by Brian Harmon
“What?”
“I’ve dreamt about you.”
Eric gave Paul a bewildered look. “Okay… Who is this?”
But the mysterious caller didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “You’re almost out of time.”
Eric recalled the mysterious note left on his windshield. Did whoever left that note also retrieve his phone? “Out of time for what?”
“Death is coming.”
Eric felt a shiver creep up his spine at the sound of these words. “What?”
“Dead before sunset.”
“You sent me that note…”
“Turn back the clock and spiral down…”
“What?” This was definitely one of the stranger conversations he’d ever had.
“Who is it?” asked Paul.
Eric shook his head. It was nobody he knew. It was a man and he sounded very old. But beyond that, all he could hear was nonsense.
“Sixteen.”
“Sixteen what?”
But the conversation was over. The mysterious caller with Eric’s phone disconnected the call.
“Okay, that was messed up!” exclaimed Isabelle.
“What’s going on?” insisted Paul. “Who was it? What did they say?”
Again, Eric shook his head. “Some old man. Didn’t make any sense.” He dialed the number for his phone and held it to his ear again. It rang, but no one answered. He wasn’t surprised.
“Where did you lose your phone?”
“An abandoned lot on Hosler Avenue.”
Paul tried hard to recall Hosler Avenue. It looked like it required a lot of brain power, because it scrunched up his face almost comically. “I don’t remember any empty lots on Hosler.”
“It’s pretty inconspicuous,” replied Eric. “I ran into some trouble over there. Had to leave fast.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Strange black creatures,” volunteered Isabelle. “And a crazy old lady with a wicked manicure. She sliced up Eric’s back before he could get away.”
Paul looked at Eric. “No shit?”
“It’s been a weird day.”
“Sounds like it.”
“Come on,” he said, stuffing Karen’s phone back into his pocket again. It was probably nothing. Maybe some drunk stumbled across his phone and picked this number at random from its directory. “Let’s go have another look around Milwaukee Street. I’ll catch you up on the way.”
Chapter Nine
“How is it that Isabelle can call and text you even though she doesn’t have a cell phone?” asked Paul as he drove Eric across town.
“It’s complicated,” explained Eric. “She uses the phones she finds in the places she travels. When she calls me, she’s actually talking on the phone, but the texts are different.”
“Because she doesn’t actually have a cell phone to text on.”
“Right.”
Isabelle had not yet hung up. Now her voice rose from Paul’s phone again: “It’s hard to explain, but I basically send my thoughts into the phone instead of my voice and they manifest on the other end as text messages. I just picture how I’d type in what I want to say and it’s done.”
“I’m thinking it has something to do with your psychic thing,” Paul guessed.
“I think so. Technically speaking, I don’t think the phones I use have to even work. In fact, I’m not sure I even need a phone at all. It just helps me make the connection.”
“Where’d you learn to do all this stuff?” Paul asked.
“I picked up the phone thing when I was still trapped in Altrusk’s house, back before I met Eric. One of the other people trapped there knew how to do it. I never found out where he learned it. Or even where he came from. He was trapped there sometime before me and by the time I first met him, his mind was already mostly gone.”
“She bonds with other people who are trapped like her,” Eric explained. “It’s like she can absorb information from them.”
“Sounds nice,” said Paul. “Beats studying.”
“Like you ever studied,” said Eric.
“It’s handy,” agreed Isabelle. “But it has its down sides. I don’t get to choose the information I get. I passed through some kind of sex club in Argentina a few weeks back and learned way more than I wanted to.”
“Yuck,” said Eric.
“Yeah. There are some things you just can never unsee.”
Karen’s phone began singing. Again, Eric saw Paul smirk at the “Wannabe” ringtone and again he ignored it.
The call was from Karen. “Did you get a call from your phone?”
“I did. How did—?”
“He called here first.”
“He did?”
“He did. Said he found your phone and wanted to know where he could contact you.”
“But I left my phone—”
“With the claw lady. I know. I gave him my cell number and told him to talk to you.”
Eric considered this. The land line was labeled “home” in the directory on the phone. That sounded like a perfectly reasonable thing for someone to do after finding a phone. But how did anyone retrieve his phone from that nightmare lot? He was nearly killed when he went there. Twice. Plus, he didn’t say anything about returning the phone. He just spouted that cryptic nonsense at him and then hung up. “Did the guy sound weird to you?”
“Not really. He was just some nice older guy. Why?”
Eric recounted the bizarre conversation he shared with the man.
“Well that’s not very normal. What does all that stuff mean? What’s sixteen?”
“No clue whatsoever. The guy sounded crazy to me.” But he’d clearly been sane enough to call his home number and find out how to reach him. Did this have something to do with Aiden and the disappearing locations around town? He told him he was running out of time and that death was coming, suggesting a connection to the threatening note that was left on his car.
