The Abyss Above Us 2

by Ryan Notch

  He heard a faint singing from the kitchen. He turned his head and saw Terra. He was in her apartment, on her couch. The faint remains of the dream faded away as he listened to that singing. He loved waking up to singing, and she had a pretty voice. In fact she looked pretty too, or maybe it was just the way he woke up sometimes, when everything looked better for a few moments. He sat up on the couch, remembering slowly how he’d fallen asleep there the night before.

  Somehow Mr. Cooper’s actions had made him much more afraid then he let on, as if he were missing something very dangerous about the man that he couldn’t quite place his finger on. As soon as they had been inside and safe, he didn’t want to leave again.

  Must have fallen asleep without realizing, he thought. Guess Terra just threw a blanket on me and left it at that.

  Terra noticed that he was awake from the kitchen. “Oh, hi,” she said happily, glad to see him.

  “Hi,” Jack said. “Sorry I passed out last night. Hope you don’t think less of me for not charging bravely into the dark cave.”

  “Are you kidding,” she said. “No one has ever been willing to go off on my crazy adventures before. I wouldn’t be nearly so brave without you watching my back.”

  “Yeah I guess Nancy Drew needs her Hardy Boys.”

  “Who,” she asked as she turned and finished making some tea. She had said she didn’t generally drink tea, but for some reason she always seemed to have some around when he came over.

  “You know, that detective girl and the two brothers! Are you serious? How could an American not know about…” He saw that she was smiling slyly and looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She was playing a trick on him, she’d known who he was talking about from the start and he’d just now caught onto the game.

  At that moment she didn’t look pretty, she looked absolutely beautiful.

  Chapter 25

  ********************

  Jack and Terra had lived on the same floor of the apartment building for at least a couple years, one apartment apart with old Mr. Cooper living between them. But for a long time he’d only spoken too her on a few rare occasions, occasionally running into her in the hall or at a tenants meeting.

  Jack loved women, but Terra wasn’t his type at all. Jack, with his sleek good looks and James Bond accent pretty much killed in the American nightclubs. One of the reasons he’d moved to America in the first place was because he wanted to live in a place where just his normal way of talking would give him an edge with the ladies. He’d go bar hopping, usually with Alex from downstairs. Who more often than not would also drag along his best friend Collin, a withdrawn brainy sort of guy who Jack got on with fine, but who definitely wasn’t the lady’s man him and Alex were. Though of course Alex being married said he threw away all the numbers he got, not that Jack believed that for one second.

  Jack would search those dancing, yelling bar crowds looking for just the right type. The fact that you couldn’t hear a thing over the noise or see anything through the dim lights and smoke only seemed to heighten his senses, because the kind of girl he was looking for practically glowed in the dark. The beautiful, dangerous, damaged types. The ones who learned young that their bodies could get them the attention from guys that their daddies just never bothered to give them. The girls with that unfortunate combination of a fragile psyche and beautiful body. The kind of girl who never took off her panties for nice guys (though just about anybody else) and whose whole life crashed and burned at least once a month, taking whoever was stupid enough to be involved at the time with her. It was always a painful way to end a relationship, and always a hell of a wild ride to the bottom.

  Jack could pick that girl out of any crowd. He would almost swear he could see their aura. He’d walk right up to her and say just the things that kind of girl wanted to hear. Tell her she’s lovely once and never say another nice thing to her from that moment on.

  He tried to not leave them any worse emotionally than when he found them. In truth, by his nature he was that nice romantic guy. The one who liked to give compliments and surprise presents and never forgot a birthday. Except that the kind of girls Jack was attracted to treated the nice romantic guy like their own personal pet eunuch. Oh sure, that nice guy was fine to hang out with, to go shopping or dancing with, as long as he gave them a ride home at the end of the night so they could screw their boyfriends who treated them like shit. After learning this the hard way again and again, Jack had resolved long ago to start being the boyfriend and be the eunuch no more.

  Which was why it was cool when he started hanging out with Terra. It was nice to have a girl who he was just friends with, with no attraction to get in the way. In fact Terra was the opposite of the girls he was attracted to. Self reliant, self confident, level headed (as level headed as a girl who will follow a frightening man into the sewers at the slightest provocation can be, he later reflected). No crash diets, no heroin sheik body, no drugged up hysterics followed by passionate sex in a public bathroom for Terra. Stable, not Jack’s type at all. Why she wasn’t attracted to him either Jack never even bothered to consider, though he had enough experience with women to know she wasn’t. Which meant he could actually kind of relax around her and just be friends.

  Jack and Terra had been friends only a few months when she suggested they start “spying” on Mr. Cooper when he started acting weird. Each of them shared a wall with Mr. Cooper, and they’d heard the incredibly weird sounds coming from in there. Sudden loud banging sounds, cursing in strange tongues, liquid coughing. This exact thing had been going on one day when Jack and Terra crossing paths in the hall right in front of Mr. Cooper’s door. They both stopped and locked eyes, the same expression on both their faces.

