by K X Douglas
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Peter said. “I, uh, wasn’t expecting to hallucinate.”
“Oh, my. See anything interesting?”
“Not really.”
A few minutes later, Lachlan finished his latest drink and stood up from his seat. He wavered for a moment, as if he were about to lose his footing, but managed to stabilize himself.
“That weed hit me harder than I expected. I think I’m gonna head home and check on Eric. Have a good night, you two.”
“Night, Lachlan,” Peter replied.
For the first time in a while, across a span of time that Peter wasn’t tracking, he looked around and noticed that the crowd had thinned quite a bit.
“So, Serena, what are you taking?”
“I’m majoring in creative writing. I’m super into poetry and I hope I can make a career of it someday. You?”
“Psychology. I haven’t really given it much thought as to what I want to do for a career, though.”
“Eh, you have plenty of time to think about that; you’ve got a few years ahead of you yet.”
“Although, earlier today I was talking with Lachlan’s roommate, who’s also majoring in psych. He wants to go for his doctorate. Made me start thinking about possibly doing grad school.”
“That’s, what, an extra four years? At least? See if you can complete an undergrad first.”
“Yeah.”
Serena brought one of the stems to her mouth and inhaled. Turning her head to one side, she let loose a puff of smoke before setting the stem down on the table.
“How are you feeling now?” she asked. “Any better?”
Peter sat up and looked at his hands. They looked normal.
“I think so. God, I’m really hungry all of a sudden.”
“That happens when you’re stoned for a while,” Serena said. “Now that you mention it, I’m pretty hungry, too. I wonder if our hosts would mind if we raided their pantry?”
“Let’s not do that,” Peter said. “I was thinking we could, like, order delivery or something.”
“That works. Let’s not order it here though. We can go back to my place.”
They rose from their seats and left the dorm room. Night had fallen, and the moon was visible in the sky. Serena led him back towards the area where the two-person dorms were located, past Lachlan and Eric’s dorm room, finally arriving at a door that looked exactly the same as all the others save for the numbers that were carved into it. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a key. After fiddling with it for a few seconds in a cannabis-induced stupor, she unlocked the door and they both stepped inside.
Serena spared a glance down the hall to one side, where the bedrooms and bathroom were. One of the doors was closed.
“Roommate’s asleep, so try to keep quiet.” She sat down on the couch in the living room and patted the cushion next to her. “Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. You in the mood for pizza?”
“Pizza works,” Peter said as he sat next to her.
“Any toppings you don’t like?”
“I’m not picky.” In reality, Peter could eat anything a human could, and a great many things that they couldn’t.
Serena made a call on her cell phone and ordered the largest pizza that the local place offered. Once the call was finished, she put her cell phone back in her pocket and leaned back on the couch.
Fifteen minutes later, someone knocked on the door. They both got up from the couch to answer. Serena paid the delivery man, giving him a generous tip in the process, and accepted the pizza. Peter looked over the man’s shoulder at a person who was drunkenly walking across the street some fifty feet away. For a brief moment, the person looked in his direction, and he could have sworn that they made eye contact.
It was Heidi.
CHAPTER FOUR
At least, Peter was somewhat sure that it was Heidi. It was dark out, and she was far away. He only got a glimpse of her for less than a minute before Serena shut the door, but it felt like an hour.
Oh, fuck. I hope she didn’t see me.
They walked back to the couch and set the pizza on the coffee table, not bothering to retrieve plates or cutlery. It was an American-style pizza with a thick, doughy crust and every topping that the pizzeria offered - even anchovies.
“Have you ordered from this place before?” Peter asked.
“Nope, just picked it based on how close it is to campus,” Serena replied. “I’ve heard good things, though.”
They each took a slice and devoured it in less than thirty seconds. Peter was surprised by how delicious it was, although that may have been due to the weed. Soon, one slice became two, and then three. Within fifteen minutes, the pizza was gone.
“Fuck, that was a good pizza,” Serena said.
“Yeah.”
“So, Peter, what do you do for fun? Have any hobbies?”
“I like to read. Mostly stuff I find on the internet, but I read dead tree books once in a while too.”
“Hey, my dad collects old books; you ought to see his collection sometime. Although…I don’t know if any of it would interest you; they’re mostly old paranormal books that he said belonged to these weird cults. He won’t let me read them for some reason. Keeps them locked in a glass case in his study.”
Wait…cults?
“Serena, what does your dad do for a living?”
“He used to be an antiquarian. Dunno why he quit; I’m pretty sure he was making good money. Now he works as an exterminator.”
I wonder if I’d recognize any of those books that he has?
“That’s quite a dramatic career change,” Peter said.
“I know, right? He had this really cool job where he got to work with, like ancient Egyptian artifacts and stuff, and he gave it up to kill bugs! I don’t get it.”
“How about you? What do you do for fun?”