“Be careful,” begged Karen.
“Of course. How’s the party planning coming along?”
“Fine. But Diane hasn’t stopped asking questions about you and your trip last year. It’s kind of annoying.”
Eric heard Diane’s voice in the background. “You said you’d tell me everything.”
“You did say that,” agreed Eric.
“I didn’t know she meant everything. She won’t stop pestering me about how Isabelle lived in that house for so long.”
“What did she eat?” Diane asked loudly.
“She exists outside of time as we know it,” Eric said. “Time doesn’t technically pass for her.”
“I know. But she keeps asking how she can talk to us if she’s not a part of our time stream. I did not sign up to explain fissure physics to this woman.”
“Okay, then just tell her she had pizza delivered every day for thirty-six years and then quickly change the subject to something shiny.”
“I might just try that. Did Paul find you?”
“Yeah. He’s here now.”
“Good.”
“Didn’t have much confidence in me?”
“I thought you could use someone to do the heavy lifting.”
Eric grinned. “Nice.”
Paul glanced over at him, suspicious. “What’s she saying about me?”
“That you’ll be a valuable asset.”
He didn’t look convinced.
“Did you find anything at the hospital?”
Eric told her about the mysterious building. He told her about the strange creatures, the golden fluid, the man in the pink shirt and even about the monster that appeared from the stairwell and chased him out of the building. The only thing he left out was the part where he only escaped because Paul hit the thing with his truck.
“And the place just disappeared?”
“Completely gone.”
“Buildings don’t usually do that.”
“Neither do apartments and alleyways.”
“That’s true. They don’t. And the
guy in the pink shirt? Who do you think he was?”
“No idea. But I don’t think I like him.”
“Because he wears pink?”
“Because he gave me the creeps.”
“So what now?”
“Back to Milwaukee Street. Try again to see if I can find whatever’s supposed to be over there.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Karen was silent for a moment. Eric didn’t have to see her face to know she was worried. She always sounded like she was taking things in stride, but deep down, he knew she was terrified. Truth be told, he couldn’t fathom how she put up with this kind of stuff at all. Finally, she said, “Call me. Keep me updated.”
“Sure.” Although he knew he wouldn’t. He rarely bothered to call her. He didn’t usually have the chance. She was always calling him. He said goodbye and disconnected the call.
“Didn’t want to tell her about me saving your ass back there?” asked Paul.
“Didn’t want to tell her how close you came to running my ass over.”
“Right. Good point. Thanks.”
“Sure thing.”
Paul stopped at a red light and glanced over at him, grinning.
Eric looked back at him and said nothing.
“So?”
“So what?”
“So… Tell me what you want. What you really, really want.”
“Don’t make me kick your ass.”
Paul laughed as the light turned green.
Eric wasn’t amused.
Chapter Ten
They pulled onto Milwaukee Street and Eric began looking for anything that appeared deserted.
He still wasn’t sure what he was looking for. The lot on Hosler had been abandoned for decades, while the apartment might have only sat unused for a few years.
They drove all the way past the city limits and then turned back, but still they saw nothing. On their third pass, Paul said, “Maybe it’s on one of the side streets.”
“Could be,” agreed Eric. But then he saw it. “Wait… Park right there.”
“Where?”
“Right there.” Eric motioned at several empty parking spots.
Paul nodded, but for some reason he drove past the empty spots and parallel parked between two minivans in front of the next building.
Eric stepped out of the truck and looked back. Empty windows, no signs or lights. It was obviously empty. How did he miss it the first two times they passed it? “Think that’s it?”
Paul walked around the front of the truck and stood beside him. “What, the jewelry store?”
Eric looked at him, confused. “No. The one next to it.”
Paul craned his neck and squinted at the building on the far side of the jewelry store. “That’s that Thai restaurant, isn’t it?”
Eric gestured in front of them. “This one.”
But Paul looked up at the building right beside them. “‘The Creek Boutique,’” he read. “Doesn’t Karen know the owner?”
“Are you serious right now?”
Paul looked down at him, confused. “What?”
“The empty store?”
“What empty store?”
“You seriously don’t see… You know what? Never mind. Let’s just go.” Eric started walking toward the building. “And yes, Karen knows the owner of the Creek Boutique.”
“Karen knows a lot of people.”
“She does.”
Paul looked around at the brightly lit streets around them, “What are we looking for again?”
Eric stepped into the doorway of the deserted store and knocked. No one answered, but he didn’t expect them to. He tried the handle. Just like the apartment and the asylum, it was unlocked. The door creaked open. “I think this is it.”
Paul had walked past the doorway and continued on past. Now, as he approached the corner of the jewelry store, he stopped and looked back. “Hey, where’d you go?”
“I’m right here. Come on. Be careful, I don’t know wha—”
“Eric?”
Eric turned, confused and looked back. “What are you—?”
“Seriously, where’d you go?”
