Altered Gate

by Altered Gate (retail) (epub)

  “Well, if he’s locked up, swing by, but not until then. I don’t want him having any more reasons to fuck with me. You have an idea of what you’ll need?”

  I gave him a list. It was not a very long one, and I was glad to hear he had everything I required in stock. He also said he was going to throw in a few extra things, because if I was right about what we were dealing with, they might come in handy.

  “They’ll come in handier if you’re wrong, too.”

  Thirty minutes later, I parked my car down the street from the Guildwood Inn, at the back of Sir Wilfrid Laurier school parking lot. I didn’t want it anywhere near where Rouge was going to be, just in case Parks followed her and spotted it. From the road, nobody would see it, which worked perfectly.

  I left my car, texted Rouge that I was there, which was no easy task. Having lost my smartphone and reverting to an old flip phone, I forgot how crappy it was to text people. I see why people used to use text speech with the old phones. It wasn’t lazy; it was just easier than having to hit the buttons over and over to get the letter you needed, or counting on predictive text to figure out what you were trying to get across.

  Still, I couldn’t help feeling like Captain Kirk a little as I flipped it open. I almost asked Scottie to beam me up. It was the only good part about the ancient Razr.

  I decide to cut through the woods to get to the Inn. I didn’t know how close Rouge was to being there, but if she drove past and was being followed, I didn’t want to bait myself out. The woods were nice, though. The leaves hadn’t all fallen yet, and they were a rainbow of fiery fall colours. There were a few high school students hanging out close to the street. I could smell the acrid stench of weed before I saw them. They were all wearing the same style of clothes, almost a uniform, but one of their own choosing: skinny jeans, dark hoodies with Hollister written down the sleeves in obnoxiously bright white letters, and hats with flat brims that looked as though they were too small to fit on their heads. I went to walk by without a second glance, and then heard it.

  “Holy shit! It’s the Monster guy!”

  “Sweet, hairy Jesus!”

  “Monster man!”

  “Nice kicks, dude!”

  I turned and waved at them, pretending I didn’t mind it at all, even though I did. They were just kids, and none of them were melting away at the moment, so I didn’t see the need to be an ass. I had better things to worry about than a pack of stoners.

  “Hey, can I take a selfie with you, man? My girl won’t believe that I saw the monster killer himself.”

  “I’m in kind of a hurry, so no.”

  The kid made a sound and took a long drag on the smelliest weed I’ve ever had the displeasure of breathing in. Even in the great outdoors, it was pungent and eye-watering. The kid turned to his friends and whispered something I could barely catch, but I got the gist of it. I was an asshole, and a loser, more than likely a liar. I thought that was a good thing. Maybe if I pissed off enough people, they’d all just leave me alone and the video would die out.

  Then again, that’s not how the world worked since the inven­tion of the internet. Once that came out, and social media took hold, well, everyone had a soap box and if you became the target, they wouldn’t be happy until you were crippled.

  “Man, this guy ain’t shit. The whole thing was bullshit. Dude on Real or Lies showed how the whole video was done. CGI, bro! Good shit, like Star Wars, but fake as my sister’s weave!”

  “No way, it’s real. I know someone who was there.”

  “Yeah, right. That’s why buddy here is creeping through the woods next to a school. Maybe he’s looking to battle the one-eyed serpent while he stares through the fence at girls running the mile.”

  “You worried he’s gonna steal your job, Ty?”

  “Fuck you, man. I don’t need to spy to see some skin. That’s why I got your mom’s cell.”

  There was a sound of jeers and calls of major burns and I’d just about had enough. If they wanted something I’d give them something. I didn’t need them following me, anyway. Better to try and put something close to fear in them. I reach to my belt, pulled out my Tincher and went for it.

  “Look, I’m on a case. I was told by a guy who hikes through here all the time that something unnatural has been seen in these woods,” I began the lie, and saw their faces light up. Most of them were looking at the blade., not me. That was good. If I couldn’t beat them, I might as well mess around with their heads. “Big, ugly thing, worse than the one you saw me fight on YouTube. It looks like it wears the skins of its victims.”

  “Oh, shit!” one of the group blurted out, and there was a nice twinge of terror in his eyes. “You mean there’s something here? Like close?”

  “I don’t know how close,” I continued. “I was told it’s been seen between the school and the abandoned inn. I’m guessing that’s where it’s taking its victims to skin and eat.” Man, this was easy, and it seemed to work.

  “Yo, fuck the picture with this guy, we need to get the hell outta here, G!” yelled the one who’d said the video was fake. It was amazing how fast his opinion changed.

  And with that, they all ran back to the realm of higher education, leaving a trail of their stench behind them. I walked through the dense cloud, heard their feet slip and slide over the path slick with leaves, and then, I could hear and smell them no more.

  I moved quickly, hoped they wouldn’t have a change of heart, and when I spotted the Inn through the foliage, I sent Rouge a text message letting her know I was there. She sent one back within a minute saying she was already in the parking lot. I wrote back for her to go around to the back of the forgotten hotel, to the stone stage and archway, I’d be there in a second.

