by D. H. Quinn
I scream then with all I can muster and more hands come, gripping me and pulling me back to the source of all the limbs. Multiple hands grip my sides. As I am pulled closer, one grips my nose and pulls my head sideways so hard that I almost feel like I may pass out. My left arm is mostly free except for the shoulder. I picture a machete which appears in my hand but the grip on my shoulder is so tight that my arm is pinned to my body.
The arms move around my body and it is a disgusting sensation. I scream again. I can no longer see Aleksander and Arden through all the limbs that surround me. As I scream, a hand lifts up from somewhere on my side. It reaches into my mouth and quickly yanks out my teeth. Other limbs join it, one holding my mouth open, the others participating in the teeth pulling.
Each tooth feels more and more painful and the sliminess of the creature gathers in my mouth. I gag at the texture and taste. A mixture of blood and slime drips down my chin. The tension on my left arm releases so I lift my arm quickly in response. I swing down the machete hard onto one of the limbs that is currently gripping a tooth. The hand moves away from my mouth but the machete is stuck no matter how hard I pull.
I have immeasurable strength. I think in my mind and feel power come into me. I easily lift the machete into the air and swing down hard, the satisfying thud of the limb hitting the ground. I swing crazily then and although this may not have worked before with my strength it will now. Each limb I plop through feels like Play-doh, swiftly and easily cut through. A few arms still grip from behind and I swing around and free myself.
“Kamari!” Aleksander calls out and I want to go to him but I am not done yet. This machete kills Mahrts I say in my mind with as much force as I can muster. I reach the source of the limbs. The pathetic remainder slowly inches itself forward. Still desperately wanting a piece of me, still sensing my humanness and creation.
“Kamari!” I now hear Arden call out to me and I am momentarily surprised he has not long since run away. However, he is now my loyal friend. I rush at the dark blob in front of me. Without all of its limbs it is hardly intimidating. I lift my machete and cut straight through its body. Its screams turn into moans as it finally goes silent, it's now shortened limbs slump to the ground.
The intensity of the pain this monster has caused radiates all over my body as the adrenaline disperses. The cuts its nails caused sting intensely. My neck throbs. My mouth aches and my tongue runs through the gaps the monster created. The spots feel tender and I wince at the pain. I then cough furiously and spit out a mixture of saliva, blood and whatever that monster was covered in.
My friends run up to me but I am now keeling over at the pain that hits my sides. “Are you alright?” Alexander asks as he places his hand supportively on my back. I put my finger up to silence him. I give myself strength. My body is healing, my body is healthy. My teeth are back. Any slime that is on me or inside me is cleansed out and I am fine.
I stand up and at once feel all my pain subside. I stand up straight feeling rather proud of myself. “The power of positive thinking.” I smile.
“That was insane. Did you kill it?” Aleksander looks over at the now destroyed Mahrt. The machete lays discarded next to it.
“I did.” I nod confidently. I glance down at its limbs sprawled out across the floor and fear pops up in my mind. Arden has stopped at where the limbs start. He stares at me then at the limbs then back at me again, clearly conflicted.
Aleksander comes up to me and looks me over, “And you healed yourself, impressive.” I beam with pride. “Here,” He holds my face in his hand, cupping my chin. He then lifts a rag up and wipes my mouth gently. The rag comes back bloody. I smile up at him and he drops his hand.
“You are really fast and good at that.” Aleksander smirks.
“Hey guys, if you don’t mind, I would like to go,” Arden speaks loudly.
“And I should be going as well.” Aleksander looks over his shoulder and glances back at me. He smiles lightly and waves at us. I notice his arm when he lifts it. The monster must have tried to get him when he was trying to help me.
“Hold on,” I say to him and he stops. Aleksander is healed completely I think to myself. I stare at his arm and nothing happens. I repeat my thought louder in my mind still nothing happens. Aleksander turns quickly, his face red.
“I am fine thanks. Save your energy for your projects for the day,” he says with a smile and then quickly walks off.
I approach Arden, “did you see that?”
Arden suddenly grabs me into a hug, “I am glad you are okay,” he says with anguish in his voice.
“But Aleksander.”
“He’s a strange one but no need to worry about him now,” Arden releases me and smiles. Maybe making him my friend was not such a good idea. “We need to go now. Before Jack says we are slacking off,” Arden walks off and I follow.
“She said we were slacking off when you created the candy store,” Arden sounds appalled.
“I love the candy store! Was she mad?” I ask quietly, worrying thoughts pop into my mind of what she might do.
“No, no she complained and then visited the store with Aleksander, they had a great time together I heard from Linda,” Arden waves his hand dismissively.
“Linda?”
“The store owner of the candy shop. We called her that because you forgot to give her a name.”
“Oh right, so Jack and Aleksander, huh he always seems so gloom around her.” I suddenly feel uncertain.
“Not always, really only when you are around, I told you he is strange.”
“This coming from the strangest man I know,” I say teasingly.
“Ouch!” Arden says as he grips his chest playfully. Arden grows silent and cautious and I stay silent. He tilts his head back and forth and then we venture forward.
