by Amy Cross
"Be brave," I mutter to myself. "Be brave. Be brave."
I stand there and try to force myself to remember Sophie's words. I can't back down now, I have to keep going, but as I look up at the skeletons, I can't help but stare at the large black eye sockets in their faces, and it feels as if they're looking straight back at me. It's no use. I can't be brave. I turn to run, and -
There's someone standing right behind me. I look up and see that it's him. It's the guy who used to visit Sophie. He's looking straight down at me. It's Patrick.
Jason Dunn
"There was a war," Max says as we sit in a bar near the bus station. It's kind of a sleazy place, but when I'm with people like Max I prefer to be out of the way. After all, I have a reputation to maintain. "A huge war," he continues, clearly deluding himself into thinking I'm paying attention. "Vampires turning on vampires. It raged all around the world, but humans never noticed. Eventually there were so many deaths that it became obvious it could only end with the extinction of the vampire species. All the other higher species, like the werewolves and the Others, turned away. They couldn't bear to see it. And finally it ended when one vampire, Patrick, killed all the other vampires."
I take a sip of my whiskey and stare at Max with my most convincing, interested face. I've been sitting here for half an hour now, listening as Max spews out various bizarre stories. I'll say one thing for him, he's persistent, and most people would have given up long ago and slunk away; most people would be too ashamed to keep on spouting this kind of garbage about vampires and monsters. But not Max. No, Max has no shame. No shame at all.
"Fascinating," I say. "Please continue."
He takes a deep breath. "There's this prophecy," he says, warming to his theme. Disconcertingly, I think he really believes this stuff. "It's complicated, but basically a long time ago the prophecy said that Patrick would do three things. The first was that he'd kill all the other vampires. That's fine, he's done that. The second was that he'd have a child who would become the first of a new line of vampires. He's... kind of done that. And the third was that when he found the mother of his child, the woman he truly loved, he'd kill her." He pauses for a moment. "That's what happens with vampires. They're not supposed to love humans, not really. Bad things always happen."
"Uh-huh," I say. "And then?" I see a spider crawling across the table; grabbing a beer mat, I squash the critter. I've always hated spiders.
"Well, he's found her," Max says, as if it's the most natural and obvious thing in the world. "He's loved other women, of course, at least to some extent, but when a vampire feels true, absolute love, he turns to stone. Only for a short period of time, but it's the signal. It means he's found her. But..." He pauses. "Prophecies are big things. Important things. You don't mess with them. If you try to go against a prophecy, you'll fail. But if you're Patrick, maybe you've got a little more power. And that's the problem. Patrick should have killed Sophie by now."
"Sophie?" I ask, mainly to show that I'm still listening.
"The girl he loves," Max continues. "He should have killed her after she gave birth to the baby. But he didn't. He's trying to fight the prophecy, and that brings terrible consequences. You can't just ignore a prophecy. If you try, the prophecy will reassert itself." He jabs a finger into the table, as if to try to prove his point.
"Uh-huh," I say. I stare into my whiskey. It's getting low and I should order another, but... I look up, realizing that Max has stopped talking. "What?" I ask.
"Come on, man, you know about prophecies, right?" He stares at me. "Smart guy like you?"
I shake my head. "Color me ignorant," I say. "Treat me like I'm a moron and tell me everything."
He sighs. "If you try to break a prophecy," he continues, lowering his voice as if what he's saying is extremely important, "two things happen. The first is that the prophecy bites back. It reasserts itself. It makes sure that things happen as they should. You can't mess with a prophecy. It's more powerful than anything you can imagine. And the second thing is that the balance of power shifts. While the prophecy is reasserting itself, things that should be buried..." He pauses. "Spiders," he says eventually.
"Spiders?" I say casually as I try to catch the barman's attention. Eventually he glances over and I signal for another drink. Damn it, I hope he doesn't recognize me. I'd hate it if word got out that I was seen here with this loser Max. "What about spiders?" I ask
"Haven't you noticed?" Max replies. "They're everywhere. Lots and lots of spiders. It's a sign."
