by Indi Martin
Chris whistled long and low, reaching up to scratch his back with his stick. “Seriously, though. What the fuck?” He tugged on his beard in confusion.
Danny shrugged his hefty shoulders. “Disease, could be.” He got closer than Nathan would have dared, and squatted down, grabbing a nearby stick to poke the pile. Nathan averted his eyes. “They don’t look attacked or nothing. Just dead,” the large man mused. He kept rolling them over until he got to the bottom of the sludgy rabbits. “Just ground, man. It’s like they all just came here and died. Poison or disease, my guess.”
Nathan fought another retch. “Can you... can you just get rid of them, please?” He didn’t wait for a response but walked back up to the front of the house, shuddering. Walking through the open door, he stopped, surprised.
“I know, right?” Luke half-smiled, an arm around Melissa, who seemed a little calmer. They were cuddled up on a surprisingly plush-looking sofa. “It’s a little dusty, but pretty posh. Not bad at all. And we have the run of the place.” He looked smugly around him, a king surveying his land. “Much better than that plantation would have been.”
Nathan’s eyes dilated in the lowered light, focusing on the shadows darting from the weak sunlight through the old, heavy curtains. It was surprisingly nice, and not even all that dusty, he noted with an approving nod. A few cobwebs hung here and there and a thin layer of dust covered the multitude of shelves and bookcases, but much less than he’d have expected. The front door opened into a sizeable living room, but it wasn’t big enough to escape noticing Melissa start nibbling on Luke’s neck. Nathan sighed heavily and scanned the room for exits.
Ignoring the twittering couple, Nathan wandered to the right, admiring delicate carvings along the the woodwork lining the shelves. He walked past the multiple bookcases and opened the door, walking into a stately guest bathroom and nodding as though he were touring an open house. He cracked open the linen closet next to the standing glass shower and was surprised to find a stack of folded, clean-looking towels. A small alarm bell began ringing in the back of his mind and a growing sense of wrongness began to envelop him, at odds with the pants and giggles floating in from the living room. Why was all this still here? he wondered. If the house had been abandoned for so long, why had it not been looted? Squatted in? Something? He closed the closet door again and turned, opening the door into the next room. This room was dark, with barely any light getting past the thick window coverings, and his hand shot out instinctively to feel for a light switch. He flicked it on, and the room lit up. Frozen, Nathan blinked at the sudden illumination and at his hand, still hovering near the switch. He realized two things in that instant. First, they’d been fools to assume this place would have the electricity they’d need to set up their equipment. Second, it shouldn’t have it. Nathan backed out of the room, feeling his spine tingle. It shouldn’t at all.
5
“Bored yet?”
Morgan Snyder looked up from the quarter he’d been spinning absentmindedly in front of his computer screen to see Charlie Parker grinning at him. There seemed to be no malice in her face at the moment, which immediately put him on edge. The statuesque blonde agent had been less than welcoming toward him ever since he’d joined - and downright cruel before that, significantly marring her beauty in Morgan’s eyes. “A little,” he admitted, sliding the quarter back into his pocket.
“Get used to it,” she sighed, resting her head on her hand in a mirror of his pose. Her red lips were plumped into a pretty pout. “Feast or famine.”
They’d been sludging through files, newspaper articles, and Google for the past few weeks. “I just don’t really know what I’m looking for,” he confessed begrudgingly. “I thought our field assignments were handed down from… somebody.”
Charlie nodded. “Sometimes. Well, a lot of the time, actually. Most of the leads we find on our own turn out to be dead ends, perfectly normal. It’s rare that assigned tasks are ‘normal’ in any sense.” She shrugged and clicked on her laptop. “But it passes the time to look - and sometimes we do stumble on to our sort of cases without… help. You do learn what to look for after a while.”
