by Jason Letts
“No matter who steps out of that closet, it is not the same person who left,” she wrote.
Trapped in pure darkness, I struggled to keep from breathing. I couldn’t see how long I’d been in here, though it already felt like forever. I strained my lips, throat, and chest to keep it all in, but I wouldn’t able to hold out for long.
Desperate, I looked down and to the left for the door handle that would give me my next breath. My head was swimming, and I felt like I couldn’t keep from breathing any longer. What if I hadn’t held it long enough and I ruined the whole thing? My legs felt weak and I leaned against the wall.
Unable to take it anymore, I reached for the doorknob, twisted it, and gasped.
*
When the closet door opened, Cammie stared blankly at the young woman who burst into the living room. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, a clear complexion, and was about five and a half feet tall. Other than sneakers, jeans, and a gray jacket, she wore a furrowed brow and an unnerving glare.
“Well?” Cammie called, holding the pad tight against her chest. The young woman didn’t answer, instead stalking directly toward Cammie and ripping the pad out of her hands. Scowling in frustrated disgust, she tore off the front page and shredded it.
“It’s hopeless. Your machine didn’t do anything other than nearly suffocate me,” she said, letting the tiny pieces of paper slip through her fingers to the floor.
Cammie was aghast. She staggered back, her wide eyes looking even bigger because of the goggles.
“But…but,” she stammered, and the young woman turned at her, snarling.
“Face it, we’re completely helpless, and that means Nathan is going to die.”
Chapter 5
When I pushed open the door and staggered out of the closet, frantically sucking in air, I found the living room almost completely empty and covered in shadows. I froze, my eyes scanning the place that was so different from what I expected.
Only the couch and the table remained, while everything else had been cleared out. The room was much colder and had a musty smell. It didn’t seem like anyone lived here at all.
“Nathan…Cammie?” I called, though there was no conviction in my voice. I trembled as I realized what a terrible mistake I’d made and lunged for the closet, which had nothing in it but a sizable spider web. No amount of holding my breath in there would ever bring me back, and so I let go of the doorknob and started to tiptoe across the creaky wooden floor.
This must be some kind of joke. They had to be here, I thought to myself. They were just doing some redecorating in the living room, like they’d talked about a thousand times. I went to the stairs, though the walls didn’t have any of the pictures on them that they used to.
At the top, I wondered which way I should go, left to Nathan’s room or right to Cammie’s. I already missed Nathan so badly and I wished I could wrap my arms around him, but I needed to find Cammie to get out of here. Not a sound came to me from anywhere. This was way the scariest haunted house I’d ever been in, and it didn’t even seem to have any ghosts.
My heart won out, and I went to Nathan’s room, expecting to find t-shirts littering the floor beneath movie posters on the wall. Twisting the knob, I pushed open the door and found an empty bed frame and dresser bathed in the darkness. My breathing grew heavier as it became harder to fight off the truth. I rushed to Cammie’s room, but there wasn’t a stick of furniture inside.
As I descended the stairs, I wondered what the heck I would do. I was completely lost, and I never could’ve known my plan would’ve been derailed so thoroughly right from the start. Entering the kitchen, I noticed a brown rug under the table that hadn’t been there before. A loose cupboard door revealed some glasses within, and the refrigerator seemed to be working. The sink had a dusty film on it though.
A clicking noise back by the stairs distracted me from cataloguing all the differences, and I turned to see the light glancing off the barrel of a gun pointed directly at me.
“Ahh!” I screamed, dropping behind the counter dividing the kitchen from the living room. My heart was about to explode as I huddled against the drawers.
“Stand up and put your hands behind your head!” a deep bass voice ordered.
I had no idea what to do, but if this man wanted to kill me he probably wouldn’t have much trouble doing it either way, so I might as well not make him angrier by disobeying him.
“Don’t shoot!” I cried, peeking above the counter then rising to my feet. A middle-aged, balding man with a mustache kept the barrel of his rifle fixed on me. My breathing was erratic, and I thought I would faint.
“Who are you and what’re you doing in my home?” he howled, taking a careful step into the living room. He must’ve been in the back room, which I hadn’t even checked.
“Can you please put the gun down? I’m here looking for Nathan and Cammie Wheeler,” I said.
“What makes you think you can just break in here? Why didn’t you knock?” he demanded, holding the rifle steady.
“I…I.” I realized I couldn’t tell him the truth. He’d probably blow me away if I told him something that ridiculous. I really had no excuse for being in his house, but I had to come up with something. “I thought they lived here. You know, the Wheeler’s?”
The man grumbled to himself, apparently mulling something over. He looked over his side, which made me a little more comfortable although it probably shouldn’t have.
“I bought the house from a feller named Nate Wheeler over a year ago,” he said, finally letting the end of the gun sag away from me. Relieved, I took a deep breath.
“Ok,” I said, trying to coax him into saying more. Right now he was all I had to go on.
“He sold it right after his mom died. Nice kid and all, but I guess he had other priorities. Put his grandmother in Lazy Oak nursing home about the same time and that’s the last I heard of him.”
