Finally.
The sound of the rain on the roof over her head worked wonders. She found herself drifting.
Then she was dancing, skyclad, in a rainy wood. It felt like the woods of her earlier dreams, but everything looked green and fresh in the rain instead of dark and gloomy.
Her path took her to the clearing, to Ellis and Brad’s house, but this time no shock of red hair enticed her inside. She spun around, arms in the air and face to the heavens as rain gently beat down upon her.
Her heart felt light.
A noise from behind her made her turn. Brad walked out of the house. The dark, angry scowl on his face frightened her at first, until Ellis also walked out. Without a word, both men undressed, and together they danced in the rain with her. She noticed a dark, grimy substance all over Brad’s skin and walked closer. The rain slowly began washing it off him. She reached out and touched his flesh. The dark substance came off on her fingers, leaving a clean streak on his skin. She began rubbing her hands all over him as he stood there, his face growing more and more peaceful as she helped the rain wash him clean.
When there was nothing but unblemished flesh left behind, he wore a wondrous smile, back to sweet Brad.
Ellis stepped close and the three of them, naked, joined in a group hug…
She was yanked out of that dream into darkness. She didn’t know where she was at first until she heard Brad raging above her, thundering back and forth across the attic.
She turned to see Ellis standing behind her and looking up at the ceiling. They were standing on the darkened second floor of the men’s house.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
He didn’t reply, as if he couldn’t hear her.
Then she realized he couldn’t. He couldn’t see her either, because when she reached out to touch him, her hand passed right through him.
He turned and walked into his bedroom. He closed and locked the door behind him, but she walked right through it to follow him.
“Ellis! What’s happening?”
She startled as above them, Brad screamed, enraged. It sounded like he fell to the floor, but he continued screaming until it turned into sobs.
Ellis walked over to his closet. Inside, he had a small file cabinet. He unlocked it and pulled out a file from the top drawer. A couple of inches thick, it was labeled BRAD’S FILE.
He took it over to his bed and laid it out, searching for a paper in the file.
He glanced up again when it sounded like Brad was pounding on something in the attic, his voice cracking with anger as he screamed wordlessly.
Ellis looked heartbroken but determined.
From behind her, a hand yanked her. She turned to find Julie standing there. “Come on!” Julie said, urgency on her face.
Julie dragged her through the wall and across the hall to Brad’s room to his closet. The door flew open and papers spilled out.
Julie grabbed her hands and stared into her eyes. “Believe!”
Then they were on the move again, Julie dragging her out of the room, up the stairs, then through the attic door.
Brad lay on the floor, his body smudged with dark spots that looked like charcoal, as well as splashes of paint. He rolled around on the floor, naked from the waist up, ranting and wailing.
Julie dragged her over to the couch and pointed. “Believe!”
The couch slid away and the little door behind it flew open. Papers blew out, white sketch paper at first, then newspaper, which all turned dark and spotted with mildew until Mandaline had to put her hands up to protect her face as a sea of nasty, decomposing papers blasted out at her.
She sat up in bed, heart pounding as a loud crack of thunder split the night. Her pulse raced as she remembered the dream.
And knew what she had to do.
* * * *
Ellis locked his bedroom door before he unloaded his .38 and locked it in the gun safe in his closet. For the past couple of hours Brad had raged in the attic, crying, screaming, ranting ever since Mandaline left.
He didn’t even dare disturb him to give him his meds. He didn’t want to have to Baker Act him, but if Brad didn’t settle down by morning, he would.
He also knew he couldn’t get any sleep tonight. He needed to stay awake and alert to whatever Brad did.
He retrieved Brad’s file from the top drawer of his file cabinet and rifled through the paperwork until he found the standing durable power of attorney order he wanted, the one that gave him control over Brad’s health care needs.
The one that would allow him to have him involuntarily committed, if need be, without a judge’s order.
He left it on the top of the pile and closed the folder. If he needed to call the sheriff’s office before morning, he wanted that ready so he could have them take Brad immediately, without having to wait for a court order or having to hunt for it.
He changed into a pair of shorts and propped himself up in bed with pillows and his laptop to try to get some work done.
And still, above him, Brad raged.
He never wanted it to come to this. He didn’t want to forcibly admit Brad to the hospital, but it was obvious that whatever was wrong with him was progressing at an alarming rate. He couldn’t wait any longer. He had to get him help first thing in the morning. Hopefully after Brad had worn himself out.
At first he didn’t hear the pounding on the kitchen door over the noise from the attic and the rain. Until he heard a horn blasting outside, followed by more pounding.
He quickly ran downstairs to find Mandaline standing at their door, holding her car keys, barefoot and wearing nothing but a T-shirt, which was soaking wet and sticking to her body from standing in the rain and knocking.
She pushed her way in. “Where’s Brad?”
“He’s upstairs.” He caught her arm. “I don’t want you up there. I don’t know what he’s capable of at this point.”
She wrenched her arm free. “I need a flashlight and a crowbar or a hammer or something.” She raced into the living room, Ellis on her heels.
“What?”