It seemed to be an unspoken rule that no Unit 12 members spoke of their superiors directly, something that bothered Morgan deeply, as he’d never met them personally. However, he had discovered an unusually deep well of patience in himself, especially on this matter. He didn’t pretend to possess the abilities that Gina had, but he felt down to his core that he was here for a reason. His inclusion wasn’t accidental, or a mistake, as he’d first convinced himself. And this mystery - he felt sure - would reveal itself to him eventually, whether he wanted it to or not. Morgan wouldn’t press the issue, not yet.
“Refresh me. What should I be keeping an eye out for?”
Again, Charlie smiled at him - and again, there was no trace of her usual cunning or nastiness in it. He blinked in surprise. “Anything out of the ordinary. I know that’s horribly vague. We have contacts out there who will let us know if something seems up our particular alley, but sometimes we can find them anyway. Those conspiracy theorist sites stumble onto things out of their depth occasionally, and they’re fun to read even if they don’t. Think of it like a nice break.” She chuckled. “There’s a few radio shows that can be pretty useful. But in the media outlets we’re focusing on, just use your filters for ‘unexplained,’ ‘unusual,’ ‘weird,’ ‘impossible,’ the ones built into your searches… there,” she pointed at his screen. Dropping her hand, she rested it on his - it took him by surprise and he fought against the urge to snatch it away from hers. “It’s SO boring. It’s really just a crapshoot.”
He stared at her hand. She withdrew it, and to his continued shock, blushed slightly. Morgan noticed this in disbelief. He fought the urge to pinch himself to make sure he was awake.
“So,” she coughed, flushing a deeper red against the cascades of her blonde hair. “How is Gina coming along with the mosquito?”
‘The mosquito’ was Victor. Morgan knew Charlie had a deep-seated hatred for him, but not why. Sure, he was a bit creepy and Morgan had been advised he wasn’t human, but neither was Hanagawa and Charlie got along just fine with him. Most of the time. Morgan decided to be blunt. “Why do you hate him so much?”
Charlie’s piercing hazel eyes held his gaze for a moment, almost challenging, but then she looked down. She seemed to sag a bit, her sails losing the breeze. “Is it that obvious?”
A smile tugged at the edges of Morgan’s lips. “You are many things, Charlie Parker, but subtle is not one of them.”
She rewarded him with a small, sad smile. “Look, Gina just needs to be careful. I’ve told her that, but I know what it’s like for her. This new world has opened up to her, the tiny pool she’s been tapping into subconsciously her whole life - it’s turned out to be a wide, beautiful sea. I get it. And along he comes, offering to train her.” She must have noticed the alarm on Morgan’s face, because she reached out again and lightly touched his arm. “He can, he’s a good teacher. I’ll give him that much. That’s one of the reasons he’s allowed to stay.”
Morgan thought her word choices were telling - allowed to stay, he echoed in his mind. Allowed by whom? Why does he want to stay? Morgan stayed silent and let her continue.
“It’s just… he can’t help what he is, Morgan. He’s a vampire. He preys on us, by nature. He’s like… he’s like having a pet tiger and being surprised that it mauls somebody down the line.” She withdrew her hand and wrapped her arms around herself, shivering with a sudden coldness Morgan didn’t feel. “Sure, he gets his food safely, sanitarily, while he’s here. He even has said he prefers it. But I know it’s asking a whore to be celibate. Eventually, he’ll revert. Just wait and see. I can’t trust him.” She blinked hard. “Gina just needs to be careful. Use him for the lessons, keep her distance, then get and stay away.”
Morgan let the silence ferment between them, waiting to make sure she’d said her peace. This was miles and away
more than she had ever spoken to him before. Charlie sat in the silence, not looking up. Eventually he spoke quietly. “Have you told her all of this? As clearly as that?”
There was another minute of silence. Morgan wasn’t sure she’d heard him, but he waited patiently, channelling his tried-and-true method of letting the silence ferment. “I tried,” she finally replied. “She has no reason to believe me. I think she thinks I’m racist, or species-ist, or whatever, that I’m being unfair to him.”
