by Indi Martin
In it, she saw her bed, and her sleeping body sprawled out under the blankets. She noticed the clock from the strange angle of floating above her body - 12:38am. Gina chuckled mirthlessly - she had been asleep for almost ten hours. What a lazy sloth I am, she thought inanely. And I’m drooling on my pillow. Though it was pitch dark, she could see her bed clearly.
The coin was no longer in her hand. It was laying atop her body, over the blankets, and it seemed strangely larger. The five-pronged tree shape inscribed upon it was glowing a faint blue, almost pulsating. It was beautiful to her, and horrible at the same time, an ancient and powerful symbol. A warning and a siren’s call, but to what, she was not sure. She was just overjoyed that she was asleep. But I’m dreaming, she thought, flirting with lucidity. It’s not the same dream, but I am dreaming.
Movement caught her eye, just out of the corner. Shadows flitted about, lean and hungry, circling the perimeter of her bedroom. Occasionally they would emerge from their veils of darkness - through which she could not easily see - but be repelled by the glow of the talisman. She could only catch glimpses of skeletal bits, muscular sections, leathery wings that might have been limbs, and worse, teeth. Fangs that shifted, elongating, opening to reveal horrible, tentacle-like tongues. Each glimpse terrified her more than the last, and she didn’t want to look, but couldn’t look away. She felt sure that if she saw the things in their full form, she would die of fright. However, they flitted about, from one place to another, seeming to not traverse the distances between. They were impossible to count, moving as strangely as they were; there could have been only one, or a dozen. Circling her sleeping body, like a pack of wolves, hungry creatures from another world. Exhaustion tugged at her eyelids and she was falling down, toward the coin and the bed and her body. The talisman is here, she thought, wondering why she thought of it as such. Morgan will keep me safe.
She fell into darkness and sleep once more, without dreams.
8
“Yeah, over there,” Nathan directed Chris toward an overturned bookcase with some haphazardly arranged porcelain dolls lining shelves behind it. Chris quickly placed two strips of white tape in an “X” on the floor in front of them.
“You know I don’t like dolls,” he growled.
Nathan winked at him. “Kinda like a gramma’s place, huh?” he called out, quoting Chris from their strange first day. He was thankful that the following days had passed without incident, and he was much more comfortable now. He reveled in directing his small script.
Melissa giggled. “Vintage,” she added.
Luke gnawed on the end of his pen. “So, what are those lines?” he asked, pointing to the fishing line extending in a bundle behind and around the dolls. Chris scurried back into the other room.
“You seriously didn’t even read today’s pages?” Nathan exhaled through his nose. He wasn’t surprised, but did his best to feign it.
Luke wriggled uncomfortably. “You know, I trust your direction, Nathan. I don’t need to read them, I just need to listen to what you say.” He whipped off a mock salute, and grabbed Melissa’s hand, whirling her around in a quick dance.
“I was trying to rig the dolls’ heads so they would turn and follow you,” replied Nathan, ignoring the activity. “I think I’ve got it now.” He tugged on the bundle and the dolls’ responded in kind, wobbling a bit and turning to the right and up slightly. “It’s still not perfect, but it should do the job.”
“Movie magic,” said Luke, dipping Melissa with a flourish. She smiled and quickly kissed the end of his nose.
Nathan sighed.
The shoot had gone well so far, despite the nonchalant attitude of their lead singer. Chris and Danny seemed invested, now that the project was in full swing, reading the pages for each day and memorizing their marks. They’d managed to get enough signal to send their files so far to the cloud each day; their phones generally didn’t register anything, but the connection cards in their laptops seemed to pick up a wisp of a signal occasionally. Just enough. They’d edit later; Nathan just wanted to make sure they had more than enough footage while they were here. It was going well.