“Goddammit, quit arguing with me. You’re wasting time. I think I know what’s wrong!” She ran through the living room and around the other side of the wall to the space where the downstairs powder room was going to go. She climbed through the framing, peering up into the darkness. Then she gave a triumphant cry.
Returning, she snatched up a large framing hammer from a pile of tools in the corner of the living room and started up the stairs. “I need a flashlight. Hurry! Go get me one.”
He ran back into the kitchen and grabbed one from a box of supplies and followed her upstairs. He found her in Brad’s closet, swinging the hammer at the back wall.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She snatched the long, heavy Maglite from him and pointed it at the wall as she frantically pounded at it with her other hand. She didn’t bother answering his question.
“This won’t work!” she finally yelled, frustration in her voice. “It’s not heavy enough. I need a damn crowbar, or a sledgehammer, or something like that.”
Now wondering if he was the crazy one and maybe Mandaline and Brad were sane, he ran downstairs, the sound of Mandaline pounding away at the rear wall of the closet starting again. He finally located a short pry bar and ran back upstairs with it. She’d made a small hole in the wall, but not much progress.
“Move,” he said. He shouldered her out of the way and wedged the pry bar into the hole she’d made and started trying to enlarge it while she held the Maglite trained on it. “Mind telling me what’s going on and why we’re destroying my house?”
“Just rip it open. Please!”
The desperation in her voice squelched any further questions. “Stand back.” He used both hands to stab the pry bar around the edges of the hole to loosen the lathing behind the drywall. When he had a hole large enough for her to stick her head into, she pulled him out of the way and did just that, cramming her arm and the flashli
ght in first.
Her scream sounded positively ecstatic. She snatched the pry bar from him and ran out of the closet. It was only when he heard her on the stairs that he realized she was going into the attic.
“Mandaline, no!”
But she was already upstairs and in the attic by the time he reached the base of the attic stairs. He pounded up after her, praying Brad wasn’t as dangerous as he sounded.
When he got there Brad was still lying in the middle of the floor, but staring at where Mandaline was trying to pull the couch away from the wall.
“What are you doing?” Ellis yelled.
“Help me!”
He helped her move the couch away from the wall. Then like a shot she had the door to the little storage space open and writhed through until she had her body half inside it. The sound of pounding and prying filtered out of the space for several minutes. There wasn’t enough room he could get down there and look to see what she was doing.
Brad slowly sat up and watched but didn’t move.
At least he’s stopped screaming.
Ellis wasn’t sure at first if her yell was triumphant or not when she emerged from the small space. She had a wild look on her face and black filth spattered on her cheek and arms. She threw a handful of gunk on the floor, where it landed with a wet splat.
“It’s newspaper and stuff, what someone used for insulation in the walls years ago. It was jammed in the walls and in the space around where the vent stack goes into the roof. It’s black mold.” Now she was crying. “There’s a leak in the plumbing vent stack where it goes through the roof. It’s all wet in there. The water’s been seeping in around the vent stack and all that stuff is moldy. It runs down behind his closet. How long ago did they redo the roof?”
He struggled to think. “Um, over a year ago, at least.”
“And the plumbing?”
“Not long after that. But I don’t know if that was the original or a new vent stack.”
“So it’s been leaking for over a year. That crap’s been growing moldy for over a year.” She shook her head as she pushed past him and went to Brad. “Come on,” she said.
He looked up at her, confused but no longer raging. “What?”
She hooked an arm around him and half-dragged him until he finally stood up. “I have to get you out of here. Now. Come on.”
Ellis walked over to the small door. Now that she’d broken open the wall hiding the vent stack, he could smell the strong, sharp, unmistakable tang of mold.
By the time he got downstairs to the kitchen, he found the door standing open and her sodden, soaked T-shirt and Brad’s jeans and briefs on the floor in a pile. He stood in the doorway and watched as, in the reach of the security light, Mandaline and Brad stood in the rain. She made him hold up his arms as she ran her hands all over him, the rain sluicing down their bodies. Brad closed his eyes and turned his face to the sky, a serene smile on his face.
“Fuck it.” Ellis pulled off his shorts and joined them. He shivered a little until he grew used to the temperature and walked over to them.
Now it was Mandaline who wore a nearly wild look as she scrubbed her hands all over Brad’s body. Not sexually, and Brad wasn’t aroused anyway, but as if washing him. Truth be told, as beautiful as Mandaline’s naked body looked, even Ellis wasn’t in a mood to feel aroused.
Ellis heard her muttering under her breath the entire time. Then she stopped and held her hands skyward, her eyes closed. “Thank you, Hecate! Thank you, Julie! Thank you, Goddess!”
Weeping, she fell into Brad’s arms. He stood there, eyes closed and the serene look still on his face. Ellis felt like he was intruding on their moment until Mandaline reached behind her, her hand extended to him.
He took it and stepped forward, letting her draw him close until she pulled his arms around both of them.
Standing there with his arms around both of them felt good.
Felt right.
Felt like the most natural thing in the world, as if his soul was now complete.