“You mean besides get bakity-baked? Well, I write poetry, and I like to go hiking, although I don’t get many opportunities to travel to the good hiking spots out west. God, it’s been a long time since I went on a good hike.”
“It’s gonna be difficult to find time to go hiking while you’re going to school, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I won’t really have time to hit the trails until semester break, I think. There are a couple trails near the city but I’ve hiked them all a few times already.”
“Must be nice to get away from it all once in a while, huh?”
“Yeah. Just being away from society, alone in nature. It’s great.”
“I think I ought to go on a hike one of these days. I don’t get enough time away from…just…everything.”
“I could contact you when winter break comes and you could join me? I’m probably going to go on vacation to one of the parks then.”
“Sounds great.”
Slowly but surely, the two of them began to melt into the couch, and time started to lose meaning. Peter reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. It was one thirty in the morning.
Oh, shit.
“Hey, uhh, it’s getting pretty late,” he said. “I should head out.”
“Holy fuck it’s one thirty!” Serena said.
Peter rose from the couch, swaying in one spot for a few seconds. Serena stood up and embraced him. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her.
“I had fun,” she said. “We should do this again some time. Just the two of us.”
“Yeah,” Peter replied. “That sounds like a good idea.”
Don’t start transforming, don’t start transforming, don’t start transforming!
He didn’t know how long the embrace lasted. It was warm, and she smelled of tea tree oil and patchouli.
They let go, and he made for the door. He walked outside, alone in the silence under the moonlit sky.
Alone with his thoughts.
The walk back to his dormitory was a short one, but every step that he took required far more concentration than normal. He experience a strong tunnel vision effect whic
h limited his awareness of his immediate surroundings. Quickening his pace, he almost collapsed into the door before fumbling with his key to unlock it.
When he stepped inside, he looked back out through the door for a moment before slamming it closed. For some reason, Peter couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He closed the door, locked it, and sat at his desk. For the next few hours, he browsed the internet aimlessly.
His mind began to drift back to the moment earlier in the night where he had mistakenly thought that his transformation was fading in public. Raising his hands from the keyboard, he examined them in too much detail. They still appeared to be human hands, as they were supposed to.
I don’t know what’s going on, but I should probably avoid smoking weed for the time being.
Peter found himself searching the internet for local antique dealers and antiquarians, curious as to what convinced Serena’s father to quit his career.
It didn’t take him long to find an article about a man named Tadhg Henderson. He certainly didn’t look the part of an antiquarian, with his thinning mohawk, aviator sunglasses, loud Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and combat boots. The article went on to detail how he was arrested for shooting an intruder dead with an illegal combat shotgun, apparently believing that said intruder wanted to steal his garden gnomes.
Is this man…Serena’s father? How is he not in prison? I hope I never have to meet him.
The end of the article mentioned that many of the books in his collection, many of them several hundred years old, were put up for auction in order to pay for his bail.
Ah, that’s why. I might have to go looking for those books one of these days. If they are what I think they are…
He turned off his monitor and climbed into bed. Over time, he found himself slowly shifting back into his shoggoth form, partially exiting his clothes.
The sun rose a few hours later, and he returned to his human form. It was then that he realized that he had probably sobered up. He changed into a fresh set of clothes; due to his skin not producing any oils, he never actually needed to shower.
“Now, what do I need to do before classes start?” he muttered under his breath. “I know I’m forgetting something.”
Right. I need to buy my books. Shit!
***
When Peter first arrived at the college bookstore, it was still closed as it was eight in the morning. He sat on a nearby bench and zoned out for the next couple of hours. Once the doors opened, he dashed in, schedule in hand; he was eager to be in and out of there as quickly as possible.
The bookstore was organized haphazardly; it was obvious that the college obtained their stock on very short notice. Peter gathered all of the books that he needed for his classes in the span of ten minutes and paid for them at the till.
Upon leaving the store, he sat back down on the bench where he had waited earlier and watched the foot traffic pass him by. He looked through the various hardcover books that he had just purchased for an exorbitant amount of money; they all looked the same to him. He imagined that their weight would be very uncomfortable for a human to carry all at once.
“Peter? Earth to Peter! Are you in there somewhere?!”
Lachlan was standing over him.
“Oh, hey, Lachlan. Sorry about that. How are you feeling?”
“Good. I actually had a pretty good sleep. Probably due to the weed. You?”
“Pretty good. I’ve never needed very much sleep, though. I get by on a couple hours a night.”
“Dude. How?”
“I don’t know,” he lied.
“So what happened after I left the party last night?”
“Oh, I didn’t stay for long. Went home with Serena pretty soon after you left.”
Lachlan’s eyes went wide.
“You what? Dude, what the hell is with you?”
“What do you mean?”
Lachlan sat down on the bench next to Peter.
“Eric told me about the time you spent with Heidi and Victoria after we left the party.” He adopted a knowing smirk. “About how Heidi wanted you to ‘try on her handcuffs’. You’re a regular philanderer, aren’t you?”
