Evil Beneath Us

by Laybourne, Alex

  “Essentially, yes,” Anja agreed, “but we are not all monsters. We are just creatures trying to exist.”

  Jeremy sat back in the chair, trying very hard to ignore both the fact that he could see a long way up Anja’s skirt, and that part of him wondered what was up there. Having seen her breasts, his mind boggled.

  “Who, or what is Doctor Marshall? Why is he feeding people to these creatures, to your family? Why are you working for him?” The questions continued to form thick and fast in Jeremy’s mind. He and Anja had been talking for some time, but had yet to broach the serious topics. He needed answers. “I could understand if I stumbled across one of these weak areas between worlds, saw something I shouldn’t and am being kept quiet. But why hurt other people? All of them couldn’t have seen what I saw, surely. What they did to Karen, to those other people …” Jeremy’s words fell still as he failed to grasp words that were sufficient to express his disdain.

  Anja took a deep breath, clearly thinking about how she would answer the question. “Dr Marshall is a different story.” She fidgeted in her chair. “I have been alive a very long time. Certainly by your standards. I am older than the time you can conceive. I have spent a great many periods living here. In this world, and I can say without doubt, Doctor Marshall is one of the worst people I have ever seen. Some people are pure evil.” Anja shivered as she spoke, her flesh erupting not in goose bumps but in ripples; small undulating waves in her true flesh, beneath the human mask.

  “What is he doing?” Jeremy asked again. He was growing more comfortable in Anja’s presence.

  “Dr Marshall found out about the existence of the other worlds. He became obsessed by them–”

  “He was involved in the cover up though, right? People know what he is doing,” Jeremy interrupted, unable to help himself.

  “Yes, but his responsibilities were to ensure that the boundaries were monitored and kept safe. He was recruited to provide, to keep happy those that wanted to rise up. The job of the cover up, as you call it, is to appease those that wish to see the world fall to ruin. The minority. They are provided with enough to keep them satisfied. Dr Marshall has other plans, however. He is working with those beings; he is giving them victims not for sustenance but for pleasure. Healthy people. People who need help but are not beyond saving. Those were not the rules.” Anja’s face was flushing with anger as she spoke. “These people, those he works with, they are not my people. They are the monsters of my world. The same way the doctor is a monster of yours.”

  “I understand.” Jeremy saw the pain in Anja’s eyes. The desire she had to prove her innocence, to prove that she was not a monster. “I guess monsters exist on all levels,” Jeremy added, hoping to sound sincere.

  “Doctor Marshall became obsessed with my world. With all worlds. You have a phrase here, that seeing is believing. To know something exists is easy, but to truly believe in it, that takes something more. Something extra.”

  Jeremy nodded.

  “Dr Marshall saw something, and it changed him.” Jeremy understood what Anja was saying.

  “Yes. He was always an evil man, but once he caught a glimpse of the creatures that came through the portal, spoke to them and assumed a position of power amongst them, everything changed. He became obsessed. He wanted to see what lay beyond, to see the worlds that lay around his own.”

  “Then why is he not stopped?” Jeremy asked, it seemed logical to him that if you knew a problem was there, you simply removed it.

  “He is too powerful. He managed to go unnoticed for a long time. Now, he has an army on his side, and he can call them through at any time he wants. We would all be powerless to stop them,” Anja explained, her face troubled.

  “If he wants to do that, then why doesn’t he? Why does he keep doing these experiments?” Jeremy asked, a cold sweat trickled down his back. The memory of what he saw in the house; the fetid wounds, the maggot spewing gashes, and mouldy sutures made him shudder.

  “He does not want to bring his army into this world. The fact that he can do such a thing, does not mean that his ultimate goal is to do so,” Anja answered. “The facility is built on a place where the boundaries between the worlds is thin. Doctor Marshall learned that during his experiments; the people would experience, something. They would catch glimpses of the other worlds. Peeking through the ever thinning veils. Only, to see such a thing comes with a terrible price.” Anja lowered her head, and when she raised it to look at Jeremy, her eyes were black. Her mask had slipped a little. She looked around, nervous. As if she expected to find somebody charging into the room, having stood back eavesdropping on their conversation until that point.