"A sign of what?" I ask as my new whiskey is delivered.
He stares at me. "A sign that a great evil is reawakening," he says slowly.
I pause. It's kind of hard not to laugh. "A great evil... spider?"
"Something that was dead and buried. It should have stayed gone forever, but with the prophecy in chaos, the forces that are meant to keep things in order are breaking down. Things from the Underworld are starting to sense that there's a chance for them to get loose once again."
"The Underworld?" I feel like a child at school, being taught all about the world, except my teacher's a lunatic and I'm drunk.
"You don't need to know about that right now," Max says dismissively.
"Oh, I don't?" I ask, laughing. "And why's that?"
"It's too big," he says. "It's taken me years to research all of this, to work out what's happening. You have to exercise your brain, train it to be able to accept these things. Too much information too soon, and you can suffer from serious mental imbalances."
"No kidding," I say flatly.
"But the spiders are just the first sign," he continues, "and things are going to get worse and worse unless the prophecy is restored."
"And how does that happen?" I ask.
"This girl," Max says, handing me a photo. "Her name is Sophie Hart. The prophecy says that Patrick must kill her. He should have done it already, and he hasn't. That's why everything's going wrong. The prophecy has to be fulfilled or..."
"Or what?" I ask.
"Or everything could be in danger," he says.
I stare at the photo. This Sophie Hart girl looks kinda ordinary. There's nothing about her face that suggests she's special. In fact, everything about her screams 'ordinary': she's ordinary weight, with ordinary hair, ordinary eyes, ordinary skin... just extremely ordinary. If I saw her in a bar, I certainly wouldn't bother hitting on her. Glancing up at Max, I suddenly realize what all this is about: he's a psycho. He's some guy who's become obsessed, for whatever reason, with a random girl he's spotted about town. He's probably stalking her and going through her trash and following her online and all sorts of crap. I'm starting to feel like maybe Max is a little more dangerous than I'd realized "Okay," I say slowly, trying to work out what to do. "So this girl is the key to it all, huh?"
He nods keenly, as if this is the most important thing in the world. "And the spiders," he adds, staring at me with a look of blank intensity. Sweet Jesus, I'm starting to realize this guy believes all this stuff.
"Listen, Max..." I start to say.
"The spiders are returning," he says.
"Jesus Christ, Max," I say.
"Don't say that!" he says, raising his voice so much that the barman glances over. Clearly realizing he overreacted, Max lowers his voice. "Please don't use the Lord's name in vain like that, Mr. Dunn."
"I'm sorry, Max," I say, "but you're asking me to believe a lot -"
"Before they fought amongst themselves," Max goes on, apparently oblivious to my protestations, "the vampires fought an earlier war, many centuries ago. Do you know who they were fighting against?"
"Spiders?" I ask, fearing the answer.
"Exactly!" Max says. "They fought the spiders! And they beat them!"
I smile. "I hate to break this to you, Max, but..." I sigh, "there are still spiders. There have been spiders for as long as I've been alive, and -"
"They de-evolved," Max says, butting in again. He takes a deep breath. "There was a huge war. Humans
didn't notice it, because like the later vampire civil war, it happened in a pocket of existence that we don't recognize. The vampires were almost defeated, but eventually they overcame the spiders and destroyed them. A few survived, but they became de-evolved and dumb to the point where they were no threat at all. Except..." He pauses. "The spiders should have remained defeated, but now that Patrick is defying the prophecy, things that 'should' happen aren't coming to pass. Things that should have stayed buried..." He pauses, as if for dramatic effect, "are coming back."
I stare at him. Every time I think I've got him pegged, he takes his stupidity to a new level.
"I mean it," he says, slamming his fist against the table in a vain attempt to show that there's some force behind his words. "If Patrick doesn't follow through with the prophecy, terrible things will happen to the world. Terrible, unbelievable things. Humans won't notice at first, but when we do, it'll be too late."
