Town of Limbo Chapter Five: The Problem with Jordan

It's a horror story meant to specifically appeal to teenagers. It takes place in an uncanny, paranormal town with powerful entities at work. Indeed, all is not well in Mortorville

The Problem with Jordan

 

Jordan Rodriguez clings to a gravestone as he rocks back and forward, tears rolling down his face. He didn’t take in his medication as his friend had advised him not to. It doesn’t make much of a difference anyway, only stops the headaches. The doctors aren’t even really sure what sickness he has.

He just wishes it wasn’t a cemetery, anywhere but a graveyard. All the dead people, all the buzzing bends and stretches and twists, and shrieks, and stollen little bits of brains, and lifts, and pushes, and pulls, all came together to make a homogenous void. This is limbo, the ghost of humanity. Whatever individuality one might have, no matter how many colours of people there are in the world, they all get blended into this noisy incomprehensible grey.

Limbo is like the sun, he could never look directly at it. He could tell when he was close though. The world distorts into a fever dream, and the noise is deafening.

But he could hide here, in the limbo. He became invisible under the singular fate of all humans. She wouldn’t find him here.

He’s been here for hours, the graveyard grass turning into blades under his palms and knees. Finally, his friend tells him he can rise. He stands up, and he looks so alone being the only living thing aside from the aforementioned grass in this huge field decorated with crosses and stones.

But the problem with Jordan is that he's not alone. He is lonely though. Oh god he’s lonely. Now he sees his friend standing before him. It’s a blonde haired blue eyed boy, no older than eight. The boy does not remember his name. Thats is the first thing they lose. Then, soon his oh so brilliant blue eyes will start to dull and fade as will his hair. Then his will, and finally his shape will morph into the uniform blob that is limbo.

Jordan doesn’t have the heart to tell the boy this.

Eager to get out of this place, Jordan started to climb back over the fence. He had performed the same task earlier that day, although with much more urgency, not to mention his wits weren’t all muddled up. The bars looked like giant black millipedes, squirming for release in his palms.

When he is a good distance away from the graveyard he throws up.

“Who was that, friend?” He says, gasping and wiping his mouth. “Who tried to poison me this morning?”

“Its one of the women. The ones who iced me.” confidently, yet solemnly replies his friend.

“All of them were woman? Do you remember anything else about them? Like, physical features, murder weapons? How did you die? Was it poison?”

He sees the pained look and the child's face and bites his tongue. He should know better by now. Even when they remember it, the dead never like to talk about how they died. He puts his arms around the boy, but cannot feel his small figure in his arms. He knows, also, that the boy feels no warmth from this action, and it frustrates him immensely.

But the child smiles anyway, and they stay silent the rest of the way.

Jordan apologizes profusely for being late again. He gets a detention. He doesn’t protest. As he walks into history class mid lesson, he takes a seat next to Walter. Their learning about world war two, and as usual Walter is writing extensive notes, but this time Jordan can’t help but recognize a particular enthusiasm Walter’s projecting. And it makes Jordan smile.

Walters notes were filled with bloodlust. War tactics, machinery, casualty tolls, genocide. The sheer skeptical of it appealed to him. Walter grins too.

And then he looked up to see Jordan's dumb grin. Never. They’d never seen each other smile. Walter made sure of that. It was a crack, a weakness, a defeat in his pursuit for absolute control. He was enraged and ashamed. But Jorden showed no signs of shame at all. The way his lips so wryly and flawlessly curved into a calm smile made Walter's heart race. The problem with Jordan is that he’s not dead.

 

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Author's Note

Any and all criticism welcome.