CHAPTER 4 Henry Followed the Voice of His Dead Wife... But Max Risked His Own Life to Stop Him
For one impossible moment, Henry forgot where he was.
The hallway...
The guards...
The zoo...
Everything disappeared.
Only the voice remained.
"Henry..."
It was warm.
Loving.
Exactly the way Emily used to call his name every morning before work.
Tears filled his eyes.
"No..."
he whispered.
"This can't be..."
Again the voice floated through the darkness.
"I'm waiting for you..."
Henry took one step toward the broken doorway.
Then another.
Behind him, the young employees shouted.
"Sir!"
"Stop!"
But he couldn't hear them.
The voice seemed to come from everywhere.
It wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
It reached straight into his memories.
Max exploded into action.
The giant silverback charged the steel barrier with all his strength.
CRASH!
The reinforced enclosure shook violently.
Metal bolts snapped.
Alarms instantly began screaming throughout the building.
Emergency lights flashed red across the hallway.
Security guards stared in disbelief.
"The barrier's giving way!"
Another impact.
CRAAANG!
A weld cracked loose.
Visitors outside the exhibit screamed and ran.
Henry finally turned around.
For the first time...
He saw terror in Max's eyes.
Not fear for himself.
Fear for Henry.
Then something unbelievable happened.
Instead of trying to escape...
Max reached one enormous arm through the widening gap in the damaged barrier.
His fingers barely reached Henry's sleeve.
The old man instinctively grabbed the gorilla's hand.
Everything stopped.
The mysterious voice vanished.
The hallway became silent once more.
Henry looked into Max's eyes.
Suddenly he understood.
"It isn't calling me..."
he whispered.
"It's reading me."
The young veterinarian frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Henry slowly looked toward the darkness.
"It knows exactly what each of us wants to hear."
As if answering him...
Another voice drifted from the corridor.
This time it wasn't Henry's wife.
One guard heard his little daughter calling for help.
Another heard his missing brother.
The maintenance worker covered his ears and screamed.
"No!"
"Don't listen!"
"It's never the person you love!"
Then...
A tall silhouette slowly stepped into the faint emergency light.
Its shape looked almost human.
Too human.
Its face remained hidden.
But one detail froze everyone in place.
It was wearing an old zoo keeper's uniform...
The same uniform Henry had worn...
Twenty-three years earlier.
And across the left chest...
Still visible beneath decades of dust...
May you like
Was a faded name tag.
HENRY.
Related Stories