I pause, considering the implications of what he's just said. "Can't we just call the bug guy to come and spray the spiders away?" I ask eventually.
"You don't believe me," he says, with a twinkle in his eye. He's almost smiling, as if he was expecting me to be doubtful and he's got some master plan to persuade me to see things from his point of view. "That's fine. Most of what I'm telling you sounds like the ravings of a lunatic. But I'm not a lunatic, and I can prove it."
"Okay," I say, willing to give him one more chance. After all, if I'm going to write this news report about how insane, fucked-up people are allowed to wander our streets, I need to add some color to the story. "Show me."
Slowly, and kinda menacingly, he smiles.
Todd
I turn and run. The stone floor is wet and slippery, and I almost fall into the river, but I manage to keep my footing and run along the tunnel. I have no idea where I'm going, but I know one thing: I'm running further and further from the steps, and there might not be another way out of here. On top of that, this is Patrick's territory. He knows this place, and I don't. If he wants me dead, all he has to do is catch up to me and grab me. But what else can I do? I run and I run and I run, and -
I slip and land face-first against the wall, bouncing off and clipping the edge of the stone walkway before falling into the river. The fall itself is too fast for me to do anything about it, but as soon as I'm in the water everything seems to go in slow-motion. I find myself sinking and sinking, but I feel dazed from when I hit my head; all I can do is look up and see the light start to fade as I sink. Finally I nudge against the bottom of the river, but there's nothing I can do. I want to try to swim to the surface, but...
I can't hold my breath any longer. Opening my mouth, I try to breathe but water floods into my lungs. I can't control my body anymore, and more and more water just fills my body until finally, just when I feel like I'm about to burst, everything goes black...
Jason Dunn
Against my better judgment, I agree to follow Max across town. He says he has absolute and incontrovertible proof of everything he's been saying, and he insists that once I see what he's got to show me, I'll understand that the world is at the mercy of dark forces. It all sounds like the back story to some half-rate sci-fi show, and my overall impression of Max is that he spends far too much time watching TV and reading about conspiracies online. At the same time, there's a kind of earnestness about him that's quite endearing. For what it's worth, I think he genuinely believes all this stuff he keeps spouting. While I feared at first that he might be trying to con me, I've come to the conclusion now that he's pretty harmless. He's like those people who swear they've seen a ghost or a UFO, but they just didn't happen to get a good photo of it because their camera just happened to develop a fault at the crucial moment.
In other words: bullshit.
"It's easy for us humans to think we're the dominant species on the planet," Max says as we head across the railroad tracks and into the woods. "We're certainly the noisiest, but we're far from the most successful or populous. Far, far from it."
"And what is the most successful species on the planet?" I ask wearily, starting to wonder how much longer we're going to be. "Let me guess. Vampires? Werewolves?"
Max laughs. "Bacteria," he says.
"Bacteria?" Suddenly I'm getting the feeling that maybe Max has wrong-footed me and has stumbled onto an actual, genuine fact.
"They're everywhere," Max continues. "Crawling all over everything. There are trillions inside each of our bodies, and more than five hundred different types crawling around in all of us."
"Okay," I say, "but -"
Max stops suddenly, forcing me to stop too. He turns to me. "There are more bacteria living in your body, than there are humans living on the planet Earth." He stares at me. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel stupid, Mr. Dunn. I'm telling you this because I want to open your eyes and make you realize that there are other ways of seeing the world. Do you get me?"
"I get you," I say, "but do we really have to go into the woods?"
"Oh yes," he says, a deadly serious tone to his voice. He turns and leads me between the trees. As a city guy, I'm not really used to coming this far out. I glance over my shoulder at the last glimpses of the city disappearing as the forest seems to close around us. I definitely feel out of my natural environment here.