  “He does that a lot you know,” Jack said quietly so as not to be overheard.

  “I do know,” said Terra, also quietly. “I knocked once and asked if he was OK but he just told me to go away.”

  “Actually a lot of people in this building have started acting weird.”

  “Really? I’ve noticed a few things myself.”

  “You know,” he said. “I was just heading downstairs to the laundry room. You should head down too and we can exchange information.”

  “Well, I hate to gossip about people, but I really can’t pass up a good mystery.”

  As they compared notes over the whooshing sounds of the wash, they agreed thing really did seem to be going to hell in the building. With less than twenty five residents it was easy for even antisocial people to have some idea of who everyone was. Including what they did and when they came and went. Only they came and went now substantially less. Terra had, as it turned out, been keeping a sort of watch on things. She said it seemed as if several of the tenants hadn’t actually left the building in weeks. There were constant rumors of sickness going around, but beyond that various social problems as well. Followed up with strange alliances, new friendships between people who really seemed to have nothing in common. Jack himself had noticed on multiple occasions that he would enter a hallway or go to get his mail only to find tenants would stop their conversations and stare at him until he passed.

  “It’s a regular conspiracy,” joked Terra.

  “You’re right. In fact someone really should investigate.”

  “Well I’ll start with Mr. Cooper. I can hear practically everything he does through the vents.”

  And so she did, keeping a little journal of it. Rather than seeming weird and obsessive, she somehow made it seem fun and exciting. It was such an odd little quirk in someone who otherwise seemed so normal and responsible. She really did love mysteries, he found.

  Now, drinking tea across the breakfast table from her, he was deciding he no longer liked them at all. What was Mr. Cooper doing in the sewers. What was everyone else doing for that matter? There was something wrong with this building, and no good reason to stay. Especially when historically leaving was what he always did best. Sure, he’d lived here longer than he’d ever lived anywhere,
but he was starting to think he’d overstayed his welcome.

  “We should leave,” he said suddenly.

  “What?”

  “Something is wrong here and we both know it. It’s not safe. I can’t say why, I just have a bad feeling. And even if I’m wrong, so what? There’s plenty of apartments in the city.”

  “I don’t know,“ she said, a definite look of conflict on her face. “I’m scared but…but I’m not sure I want to leave.”

  “If you don’t have anywhere to go I’m sure I can find something…”

  “It’s not that,” she interrupted. “It’s just that something like this never happens. You go you’re whole life working in office buildings and grocery shopping and watching TV, and nothing really ever happens. And even though I want to run away from it, if I do I know I’ll spend forever wondering what was really going on.”

  Jack thought of and abandoned several replies in short order. What she was saying was ridiculous, but not really all that ridiculous. After all, what he had more than anything was a bad feeling. Ultimately it was her choice anyway. He looked down at his cup of tea as he thought.

  “I guess we’ll figure it out later,” he said. “Right now I’ve got to take a shower.”

  “Ok,” she said. “Come say bye before you leave, ok?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  He stood up and headed for the door. As he approached it he decided to check the peephole before opening it. After finding the coast clear he saw Terra watching him and smiling humorously, but not cruelly.

  “Just wanted to make sure Mr. Cooper isn’t spookily wandering the halls.”

  Terra laughed, and with that he headed out.

  Jack walked out of the apartment and into his own a moment later, only hesitating the slightest bit as he walked in front of Mr. Coopers door. Once inside his apartment he locked the door, and bolted it to be sure. Next he did a cursory search of every room, closet, nook and cranny of the place. Something he hadn’t done since he was a kid looking for monsters in his room. Next he gave a call to his friend Alex from downstairs, leaving a message warning him in certain vague terms to watch out for Mr. Cooper. He then pulled his suitcases out of the closet and threw them on the bed. But before he began to pack, he peeled off clothes and stepped into the shower, making sure to lock the bathroom door as well.

  As he scoured at his skin he thought about how he hated to leave Terra in this situation, if indeed there actually was a situation. He would have to try and convince her again that she had to leave. He didn’t blame her for wanting something exciting in her life, but you don’t hang out in a burning building just for the experience.

  But what if he couldn’t convince her to leave? She really wasn’t his responsibility, but the way she was looking at him as he left. Not accusing or angry. Kind of admiring it seemed. Not exactly the look he was used to from women. From anybody really. It was kind of a nice change.

  I really should leave, he thought. But…

  Jack rested his head on the tile as the hot water poured over it. He had a feeling he was about to make a really bad decision.

  “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,” he said to no one in particular.

  Chapter 26

  ********************

  Shaw sat in his monastic cell amidst walls lined with hand drawn diagrams and lists of needed equipment. He had, at last, the makings of a solid plan. The whole of it was so complex he felt like he could barely think for keeping it all in his head. Like his brain was filled to the brim with ideas that would spill over if he moved carelessly. He spent most of his time now organizing it, arranging it in preparation. At the moment he was double checking it, making sure his understanding was correct. On a desk was another letter from the mathematician Collin Althaus, who seemed to understand so well exactly what Shaw had been trying to learn. He re-read it, trying to make sure he understood it correctly.