“I’m right in front of you…”
But Paul walked right past him without looking at him.
What was he doing? Was this supposed to be some kind of stupid joke? Eric stepped out of the doorway and walked after him.
When Paul turned around, he nearly collided with him. “Jesus!” he cried. “What the hell? Where were you?”
“I was right there.”
“Well say something! That was freaky.”
“I… You seriously didn’t see or hear me?”
Paul stared at him. He looked completely baffled. “What?”
“Nothing. Just come on.”
Eric stepped into the doorway again.
Paul had taken a few steps more and then stopped. Again he was looking around, perplexed. “Eric?”
Eric reached out and seized his arm. Paul jumped and turned to look at him. Then his eyes drifted up to the building around them, widening with wonder. “What the…? How did…? Where did that come from?”
Eric looked up at the building. “What do you mean? It’s been here this whole time.”
“No…it hasn’t.”
“Seriously?”
“Dude, until just now, there was The Creek Boutique and there was the jewelry store. They were right next to each other. There was nothing in between them. Now… Well…” He gestured up at the previously unseen building. “Just what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know, but come on.” He led Paul into the building and they stood looking around the empty, dust-covered room.
Things were finally beginning to fit together. First an apartment that just disappeared into thin air, then the hospital building that wasn’t there, then was there, then simply wasn’t anymore. Now this. It wasn’t that they were disappearing at all. It was just that he couldn’t see them all the time. But what the hell kind of sense did that make?
Karen’s phone began to ring again. It was Isabelle.
“I just remembered something. I totally never thought much about it until just now, but I heard a rumor once. I thought it was just nonsense but… Well… Maybe not…”
“What is it?”
“Apparently, there’s supposedly a huge, Victorian mansion standing in the middle of downtown Seattle that nobody can even see.”
“Really?”
“So they say.”
Eric nodded. “Hidden places...” Naturally something like this wouldn’t be limited to just Creek Bend.
“Right.”
“What do they say about that mansion?”
“Nothing. Only that it’s there. Nobody knows why or why nobody can see it.”
“Weird.”
“Not very helpful, I guess…”
“It might be. It’s worth considering. I mean, if there’s one place like that, there could be more.”
“Exactly.”
“But why?”
“Maybe that’s what you’re there to find out.”
Eric considered this. That seemed very similar to what was going on here. But how was it that he could see these places when Paul couldn’t? What made him different?
He wondered now if this had something to do with the nonsense Pink Shirt was saying back at the institution. What was it he said? Everybody had forgotten?
And now that he thought about it, perhaps this explained why Aiden was so surprised to see him looking back at him as he stood in the alley. He’d probably slipped between those two buildings countless times and watched everyone walk right past him, completely blind to him, exactly the way Paul had walked past him just a moment ago.
It also explained why Paul completely ignored those empty parking spots right out front. If he couldn’t see the building, he probably couldn’t see the parking spots in front of it.
“Be careful,” said Isabelle, then hung up without waiting
for a response.
Eric lowered the phone from his ear but didn’t return it to his pocket. He was probably going to need its light soon. While it was plenty bright enough to see here at the front of the store, the shadows quickly grew deeper toward the back, and whatever he’d come here looking for obviously wasn’t in this room.
Somehow, the wide-open space of the empty sales floor was even more unnerving than the narrow corridors of the institution. He felt exposed and vulnerable.
Paul looked up at the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. “So this is your thing you do, now? Creepy-ass, impossible places? Weird mysteries?”
“I guess so,” replied Eric as he made his way toward the back.
“Never pegged you for the Scooby Doo life.”
“Never asked for it.”
“Not saying it’s a bad thing. Just… You know. Unusual.”
“That’s putting it mildly, I think.”
Paul agreed that it was.
There was an open corridor at the back, leading into a storage room. Except for some changing rooms on the left side of the sales floor, it was the only place to go but back out the way they’d come.
“I mean, doesn’t some of this stuff scare the shit out of you?”
Eric recalled the old woman with her all-wrong, shadowed face and wicked claws. “You have no idea.”
There was a small restroom and an office on the left and a break room on the right. At the end of the corridor was a swinging door leading into an empty storage room and a back door that served as an emergency exit. There was also a spiral staircase leading up to a second floor, not unlike the one that took him from Aiden’s empty apartment down to the tavern. Except this one was not hidden behind a door. It spiraled up from one corner of the store room.
The place was completely emptied out. No sign remained of what used to be stored here. The changing rooms suggested a clothing store of some sort, but it could have been anything from kid’s clothes to tuxedo rentals. The passage of time was evident everywhere he looked, yet the past itself was wiped clean.
Karen’s phone sang again and Eric glanced down at the name on the screen. Penelope Whitter. One of Karen’s cousins. That was not likely for him. He let the Spice Girls play on. Penelope could leave a voice mail.