“Oh,” I muttered, a pit forming in the bottom of my stomach. Somehow things here were drastically different from what I knew.
“So the point is he ain’t here, and you need to do likewise ‘fore I call the police,” he demanded, coming a little closer.
“Wait!” I called, knowing I really didn’t have enough to go on. “What about his sister, Cammie Wheeler? You know, cute girl about fifteen, brown hair and glasses?”
“I don’t know nothing about her,” he said. He continued inching toward me, and I started back for the door. My mind boggled with thoughts of what I would do after I got thrown out. How else could I get more information from this man without goading him into shooting me? I looked into his eyes, hoping for a shred of sympathy and finding none.
I reached behind to open the door, unwilling to let this man come any closer.
“Go on, git!” He shooed me like a dog, and a moment later I was out on the porch as he leaned out the doorway. I expected the porch light to come on, but when I glanced up I noticed the fixture didn’t have a light bulb.
“I, umm,” I stammered, desperate to think of something, but he grabbed the screen door and yanked it closed, leaving me alone on the porch. Or I should say I was almost alone, because I saw some rustling by the drapes and knew he was going to watch to make sure I left.
Turning away, I started down the steps to the lawn and the sidewalk. Most of the lights from other buildings looked familiar, and cars cruised down the street as they always did, but glancing back I noticed how much more worn Nathan’s house looked. It had been my home too, but now there was nothing in it for me.
I walked away, shivering and thinking about all the clothing I would’ve brought if I knew I’d be stuck outside. The December air was brutal, matched by a swift wind, and I pulled down my hat to try and shut it out.
More than anything, I was troubled by what I’d heard from the man about Nathan. How could he have just sold his house and thrown his grandmother in a nursing home? It was clear I was dealing with a very different Nathan here, not the one out of ten trillion like mine
. I had to hope he’d still be good enough to help me though, because once we found Cammie we’d finally be able to start working on a cure.
It seemed strange that the house’s new owner didn’t know anything about Cammie, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. If they’d moved somewhere else, I’d have no idea which school she was going to. Then I thought about where Nathan must be, and I gasped when the answer dawned on me.
If Nathan never quit school to take care of his family, and he sold the house instead, he’d have to still be at State College! It all came rushing together for me. I’d go find him, he’d lead me to Cammie, and then everything would work out perfectly. I tickled myself with the thought that I wasn’t so lost after all, but it was hard to hold onto considering the cold, the dark night, and the two-hours of driving time it takes to get to State College.
Finding a way to get there would be a challenge of its own because it’s not like I had a car or was even fully capable of driving one. I had my tiny little purse in my jacket pocket, and I pulled it open to find I only had fifteen dollars in it. That wasn’t going to be nearly enough for a bus ticket or a taxi ride.
The first thing I had to do was make it through the night. I wouldn’t have minded sleeping outside if it were summer, but for right now I’d probably freeze to death.
Pushing open the door to a twenty-four hour McDonald’s, I shielded my eyes as they adjusted to the light. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the restaurant, and I went straight to the counter, where a pimply teen was struggling to stay awake.
“Can I get a cup of coffee, please?” I asked, and he brought it to me a moment later. “Just to let you know, I like to drink my coffee very slowly.”
I winked at the boy quickly and he smiled. Shuffling away, I went around the corner and took a seat under the security camera beside the bathrooms, where I hoped he wouldn’t be able to spend too much time ogling me. Even though I didn’t have much money, a dollar would be worth it for a place to camp out for the night. I could just sit here and try to figure out how I would get to state college, what I would do when I finally found Nathan, and wonder if I’d ever make it home to see my love again.
*
A loud pop resounded through the room when the balloon full of oxygen gas burst. It startled Cammie, who was already hyper-agitated, as she hounded her blonde companion.
“What do you mean it didn’t work? What happened? Are you ok?” she begged, stripping the goggles from her face and replacing them with her glasses. The other young woman, pursing her lips, glared down at Cammie and displayed some annoyance as she unbuttoned her jacket and tossed it on the couch. Reaching into one of the pockets, she removed a slip of paper and handed it to Cammie.
“It’s just like I said,” she groaned. “I went in the closet, held my breath, came out, and here I am. So I guess I don’t need your diagram anymore.”
“I can’t believe it didn’t work!” Cammie raved. “You told me the experiment was a success at the state science championships, so I don’t see how it wouldn’t work now.”
Cammie was frantically checking her equipment, looking for loose seals in the tubing around the closet door. The young woman sighed, finally coming up behind Cammie and putting her hand on her shoulder. Cammie awkwardly spun around.
“I’m sorry this went on so long, but I have to tell you your machine doesn’t work,” she confessed.
“What?” Cammie gasped. “But you said…”
“I told you the experiment was a success after the state science championships because I wanted to make you feel better. It’s obviously impossible to break through the barrier between parallel worlds,” she explained, and a disturbed look struck Cammie.
“Are you serious? I could’ve sworn it worked. You made me believe that! So if it’s all a bunch of baloney, why did we set this whole thing up and go through with the experiment again?”
The young blonde woman sighed and put her hand to her forehead. She glanced up at the ceiling, slightly shaking her head.
