“I’m sorry.” Harmony said softly. “It isn’t a good friend, though. It’s a toxic friend.”
Suddenly, Harmony came to the end of her fishing wire and they were in the middle of a misty field. She was certain she had secured it properly which made her wonder if one of the apparitions in Oblivion had untied it. Upon closer inspection, there was no obvious tampering.
“Where are we?” Arrow asked.
“I don’t know.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“MRS. SHERWOOD?” PRESTON asked with a smug look on his face. “How is this possible? You have more of a monopoly than I thought.”
Justice didn’t acknowledge this comment but instead addressed Pat. “It took you long enough.”
“Were you the Justice visiting me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stay?”
“I can’t.” She said sadly.
“I love you and I miss you!” Pat was beginning to feel desperate now. “My life is falling apart without you.”
“I know.”
“You know?? Then, why…”
“The beast is always hungry and the only way he can be fed is with more pain and more suffering.” Justice looked around as if the trees were listening. “When your father created the Thought Conductor, Oblivion was opened to accept all your trauma and pain. My very first memory was of you and your need, so I found a way to be with you in your world. It was as if I hadn’t existed until you needed me and I was filled with this desperate desire to help you. But the beast was no longer receiving a steady dose of suffering as it was accustomed, so he took me home.”
“This isn’t your home!” Pat cried. “Your home is with me.”
“I am a product of your subconscious, Patty.” Justice said kindly as if she was explaining to a 2-year-old why he couldn’t have dessert before dinner. “The things you’ve been seeing have been real, though. While your father was treating you for schizophrenia, you were possessed by many demons who influenced your actions and what you have seen.”
“No, I don’t believe in that. I won’t believe it.” Pat shook his head fiercely. “Demons aren’t real…God isn’t real…the only thing that’s real is you and me, Justice!”
“I am near.” Sounded an echoey whisper.
Justice straightened on her throne and looked up at the skies. “He is coming.”
Preston looked so excited by this, but Pat’s face paled. He slowly fell to his knees and closed his eyes. The wind began to pick up, which knocked Pat on his side. His hands were still tied too tight to be able to right himself.
Preston didn’t notice. Jubilant tears streamed from his eyes as he shouted, “Please, take me home!” He lifted his arms to the sky which reminded Pat of the congregation at the church service back at New Life Rehab.
The branches of the tree canopy above began to wave so violently that streaks of gray light filtered through. Rumbling started, interspersed with screaming.
Pat suddenly realized it was the screams of all the women he had brought here. All the women he had led through the portal and had given as a sacrifice to what Justice claimed was a demon. These memories flooded his mind as the creature neared where they were and Pat’s body was drenched in agonizing sorrow. He knew what he had done as sure as he knew his heart beat thunderously in his ears.
He had been so obsessed with finding his wife, he allowed himself to become a murderer. He couldn’t reconcile how his conscience allowed him to do such terrible things to these innocent women and erase them from his memories. In each instance of sacrifice, he felt like another voice was telling him to do it and it must have been the demon.
When he thought he couldn’t handle the memories anymore, a vision of his mother came to mind. It was a memory shrouded in fuzzy white light. His mom’s face smiling while playing with him as a baby. As he felt his baby self shift into his father’s arms, he felt increased anxiety. Something was about to happen, but he couldn’t remember what.
“Great King of this realm, I will serve you in whatever way you see fit!” Preston’s shouts were beginning to sound desperate, but Pat couldn’t see his face from where he lay.
He fought to grasp more details about his mother, but he kept hitting a wall of white light in his memory.
Just then a human-like shadow materialized and Pat didn’t like how familiar the presence felt. It was taller than a normal man with long, black branches dripping off its hands and feet. Its hair was made from briars and fashioned into a crown. It didn’t walk but simply glided over the ground. Every inch of it was pitch black.
Burning that started in the place where his Thought Conductor had been installed seared across his skull as the memories came quickly. Pat and his father finding Perdita dead in her bed. An intentional overdose of sleeping pills. Agonizing screams from Owen. This memory was not something Pat consciously remembered, but it infected every area of his childhood psyche like a cancer. The pain of it reverberated over his family.
“I am ready.” The demon said and Justice lifted her arms in the air.
That’s when Pat knew the truth. Pat had been left to grapple with his big feelings alone during pivotal moments in childhood. Owen was his Father but did not reflect the strength that Pat expected a Father to have. Pat longed for a strong nurturing presence in his life and, when Owen created the first Thought Conductor, Pat was deeply longing for a woman who possessed the strength and the love to put the pieces of his heart back together. Justice had been conjured up in his imagination to fill that void in his life and must have been strong enough that she became part of the material world. He knew that now. That’s why she was so perfect and everything his parents couldn’t be for him. He couldn’t explain how he knew, but the certainty filled him with despair. He wished he could keep on pretending Justice was real “until death do us part”.
But that was impossible now.
Pat had real memories of his wedding day which is why he struggled to reconcile the Justice of Oblivion with Justice his wife. She had been a living, breathing human being when they met in high school. He had held her— he had kissed her. They had shared a life together. But the details of her life before him were strangely absent. When he tried to recall things she had said about her family life, hometown, or interests, he couldn’t think of solid examples. She claimed to have been in and out of the foster care system. She walked down the aisle with Owen Sherwood because she claimed her “real father” wasn't a “good man”. She seemed to be interested in everything and nothing all at once and Pat wondered why he hadn't questioned any of this before.
What happened next was the last thing that Pat expected. Preston’s body began to pulse and then a filmy white curtain began to be pulled from him and he screamed. He began to seize aggressively and fell onto the stone path, hard. Once the filmy curtain was removed, it went up Justice’s arms and into the air where the beast leapt to retrieve it. As Preston’s essence flowed through and around her, she looked like a being that was half fallen angel, half human bringing pain and destruction.
Pat was so consumed by what was happening before him that he was startled to hear a voice whispering behind him. “Pat, buddy.” It was Arrow holding a pocket knife.
Pat shook his head, eyes wide in disbelief and fear. Justice was so preoccupied with filtering whatever essence Preston gave her that she didn’t notice his presence. Arrow grimaced and ran over to Pat, cutting his bonds and then picking him up bodily. Pat screamed, but it couldn’t be heard over the demon. Arrow was strong and Pat was a very small man, so picking him up was an easy thing to do. Once up the stairs and inside the house, Pat noticed Harmony too.
“No! Justice is back there!” Pat yelled, hanging on to the last bit of his sanity. He wanted to remember her as his wife and not as Queen of Oblivion.
“Not now, buddy.” Arrow said again. “We have to get out of here.”
***