“Okay,” he started, adopting his directorial voice. Luke and Melissa separated and stood straight, attentive. “Luke, on the cue, you’ll start in the bathroom, singing into the mirror, picking up from the last scene.” Luke nodded. “Melissa, you’ll come up behind him and sort of… caress… him.” She nodded seriously. Nathan rubbed his temple and moved on. “Then the camera’s going to pan back to follow you out of the bathroom and across this room.” He walked over to the dolls to reposition their heads pointing toward the bathroom. “They’ll sort of follow you.”
Melissa grinned approvingly. “Creepy.”
Nathan nodded. “That’s what we’re going for.” He ducked out onto the patio to motion that they were ready for Chris and Danny, who would run the cameras for this scene. They had to share all of the duties depending on which members were being filmed at the moment, but Nathan was proud that no one had complained over any of the tasks laid before them. They were actually well ahead of schedule, he noted with approval.
“Do we just walk through the room, or dance through, or what?” asked Luke, cocking his head to consider the cracked porcelain heads on their ancient bodies behind him.
Nathan shrugged. “Whatever feels right, and is in beat with the music. We can try it a few times, might have to anyway if the rig doesn’t work.” He was in charge of the lighting for this scene and the special effects - if such a simple setup could be considered “special.” They were only worried about capturing video; the music would be edited in later. That prevented the need for things like boom mics and let more of them hold cameras; Nathan guessed they’d want to switch back and forth between the shots pretty often. Overall, considering none of them had any real experience (discounting Danny and Chris, who’d had a stint in their AV club in high school), he thought it was turning out to be pretty great.
“Aight,” answered Luke, walking gingerly over the lines taped on the floor. “Don’t trip on that when we come through,” he warned Melissa, pointing to the fishing line. She nodded solemnly.
“You wrote that you wanted Luke to resume singing at the other end of the room, with the dolls still in frame, do you still want that?” she asked Nathan quietly.
Nathan blinked. “Y..yeah, great,” he stammered, genuinely surprised that Melissa had read the notes.
She nodded in answer and padded into the bathroom, behind the door frame. She positioned herself out of sight of both the mirror and the cameras. Nathan was impressed.
“Hmmm,” mumbled Danny, trying to do the same. “Hey, Chris, slide over a bit.”
Chris did, and they were clear of each other, showing only Luke and the other room in the mirror. “Ready,” he called.
“Ok,” Nathan adjusted one of the lights slightly and sidled over to the iPod speakers. “Count of four on the music, then eight on the lyrics before you come in Melissa.”
“Yep,” she called from out of sight.
“And, action,” he said as he pressed the “play” button. Music filled the house, the haunting guitar floating ahead of the resounding bass and odd-tempo’d drumbeats. Luke peered hard into the mirror, as though challenging his own reflection, moving his head occasionally against the music. The vocals swooped in, and Luke half-sung them, looking down to the side at first and then snarling back into the mirror.
Down the hot wet streets of the faceless, nameless city
Down the sewer seeming tunnels of forgotten inhibition
Down the raving, twisting bodies there together for the fall
Melissa appeared as a shadow at first in the mirror, sliding effortlessly past Chris as she slunk closer behind Luke. Her right hand crept up over his shoulder, caressing his neck and jaw as he continued to sing, then her left hand, then all of her as he slowly spun, still singing, to face her. The cameras pulled back to focus on the real Luke instead of the reflection.
> Down the slick sweat-heat, trace your fingers down my body
Down the steamy, breathing floor, find your way to no escape
She smiled at him and grabbed his hand as she leapt out of the bathroom lightly, just after Chris and slid smoothly out of the door. He panned along with them, keeping the dolls in view as Luke stalked closer to her and spun her back around to his other side. Melissa danced along effortlessly, elfen on her feet, looking light and ethereal in the spotlights. Nathan tugged the string and the dolls’ heads wobbled to follow their movement; it was slight, but it was the best he could do. Luke pulled her in close, their lips almost touching, and mouthed the words as the vocals picked back up.
Down the endless, voiceless halls of twisting flesh and screaming metal
You drove me to burn
She breathed heavily and grabbed fistfuls of his hair, almost inhaling his words. As the music climaxed, she threw her head back… and screamed.
