Page 4 of Jacob Michaels is Not Here

“Do I have another?”

Another chuckle; another spine tingle.

“Of course, you do.” Said the voice. “You can just wake up. Go on with your life as it was. Go back…to Hollywood.”

The way the figure said “Hollywood” made me shiver. I turned back to look through the window, only to find that the tavern was just a concrete lot…just like Barkley’s now was.

“Where is everything going?”

“You are taking too long to make your decision.”

“I already told you my choice.”

“Did you mean it?”

Turning once more, I stared at the figure.

“Let me see your face.”

The figure stood there, ignoring me for a moment, then slowly turned to face me, though the figure’s face, aside from its nose, stayed in shadow. My eyes connected with the mass of shadow within the hood, but I could see nothing apart from that nose. Of course, I knew the face within that hood, so it was not absolutely necessary for me to see. However, before I could make my choice official, I had to see that face once more.

“I have been waiting for this day, Robert,” The figure said. “I knew it would come.”

I swallowed hard as the figure seemed to loom over me.

“We’ve wasted so much time. That vexes me.”

“You shouldn’t have presented me with options, then,” I replied.

A chuckle once again, though it held no humor.

“I had no choice then,” I added, “but now I do.”

“Are you so sure?” The figure asked. “Or have the years and distance emboldened you?”

“Where are we?” I ignored the question.

“In the place between.” The figure answered. “The place between places, the time between times. The past, the present, the future, the here, the now, the then. What was, what is, and what could be.”

The figure gestured with its pale hands as it spoke.

“But this place is disappearing. Maybe forever.”

“I’ve made my choice,” I said with finality.

Gesturing around, the figure drew my eyes around the street as fires slowly faded out, and another building snapped out of existence. The post office, I think.

“Have you?”

“Let me see your face.”

The figure chuckled a final time as the gas station blinked out of existence.

“If I see your face, I will make my choice.” I pleaded.

Another building blinked itself away, and the darkness crept in around us before another building disappeared, leaving nothing but a concrete slab in its place. The dark figure reached up, and pale, nearly skeletal fingers grasped the sides of the hood as I locked my eyes on the shadow within the hood. Slowly, the figure pulled back the hood, and as the face of the figure came into view, the darkness began to swallow us. Finally, before the last of my vision was swallowed by nothingness, I saw the face I had been longing to see once again.

“Thank you.” I managed.