"So there are vampires and werewolves," I say. "And -"
"And the Others," Max interrupts. "Originally there were three main species. Vampires, werewolves and the Others. They always saw humans as an annoyance, as something to be ignored, but over time something happened. We persisted, Mr. Dunn. We humans just kept on going, and the other species had to start taking us more seriously."
"And where do bacteria fit into all of this?" I ask, genuinely confused.
"They don't," Max says. "I'm not talking about them anymore. What I'm talking about is how the vampires and the werewolves and the Others were able to exist without humans really noticing them very much. The vampires had a series of huge wars, and humans just carried out without even realizing Even when the vampires fought the spiders, humans just carried on as if nothing was happening. We're a lower species, you see. The vampires, and the werewolves and the Others, are higher species. The spiders were a little of both, but now they're a lower species. For now, at least."
"For now?"
"That's why I brought you out here," he says. "To show you that everything I've been telling you is true. If the prophecy is stalled any longer, the forces of order are going to break down and an ancient evil is going to have a chance to come back. It's already started."
"Wouldn't someone notice an ancient evil returning to the planet?" I ask.
"It's like I told you," Max says, stopping as we reach a small clearing. "Humans are a lower species, so we don't usually notice the actions of the higher species. These things pass us by."
"But you've noticed," I say, wondering why we've stopped here.
"I have," he says, smiling. "Do you see it?"
I raise an eyebrow.
"Look around," he continues. "Do you see what I see?"
Sighing, I glance across the clearing. It's just a clearing. There's some grass, and some trees on the edge, and that's about it. I guess it's nice enough, but there's nothing weird or mysterious about it.
"Look closer," Max says. "Straight ahead. You'll only notice it if you're expecting it."
I sigh again. "If I'm -" I start to say, but suddenly I stop speaking. I take a couple of steps forward, shocked by what I've just noticed. On the other side of the clearing, set into an earth bank, there's a wooden door. I swear it wasn't there a moment ago, but it's damn well there now.
"You see it now, don't you?" Max says. "People walk by it all the time, and they don't notice it. It was put there by a higher species, so we humans don't perceive it unless we're directed to specifically look at it."
"Bullshit," I say, walking over to the door. "It was a trick of the light. The sun was reflecting off the grass and made it so I couldn't see it in
the glare." As I reach the door, though, I know full well that there was no trick of the light. The door must have been here all along, but I simply didn't notice it before, even though I was specifically looking for anything unusual. It's creepy, but it's obviously a coincidence. "What's behind here?" I ask.
"Why don't you open it and take a look?" Max says, smiling.
I reach out and turn the handle. The door opens, revealing a long stone passageway. "What the hell is this place?" I ask.
"On the other side of the forest, there's a cave," Max says. "In that cave, there used to be a house. It belonged to a vampire. The house is gone now, otherwise I'd have taken you there, but this place, this is where the vampire keeps his prisoners. This is where he kills people. It's an ancient place, built back when Dedston itself was just a little collection of mud huts."
"A prison, huh?" I ask.
"And more," Max continues. "This is where the vampire Patrick puts people if he wants to forget about them, or if he wants to kill them. And -" He suddenly turns and looks around, an expression of concern on his face.
"What?" I ask. For a moment, I feel a little nervous, and then I realize how stupid it would be to allow myself to fall under Max's spell. "There's nothing there," I say, as much to reassure myself as to reassure Max.
"I thought I heard something," he says, "but I guess I was wrong." He turns to me. "I thought maybe Patrick was onto us, but he's not. It was just the ghosts."
"The ghosts?" I ask.
He laughs. "I'll tell you about the ghosts some other time. For now, follow me." He steps past me, switching on a torch as he enters the stone passageway. He pauses, and then he turns to face me. "Before we go any further, I must warn you. This is not a journey without danger. There are creatures in the world that can kill a man with a single stare. Most of the time they leave humans alone, but if we start poking around in their world, they're liable to start noticing us. By following me down here, you're accepting a certain degree of risk. The further underground we go, the closer we come to the Underworld."
