Rear Window Trailer

Awesome trailer for one of my favorite films ever!

[filmtreasures]

AND DEATH WILL SEIZE THE DOCTOR, TOO



CHRISTIAN THOMPSON HAS THE POWER to heal with a touch of his hand, but in order to cure one person he first has to kill someone else.

Tonight, he'd come to kill a man named Walter Chambers. Walter Chambers made his living by robbing houses; sometimes he wound up killing the people who lived in them.

Walter wasn’t an especially bright or talented or even cunning criminal but he did manage to get away with what he was doing for almost thirteen years before he was finally caught, tried, and sentenced to death. That sentence, as far as most people who cared to know knew, had been carried out about a half hour ago.

Christian, of course, knew better.

Christian knew that instead of the usual lethal cocktail being pumped into prisoner 655321, a substitute was used. This substitute rendered him unconscious; stopped his heartbeat and breathing and mimicked most of the other signs of death but did not induce death itself.

Death, nevertheless, was declared. The witnesses filed out of the tiny room with a view, and a guard wheeled Walter down the hall and into the cramped, windowless, concrete chamber where Christian waited alongside prison warden George Montgomery and an older gentleman by the name of Julian Stark.

The guard rolled the gurney into the center of the room, nodded at his boss, and left.

Christian wanted to go with him.

He always hated this part, hated looking into the face of a dead man, waiting for him to come back to life so he could kill him again.

At least this time he wouldn’t have to wait long. Almost as soon as the door closed Walter’s forehead twitched. A moment later his eyes blinked opened.

“Stay still Walter, you lucky bastard, ” Warden Montgomery said, “we got the call in time but we have to take precautions. The drip started. Not much got in you, but still.”

Confusion washed over the prisoner’s face. “What?”

“DNA confirmed it, ” Warden Montgomery said. “Turns out you’re an innocent man after all. But still, hold still. Let the doc make sure you’re all right and then we’ll get you out of there.”

Christian stepped forward. “Hello Mr. Chambers, I’m Christian Thompson. Dr. Christian Thompson. We’ll get those restraints off you in a second but first I need to remove your shirt to do a preliminary check on your vitals. Is that all right with you?”

Walter smiled for real for the first time in years. “That’s fantastic with me.”

Christian unbuttoned Walter’s shirt and peeled it back, revealing a bony chest with a large swastika tattooed over the heart, its edges blurry from bad prison ink. He made a fist with his right hand so tight the knuckles cracked and then moved to place it over Walter’s heart but stopped just before reaching it.

He didn’t want to do this. God, he didn’t. He thought of the oath he’d sworn to himself so many years ago to never again take another human life. It was a promise he’d kept long enough to think he’d keep forever, and yet here he was.

Here he was.

But it wasn’t as if he had any real choice, was it? Either he did this or Elizabeth was dead.

He lowered his hand onto Walter’s chest and took a deep breath.

Every beating heart has a rhythm all its own, as unique as a fingerprint to those attuned to its textures and subtleties. Christian searched for Walter’s particular rhythm so the process could begin.

At first Christian felt his heartbeat only faintly, but with each thump the sensations grew stronger until his fingers felt like they were pulsating. The sensations spread through his hand, up his arm, to his entire body. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply once again, forcing himself to ignore the prison stench of cement, bleach, and urine as his awareness expanded further, to the grip and push of Walter’s heart muscles and the dizzying swirl of blood flowing through his veins.

Christian opened his eyes; Walter’s chest was now translucent to them and he saw the man’s heart shimmering beneath tattoo and skin and muscle and bone. Glowing, pulsating, it sparkled with red lines of various hues. The darker lines were veins entering his heart, anxious with the weight of waste and the last traces of the tranquilizer. The brighter lines were blood cells light with the rush of oxygen, spiraling outward to the rest of his body.

Walter’s body gave a single hard jolt, as if shocked with electricity. His smile vanished.

“Wait a minute, man, ” Walter said. “Something’s wrong.”

“It’s just an after effect from the drugs, ” Christian said in a flat, robotic tone. “You’re doing great.”

“I said wait!”

Walter panicked.

At this point, most of them did. Walter pulled and tried to kick and buck, just like countless others before him, but it was never any use. The thick leather straps held him in place.

“Look at me, ” Christian said.

Terrified, Walter tried to turn away but it was like somebody grabbed his chin, pulled his face towards Christian and peeled his eyelids open.

Every muscle in Walter’s body tensed at once. He made fists so tight the fingernails pierced the skin; even the muscles in his throat and neck tensed, making it difficult to breathe or speak as he choked out, “…please…stop…”

“We’re almost done, ” Christian said, “a few more seconds and you’re a free man.”

“…don’t… I’m begging you man, don’t…”

Their eyes locked and Christian began absorbing the life out of Walter Chambers, a sensation he could only describe as that of the mind swallowing.

In the centers of Walter’s eyes there shined the inversion of a flash, a tiny space inside those black circles that turned infinitely darker than the rest for an instant and then was gone. Walter shook and then froze as the last embers of life left his body to be stored for transference inside of Christian.

Christian took his hand off Walter’s chest. “Finished.”