Niteblade – March 2009

Melanie grimaced, “No. No food. Maybe not ever again. But thank you, Wally. Why are you so nice to me?”

“Because I’m your thrall. I lack any real will of my own.”

Melanie laughed. Walter was such a geek.

While he banged pans around in the kitchen, she grabbed his remote and turned on his TV. She didn’t really want to watch it, but she needed something to keep her from thinking. She watched two seconds of a children’s cartoon, then flipped to a sci-fi movie with actors in really bad blue makeup, then moved on to a shopping channel. They were selling tiny figurines of children with angel’s wings. That just made Melanie think about little dead kids, so she flipped again. Eventually, she wound up on a morning news show. She turned the volume down, and watched talking heads mouth words at her. Walter came back carrying a plate of eggs.

“Whatcha watchin’?” he said around a mouthful of breakfast.

“Nothing.”

“Then gimme the remote.” He snatched it and was just about to change the channel when an aerial shot of a squad car parked halfway in an alley on 4th street came on. Three other police cars were parked around the squad car, blocking the street in a protective semi-circle with their lights flashing.

Melanie grabbed the remote from Walter and turned up the volume. In the nine months that she’d dated Jerrod, she’d come to know a lot of the Portland police officers by their first names. Now, with the sound up, she could hear the newscaster talking about a policeman who’d been stabbed and killed in the alley by an unknown assassin on foot. Even in the grainy news helicopter footage Melanie could see red gore sprayed across the windshield and hood of the police car, there was so much of it. She could also see the car number on the roof. She knew it was Jerrod long before the announcer said his name.

~*~

“Mel, honey, I have to go. I need to leave for a few hours. Can you nod or something? I need to know that you understand what I’m saying.”

Melanie woke up in a tight fetal position on Walter’s couch. She remembered sobbing for what seemed an eternity after watching the news about Jerrod. Somehow, she must have fallen asleep. Walter was leaning across her, his ice blue eyes showing concern.

“I’m awake.”

Walter smiled and patted her on the head. “Work called. We had two other people call in sick today, and they need me for a few hours. Will you be able to hang on? I promise to take you to dinner after I get back.”

“I want to go to the hospital. I want to go see Jerrod.”

“You can’t, honey. I called the police while you were asleep. They said they’ve already contacted Jerrod’s family up in Seattle. There isn’t anything you can do right now. Just stay here until I get back.”

Melanie reached up and grabbed Walter’s shirt. “Do you really have to leave?”

He nodded. “I really do.”

“Go then. Now that I finally know how much you hate me, I will just lie here on the couch until I stop breathing.”

Walter looked stricken. “Please, Mel, don’t joke like that.” He left for a moment, then returned with a blanket and covered her up. Melanie snuggled into it, pulling it up to her chin. Walter said, “Sleep more, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Melanie decided to stay angry with Walter until he came back, but was asleep before he’d even made it out the door.

~*~

She was yanked from nightmare filled sleep by the sound of a cell phone ringing. For a moment, Melanie didn’t remember where she was. Her nightstand wasn’t where it usually was. Her fingers felt only open air. When she finally forced her eyes open, she saw that she was in Walter’s apartment. The room was filled with gray light from an overcast afternoon. She rubbed her eyes. “Did I sleep all day?” she asked, aloud.

There was no reply.

The phone rang a few more times, then beeped that it was going to voicemail. Melanie started to settle back but the phone began ringing again. She realized then that it was her phone, not Walter’s, and sat up to dig it out of her coat pocket. She didn’t recognize the number that flashed on the display, so she just set the phone down on his coffee table and waited for voicemail to pick up. The phone beeped again.

She was just starting to drift off to sleep when it rang a third time. Suddenly furious, she snatched it up and said, “Look, whoever you are, when you call someone three times and they don’t answer, it’s because they don’t want to talk to you. I have a killer headache, and my nose is runny. If you call me again, I swear to god I will find you and blow my nose on your shirt. I’m hanging up now.”

Silence.

Melanie looked at her phone and saw that the connection was still open. “Hello?” she said.

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