MIDNIGHT DUET
By J.R. Rodriguez
Midnight Duet
by John Rodriguez
Smashwords edition
© 2011 John Rodriguez. All Rights Reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronically, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without properly crediting John Rodriguez as the sole author and creator of this content. This story is provided to you free or charge and should not be sold in any way, shape or medium, print or digital. It may be reprinted for personal use, but you may not reprint it in an anthology or other media form without first contacting the author.
This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events and situation are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or undead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.
MIDNIGHT DUET
Things that are easily given are just as easily withdrawn. Life is no acceptation. The taker is Death and it exists for nothing more. It took many forms but it all had the same purpose: to take. Part of the fun was being able to take as many shapes as the human mind could dream (And there were many). Tonight, Death was a young woman. Her emerald green eyes blazed in contrast to her waxy pallid skin. She had a thin face with delicate features and full scarlet colored lips. Her fire red hair was pulled back into short sausage curls that were bound into a large rounded plait. There was some personal business to take care of and this was the shape with which the person was comfortable. The issue of attire was another matter: it had to comfort the intended victim the same way that her face did. Her immaculately clean dress was that of the Victorian era; it was jet black and made of shiny satin-like material and lace with a large elaborate bustle. This should work perfectly. She materialized in front of a decaying Victorian mansion at the edge of a patch of dense dark woods. As she walked towards the door, she could hear the sounds of chirping of crickets and croaking frogs. Nature was interesting: it went on no matter what happened. Death was nothing. Birds still sang, fish still swam, and bees still flew. They didn’t care. They just did what they had to do and nothing more. It was also interesting to see the places in which people died. While many of them seemed the same to her, they were all different in the eyes of the about-to-be deceased. They saw them as home while she saw them as mere waste pits at which to collect garbage. She knocked on the door. It was soon answered by a tall figure still hidden within the shadows of the interior. This was the resident of the home and the one who had called her here tonight.
“Come in,” it said motioning for his guest to enter the house, “I’m glad you could make it.”
“You should’ve known I’d come. I always do.”
The Lady stepped into the spacious living room. It contained few pieces of overstuffed antique furniture covered in layers of dust and cobwebs; a couple of fat black spiders still resided in some of the silky netting. The windows had been shuttered, but that wood had long since out served its purpose. Bright moonlight shined through breaks in sickly white beams. This in itself lit the place, but there was a single lit candelabrum sitting on a low coffee table in front of the sofa. The homeowner wasn’t quite the type of person she normally visited. Some called him a ghost and some a zombie. The name didn’t matter because it was apparent the man belonged neither in the land of the living nor the domain of the dead. He was tall and extremely emaciated; his blotchy green-tinted skin had long since rotted and now looked more dried than putrefied. Traces of his former blonde hair stuck out in patches and his eyes seemed as if they’d fall out at any minute given they bulged so much. His own Victorian clothing hung off in dusty tatters and revealed jutting bone in a couple of places. He motioned his bony hand towards the sofa.
“Please have a seat,” it said.
The Lady crossed the room in wide graceful steps. She lifted her bustle, sat on the ancient piece of furniture, and talked over her shoulder in a haughty tone. “How are things? I have not seen you around in a long time.”
“It’s been one hundred forty five years.”
“Has it? Seems like just a hundred.”
“Time doesn’t effect you, does it? Everything’s the same no matter how long it’s been. To answer your question, though, things aren’t great. That’s why I called you here.”
The Lady tried to feign interest; she sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. The dead were boring, the living insufferable, and things like her host were somewhere in between. “Is that so?”
“Yes. I need something from you.”
“I thought I had done that.”
The creature ambled over to where his guest sat and threw his arms up slightly to draw attention to his body. “Oh, you mean this.”
“What? You are not pleased?”
“Pleased? How could I be pleased?”
The Lady saw no issue with what the man was showing her and didn’t see his point. She pushed on, trying to make him hurry with what he had to say. “You’re still here are you not? I did you a favor. I do not see why you are so angry, William.”
“There’s a name I haven’t heard for a long time. Forgot I even had one.”
William turned away from the figure on the sofa, walked to one of the windows, and peered out into the night. “That’s another thing to add to the list,” he said in a soft tone.
“What list? You are not making any sense.”
