The Unseen

by Brian Harmon

  Diane realized that they’d left Isabelle on the bed and ran back for the phone.

  “Thanks,” said Isabelle.

  “No problem,” Diane replied, still bewildered.

  “Hopefully this’ll all make a little more sense when I’ve been back to take a closer look at those maps,” said Eric.

  “You know,” said Karen, “now that I think about it, I’ve heard that tavern is haunted.

  “Haunted?” asked Eric.

  “Oh yeah,” recalled Diane. “I heard that, too. Footsteps, voices, that sort of thing.”

  Eric walked into the kitchen and picked up Karen’s cell phone. “I’m going to borrow this.”

  “Don’t lose it,” Karen snapped.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Do better.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Do you know how to use it?”

  Eric studied it for a moment. It was an iPhone, and was far more complicated than the cheap, prepaid model he left in the grass on Hosler, but he thought the basic functions he intended to use seemed easy enough to understand. “I think so.”

  Karen stared at him. It was impossible to miss the deep concern in her eyes. “Maybe I should go with you.”

  “I think you should stay here and finish your cupcakes. I’ll be fine. I have Isabelle with me.”

  “I’ll watch him,” Isabelle promised, her voice rising from the phone in Diane’s hand. Immediately, the connection on the cordless was cut and a text message arrived on Karen’s cell.

  ALL SET

  Diane looked back and forth between the two phones as if she’d just witnessed a perplexing magic trick.

  “Besides,” he added, “you have to explain all this to Diane now.”

  Karen looked at her best friend. “I guess I do, don’t I?”

  “All of it,” Diane insisted.

  Eric stuffed Karen’s phone into his pocket and headed for the front door. “I’ll be okay. Oh, and if that dumbass Gerry calls, tell the bastard I’m dead or something.”

  Chapter Four

  Eric parked in what he thought was the same place he parked before going to pick up the flowers, but something wasn’t right. He felt it as soon as he drove up. At first, he thought it was simply that he couldn’t quite remember how everything was laid out. After all, he wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings. He was distracted by the large, pink bouquet of daisies and then by Aiden Chadwick’s unexpected appearance. When he first peered into the open doorway in the alley, he’d even wondered exactly where he was on Main Street, what building he was about to enter. But it wasn’t merely his lack of attention to detail. That alley wasn’t here. It was gone.

  Here was Sheltie’s Pet Grooming and there was Big Brooke Tavern. But there was no alley between them. The two buildings were built right against each other.

  Stepping out of the PT Cruiser, he looked back toward the florist and tried to remember. He’d exited that building and walked past the bakery, wanting nothing more than to disappear with the embarrassingly pink bouquet into the privacy of his vehicle. The only alley in this stretch of buildings was the one between the bakery and Sheltie’s, and there was a tall, cast iron fence blocking it. The next alley was on the far side of the tavern.

  He walked past the glass doors of the bar. A part of him was convinced that Brooke or Leon would emerge from within and demand to know why he was still poking around, but he reached the next alley without incident. He was already sure this was too far—Aiden crossed right in front of the PT Cruiser before entering the alley, and after leaving the tavern he’d had to walk back toward Sheltie’s—but a quick peek down the alley confirmed it for him. This one was a little wider, with no doors and no fence at the back.

  This made no sense. How did an alley disappear? It was as much a part of the city as the buildings and streets.

  Thinking back, he recalled that he couldn’t see the apartment’s boarded-up window from the street before he drove away the first time. He stepped back and craned his neck upward. The windows were still intact. None were covered with plywood. He could still see curtains behind them.

  According to Diane, that was where the Rufars lived. But how could they? How could the Rufars’ home and that smelly, empty apartment both exist on the upper floor of this same building?