  When I saw her, my heart stopped for a moment.

  I knew I’d missed her, I just didn’t know it was that much. She looked stunning. She was dressed in jeans, a green knitted coat and had her hair in a simple ponytail with a green, tweed poor-boy hat. It was simpler than her onstage persona, but she was as breathtaking as always.

  When she was close enough, I made a sound so she would see me. She gave a quick look over her shoulder, no doubt checking for Parks, then ran over to me and we wrapped our arms around each other. It was the best moment since we had left Niagara Falls. With all the stress aside, the mental hospital fading in the rear mirror, all there was in that moment was the two of us, engulfed in one another, not wanting to let go or lose the moment.

  But moments like that can’t last forever, and eventually we separated and she looked at me, her eyes shiny with tears. I’m sure mine looked the same.

  “I played this moment over and over in my head on the drive over,” she said, sniffling a bit. “Only I was one of those old movie star types, and before I hugged you, I slapped you in the face. I really wanted to do that.”

  “You still can if you want to,” I laughed.

  “I don’t. Not any more. Plus, I think you having to wear that outfit’s punishment enough,” she said. She tried to smile, but her lips quivered. “I’m just… you have no idea how much of a wreck I’ve been.”

  “I think I do. I’m so sorry, Rouge. It’s just—”

  And the words died on my lips for a second. My heart sank, filled with the sudden urge to be back at the hospital, back in the dark void of drugs.

  For a second—a blip, no more—Rouge’s face changed. There was a moment, the blink of an eye, where it looked like she was melting, like before. Her mascara hadn’t just started to run, it was the rot and coming-apart of death. She turned the way Harrison, the cop, the kids, the people in the mall had. I stepped back in that flash of disintegration. I’d been on the verge of screaming, but then it was gone. She was Rouge again. No melting. No muck coming from her mouth. It looked like there’d been a glitch, and then she was right back to her beautiful self.

  I was worried. I didn’t kno
w if it meant anything, or if it was just the drugs still in my system. I hoped it was the latter, because the former meant something far worse.

  Something fatal.

  “Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  “Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”

  “You saw something?”

  “Sort of. But it won’t make sense unless I tell you everything.”

  So, I did. I started from the start of it all; the beginning with Chance’s case, what he’d seen and then what happened to me. I told her about all the people going on and on about the YouTube video, then meeting with Parks, before I’d ever started to see the same thing my client had. I explained how, when it started, I just put it down to stress, how everything piled high in a teetering Jenga tower. I went into great detail about the disaster at Sherway Gardens, and how that was the moment the tower first toppled.

  “Then in the LCBO it happened again, and I couldn’t even stop myself from attacking the kid, or the cop who’d shown up after I was arrested.”

  “You attacked a cop?” she asked, sounding mortified.

  “Not my best moment. But that’s what got me locked away in the hospital.”

  “What hospital?”

  “CAMH,” I said, and she gasped a little. Clearly she knew what it was.

  “They put you in a mental hospital?”

  “That’s why I couldn’t call you. They don’t let patients do that. Not to mention they’d put me on so many drugs I was barely able to string two thoughts together. I had no idea what was up or down. They even had me thinking all this, my whole life, was just something I made up. From the monsters, to what I am, all the way to you. I was on some heavy drugs, and I was convinced that everything I’d thought was real was just an illusion. And then Father Ted showed up—”

  “Your priest friend who died?”

  “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t real, that it was because of a new drug they put me on, but I can’t tell for sure. I’m still not sure what was real and what I imagined. One day seemed to last forever. I didn’t even know I was gone as long as I was. I’d have random cuts on my knees, I’d be in the TV room, blink and then I’d be in a room with other patients eating dinner, or in a room talking to my doctor. It was a nightmare, a life with every bit of colour and sanity drained from it. I’m just so glad it’s over now.”

  “I have no idea how terrible it must’ve been for you. Now I feel like a jerk for being mad at you at all.”

  “Don’t be.”

  “So, why’d they let you go? After two weeks, what made them think you were better?”

  I told her how it all came together. I explained how the doctor heard me make mention of the YouTube video, and then searched for it. It was funny that the one thing I’d been spending so much time cursing turned out to be the thing that saved me from being kept in there any longer. She listened as I gave her a breakdown of how it led to us talking about the melting-face people, and how everyone I’d seen change ended up dead, at least the ones we were able to track down. I explained to her how Chance had had the same experience. All the people he’d seen melting ended up dead, including himself.

  “He saw himself melting?”

  “Yeah, when he looked in the mirror. That’s one of the reasons he called me. He thought he was haunted by some sort of ghost bent on driving him crazy.”

  “Is that what it is? Is that why you’re seeing it all too? Some ghost jumped from him to you?”

  “No. It’s not a ghost. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with—”

  I stopped as her face did the glitch thing again. I turned away and took a deep breath. I knew it couldn’t be real. After spending two weeks fighting to know what’s real and what wasn’t, I had to believe what I was seeing was just a reaction to the meds. To see if I was right, I looked back at her.

  Thankfully, she’d gone back to normal.