“He’s allergic to black mold,” she mumbled against Brad’s chest. “He’s reacting to the black mold. It’s worse up in the attic. And he sleeps on the couch, which is right next to the worst of it. And probably some of the spores were getting on his clothes in his closet, too.”
Ellis closed his eyes as he rested his chin on Mandaline’s head. “Son of a bitch.”
“She showed me,” she sobbed, her words barely understandable. “The dreams. Julie was showing me the closet and papers. I didn’t understand until tonight’s dream. He’s worse today because of all the rain. It’s concentrated it in the attic and he’s been up there yesterday and tonight.”
He didn’t know how long they wanted to stand there, but he’d stand there until they were ready to move.
Eventually, Brad mumbled, “Hey, Ellis?” He sounded tired and hoarse, but back to normal.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“I forgot to take my evening meds.”
“That’s okay, buddy. I’ll get them for you when we’re done. Then I’ll find a hotel for us.”
“No,” Mandaline said. She looked back at him. “You’ll come stay with me.”
“We can’t impose like that.”
“It’s not an imposition. You’ll be four blocks from work. He cannot go back into that house until the mold’s cleaned up. Not without protective gear and a respirator, at least. We’re going to need to pull all his clothes from the closet and his room and wash them, too.”
He stared down into her brown eyes. He couldn’t say no to her, couldn’t ever refuse her. Especially not now, not after this. “Okay. Thank you.”
She nodded and closed her eyes again as she let out a relieved sigh. “Can you get me my keys? I think I dropped them in the kitchen when I came in. I’ll take him back with me while you get whatever you need.”
“Let me at least grab you a T-shirt or something.”
She laughed and stared down at her naked body. “Yeah, guess that would be helpful.”
He ran back into the house, dripping water all the way upstairs. He grabbed one of his T-shirts for her, and a pair of his shorts for Ellis, and a few towels from the linen closet next to the bathroom, before running back to the kitchen. He finally found her keys under the pile of clothes.
They had gotten into the Element. He stood there in the rain next to the vehicle as she quickly toweled off and pulled the T-shirt on. She started the engine and let the heater run while Brad got the shorts pulled on.
“Crap, wait a minute,” Ellis said.
He ran into the kitchen again. He grabbed the bottle of Brad’s medicine, as well as a bottle of water from the fridge, and took them back out. “Here, take it now.”
Brad shook one out into his palm and swallowed it, followed by a long swig of water. “Thanks.”
“No problem, buddy. Feeling better?”
“A little. My throat’s all sore and scratchy. And my head hurts.”
“I’ll leave the back door unlocked for you,” Mandaline said. “Whenever you get there.”
“But if I’m not allergic to it—”
She shook her head so hard he thought it might fly off her shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. You can’t keep exposing yourself to it. You might be allergic to it, too, but you’re gone all day at work during the week. And you don’t spend as much time in the attic. Plus it’s not behind your closet. Maybe you aren’t reacting as badly as him.”
Come to think of it, he had been having headaches off and on the past few weeks, but he’d attributed it to stress over worrying about Brad.
“Okay. Let me get dried off and dressed and pack some things.”
She nodded. He stepped back as she turned the SUV around and drove off.
He realized he was standing there, butt naked, in the middle of the yard.
“You’ve gotta be shitting me,” he mumbled as he returned to the house.
Chapter Sixteen
“Mandaline?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
Brad stared out the windshield at the rain. “I don’t hear Julie anymore. It’s not like the other times, when she went quiet. It’s like she’s gone for good now.”
Mandaline nodded and wiped at her face with the towel as she slowly drove down the driveway. “I know, sweetie. It’s all right. Everything’s going to be okay now. In a couple of days, you’ll feel good as new.”
He rested his head against the passenger window and shivered. She cranked the heat up to full and set it to blow to the floor and the defroster.
“Is Ellis going to be okay?” he asked.
“I think so. I think we’re all going to be okay now.”
He was quiet for most of the drive. As they neared town, he asked, “Mandaline?”
She couldn’t help but smile. He almost sounded like a kid. “Yeah, sweetie?”
“I forgot the condoms. They’re in my dresser with my wallet.”
She burst out laughing. “Honey, it’s like three o’clock in the morning. I have a full schedule today. I’m sure Ellis does, too. And you’ve had a pretty rough couple of days. I think we all need sleep.”
“Oh. Okay.”
When they reached the shop, she got him out and inside and upstairs to her bathroom, where she made him strip. She climbed into the shower with him and thoroughly shampooed and scrubbed him and her both, with the water as hot as they could stand it. She scrubbed their bodies with a washcloth and a loofa to make sure no trace of the mold remained on either of them.
As she ran her hands over his back, for the first time she got a clear look at his old injuries. Up his entire back pink, twisted skin marked the path the explosion had ripped into his flesh. With his hair wet and plastered against his skull, now she could see a couple of the bare patches, especially at the base of his skull, where hair didn’t grow and white, gnarled scars remained.
She wished she could stand there and kiss every inch of him, love every last bit of hurt out of his soul.