Author's Website:

Disclaimer: Not mine. Given the way I've abused them this past week they may not want to come and play at my house anymore.

Author's Notes: The last story in the series (crossing fingers). A follow-up to "What Lies Beneath."

Story Notes:

Drowning the Demon
By MR

I'm an undercover-type guy. A people-watcher. I've learned how to read'em like a book. I know what to say and who to say it to, and just how loud to whisper.

Kinda funny really; they think they've got me so snowed and I know what's going on better than they do. I was there, man. I lived it. Pretty crappy experience all around, but hey; life's a bitch and then you die. Some of us just go slower than others.

Dr. Chu wouldn't let them drug me last night. So now I remember it all. Couldn't remember it before cause the shit they gave me kept me from dreaming. But now I remember and I know what I gotta do.

And I know just the person to help me get what I need. Denny O'Brian, one of the night orderly's. Wears a St. Christopher medal and a crucifix. Kept crossing himself when I was telling them 'bout the Fraser Monster. He believes. Rest of them just shake their heads and mutter about delusions and persecution complexes and paranoia. But Denny, he believes in true evil. He knows I'm not just flappin' my jaws. He knows the Fraser Monster's real.

Read my chart on the sly this morning, found out Fraser's dead. Really dead. The real Fraser's really dead, and it sure's hell wasn't me and Dief that tore his throat out. Know who did, saw it happen, just didn't wanna remember. But I dreamed about it last night. Saw the whole thing in vivid Technicolor and slow motion.

Wish I hadn't. But I'll live with it for now.

I cornered Denny after breakfast and started working on him, playing to his fears, his belief in evil. Good Catholic boy Denny. He can get me what I need. Not sure he doesn't think I'm a couple a bricks shy of a load, but he's afraid to take on the Fraser Monster himself. Like I told him; once it gets rid a me, it'll be coming for everyone else.

But I can stop it. I can save him and everyone else. All he has to do is get me what I want. Small price to pay for being alive. He could lose his job if they find out, but it's a helluva lot easier to get another job than to come back from the dead.

I can guarantee you he'll come through. Not gonna risk getting his scrawny neck snapped by something from the Twilight Zone. Not when someone else's willin' to do it for him.

Talked to Dr. Chu for nearly three hours this afternoon. She's a good doctor, really smart, and that's her biggest problem. She's got the autopsy report; she knows there's no way I could've killed Fraser, but she can't think outside the box. In her world there has to be a rational explanation for what happened

So she knows I didn't murder him; now she thinks I must've seen who did and that's what made me crazy. And she's right in a way; I saw 'what' did it and it sure's hell made me crazy, but there's no way she could accept the truth. She's too smart to believe it.

I told her 'bout Fraser and my's adventure. Didn't go into too much detail, cause there's a lot of stuff she wouldn't understand. Fraser's father hanging around all that time, for instance. Wish he'd told me about it before, 'cause there were days I was pretty sure one or both of us were crazy. Didn't mention our visits with the First Nations people. Learned a lot from them. Some of it didn't make sense at the time, but I think they knew what was gonna happen when we got back to Chicago. So they prepared me for it best they could. If I ever see'em again I'll have to remember to say thanks.

I feel kinda bad 'bout lying to Dr. Chu, but I can't risk her deciding I need to be locked up and shot full a happy juice. Glad she won't be here later tonight. Wanna keep as many innocent people as possible outta the crossfire. The monster's my problem now. The final showdown'll be just him and me.

My boy Denny came through like I figured he would. Slipped me the stuff after supper. "Mr. Kowalski," he says, "what if it doesn't work?"

And I just smiled and told him not to worry. Cause if it doesn' work, all the "Hail Mary's" in the world aren't gonna save him.