Nathan blinked, frozen.
Melissa spun quickly behind Luke and pointed at the bathroom, still screaming incoherently. Danny and Chris continued filming, but shot confused glances at each other. Chris panned the shot back at the bathroom and, seeing nothing amiss, back to the girl. “Do you not fucking see it? See him?!” she shrieked, pushing away from Luke and scrambling, almost falling, out the door to the patio.
“Cut?” offered Nathan.
Danny snapped his videocamera shut and peered around the door frame into the bathroom. “I don’t see anything,” he said, bewildered.
⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼
Finally breaking through the shock of the sudden sound, Luke whirled and ran outside. Melissa was sitting by the van, sobbing wildly. He approached her like he would a wounded animal. “Melissa?” he asked softly.
She wept and shook her head.
“Baby, what’s wrong? What did you see?”
“I’m not crazy,” she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks and blurring the heavy makeup she’d applied for the shoot. “I’m not crazy,” she repeated, burying her head in her knees and curling up tight.
He sat in the ground beside her and tentatively placed his arms around her. “Hey, hey, no one said you were crazy.” We’re all thinking it, but no one said it, he thought to himself, keeping his voice and facial expression carefully even.
“They said Nathan was crazy when he saw something,” her voice was muffled but she didn’t recoil from his touch, so he considered that an improvement.
“Nathan didn’t see anything. He just let his imagination get the best of him,” he said, soothingly.
“It wasn’t my imagination!” she snapped. “I DID see it, see you!” Her body was shaking underneath him.
“What did you see?” he repeated.
“You were in the mirror,” she whispered, barely audible from under her hair and her arms. “You were in the mirror, still, looking at me.”
Luke didn’t really know what to say to that, so he just held her in silence.
⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼ ⇼
“Looks like we got pretty much everything we needed to get,” said Chris, watching the replay on the tiny video screen attached to the camera.
“Mm-hmm,” replied Nathan absentmindedly, running his fingers over the mirror’s edge. He was looking for anything which might have spooked the girl. As vacuous as she seemed around Luke, she had been nothing but professional in her scenes. She was a good actress, but Nathan had no doubt that her reaction to whatever she’d seen was legitimate.
“Whoa, go back,” he heard Danny command. Nathan turned away from the mirror and rejoined the other two in the living room.
Chris let out a low whistle and looked up at Nathan. “Hey, come here and look at this.”
Nathan slid around behind him to peer at the viewscreen. It was paused, slightly blurred from the camera’s frenetic movement.
“This was when she screamed,” explained Chris. “I jerked the camera over and back.”
Crouching down to get a better view, Nathan took the camera and squinted. There was a reflection in the mirror, a close up of someone’s head and shoulders. There was no one standing in front of it, no one there to cast a reflection. “Is that..?”
“It looks like Luke,” said Chris, his eyes wide.
“It’s just a remnant, a video remnant or something,” asserted Danny in a shaken voice. “From the earlier scene.”
“That’s not really possible,” replied Nathan, flicking through the frames. “Video doesn’t work that way.”
Danny stood up and walked back over to the bathroom. Not taking his eyes off of the mirror, he reached in and pulled the door shut. Then, he flapped open one of the black cover sheets and laid it carefully over the porcelain dolls. He shrugged at Chris, who looked visibly relieved. “Can’t hurt.”
“She did see something in the mirror,” stated Nathan flatly.
“Do we have enough video?” asked Chris, taking the camera back from Nathan. “I bet we have enough. We could just fill in stuff at home.”
Nathan nodded slowly, thinking through what little remained of the script. “Yeah, we could.” He stood up. “Yeah,” he repeated, more firmly. “Let’s just pack up and get out of here.”
Standing slowly, dazed, Nathan walked out of the house as Chris and Danny began gathering their things wordlessly behind him. He saw Luke and Melissa sitting in the dust next to the van; she was still clearly upset and he appeared to be trying to calm her. Nathan approached them and signaled for Luke to break away. Patting the girl’s shoulder, he stood and walked to meet Nathan halfway. “What’s up?”