  “What is it? What is the price?” Jeremy asked, filled with a dark eagerness.

  “The human brain can only interpret so much of what it sees. This you call reality. It is strange that across the worlds, the brain is the single organ that unites all of the dominant species from each world. It is also no coincidence that mankind is the youngest of these beings, and also the most primitive in terms of the abilities of the brain. Those that saw through the veil went mad. Their brains would swell, their structure changing too fast. What they saw would last a fraction of a moment. Maybe enough time to utter a single sound, maybe a word, but then it was gone. The brain shut down and in most cases, the patient would become catatonic. In the more extreme, the brain would explode inside the skull.”

  Jeremy thought of the bodies strapped to beds on his floor. “That is what they did to Karen, wasn’t it?” Jeremy remembered the expression on Karen’s face. The way her skull had been opened and sewn back together.

  “Karen, and a great many others over the years. Dr Marshall is smart. He knows that his secrets can never be discovered. That is why he turned that building into his institution. It gave him the perfect cover. There are many people in that place, Karen included, who are genuinely sick. After years of sexual abuse, Karen grew in adulthood knowing only one form of contact. She believes not in love, but in the act of sex itself. The closest Karen ever came to being shown love, was when she was being raped. When Dr Marshall spoke to her, he saw his chance. He offered her world, and she believed him.” Anja let out another long sigh, debating how much Jeremy needed to know; how much she needed to tell him, and how much he needed to find out on his own.

  “But he didn’t help her. He just allowed her abuse to carry on. He drove her crazy, just so that he could use her to see into these other worlds.” Jeremy connected the dots and didn’t like the picture that was forming.

  “Yes, that’s it. You see, the sights seen by those who gaze through the veil cause the brain to shut down. As I said earlier, Doctor Marshall learned this and began to record the things that people were saying before they slipped away. He is storing them all, hoping to be able to piece together an image of what lay beyond. He pulls people away and ensures they spend their last moments of lucidity in agony. They are interrogated, tortured. He found that the administration of high levels of pain would enhance the memory that little bit longer.” Tears glistened in Anja’s eyes, which had returned to their human guise.

  “That is horrible!” Jeremy cried, startled. “But I don’t get it. Back at the house, I saw one of those mons … creatures that killed Simon walking around. Dr Marshall was with it,” Jeremy replied, feeling a surge of hatred fire through his body as he recalled seeing the creature in the secret hallway.

  “Yes. That was why I had to leave. Why I had to get you out of there too. I’m not saying that anybody deserves to be in that house, but you were there under false conditions.” Anja paused. There was a lot she could say, but that was a conversation for another time. “Dr Marshall realized that he could bring creatures through the veil at his will. The people you saw on the first floor. They are the product of these monsters.”

  Jeremy raised his eyes at Anja’s use of the word to describe her own kin.

  “These are monsters. Abominations that bear no resemblance to the majority of my kind, of any speci
es I have known,” she clarified.

  “But what does Dr Marshall gain from it all?” Jeremy was being sucked into the conversation.

  “Power. Dr Marshall craves power, and having an army of these creatures is just the start.” Anja was looking tired, her face had paled. Her eyes continued to glance nervously around the room.

  “That’s crazy.”

  “He is crazy. And crazy people are the most dangerous of all.”

  Jeremy pondered this for a few moments, enjoying the silence that the house offered.

  “What I don’t understand is why these creatures do not just kill Dr Marshall and come into this world. If we are so inferior, it should be easy for them, right?” Jeremy asked. It was a question that had been on his mind since their conversation started.

