had seen Barnabas kill many a time, easily without a second thought. Just as he had killed Willie's buddy Jason. Yet Willie was allowed to live. Then there was the time Barnabas saved him from Adam. It was then he knew that Barnabas thought him worthwhile.
Yes, those were hard times. Back then Willie wasn't allowed to speak, eat, or use the toilet without the vampire's permission. But later he was given a small food allowance and although Barnabas complained when he tried to talk him out of hurting folks, the cane was no longer used to persuade him into silence. And he was grateful for these small rewards. Willie knew he wasn't worthy of anyone's concern. He had been told that most of his life, yet Barnabas rescued him from that horrible nut factory at Wyndecliff, took him in, and gave him a job when no one else cared. Willie owed him a great deal and he knew it.
As a mortal Barnabas was a lot easier to live with. Now instead of trying to destroy people he helped them. Willie admired that. But something was different now. Ever since Barnabas had come back from his trip to the past he'd been acting strange. He never had anything for Willie to do anymore. And he spent a lot of his time alone. Willie had followed him on several occasions to the Todd's antique shop, but he didn't see anything weird with that. Especially since the man himself was an antique, but the funny thing was, he never bought anything.
Then came the day that puzzled Willie the most. Barnabas called him down into the drawing room. He knew something was wrong the moment he entered the room. Barnabas' face was expressionless as he informed him, "I will no longer be requiring your services." After all they had been through it was so chillingly formal.
Finally he had the freedom he had so often dreamed about. But all he could do was worry about Barnabas. Something was going on. Something that reminded him of that old science fiction movie, "The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers." The body was the same but the entity living within did not seem like Barnabas at all. He had the worst urge to search for the telltale pod down in the basement, but there was no time Barnabas wanted him out that night.
He had tried to call Julia, but she wasn't talking. So he made up his mind to call Melanie Henderson and see if there was anything strange going on in town.
Then his reverie was disturbed by an odd humming sound. But before the sound could even register, the ladder suddenly lurched hard to the side, knocking him off balance. Dropping the hammer he desperately grabbed for the roof, but only managed to hold on to the string of lights he had in a big loop around his shoulder. As he fell the loop tighten around his arm and his weight began to pull at the last nail he had hammered in. Adrenaline kicked in and the whole world seemed to go into a slow underwater type effect. The ladder hit the ground with a hollow echo-like sound. There was a pain in his arm as the circulation was being cut off by the lights of the season. But his eyes were focused on the shiny new nail as it began to work its way out of the wood. He could almost hear the metal protest as it bent, moving the nail even further out of the hole. Then like a bullet, it shot out of the hole, pulling the next nail and the others out in rapid succession. Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! And he began to fall.
Swimming through the air for what
seemed an eternity, his leg hit the ground at the worst angle possible and he
could hear the snap of the bone as it broke. Pain shot through his body and
then whole world went dark.
Kallie >^,,^<