“The list of grievances I have with you, my lady, that list.”
The Lady frowned, stood, and walked behind William. Her voice was firm and tinged with anger. “You are very ungrateful. I gave you what I have taken from others and you have issues with me? You should be proud of the gift you have.”
“What you gave can hardly be called a gift. I say it’s more a curse than anything else.”
The remark caught her off guard. Her face temporarily blurred and flickered. The human visage gave way and a skeletal one took its place. This only lasted a few seconds. She regained her composure. “I do not see immortality a curse. You live forever. Many mortals would give anything to have it.”
How could he make her see his point? Flowery speech didn’t seem to work. Perhaps directness was a better approach, so he spoke flatly. “I don’t feel the cold or warmth on my skin, I can’t enjoy a well prepared meal, I can’t sleep. I don’t get pleasure from doing the things I did when I was whole. Existing isn’t the same thing as living. As long as I am this way, that’s all I’m doing. There’s no beauty or romance about it. But you have to be human know that. ”
“These things do not matter. You do not need to eat nor do you need to seek protection from the elements. You have been set free from the trappings of being truly alive.”
William spun around to face his creator. There was a livid light within his otherwise dead eyes. His voice was now a shout. “The things that make life worth living are gone! I am suffering!”
The Lady’s face again roller her eyes. “What do you want me to do? Take you away?”
“Yes! That’s what you do!”
“No, I only take away that which is gone.”
“Exactly!”
The Lady backed away and walked towards the living room. She stepped up to and peered into a dirty mirror on a far wall. For a few seconds there was silence. With a hand, she traced the contour of her pale face and patted her curls. “You realize you ask something which has not been done before. I do not make mistakes. Taking you back would be like saying I made one. Your mortal brothers and sisters would not see me the same way again. The fear would be gone. I do not know if I can do that.”
William came in and stood beside the contemplating reaper. “What? Is Death not merciful?”
“No,” she answered coldly, “I am absolute. There can not be room for anything else.”
“Then what would you call me? My being here shows that you’re not absolute. It shows you’re faulty.”
It was now the young woman’s turn to be angry. Odd she didn’t have these primitive emotions until he took human form. It was distressing. “No! I am always right in my actions!”
“Again, I ask you to look at me and say that. Is that really right?”
Calm again settled the room.
The Lady stood for a few seconds admiring her form some more before speaking. She talked to her progeny as if he were a small child. “You try my patience, William, and Death waits for no one. I spared you because you showed me a courage that no other man ever showed. You had to tenacity to challenge my very being. People have challenged my work before, but none ever challenged me. Who dares to question the very law of life itself? No one. It is foolhardy. However, I thought it deserved a unique reward, so I let you live in both mind and body forever. I cannot take that back. Don’t think you cheated me in any way. It was all my doing.”
“Then you are not an absolute.”
The Lady turned to face William. The rage that had burned in the man’s eyes had gone. There was now look of resolve. A piece of rotted skin fell from his face as he attempted a smile. She knew none of this mattered in the end. There was only one way that she would leave this house and one fate to bestow on the crumbling creature before her. He had, in a sense, made his point and she had understood. “No, it appears I am not. However, it does not change anything.”
“What? After all I’ve said to you?”
“You have told me that you suffer. That is of no concern of mine.”
“Even when you’re the one that caused it?”
“I admit I made an error.”
“And now you can make it right!”
The Lady stepped up closer to William and peered into his watery eyes. She could see that the fire that burned in them those many years ago had quieted. There was almost a pitiful quality in them now. There was no time to let the emotions of a human body take control. Action had to be swift. “I can not and will not. Taking you back would undermine my purpose. I have already told you this.”
“Oh, right, Death is absolute. Can’t have anyone think otherwise.”
The remark has meant to be sarcastic. It had failed.
“I am glad you see my point.”
“But I don’t.”
“You don’t have to. You only need to accept what I give you. My decisions are always final.”
“First you say that I have no real life then you say that you let me live. You tell me you make a mistake then you say you never make them. That doesn’t make any sense. You’re caught up in the inaccuracies of your own ill logic. Face it, you’re a liar.”
The Lady backed away from William, turned, and stared into the mirror again with narrowed eyes. “I am the master of the world of the dead. There is no escape from it. You are not really dead and not part of that world. So again, you are of no concern to me. Despite any ill actions on my part in the past, the present cannot be changed. The present is all with which I deal. Does this make sense to you?”