I can’t imagine where she would have gotten that impression of you, he thought wryly, remembering her demeanor towards them at the O’Malley crime scenes. Regardless of this new, fuzzier Charlie Parker, he pretty much thought the same. It would take a lot more time before he could forget how unpleasant she had been. “I’ll keep a close eye on her,” he vowed. He would have done so anyway, he always did - but he felt an odd need to reassure this suddenly fragile-looking woman in front of him.
“Just watch out for anything weird or unusual,” she whispered. “Don’t let her distance herself from you.” She looked near tears, and the utter foreign nature of the situation made Morgan shake his head in disbelief. He was suddenly certain that something had happened to Charlie during her training, something that had made her erect walls of granite around herself, turning her into the cold, hard bitch he knew. Until now, for whatever reason.
He wanted desperately to ask what had happened. He was sure that - in this fleeting moment - she would actually tell him.
He didn’t.
Instead, he remembered the frantic, frenzied phone call that had awoken him several days ago. Gina had asked him not to mention it to anyone, said it was just a terrifying dream. But in her abject fear, that frightened Gina Harwood reminded him of no one more than this bizarrely new, broken Charlie Parker. “There was something strange,” he started uncertainly.
She looked up, her hazel eyes bright with unshed tears but ferocious. “Tell me,” she commanded.
6
His world was soft lips and a wet, warm tongue exploring his own, sending sparks down his spine. She smelled good, like baby powder and raspberries, scents that deluged him every time a strand of new hair fell towards his face. Luke pulled her in closer, sharply, causing her to break out in her girlish giggles again.
“Shh,” he whispered, biting playfully at her neck and her ears, eliciting little breathless gasps. He smiled. That was better.
Melissa stiffened, causing Luke to look around in irritation. He saw Nathan standing at the other end of the room, pale and trembling. Cursing inwardly at the interruption, he distanced himself from the girl. “Nathan, what’s wrong, man?”
“There’s electricity here,” he stated.
Hmm, hadn’t considered that, thought Luke. “Great, man. That’s a huge relief.”
Nathan’s eyes finally focused on him instead of staring creepily into nothing. “Relief? We’re in the middle of nowhere! Why is there electricity?!” Nathan’s voice was strained and he was almost yelling.
The front door opened to let Chris and Danny inside. “Um, I don’t know, but it’s a good thing…?” stammered Luke, taken aback by Nathan’s ranting. Melissa squeezed his arm, alarmed by the sudden change in Nathan’s demeanor.
“Rabbits are buried,” interjected Danny, miming a retch. “Thanks for that. Not exactly the way I wanted to start this thing.”
“We need to go. This place, there’s something too wrong about it,” Nathan’s voice had dropped almost to a whisper of regret. “I really thought it looked perfect.”
“Go?” Danny’s face was already red from exertion, but it flushed deeper. “Oh hell no, I didn’t just shovel my ass off to leave. It looks fine.”
“Whoa, yeah, no, what?” Chris slid past his larger friend smoothly.
“Nathan’s weirded out that the house has electricity,” stated Luke sarcastically, looking longingly at Melissa’s body. Nathan just nodded.
“Dude, there’s wires in the back. Electrical lines. This place is probably just wired into the nearest… I don’t know, hub or something,” replied Chris, confused at the tension in the room.
“This place is abandoned. No one lives here. Who’s paying the bill?”
Chris goggled at Nathan. “Who the fuck cares? They probably just forgot to shut everything off. It’s not like every light was blazing when we got here.” He walked over and clapped Nathan on the back. Nathan jumped, startled. “Dude, what is up? You spooked by a little light? Christ. You said you wanted creepy, I guess you got it.” Chris looked around. “Kinda looks like a gramma’s place, but whatever.”
“Show me,” said Nathan.
Chris blinked. “Show you what?”
“The lines,” he spat. “Show me the wires.”
Luke exchanged a glance with Melissa, who looked to be infected by Nathan’s irrational fears, sitting tensely on the edge of the couch. He shrugged at her and twirled a finger by his ear, grinning. She smiled back, tentatively, and leaned back slightly.
