Excerpt from a short story I’m working on

Tentatively titled Shadow Boxes

Benjamin was weak in the knees when his sister walked through the door. He was on the floor, having another fit, his mind unable to focus, his hands tingling and his knees like wet noodles. He was on the ground in seconds, blacked out, a tunnel of grey light and there she was at the end of it. Standing still, angelic in that tunnel.

And then the shadows ate him.  When Ben came back from his seizure Alice was still there, still in his shitty apartment and sitting on his bed. Her face was lit by the sunlight, and the sunlight was filtered in through a layer of dust and filth from the window.  The effect it gave her face was like something painted and broken. Like something made and then destroyed and then pieced back together again.

In her lap was a book of photographs. He couldn’t tell which photo album it was, but he had this strange feeling that it wasn’t one of his. He knew where each of his photo books were, and what each of them looked like.  And this wasn’t one of them.

Ben’s head hurt like a motherfucker, like a pounding hammer dream, but he let that slide for a moment and sat up. “Where you been?  Haven’t seen you in twenty some years, sis. You can’t just stomp in her and sit down on my bed like nothing’s changed. You can’t.”

She smiled at him. Crooked smile filled with straight white teeth.  Her cheeks dimpled up and she pushed purple strands of dyed hair out of her eyes. “Come on Ben, you doing all right?  I saw what happened just then. You need me to call a doctor or something?”

Ben sighed, closed his eyes. For a moment he was haunted by a memory of dogs barking and teeth biting and then her fingers to his lips. The memory was gone as quick as it came, leaving him hollow and disoriented. “No, it was just another fit and you know that. Calling anyone won’t do nothing. Now, quit avoiding what I’m saying. Where you been?”

She fired up a smoke, her eyes lighting with a strange joy as she did it. “Been everywhere and nowhere. Why do you care?  I’m here now, aren’t I? And I’m here to stay, baby brother. Make no doubt about that. I’m planted under your skin, digging my roots into your heart. So take me and let me stay and I’ll never leave again, I promise.”

Ben stood up and shambled over to the sink. It jutted out next to the television and was stained and rusted red. The mirror over the sink reflected his face. It was a face that always bothered him. It showed him being so much older then he felt. So much closer to the grave. He turned the water on, cupped his hand and drank down. It tasted bad but it stopped his head from hammering. “Yeah,” he said calmly, “I guess I’m stuck with you for a bit.”

Alice tapped the ashes on the floor and Ben flinched. “Yeah good to see you too, baby brother,” she said as she tapped the cigarette, “Glad you’re so happy to see me again.”

###

What Ben couldn’t put his finger on right away was how Alice had changed. See, there is something that sticks with you even when someone has gone. Like a fingerprint of who they are imprinted on your memories. You can’t shake it, but when you see them again there it is, that feeling of who they are, haunting you. And this new Alice it was like all the fingerprints were gone. Shaved off so she could avoid detection.

The next morning he woke up to see her sitting there, staring at him asleep. She had a dress on that barely fit her frail form, and her eyes were just watching him with an intense glare. It spooked him, and he skid back away from her.