  “Like will always find like. Dr Marshall is evil and the beings that follow his command are also evil. When beings come into this world we are restricted. Our abilities are not what they are in our own worlds. It is a fact that allows the balance of existence to be maintained. New dimensions and new levels of existence will continue to rise, the same way every now and then a level will cease to be. Dr Marshall has gathered these beings to him because he offers them shelter. He offers them sustenance and toys. They can trust him and he can control them. They know he could send them back whenever he wished. They would be powerless to stop him. The doctor, for all his evils, is a charismatic man, and a man who can address and control a crowd will always find a way to be in charge.” Anja’s head was turned towards the wall, she studied it and spoke with an air of distraction.

  “But there are others, right? Other places that these creatures could choose to come through?” Jeremy felt his brain burrowing through the layers of cover that he had been exposed to.

  “Yes, there are several gateways. That is how we move through the worlds, but it is not easy. It is all controlled. There are rules, regulations. It may sound crazy to you, but there are people in your world who work these gateways and vet all those that enter. What Dr Marshall offers is a backdoor. One where he holds the only key.”

  “Wait a minute.” Jeremy’s mind had just expanded another level with the idea of a Men-in-Black style society existing within his own. He caught his words, swallowed them down. He needed to stay focused. There would be many questions, and plenty of time for them. “How do you know all of this?” he asked, having forced the questions about the Men-in-Black operation he had just heard about, to the back of his mind.

  “I have found out many things working in that place. I do not know it all. I know Dr Marshall wants access to the other worlds. To see what lay beyond. I do not believe he wishes to visit these worlds, but to use what he can see to aid him in this one. How he is doing it. I do not know. There is another layer to the institute. Beyond the corridor you saw. Deep underground.” Anja stopped, once again spooked. Her head whipped around, and a moment later there was a crash in the street. It was followed by an angry command, a subdued canine yelp, and the slamming of a door.

  “They need to be stopped!” Jeremy spoke with a surge of defiance in his voice.

  “If only it were that simple.” Anja shook her head. “Getting you out of the house took a lot of planning and relied heavily on luck. Getting in is a different story entirely. Especially now that they know you have gone.”

  “We got out at night, we can get in at night,” Jeremy offered. “It won’t be the first building I have broken into.” He smiled. It all felt like such a long time ago.

  “Maybe, but before, you were a patient. Now you are an intruder. Your presence, if seen, could not be explained. Also, even if we did get into the building, we would never be able to get into the lower levels. Besides, what would you do? Kill Dr Marshall? That would be the only way to stop him, and even then the repercussions cannot be foreseen.”

  “We could tell the people in charge. The ones he works for,” Jeremy returned. “They can stop him. Send somebody else, surely.”

  “Nothing is that simple,” Anja offered, staring at Jeremy.

  “Then we kill him.”

  Anja shuffled in her chair, annoyance flashing on her face. “To take a life, that is no easy task, Jeremy.”

  “So what then? You helped me out of there for a reason. What am I supposed to do? Spend the rest of my life running? I could never stop.” Jeremy felt a flush of anger warm his cheeks.

  “It is late. We should get some sleep. The morning will bring fresh perspective. You will be stronger and we can discuss our options with a clear head. Anja rose from the chair and stretched. Jeremy watched as she rolled her shoulders. The joints popped out of place and cracked loudly as she moved, before popping back into their sockets.

  Chapter 12

  Anja was insistent that Jeremy take the bed, and ignored his tired resistance as she led him into the flat’s only bedroom. Anja explained twice that in her world they had no beds, and did not need to sleep for extended periods, and so a bed was more for show.

  The bedroom was just as sweetly decorated as the rest of the property. The walls were painted a delicate shade of pink, possibly rose. The bedspread and curtains were coloured to match. There were also several pots of fresh flowers spread through the room, and their scent was instantly relaxing. A lavender fragrance being the dominant aroma.