“I think it’s best if we leave,” started Nathan, expecting resistance.
Luke just nodded. “Sure,” he said. “Maybe we’ll stop by that plantation place.”
Nathan shrugged. “Whatever,” he said. “Anywhere but here.”
“It’s getting dark,” said Luke, looking up at the dimming light. “Should we stay tonight and leave first thing in the morning?”
“No,” interrupted Nathan quickly. “I think we should leave now.”
Luke opened his mouth to say something, but then looked at Melissa, still shaking, and sighed. “I guess.” He waved off Nathan, who walked back inside to help pack, and crouched next to her. “Hey, Mel, we’re going to leave, ok?”
She lifted her head, black lines running down her cheeks from her eyeliner, and nodded.
“I’m going to go help them get everything loaded out - can you guard the van?” He smiled warmly at her.
A small smile played on her lips and she rolled her eyes, nodding.
“Good girl,” he said, patting her on the arm again. She grabbed his hand and held it for a moment before letting him go.
The band was familiar with quick load-outs, and worked cohesively to get the van repacked. Danny left the black cover over the dolls, claiming they didn’t need it anyway. No one argued with his decision.
Light was fading fast when they packed themselves in amongst the equipment, and there was a chill in the evening air. “Gonna be a cold night,” remarked Luke as he hopped into the driver’s seat. No one responded, but Melissa flashed him a relieved smile. He turned the key in the ignition and the van started immediately, the engine growling loudly in the still night.
“Oh thank god,” breathed Melissa, laughing. “I thought… well, you know.”
Pushing the gas pedal and turning the van in a tight radius, Luke smiled grimly. Yeah, he knew.
The old van creaked through the turn and lined up to leave, and then sputtered loudly once… twice… and then lay silent, the engine stopped. Spewing obscenities, he cranked the ignition again, but the engine would turn over once and no more. Loudly, Luke jumped out of the driver’s seat, slamming the door behind him, and pushed open the hood.
The other band members spilled out of the sliding door, silently. Nathan illuminated the engine with his phone screen, a sad, small glow.
Danny shook his head. “Chris, go grab a flashlight.”
“What’s going on?” shrieked Melissa as Chris started rummaging around the equipment.
“Van’s old. She breaks down sometimes. I’m sure it’s nothing,” replied Chris, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. It was true, but that didn’t make it sound less hollow to him. Finding what he needed, he circled back to rejoin the others, shining the much brighter light under the hood.
“Better,” mumbled Danny, checking wires and connections quickly.
Nathan and Luke stood back, helplessly. They were of little use in these situations, and knew it, choosing to stay back and out of the way. “What if…” started Nathan.
“Don’t,” growled Luke.
The silence grew between them, as Danny worked his way over the old parts. Glancing back at the house, Nathan pursed his lips. “We could walk?” he offered.
Luke just glared at him in response. They all knew how far they were from civilization, and the night was growing colder by the minute. If the van couldn’t be fixed, they were stuck here.
Nathan looked down at his phone. Still no service. “A few of us could walk just far enough to get service,” he tried again. “Call somebody for help.”
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “See if the laptops have connection, maybe someone’s on chat.”
This seemed like a logical idea, so Nathan circled back around to withdraw his computer from its case, thankful to have something to do. The screen flickered on. He opened his browser and was dismayed to see a connection error. He handed the laptop to Melissa. “Do us a favor. Keep hitting refresh and see if anything connects, ok?”
She nodded mutely and took the computer into her lap.
A loud bang made them both jump and Nathan trotted back out to the front. Danny had shut the hood, and punched it twice for good measure. “No luck?” guessed Nathan.
“No,” he half-snarled in reply. “I can’t tell what’s wrong.”
“No connection?” asked Luke.
Nathan shook his head and shivered. It was beyond cold, now, and he gritted his teeth to keep them from clacking together.