The last statement seemed to hit William in the heart. He said nothing at first. When he did speak, his voice sounded defeated and weak. “I don’t like it but it does.”
“So we are good with everything I trust?”
“I guess we have to be.”
“I am glad you finally see my point of view.”
The Lady walked away from William and towards the front door. William’s eyes followed her with disappointment. She stopped in the archway that separated the living room from the foyer. There was a few seconds of silence then she spoke with a renewed, almost, helpful tone. “You asked if I had any mercy.”
“Your point was clear, you have nothing.”
“I would not say I have nothing. If that were so, I’d be nothing.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about, mistress. All your talk is confusing.”
“I admit it can be. I have no mercy in the sense you talk. That is a human quality. Despite any appearance, I am not human. I may be able to do something for you though.”
William’s body perked up a bit. He stood taller and clutched his hands together. “You’re helping. I’ll be happy for whatever you give me.”
“You are too easily pleased. You have not yet heard what I could do.”
“Then tell me.”
“You say that you suffer and that you miss the things a living body provides. Somehow this makes your existence unworthy.”
“Yes.”
“What of your mind? If you were unaware of your body would your mind be pleased?”
“I don’t know. It might.”
The Lady was getting inpatient. She sighed, turned to face William again, and went on in a harsher tone. “I am offering to liberate your mind from your body.”
“That’s all I am asking you for.”
“Be warned, you will still be aware of your own being.”
“I thought that was a given.”
“Then you are decided?”
William stepped up near the Lady Death and peered into her eyes. He offered her one of his skeletal hands. She ignored it. Putting them back down, he looked down to the dusty floor. He was almost crying if that were possible for a creature like himself. His voice trembled. “I am. Please take this wretched body away.”
The Lady nodded and shut her eyes. William could feel something different within his rotting form. A wave of warmth came over and him and spread out, there was a sense of tingling over all his limbs. His mind became awash with peace. Looking down, his torso appeared to be fading away. Within seconds, he no longer saw it. He lifted what he believed to be his hand but there was nothing to be seen. The peace he had just felt began to ebb. It was replaced with an intense loneliness and misery. What was this? What was happening? As if an answer to his questions, the Lady spoke. Her eyes were open again as she stared into nothingness. “I have taken your body. There is now just your mind.”
She turned, walked to the door, and opened it. William could still see her despite having no eyes. He moved forward with no legs; he felt as if he were flying. None of this abated the sadness within him. He tried to speak, but no words came. The Lady paused before crossing the threshold. She peered back over her shoulder and spoke for the last time. “You will be feeling the emptiness of nothing. While you had a body, you did not feel this blackness. There was the awfulness of decay and the horror of numbness. That kept your mind from descending into terror and despair. Now that the body is gone, there is nothing else. You wanted freedom and now you have it. Never call me again because I will never come. Enjoy it, William. It is yours forever.”
With that, she stepped out into the night. Now that the business was done, the female form could be discarded. With just a simple thought, it dissolved into a tall column of gray mist. That, too, soon dissipated and what remained was a lean cloaked skeletal figure. It laughed and its body shimmered. The woods were still alive with the sounds of insects and animals. They had no idea nor cared for what had happened. Their own times would come and then their songs would cease. However, time was now of the utmost essence. Taking on personal things like this took too much time. There were too many others out there that required assistance and guidance. Despite it all, Death took comfort, if it truly could, that no one would ever know if its error. The balancing of life’s scales had been reset and everything was right again. Just before it went back into the realm of the dead, it could hear, in its mind, William’s screams of personal agony. He was alone in his own anguish. No one would hear him again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.R. Rodriguez originally comes from the Deep South but now resides in New England where he studies to earn his BSN. When not buried in textbooks, he enjoys film, music, photography, and science. Currently in print are “Pandora’s Nightmare: Horror Unleashed” From Pill Hill Press, “Zombilaity: A Queer Bent on the Undead” From Library of the Living Dead, and “Letters from the Dead” also from Library of the Living Dead Press. Early online work may be found at Fantastichorror.com. His first feature length novel, “Keeping Up With the Deadlanders”, is due from Little Library of the Living Dead Press later this year.