  Since his enforced incarceration under the care of Dr Marshall, Jeremy had come to fear sleep. In Anja’s bedroom however, he found his fears were allayed; sleep was not only welcome, but longed for. Jeremy had not felt relaxed in a long time, but the bed was large, the mattress as soft as a cloud. Jeremy sank into the soft folds, curled under the thick and warm duvet and soon fell into a deep sleep.

  Pulled deep into the dream world, Jeremy found himself in the dark. The stars glinted above his head like jewels in the cloudless, velvet sky. Jeremy could see nothing, even his own form was swallowed by the night.

  Somewhere, something rumbled, like an approaching train, yet Jeremy felt no fear. He could feel the ground shake beneath his feet, trembling as if scared of what was approaching. A glow appeared on the horizon, easing up into the air like a miniature sun. It called to him, and Jeremy followed. Moving effortlessly through the dark, Jeremy walked, his footfalls confident and unwavering.

  The light emerged from a small building, and Jeremy knew before the building came into focus what it was. It was the source of the illumination as well as the source of his problems. The bunker. The place where his world had ended. The spot where something had eaten his friend and turned Jeremy into a scapegoat, a murderer.

  Even deep inside the dream world, Jeremy understood the importance of the structure. Its role in his life was not over yet. That much was clear.

  Standing outside, not fearful of entering the bunker but cautious, Jeremy paused. Breathing deep, he steeled himself and entered, dropping to all fours in order to crawl through the small opening. It was tighter than he remembered.

  Inside, the bunker was clean. Everything was back how it had been when they arrived that final day. Even the battery-powered lamps had been repositioned on the wall. All traces of the horrors the bunker had seen were gone. There was no blood soaked into the ground. No heady smell of human meat spoiling in the warmth. There was no flesh stuck to the wall. The bunker no longer looked like the inside of a dirty microwave.

  The beckoning light filled the room, but once Jeremy had settled, taking in his surroundings, his eyes adjusted - or the light changed. He was not sure which. He followed the beam, tracing it back to its source. A small spot on the earthy floor. A single tiny point from which the beacon emerged. In spite of the lights powerful reach, inside the bunker, within the confines the four sacred walls, it was not blinding.

  After a few moments, the light faded. It retreated in on itself until it was nothing more than a burning ember on the ground. No larger than a lump of coal. It still shone, but its task was fulfilled.

  “Wait!” Jeremy called out to the ball, and much to his surprise the ember jumped, is if ca
ught by surprise.

  The ball of light vibrated. It melted and spread into a puddle on the floor. Jeremy stared at it, transfixed, until an arm appeared. It shot from the ground, and snapped forward at the elbow. A sudden and rigid motion, as if the joint had not been used in many years. The hand fell to the ground and fingers clawed at the dirt, hauling the rest of the frame from its underground home.

  A second arm appeared, shooting out and snapping just like the first. It joined in the thing’s fight for liberation. Jeremy could see the strain, the effort being exerted by the creature as it tried to free itself. The body was devoid of skin. The raw meat was exposed, and grains of sand glinted in the deep maroon flesh like the stars in the sky.

  With both arms flexing and pulling with their full strength, the creature’s emergence became a much quicker process. It was a matter of minutes before Jeremy found himself staring face to face with …

  “Simon?” Jeremy’s mind forced his vocal chords to form the question, but he did not need an answer to know he was looking at his friend, at his half-brother. He could see it in his eyes.

  The body was missing its legs, and was supported by makeshift wooden legs. The wood was not the same rough splintered substance of his previous dream, but a smooth finished product. Hinged at the knee to allow the legs to move, to walk. There was something else too. Strands of flesh descended from the well treated stumps, reaching out and connecting with the wood. Only, this flesh was not rotting away, but rather growing. It was regenerating and forming around the wooden supports, somehow.

  His skinless brother gargled, and a wet growling sound came from his throat. It was clear that Simon was trying to tell Jeremy something, but once again it would seem that their dream conversation would be made difficult.

  I don’t understand you, Si,” Jeremy answered, certain that Simon could hear him.