“I guess I hoped you’d be smart enough to figure it out on your own. Before I went in the closet, I was sure you’d stop me and say this whole thing was just a foolish joke. Why didn’t you put it together?” she asked.
“Because I trusted you!” Cammie answered, her eyes starting to flare up, but the young woman just crossed her arms.
“No, that’s not it. You went through with it because you thought you could do something that had never been done before, something that most other people couldn’t even believe. Tell me I’m wrong,” she accused.
“So what if I did?” Cammie shot back. “It should’ve worked.”
“So the truth is you can’t do anything,” she whispered, looking solemnly into Cammie’s brown eyes. “There’s nothing we can do to save Nathan. Your experiments will always amount to nothing. And so we’re better off if we don’t even try.”
Cammie snorted, crossed her arms, and fell back in a chair.
“What’s gotten into you?” Cammie asked.
When the sound of a vehicle slowing to a stop hit their ears, Cammie immediately looked at the clock. Nathan had come home from class, and the parts of her experiment were still all over the room. Cammie jumped to her feet and raced to the wall near the closet. She ripped out the tubing, revealing baseball-sized round holes.
“What are you doing?” the young woman asked.
“What does it look like? I’m cleaning everything up, and you could seriously give me a hand. Nathan will freak out if he sees any of this stuff!” Cammie rambled.
“I think it’s too late now,” she asserted. “And besides, we should let him find it.”
Cammie, her hands still on the Hofmann Voltameter fixed to the wall, twisted around to see if she’d really meant it. Her skepticism came through in raised eyebrows and parted lips. She relented and put her hands in the air.
“If you insist,” Cammie acquiesced. “But it’s your relationship, so don’t expect me to crawl in the doghouse with you.”
The kitchen door swung open and Nathan came through. He saddled his backpack full of textbooks on the kitchen chair and took a quick glance at his beloved sister and what appeared to be his beautiful girlfriend. The smile on his face dropped as he recognized the scientific equipment scattered about the living room.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” he asked, a mixture of confusion and indignation in his voice. He walked toward the young woman in the room, who was completely unfazed. She had a funny smirk on her face and flipped back her blonde hair.
“What does it look like?” she asked, goading him. Her tone set him off perfectly.
“How could you do this when you knew it’d make me upset? We talked about it and decided it wasn’t worth it, and then you went ahead and tried to do it anyway. You know, I thought we trusted each other. I thought that was important to you, but it looks like trust only matters when it means you get your way,” he accused, crossing his thick arms over his chest.
Retaining her amused expression, she reached out and pushed him into a seat on the couch. Taking a step forward, she towered over him.
“I’m going to say this for your own good, Nathan. Grow a pair of balls and be a man. Yeah, we did it to try and help you even though you didn’t want us to, but that doesn’t mean you have to cry about it and act moody all the time. I can see now that I’ve babied you far too much, and you can bet that’s come to an end,” she declared.
Nathan was stunned and his mouth hung open a little bit. Cammie skulked against the wall, listening and watching. A little bit of noise escape from Nathan’s throat, but the young woman cut him off before he could even form a syllable.
“I know what you want to say. It goes something like, I have a life-threatening disease and so I shouldn’t be subjected to anything that makes me unhappy, doesn’t it? I hope you realize that’s a bunch of garbage too. You don’t get a free pass for everything just because things are hard for you. Life sucks, but you probably didn’t even need this
to figure that out. So tough it out and take control of your life and how you deal with it.”
The cold words coming out of her pretty pink lips were beyond Nathan’s ability to process. Staring up at her, he breathed deep and sighed. Nathan swallowed and glanced over at Cammie, who shrugged.
“What’s gotten into you?” he wondered.
“That’s what I asked!” Cammie echoed.
“Nothing’s gotten into me,” she replied. “I’m exactly the same as I always was.”
“No, really,” Nathan pressed, getting to his feet. “I didn’t know you thought that way. What’s going on?”
The young woman demurred for just a moment, setting her chin on her shoulder and shutting her eyes. When she returned to him, some heartfelt pain registered in her eyes.
“I guess I’m just tired of all the deception. I want you to trust in me, so I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered.
“Deception? What are you talking about?” Nathan asked, putting his hands on his hips and peering inquisitively at her.
“Oh, come on, Nathan. You know what I mean,” she responded, blushing. Scrunching up his forehead, Nathan was oblivious.
“No, what is it?” He took another look at Cammie who stepped away from the wall.
“I haven’t the slightest idea what she’s referring to,” she answered.
The young woman rolled her eyes and cleared her throat.
“Really? Nothing got through to you? Either I’m a much better actor than I thought or you two should be pretty disappointed in yourselves.”
“Ok, tell us what it is,” Nathan demanded.
The young woman traipsed over to the chair and twirled into it, kicking one leg over the other as she settled into a comfortable lounging position.
“You didn’t really think it was possible that I could lose who I was, did you? Getting stuck in a body? There isn’t a more ridiculous thing imaginable, but I can’t believe I was good enough to make you think it was real. Hello! Anybody home? This is the human race encapsulated right here, too blind to know and too hopeless to help.”