My stomach turns. Aleksander is pretending for me in front of Jack. Is that the true reason he didn’t want to pursue a relationship? Was he with her in another way? Is he just manipulating me? Hadn’t Arden already hinted about this when we were leaving Aleksander’s house. I feel naive and embarrassed so I decidedly don’t ask Arden.
“Hey what if I could create something that could navigate these streets easily, avoiding any dangers?” I ask.
“It could make our trips a lot faster.” He peeks into an alleyway and then pulls us in the opposite direction.
“Yeah, it can detect safe routes.” My minds whirls at the possibilities.
“But the city is always changing.”
“I can make it update every hour.”
“Every minute,” Arden says then adds, “no, every thirty seconds.”
“Anything else you would like?” The urge to create is still present.
“Make it finds others too, like you did for Aleksander.”
“He told you about that?”
“No one can travel almost as quickly as me especially a human, so I asked him how you found him.”
“You know what’s stranger is that we always bump into each other. What are the odds of that?” I laugh awkwardly .
“Impossible, this city is large but adding in your random wake up location it is extremely impossible.”
“But my wake-up location is not random, I wake up where I previously was.”
“Not always,” Arden argues.
“That’s right.” A weird chill goes through me.
“I told you he is a strange one.”
“But what does that mean Arden?”
“Different, I don`t understand it exactly but I do trust him still.” I drop the subject again. Maybe a part of me doesn’t want to know the answers to the questions I have.
We arrive at a street that I quickly fix and another building that I make into a factory. The factory interests me because the dream walkers are planning on creating stuff which they are excited for. However, I do not know all the inner workings for a factory or for the machines for that part. I offer to create a replenishing stock of whatever items they want but they deny it.
Luckily, they have plans for what they want so they show me the blueprint and then I create it.
In between, I work on the device Arden and I had discussed. I dispose of a few of these creations as Arden’s nitpicks overrules them. His eyes light up once I have fulfilled his specifications.
“Kamari, can you not mention this to anyone?” He points to the device.
“Why’s that? I was thinking mass distribution could be useful to this town.”
“It would and it might be selfish of me but if these exist everywhere I myself may no longer be useful to Jack and I fear that may be the end of our arrangement.” The concern glistens in his eyes.
“I understand, it will be another of our secrets.” After we finish with the factory, we head towards another location. I can feel that the time I have here is running out, I don’t know how but I am starting to sense it.
“Can you do me a favor?” Arden questions. He had grown silent for the last few minutes.
“What is it?”
Arden stops and faces towards me but refuses to make eye contact. “Can you make me fearless?” He sounds hopeful. I stare at him unsure of what to say. He sees my concern and speaks again, “I mean today, when you were attacked. I wanted to help you desperately but I could not make myself move. Fear was controlling me, it always has.”
“I don’t think I should.”
“Look, what happened with Gavin was the exact same scenario, I should have helped my friend and I didn’t and I will always hate myself for what happened. You are in danger and I should try to help you!”
Arden is worked up and I wish I could help him but Aleksander’s warning rings in my mind. I am also certain everyone would notice if Arden was suddenly the bravest man in the city and I don’t want any more of Jack’s attention on me. “Arden, I understand your feelings, I really do, but if I were to change something so drastic about you it could endanger us both.”
“Maybe, or maybe it would make this place a whole lot better. It would for sure make me better.”
“I am fine. I can handle the Mahrts myself.” I attempt to brush him off. I can’t do this.
“It's not the Mahrts I worry about.”
“And if that time comes and you still feel this way, I promise I will make you brave.”
“Fine.” Arden kicks the dirt on the road.
“I already changed you so much.” My voice is small and quiet. I don’t want to disappoint him. He just shakes his head.
Chapter Six
A light headache prompts me awake. My dog jumps up and stretches and I look at the time, 12:03pm. “I am sorry buddy, I should have let you out and its way past your breakfast.” I hear footsteps in my hall and grip my sheets close to me. My thoughts immediately become unreasonable. The Mahrt is here and in real life I cannot fend it off.
A light knock occurs on my bedroom door and my brother’s voice calls out. It wasn‘t unusual for him to pop in on a Saturday as he did have his own key. Relieved, I release the sheets, sit against the headboard and tell him to enter. “I already let the bugger out and fed him but he whined to come back in here with you,” Robert informs me as he rubs Auggie on the head affectionately.
“He likes to sleep.”
Robert sits in my decorative chair across from the bed. “Wild night huh?” He smirks.
“Yeah sort of,” I rub at my eyes and see the black smudge on my finger from the remaining makeup I must have not took off.
“Sorry If I woke you.” He clenches his hands tightly together.
“You didn’t really. Is everything okay?” Concern grows inside of me as I examine my brother. His eyes seem dull as if the light behind them has extinguished. His shoulders slouch forward.
“I have been having some crazy nightmares and mom and dad are kind of driving me crazy.” He laughs hollowly.
“I get that.” I smile sympathetically.
“It is why I came here.”
“Luckily you only have a few more months until college.”
“Yeah.” His eyes avoid mine.