  Lowering his face, he fished Karen’s phone from his pocket. As soon as he glanced down at it, it began to vibrate and a text message appeared on the screen without any prompts asking if he’d like to read it or ignore it. (Isabelle’s texts always did that. He wasn’t sure exactly why. The vibration thing was new, though. His phone had only chimed at him. He wasn’t sure he liked it…)

  DISAPPEARING ALLEYS? marveled Isabelle. THAT’S A NEW ONE

  “It’s all gone. Not just the alley, but the apartment, too, like it was never there. You saw it, too, right? I’m not just losing my mind?”

  WELL…I NEVER ACTUALLY SEE ANYTHING, REMEMBER?

  “You know what I mean. Felt.”

  I FELT WHAT YOU PERCEIVED. AND TECHNICALLY, WHATEVER’S REAL TO YOU WOULD FEEL REAL TO ME

  Eric frowned. “So I am losing my mind?”

  I DON’T THINK SO. I’M JUST SAYING THAT IF YOU WERE, I MIGHT NOT KNOW IT. EVERYTHING I PERCEIVE ABOUT YOUR SURROUNDINGS I GET THROUGH YOU AND YOUR PERCEPTION OF THINGS.

  Eric nodded. That made sense, now that he thought about it.

  SOMETIMES I GET A LITTLE EXTRA, LIKE THOSE FEELINGS I HAD ABOUT THOSE PLACES THIS MORNING. I STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT… BUT FOR THE MOST PART, I’M LOOKING AT THE WORLD THROUGH YOU

  “I’ll have to remember that.”

  ALTHOUGH IF YOU DID GO CRAZY, I WONDER WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BE CONNECTED TO YOU LIKE THIS. I BET IT WOULD BE ALL TRIPPY

  “I’d rather we don’t ever find out.” He turned and walked back to the PT Cruiser, glancing at the sign as he passed the tavern door. It opened at eleven. According to his watch, that wasn’t for another nineteen minutes, which explained the lack of Harleys parked in front of it.

  He didn’t want to go back in there, anyway. That was an experience he’d much rather forget ever happened. But where would he go next? He sure as hell couldn’t go back to that lot on Hosler…

  Although he wondered now whether it had vanished, too.

  DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THE OTHER PLACES ON THAT MAP?

  Eric paused in front of his vehicle and tried to remember. He hadn’t really been paying that much attention to the locations themselves. It hadn’t yet dawned on him that he might want to visit any of those places. But he did recall that one of the circles had been drawn over the hospital and another near the water tower, over on Milwaukee Street.

  THAT FIRST PLACE YOU WENT WAS THE LOCATION THAT WAS CROSSED OUT, she reminded him. MAYBE WHAT YOU FOUND OVER THERE WAS THE REASON

  He had to admit, that was a good point. Those strange creatures and that horrifying old woman… That should have been more than enough reason to put a big, red X through it. Besides…

  YOU DON’T HAVE ANY OTHER IDEAS, DO YOU?

  He still wasn’t used to her finishing his thoughts like that.

  JUST BE CAREFUL

  “Of course.” Eric climbed back behind the wheel of the PT Cruiser and dropped the phone into the cup holder where he could easily reach it.

  As he drove toward Milwaukee Street, he recalled all that had happened the previous summer. It all began with a recurring dream. For three nights straight, he awoke with an urgent need to dress as quickly as possible and rush out the door, even though he couldn’t remember what the dream was about. That urge to leave became so all-encompassing that it left him constantly distracted. After the third night, he decided to humor the strange urge and go for a drive. He thought it would prove to his stubborn subconscious that there was nowhere he needed to be and put the matter to rest. Instead, he was compelled to drive far out into the country, where he quickly learned that the world was a far more vast and mysterious place than he ever dared imagine. He s
aw strange creatures and unthinkable monstrosities. He met peculiar and amazing people, conversed with spirits and even witnessed his own death. He met Isabelle on that journey. He also discovered something immensely profound…although he no longer recalled precisely what that thing was… It was something he now only recalled in his dreams, and somehow that was a good thing. Whatever it was, it was too great a burden to bear consciously.