Lights out at 10, and I made sure to lie down and snuggle under the covers. They check us every half-hour, so I figure he'll be here before 10:30. And I'm waiting for him now; sitting in the chair in a corner with the bottle in one hand and the gun in the other. Denny couldn't quite figure why I needed both of'em, but I just told him to trust me. Didn't find it necessary to let him know that only one of them's for the Fraser Monster.

I'm an undercover-type guy. Know all about making sure there's an emergency exit.

Don't ask me how I know he's here. Change in the air maybe. But I can feel him coming, getting closer, and then he's right outside the door. The doors here are thick wood, at least 4", with heavy steel hinges and double locks. Like that's gonna keep him out.

And like I figured, he rips the door off the frame. Suppose he could just step through it, but something tells me he likes grand gestures. Gotta show everyone how mean and bad he is. He could've just pulped me like a pancake, but that would a been too easy, so he raped me. I'm kinda surprised he settled for tearing Fraser's throat out, strikes me more as the type that'd eviscerate him.

Funny thing, how he tears the door open without making any noise. Shit Ray, he's a monster. He can do whatever he fucking wants.

"Hello, Ray," he says, and in the dim glow from the hallway I can see he still looks like Fraser. If Fraser'd ever had glowing red eyes. He looms in the doorway staring at me, and I stare right back at'im. Makes him mad.

"Don't you have anything to say to your old friend Fraser?" He steps into the room and the stench hits me. Jesus! Smelled that a couple times before; bodies left lyin' dead too long in a warm room.

I pull myself together and look at him. "Got a couple things I'd like to say to Fraser. Just not real sure how to get messages to the afterlife."

He grins, and I realize the longer he stands there, the more the monster's bleeding' through the Fraser disguise. Suckers got scary teeth. "You could always deliver it personally." And he comes a little closer.

"Yeah, I probably could." I'm tensing up. Check to make sure the bottle's still in my right hand. "But ya know, I wouldn't feel real comfortable doing that. Knowing you were wandering around hurtin' people."

He laughs, and now he isn't Fraser anymore. Can't quite make out exactly 'what' he is, but it's big enough to block the light from the hallway. "And what are you going to do about it, Ray?" His voice is the voice from my dream, the voice that kept whispering in my ear while he raped me. "Skinny little thing like you...you couldn't stop me then and you can't stop me now."

"Think so?" I stand up and thumb the lid off the bottle. "So...how many days it been since you killed Fraser? A week? Bet you're getting thirsty again, huh? Have a drink on me." And I let'er fly.

Bullseye! The Holy Water hits him right in the face. For just a second nothing happens, and I'm thinking I'm gonna be seeing Frase a bit sooner than I planned, but then he screams. Long and loud and hard. Hands that don't feel like hands at all reach out and grab me. He pulls me close, and the smell alone's enough to kill you. And for one long instant I can see his face melting, can see what he 'really' looks like. Then he lets go of me and sorta folds in on himself, like the Wicked Witch of the West, and all the time he's screeching loud enough to wake the dead.

They find me there a few minutes later, sitting in the middle of this big puddle of...something. I look at them, and I know I've got a gleam in my eye that isn't quite natural cause one of the night nurses mumbles "Oh my God!" and runs off to call Dr. Chu.

"Mr. Kowalski?" It's Denny. He's edged a little closer to me than the rest of'em. He looks at me and the mess I'm sitting in and sorta smiles. "It worked, huh?"

And I sorta smile back, cause I know there's still one more thing I gotta do. "It half worked, Denny." I say, then I look at the rest of'em and take a minute to realize that I know what they're thinkin', how fuckin' scared they are right now, and God, isn't that a rush? Then I look back at Denny. "Just one more thing I gotta do." And I reach around behind me and take the gun outta the back of my scrub pants and put it against my head. "Tell Dr. Chu I'm sorry, will ya? I wanted to tell her the truth, but there's no way she would've believed it." Then I pull the trigger, and the tangle of other people's thoughts screaming in my mind explodes and I smile. Gonna be seein' Fraser again soon. The "real" Fraser this time.

FIN