“College is still the plan right?”
Robert tilts his head down and rubs the top of it. He has the same color hair as me but his hair is straight. “I don’t know, after Jessica, I don’t know what I am doing anymore.”
I want to tell him to not give everything up over a girl. I want to shake him out of his teenage love sickness but with Rob his relationships become everything to him. I had quite the opposite problem of just never caring enough. But I can’t say any of this because it won’t be helpful. Invalidating his feelings would just make everything worse which is what most likely happened with mom and dad.
“Have you talked to her since?” I ask instead.
“She still won’t take my calls. It’s really over.”
“I am so sorry Rob.”
“That is why I am here. Mom and dad judge me hard when I just lay on the couch, it's what happened last night, so I figured I could just lay on your couch instead.”
“Of course, that’s fine with me. I have nothing going on today.”
“Good,” Robert says with a smile and leaves my room. I get my robe and wrap it around myself. I head to my bathroom and clean my face and brush my teeth. Dark bags surround my eyes. My head pounds a little harder as a reminder of my previous night and I swallow a Tylenol dry.
I walk out to my living room and hear the narration of a crime documentary, one that made you doubt a person’s guilt and innocence, back and forth until you just wish you could reach inside the murderer or non-murderers’ brain. “That’s a good one!” I say regarding the show.
“Shush no spoilers.” I laugh. He lays on his back and his leg hangs lazily on top of the couch.
I make myself some lunch, relieved that the time for breakfast is long gone. I receive a text from Liam saying he had a great night. I respond immediately saying I did as well. Aleksander’s face bounces in the back of my mind. He is not even real, he isn’t even in my world. I say to myself, attempting to be logical against my illogical self. Besides that, he may be a spy for Jack or a stalker considering what Arden had said.
“Hey, would you like to do it again. Maybe today?” Liam texts me.
“Sounds fun, maybe today, but I am hanging with my brother for a bit and then I will let you know. My body needs some recovery time,” I text back as my head still pounds.
“Let me know,” he says and I tell him that I will.
I make enough food for both Robert and I and we talk casually on the couch, mainly about theories on the show he is watching. He suggests the witness did it and I suggest the cops framed him. We argue playfully back and forth about it and condemn each other’s theories.
It feels great just to talk to my brother, and spend time with him. He leaves around 4pm in a much better mood than he came in. He says his friends just texted him about a party and he plans on going.
“Thanks Kamari, for today,” he stands outside my front door.
“Anytime,” I say back and we hug. I watch him pull out of my driveway and peel off. He had bought his own car when he was sixteen which was impressive to say the least.
I text Liam within the hour. We decide to go to a dog park since we both have dogs and I mention my dog has been feeling neglected. He picks me up at my house. His dog is a purebred German Shepard, from the looks of it.
He gets out of his car and gives me a hug. “Hey.” He holds me close. My heart thumps.
“Hi,” I say sheepishly. His light hair is combed slightly back. He is wearing casual clothes and somehow, he looks better than he did last night.
We release our hug and allow our dogs to greet each other and they do so eagerly. His dog sits in the back seat but my dog begs to be on my lap which I allow. “You shouldn’t allow that,” Liam tells me and I am a bit taken aback.
“I mean if you are driving. It’s dangerous,” he clarifies.
“Oh no, I never do this when I am driving, he just has short legs and likes to look out the window. I us
ually have him in the back.”
“That’s good.” There is awkward silence for a bit. His comment made me uncomfortable but I decidedly brush it off. We talk normally after that and the tension melts away. Talking to him is easy.
We arrive at the dog park in ten minutes. The weather is in the low sixties and although last night was windy, no wind is present as of now. I am wearing my favorite gray hoodie which is more than comfy. My hair is pulled back away from my face but not up completely. I added some makeup but not as much as last night.
We let our dogs off the leash in the gated area. They run around playfully with the other dogs. Liam talks about his job. He works in software design and is proud of his projects.
“Do you work a lot?” I ask.
“As much as I need to except for weekends,” he says then adds, “but tomorrow I may have some reports to do.”
“Yeah I am glad my work does not carry over into my personal life.” As if I have so much else going on, I add in my mind.
“Are you passionate about it?”
“Not really but I honestly enjoy my job. I have had way worse jobs in the past.”
“You really shouldn’t settle, in any part of your life.”
“It’s not really settling, I found what I like to do, I am in a good environment and I get paid well to do it.”
“But if there is no passion.” He runs his fingers slowly up my arm and then back down. He smiles, desire clear in his eyes. He grabs my hand tightly and leans in. He kisses me gently.
“That’s what passion feels like and what it can make you do,” he grins. I nod in agreement and bite my lip. I ponder my passion. When I was young it was being forced to do gymnastics, then I went to high school and followed along with my friends and then college where I was determined to do something with technology and didn’t really care what because I knew it would be a safe choice and get me to where I wanted.
There hadn’t been much passion in my life until recently when I found the city in my dreams, that world made me feel alive. I wonder what Liam would think if I told him but I immediately take the thought back. He would think I was crazy and I did not want him to think of me that way.