  This morning was reminding him more and more of that August day. But there was no dream this time. Instead, it was the sight of Aiden Chadwick standing in that alley that opened his eyes to whatever weird path stood before him. Disappearing alleys, strange monsters, terrifying old women with wicked claws… That encounter was seeming less and less like a coincidence.

  He turned onto Milwaukee Street and tried to recall Aiden’s map. He thought that one of the circles was drawn just beneath the water tower, which would encompass the area around this street near the southeastern edge of the city, not far from where the businesses gave way to forests and farmland.

  But although he spent the majority of the next hour driving back and forth on Milwaukee and up and down every side-street within ten blocks, he saw nothing that stood out like the abandoned lot on Hosler. Again, he wondered if the intended subject of Aiden’s circle might be inside an otherwise ordinary building. If so, he had no chance of finding it and was only wasting his time.

  But what more could he do?

  “This isn’t working,” he said as he turned around and aimed the PT Cruiser back toward Main Street.

  He glanced down at the phone in the cup holder. He could see the display without moving it. “Those monsters and that old lady… I’d say it’s a good possibility that I shouldn’t expect a logical explanation.”

  The phone buzzed at him and rattled a little in the cup holder. I THINK SO, TOO

  “So for now, it’s safe to assume that I’m not imagining things and that alley really did vanish and the apartment over the tavern really has changed.”

  AGREED

  “So then…any ideas how it could happen?”

  The phone was silent as Isabelle considered it.

  “I mean, if there could be any reason at all… What might explain it?”

  TIME TRAVEL?

  Eric frowned at the phone. That seemed a little far-fetched, even for him. But then again, he did say any reason at all. “I suppose… Maybe…” If he’d somehow slipped into the past or future for a short time, there might exist a period when there was an alley between the buildings and the apartment over the tavern was deserted… But even with his mind wide open to the possibilities, the idea seemed a bit hard to swallow. “Let’s explore some other options.”

  PARALLEL UNIVERSE?

  That should have seemed every bit as absurd as time travel, but the fact was that he’d dealt with such a thing before. But the only other world he knew about was the horror dimension he encountered the previous year, a place he’d been warned not to venture very far into, lest he never return. The idea of a parallel universe so similar to his own that he wouldn’t know he’d crossed into it seemed like a stretch even for his imagination.

  This was all making his head hurt. “I don’t know,” was all he could think to say.

  Karen’s phone surprised him by loudly blurting out “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls.

  “Nice,” grumbled Eric. “That’s great.” He snatched it out of the cup holder and glanced at the screen. It was Karen, calling from their home phone. He answered the call and lifted it to his ear. “Spice Girls? Really?”

  “It’s my phone.”

  “How do you change it?”

  “You don’t. You can go back and ask Wolverine’s grandma for yours back if you don’t like it.”

  “Fine.”

  “How goes the search for Aiden?”

  “Not good.”

  “No leads at the apartment?”

  “No apartment.”

  “What?”

  “It’s gone. The whole alley’s gone. Vanished into thin air. It’s just not there anymore.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Really? You still think anything is impossible?”

  “Valid point. But how does an entire alley disappear?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “So where do you go next?”

  “I’m trying to find some of the other locations that were circled on Aiden’s map.”

  “That didn’t work out so well last time.”

  “I’m hoping the scary stuff was limited to the one he crossed off.”

  “Well, that would be a good reason to cross it off.”

  “I know, right?”

  “Be careful.”

  “Always. How’d story time with Diane go?”

  “She’s mad at you for not telling her about it last year.”

  “So mad!” stressed Diane in the background.

  “So she believes us?”

  “Well, the pictures are pretty convincing.”

  “Oh yeah.” He’d almost forgotten about the pictures. To prove he wasn’t crazy, he took quite a few photos with his phone during his journey and sent them to Karen. Among the curiosities he collected were hideous, bloated cattle-things, deathly-looking chickens, a strange combination of coyote and deer and a shaggy ape with massive teeth and an extremely ugly attitude. He even caught one blurry image of a ghost. All those pictures were saved onto a disc and kept in the back of his desk drawer, just in case he ever had to prove he wasn’t crazy. “Maybe I’ll get to add some more to my collection today.”