  Hello again Mr. Wash,

  I must confess after my last letter I was worried what I said would have been over your head. Although the concepts I put forth are by no means strange in mathematical communities, the average person doesn’t care much for them. But you’re reply strikes right at the heart at what I was trying to explain in my articles. Something which soon, very soon, everyone will be forced to understand one way or another. The same way as a man on fire can not deny the heat of it.

  In short I can now prove that the reason we can not see the dark matter and energy which makes up 95% of this universe is simply because we don’t have the senses for it. It is that part of four dimensional objects that three dimensional beings like us just can’t see. The general assumption was that dark matter was made up of very tiny things, things too small for our senses and instruments to experience. The truth is we don’t have the senses or instruments to see things that exist in more than three dimensions.

  It’s all so obvious that the only reason we didn’t think of it before is because our brains are designed to model things after our limited senses. The only reason we even think to look for invisible things is because our ancestors could feel the wind. Otherwise we would have been stuck thinking the visible spectrum was all their was (when in fact visible light makes up less than 1% of the of the whole electromagnetic spectrum).

  I apologize if I digress but I have trouble putting my new ways of thinking in terms that make sense to the common man. Picture it this way: pretend you are a man drawn on a piece of paper.

  (Shaw had in fact drawn a stick figure man in the margins of the letter to better understand the concepts)

  This man is two-dimensional, and has evolved as such to only see in two dimensions. He can’t see all the intricate shading you put in him, only the outer line of his body. The little heart you might draw on his chest would be obvious to you, but as invisible to him as your internal organs are to you. This simple fellow has evolved to see only what he needs, and since he can only work in 2-D that is all he can perceive. He goes about his life, talking with his friends and working in his garden maybe. When he runs into people in the halls of his office he must go over or under, because there is no such thing to him as “around.” Seeing in three dimensions you have an immense advantage over him in this way. And yet, it can be very difficult sometimes for you to understand the things he does because you simply can’t imagine the world as he sees it.

  And vice versa, because the only way he could possibly detect you with his 2-D instruments is by your gravity.

  And gravity is VERY hard to detect except on very large scales. On account of it being the weakest of the universal forces. It may not seem that way when falling off a ladder, but keep in mind it takes the gravity of an entire planet to hold down one speck of dust. And the slightest bit of wind to defy that planet and lift it up again.

  So now one day you discover each other. First he discovers you because of the gravitational effect you have on his instruments. Most of his people just call it the effect of a sort of “dark matter” simply because they can’t see it.

  But he gets the idea to send you a message, and suddenly you realize there is some little living creature down there existing in a way you never imagined. Your like a God to him, but have trouble communicating. You jam your fingers down on his piece of paper world to try and sign to him. But instead of fingers of a hand, he sees five circular floating monstrosities. He just can’t conceive of the whole.

  So lets assume we are now like that man. We are 3-Dimensional, living in a universe made up of mostly 4-Dimensional stuff that we call “dark matter” simply because we can’t see it. But we know it’s there because we can see whole galaxies pulled by its invisible force.

  Creatures made of this 4-Dimensional dark matter would be as superior to us as we are to our little paper man. They wouldn’t be bound by the same laws of physics as us.

  Compared to our limitations of thought and action, they would be like unto Gods.

  But they would still be bound by some laws. Like I told you before, math is math everywhere. Energy
can not be created or destroyed even in 4-Dimensions. Entropy accelerates in all possible universes. That law, and other laws as well, would limit them as surely as they limit us...

  Shaw put down the letter, having read this last line again and again. It had been the ray of hope he had needed, his only hope. For what he planned, what he was building, was based on theory alone. No experiment was possible, for if he tipped his hand before his weapon was ready he was sure it was within the creature’s power to destroy it. But Collin had taught him that if something was mathematically true, then the experiment was a forgone conclusion.

  If even Gods were made of math, and even they had to obey the laws of the universe...

  Then Collin Althaus had handed a map of the creature’s Achilles’ heel to the only man in the world who could stop it.

  But only if Shaw could complete the machine in time.

  Part 2

  Chapter 27

  ********************

  Jack was keeping Terra company while she babysat little Billy. He had plans to go out that night, to go club hoping and pick up some girls. But even though it had been days since they had last seen Mr. Cooper, he was reluctant to leave her alone. His rational mind wanted to tell him he was overreacting. Told him he should probably call the police and report their landlord missing. But his gut told him Cooper wasn’t really missing, just hiding. It told him to watch his back.

  Not at the moment though. At the moment he was pleasantly surprised to find that hanging out with Terra and playing with Billy was actually more fun than club hopping had been for a while.

  “Beanie bear,” yelled Billy at Jack, who was hiding a little stuffed bear under a blanket.