“Fine,” said Chris. “Fucking calm down.” He turned on his heel and slid past Danny again and out the front door, shaking his head. Danny lumbered to the side to let Nathan pass, staring after him. He watched the screen door close behind the two and waited until they disappeared around the corner. “Dude,” he said, turning back to shoot a confused look at Luke.
“No clue,” shrugged Luke.
⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼
“They’re right back here, headcase,” Chris called over his shoulder. Nathan was still stopped, staring down at where the rabbit pile had been.
“You guys did a good job,” he said, wonderingly. The ground was only barely heaped next to where the disgusting creatures had lain, and the stench which had been so overwhelming was almost entirely gone.
“Don’t sound too surprised, there,” Chris grinned under his unwieldy mop of hair. “Daniel did most of it. Guy’s a beast.” He was relieved to hear Nathan sound a bit more like himself. They’d always joked about Nathan snapping someday, look out for the quiet one, they’d said; this was a little too close to be funny. There had been a little too much wildness in Nathan’s eyes.
“Okay,” said Nathan, as if in answer to a question that hadn’t been asked. He stepped gingerly over the burial mound and around the back corner of the house. Chris gestured. Nathan followed the line from his pointed finger to the clear and obvious bundle of wires extending out from the house and up to a pole. They continued into the forest.
“See?” Chris dropped his hand and stroked his beard. “No big deal. Lucky break, really.”
“Just let me make sure,” Nathan said, walking toward the pole carefully, clearly intending to follow the wires to their destination.
Chris shook his head and tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to jump again. “Man, what is with you today? We got a lot to set up and a shit ton to get done - remember, I gotta be back at work next week.”
“I just want to be sure…” Nathan trailed off, uncertainly, eyeing the pole with diminishing suspicion. Everything certainly looked normal enough, and it was plausible that the electric company just hadn’t shut down the house if there was nothing being routinely pulled for it. He squinted and peered into the forest, following the lines with his eyes until they disappeared behind trees.
Chris exhaled sharply, annoyed. “Fine, if you want to go bushwhacking while we hook everything up and tape out your script, be my guest. Just try to be a little less freakshow when you get back. I think you scared the piss out of Melissa.” He turned and started heading back around the side of the house, muttering a low “Jesus Christ, get some therapy,” below his breath.
Nathan furrowed his brow, looking between the pole and his departing friend. Sighing, he turned and jogged a few steps to catch up to Chris. “Sorry. I’ve just been a little on edge lately, I guess,” he said, knowing he hadn’t been until just a few minutes ago. He inspected his own thoughts, wondering if the others were right to question his sanity.
Chris wou
nd his mouth down disapprovingly. “You think?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Nathan half-whispered, glancing back one last time toward the back of the house. The pole and the wire bundle weren’t visible from this side, and his anxiety spiked again. “Just me being dumb.”
“Well, stop. Luke says this is supposed to be an adventure!” announced Chris, waggling his fingers exaggeratedly. He stopped and rolled his eyes at Nathan. “But it’s actually supposed to be our music video, so let’s do this shit.”
7
Keeping her hand in her pocket and lightly touching the antique coin, she pushed out of the thick glass doors and beelined down the condominium-style houses towards her own. Gina didn’t think anyone would care if she cut her day short, and she wasn’t about to be useful in her current state. She needed one thing: sleep, and a lot of it.
Reaching her door, she fumbled for her keys and stumbled inside. Quickly, she stripped off her gun and her badge, placing them on the counter in an automatic movement, and dropped her clothes one piece at a time as she neared her bedroom. She didn’t care to be tidy. She only wanted the sweet release of dreamless unconsciousness.
Gina fell into her bed, naked and uncaring, clutching the coin in her fist under the pillow. Glancing up at the clock, she noted the time wearily - 2:56pm. Gina shifted under the blankets and closed her eyes, pushing down the anxiety that had grown to accompany her nights. I have the coin, she assured herself. Victor will keep me safe. She was asleep before she could notice the transition of her thoughts.
⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼
There was one dream.
It was not the same dream, but she did dream.
Even in the dream, she was exhausted. At least, she hoped, upon waking, that it was a dream.