What does that mean?
“I don’t get it.”
“First you start flirting with Heidi, apparently by accident, then the next day you fuck Serena a few hours after meeting her?”
It was Peter’s turn to adopt an expression of shock.
“Wait, no, no, we didn’t have sex! We were really stoned and hungry, so we ordered pizza and just hung out for awhile. We didn’t even kiss.”
Lachlan’s facial expression changed immediately. Peter could’ve sworn he looked relieved.
“Wow, okay, never mind,” he said.
What’s with Lachlan? I don’t understand him at all. Was he jealous of me potentially sleeping with Serena?
“So how much were the books?”
“About a thousand.”
“Jesus. I hope I don’t have to buy a bunch of hardcovers for my classes.”
***
When Peter returned to his dorm room, books in hand, he saw that there was someone waiting immediately outside. He was wearing a leather jacket and studded jeans, and he wore his hair in a squat brown mohawk.
“Can I help you?” Peter asked.
“Are you Peter?”
“Yeah. You were looking for me?”
The man immediately closed the distance between the two of them.
“Look, I know you went home with my sister last night after that party. I want to know what happened between the two of you.”
What the fuck?
“Uh, w-we didn’t really do anything,” Peter stammered. “W-we just o-ordered food.”
“Was she smoking weed again?”
Damn it, what do I say?
“Was she?” he asked again, this time slightly louder. “She was, wasn’t she?”
Peter nodded slowly.
“God damn it,” the man whispered to himself.
Peter started to walk past the man towards the door to his dormitory. However, he moved in front of the door to block Peter from opening it.
“Hey, I’m not done with you yet! Who the fuck do you think you are?”
He grabbed the collar of Peter’s hoodie and pulled him closer, lifting him off of his feet for a moment.
“My sister promised me that she wouldn’t be smoking weed during college. If either of you got caught, you’d be kicked out of residence and expelled. She’s already been suspended a couple of times during high school, and college was supposed to be her chance to get her life back on track!”
Peter pulled himself free of the man’s grip with little effort and stepped backward to put some distance in between the two of them.
“Look, I understand if you’re worried for your sister’s safety. I’m willing to talk about this. I had no way of knowing that she’s had trouble with school in the past; all she told me about was her plans for the future and a story about her father having to change careers.”
“Did she tell you why Dad had to quit selling artifacts?”
“No, but I managed to find out on the internet. He killed somebody and had to sell a bunch of his collection to make bail.”
“Our father doesn’t exactly help things. She gets her weed habit from him. It’s why Mom left him.” He strode right up to Peter. “She doesn’t need you encouraging her to smoke more weed.”
Peter looked him in the eyes. They were so close that he could feel the man’s breath against his skin.
“I said I was willing to talk about this, but you look like you’re looking for a fight,” Peter said. “If you want one, I’ll oblige you.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“However, if you’re trying to intimidate me, it won’t work,” Peter said. “If I had known that she wasn’t supposed to be smoking weed, I wouldn’t have taken up her offer. But it’s not as if other students who were at the party are going to be reporting her to the college, is it? I d
on’t think she’s in much danger of being expelled. Now, would you mind getting out of my way? These books are kind of heavy.”
After a few seconds, the man moved out of the way, and Peter opened the door to his dorm room. Once he was inside, he shut the door and locked it, paying the man no heed. Setting the bag of books down on the kitchen table, he pulled out a chair and sat down.
That was close. I really didn’t want to get into a fight with someone, especially before classes even start.
Peter walked over to his computer and started browsing the internet. A recent local news article caught his attention, and he clicked on it. The article was about a string of disappearances from a downtown nightclub that had been happening over the past couple of months. None of the missing persons had been found, and the authorities had started to suspect that they were murdered.
Despite the fact that these kidnappings occurred at a nightclub with video surveillance, nothing suspicious had shown up on the tapes, and therefore they had nothing to go off of.
There were no suspects.
This sounds like it could be something supernatural. Should I get involved? Or should I just stay out of other peoples’ business?
He continued reading the article, and reached a point that mentioned that many of the police officers investigating the case had to be put on temporary leave for unspecified reasons.
Unspecified reasons? That makes it more likely that something supernatural is involved. I should take a look at this. But is the club open tonight?
Peter looked up the nightclub in question and saw that it was open every day of the week.
Now the question is ‘should I tell anyone else about this?’ Should I talk to Serena and try getting a hold of her father? It might be a good idea to have his help here.
Peter spent the rest of the morning and afternoon looking up as much information as he could about the case. There wasn’t much to be found. When night came, he called a taxi and had the driver take him to the nightclub.
He spent a few minutes in line, waiting to present his ID to the bouncer to be let into the building. They made him walk through a metal detector to ensure that he wasn’t carrying any weapons.