  “What’s going on, Dill? You’re kind of freaking me out.”

  “It’s nothing,” I lied. I knew my voice was giving me away.

  “Wow. I guess this is going to be the time you start handing me a bag of horseshit? If that’s the best you can do trying to keep poker-faced when you lie, don’t ever try to organize a surprise party. You look like the pupper when I’ve caught her eating my socks. So, what is it?”

  There was no point in lying, clearly, but the last thing I wanted to do was freak her out. She’d been through enough lately because of me. I didn’t want her to think something bad was going to happen to her.

  “I think it’s the drugs they gave me,” I began, trying to find an easy way to say it all. “They had me on sedatives—Clozapine—and then some new, experimental thing. I’m not sure they’re out of my system. It’s just freaking me out a bit.”

  “So, you’re seeing things? Like pink elephants?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Okay. I can see you’re still trying to avoid it. You might as well spill the beans. I’m not just going to let this go. I can tell there’s more to it than you’re saying.”

  There was no way to beat around the bush. She wasn’t going to let me off with a half-assed answer, so I’d just have to tell her.

  “It’s you,” I began. “When I looked at you, for a split second, your face was melting.” Her eyes opened wide, and I knew she was about to freak out. “But I don’t want you to worry, darling. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s more like a video game screen jumping for a second. Normally it’s terrible, and I never see them go back to normal. This, it’s just a flicker, and then you’re right back to your gorgeous self. I’m sure it’s nothing but me pushing all the drugs out of my body.”

  “How do you know it’s not the drugs keeping you from seeing me melting all the time? Why do you think they might be making you see me only go on and off like that?” she asked. She sounded as though she was about to freak out.

  “Because I was still on the drugs when I saw Harrison melt.”

  “Harrison?”

  “He’s one of the other patients in the hospital with me. I was on the meds and he still went into full melty-death mode. You’re not. What I just saw has to be the drugs.”

  But did it? Was I really buying what I was saying? I know I wanted to believe it, because I didn’t want to think anything bad could happen to her. I couldn’t imagine seeing it, knowing it was real, and then waiting for death to come for her. For my own sanity, I needed to convince myself she was fine, that it was all my own issue.

  “I hope you’re right, but if you see something more, you tell me. Okay?”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said, and we found our way back into each other’s arms. I don’t even know how long we stayed there like that, but I would’ve liked to never leave that moment. Her arms felt so good around me, made me feel like I was where I belonged. She smelt great and was so warm.

  Eventually, of course, we had to get on with things.

  “What do you do now? You said you knew what it was causing this.”

  “I think so. I need to back to Niagara Falls, where it all started. I think there’s some sort of doorway open to a demon realm.”

  “Oh, that’s what I want to hear. It’s not going to be another Hellion, is it?”

  “No. This is different. Someone, or something, has opened a gateway and it’s caused a sort of infection. It’s what’s making me see what I am becoming, a beacon for death.”

  “That sounds lovely. Why are you seeing people who are going to die, though?” she asked. Her voice sounded a little shaky. No doubt she was still as worried as I was about seeing her glitch.

  “I’m pretty sure the gate opened is the Beelz realm. The things that live there are a species of demons that are soul-suckers. They prefer to find souls about to leave a body to eat though, so they can see who is close to death in order to know where to be.”

>   “You know this for sure?”

  “No. Half the time I’m just winging it, Rouge, but it’s the one thing that makes the most sense to me. If this is what I think it is, it could be enough to get Parks and the Collective off my back for a while. No guarantee, but it’ll help. So, I need to throw caution to the wind a little, and head back to the Falls. Even if it doesn’t get them right off me, I need to hope it is a gate, and that I can close it easily. It may be a guess, but it’s all I got right now. There has to be a door opened and one of those bastards has managed to find a way to infect me. I might be wrong, but after all these years of doing this, I have to trust my gut.”

  “You’ve heard of this happening, though?”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t, but like I said, most of what I put together when I was doing my job involved gathering a few facts, and then winging it. I couldn’t turn to Google to answer my questions or help me out. There were some books, sure, but they only knew so much about anything. This was a shot in the dark. All I could do was hope I wasn’t aiming the gun at my own foot.

  “Well, when do we leave?” she said matter-of-factly, and I couldn’t help but let out a surprised laugh.

  “What?” she asked, before realizing: “Oh, you think I’m letting you go there alone? You just finished telling me about all the drugs you still have in your system. It’s not safe for you to try and handle this alone, and who else are you going to turn to? You can’t take Godfrey with you. Not again. Not to mention I just lost you for two weeks. I have no plans on losing you for even more time. Like it or not, we’re going to be partners on this one.”

  “I can’t—”

  “You will. I’m not letting this one slide, sunshine. Plus, keep­ing me close will ensure I’m safe, and not going to turn full melty-face on you.”

  “This doesn’t feel good,” I admitted, and it didn’t. What if the reason I saw her go in and out of melting all came down to whether she stayed here or came with me? What if bringing her to Niagara Falls would make it go full because I was taking her straight into danger? I told her as much.