  “If it’s all the same, I’d rather you not run into any more nasty creatures.”

  “Yeah. Me too.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I was just over on Milwaukee Street, but I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. The only other area I can remember from the map is the hospital.”

  “Well, I suppose there are worse places for you to get into trouble than a hospital.”

  “I think so, too.”

  “Still, don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Who me?”

  “Yes, you.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “And don’t touch my Spice Girls.”

  “Fine.”

  Karen hung up and Eric returned the phone to the cup holder.

  The hospital was not a tall structure, but it was sprawling, with several city blocks dedicated to parking alone. He circled it three times, searching, but just like Milwaukee Street, there was nothing here that stood out the way the overgrown lot on Hosler had done.

  Eventually, he parked on the north side, near the Urgent Care entrance, and sat there, thinking.

  Maybe this wasn’t like last year at all. Maybe it was all some kind of strange mistake. Obviously, something odd was going on. Aiden’s appearance, the alleyway that simply vanished into thin air, that nightmare on Hosler Avenue… He hadn’t imagined any of that. It was real. He had the claw marks to prove it. But…maybe it didn’t actually have anything to do with him. Maybe he was never meant to glimpse Aiden like that. Maybe it was all just a strange accident.

  He closed his eyes and rubbed tiredly at his temples.

  What was he supposed to do, then? Just go home? Pretend none of this ever happened?

  His mind kept going back to the envelope he found under his windshield wiper blade.

  Dead before sunset.

  The seriousness of this message was impossible to ignore. If he woke up in the morning to the news that Aiden Chadwick had finally resurfaced, only to turn up dead, he’d never forgive himself. He’d always wonder if he could have prevented it.

  He couldn’t know for sure that the message was for Aiden, of course. It wasn’t specific. But if anybody turned up dead, the thought of whether he could have prevented it would haunt him forever.

  He opened his eyes and stared out across the parking lot. A middle-aged woman emerged from the Urgent Care doors, hobbling on a pair of crutches. A
red sedan pulled into a parking space two aisles over from him. In his rearview mirror, he could see traffic passing on Tenor Avenue. The world was moving on around him, oblivious to strange, black creatures and taloned hags, ignorant of disappearing alleys and reappearing lost boys.

  The worst part was he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to go home and forget all these things. The dream that came to him the previous year…the things it ended up showing him… Some of those things were so terrifying. Yet, there was a certain wonder to it all. Somewhere inside him, there was a boy who craved another adventure like that. But he was too old for that now.

  …Wasn’t he?

  Again, he closed his eyes. In the end, it didn’t matter. There wasn’t much left to do. He could either continue to drive around all day, waste precious, ridiculously-priced gasoline searching the city for another otherworldly encounter, or he could go back home and resume his ordinary life with his wife and friends and the psychic girl who talked to him through the phone.

  (At least he’d always have that.)

  He couldn’t return to the apartment because it wasn’t there anymore. He wouldn’t return to Hosler without a damned good reason, which he didn’t have. He couldn’t find whatever it was that was supposed to be on Milwaukee Street or here at the hospital. And he doubted very much that Aiden was going to show himself again.

  He ran a hand through his hair and sat up straight. No. He couldn’t give up. Someone might really be in danger. But he certainly wasn’t going to get anywhere just sitting here. He needed to keep looking.

  He’d begin by driving around the hospital again. Maybe he just needed to look a little closer.

  He shifted the PT Cruiser into gear and started to pull out of the parking space. Then he slammed his foot onto the brake and gazed out over the parking lot.

  “Was that…? Was that there before?”

  A large, four-story building stood on the far right side of the parking lot, isolated from the rest of the hospital. It was an old, brick structure with simple architecture that did not match the modern feel of the rest of the campus. Although he had to have driven around it several times, he was sure this was the first time he’d seen it.