by Brian Harmon
“Your back?”
“Everything,” Jeremy admitted.
“I should’ve driven you to the emergency room.”
“I’m fine.”
“I hope so.” Violet walked back to the doorway and switched off the overhead light, leaving only the lamp on the end table to illuminate the room. “You’re lucky to be alive after a fall like that.”
“I know.”
The rest of the apartment was already dark. Corey had retired to his room an hour earlier, claiming that he was going to do some research. Jeremy assumed that meant surfing the web for articles on astronomical anomalies and alien abductions and text-messaging his friends.
For a moment, Jeremy lay there without reaching for the lamp. He realized that he couldn’t quite remember what he did yesterday. He thought he could remember getting up in the morning and going to bed at night, and he could almost remember watching something on television, but he couldn’t quite put it all together.
There was something extremely frightening about this lack of memory, something that gnawed at him and made him feel sick in his gut. A deep anxiety was quickly growing within him.
Perhaps he was suffering a severe concussion. Or perhaps it was even worse than that. Could he have actually damaged his brain in that fall? Surely he couldn’t sustain such an injury and simply walk away from it.
“Do you need anything else?” Violet asked. She was standing in the doorway, watching him with those brilliant eyes, reluctant to leave him.
“No. Thank you.”
But Violet continued to linger. She stood watching him for a while, her expression thoughtful. “Do you want me to get the lamp for you?”
He did not know why she continued to trouble herself over him. He never asked her to worry about him. She owed him nothing. He was only a stranger to her. She had no reason to even trust him. Curiously, however, he had begun to notice that he didn’t mind this extra attention. In fact, there was something very comforting about her presence. He’d never met anyone like her before.
“You don’t have to,” he assured her.
“I don’t mind.” She crossed the room, but hesitated before turning it off. “Need another pillow?”
“No.”
“Just let me know if I can get you anything.”
“I can’t remember who lives in the apartment next door.”
“What?”
Jeremy gazed up at her. “Or the landlord’s name. I don’t remember who I write my rent check to.”
“You probably just need some sleep,” Violet assured him, but her eyes were gravely concerned. He was frightening her.
“Yeah. Probably.” He lay there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling. He was exhausted, but he didn’t feel like he could sleep. There was something terribly wrong. He felt it more with each second that passed. A queer sort of emptiness was forming deep within him that he simply could not understand.
“Just try not to think about it. We can figure it out tomorrow, after you’ve rested.”
“Yeah.” He glanced at the lamp on the end table. “It’s stupid, but I’m almost afraid to turn off the light. I feel like…if I let myself go to sleep…I might disappear completely.”
Violet stared down at him. There was something stirring in her eyes that he couldn’t quite read, something subtle, but very profound. “Want me to leave it on?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“I am.”
“Just get some sleep,” she urged. “We’ll figure it all out in the morning. I promise.”
Jeremy smiled at her. She was very kind. He couldn’t remember ever meeting anyone as kind as her.
Violet reached over and turned off the lamp, plunging the room into shadow. As she turned to face Jeremy again, intending to wish him a good night, she suddenly began to scream.
Startled, Jeremy sat up, crying out at the pain that tore through his body as he did so. He turned, searching for whatever had frightened her, and froze as his eyes fell on the window behind the couch. There, staring in at them through the glass, was the same dark and shapeless creature they’d seen in the parking lot that afternoon.
How long had it been there, watching them? With the light on, it had been well hidden in the darkness behind the pane, contrasted against the bright interior. But now that the room was dark, it stood out plainly, clearly silhouetted against the streetlamps behind it.
It was only inches from Jeremy’s face. He could see no details, could not even discern the creature’s basic shape, but he felt certain that it was staring directly into his eyes.
He cried out, horrified, and scrambled from the couch, ignoring the pain that exploded within his aching body. He took hold of Violet’s arm and pulled her across the room, away from the window.
Loud footsteps thundered down the hall and then Corey was standing there beside them, staring at the queer, shapeless form.
Then it was gone. It was as if it simply melted away, sliding down the glass and dispersing into the other shadows.
“It came back,” Corey said. It was difficult to tell if there was any sign of surprise in his voice.
“What the hell is it doing here?” Violet cried.
“Did it follow us?” Jeremy wondered.
“How?” Violet asked. It was a very good question. After leaving the parking lot, they immediately began their search for Jeremy’s missing home. They must have driven up and down dozens of streets before finally giving up and returning to her and Corey’s apartment. The thing could not possibly have been tailing them the whole time.
Corey turned and left the room.
“Where are you going?” Violet called after him.
“To see,” Corey replied simply, as if going outside to get a closer look at a monster was something he did every night before bed.
“No!” Violet cried. “Don’t you dare go out there!”
But he was already opening the front door.
Jeremy bolted after him. He could not have said exactly why. He certainly had no desire to get a closer look at whatever was out there. Yet he found it impossible to allow Corey to venture outside alone. He ran after him, following him around the side of the building and ignoring Violet’s frightened protests.
He was surprisingly fast for his size. “Wait up!” he called, daring only to raise his voice to a loud whisper, but Corey didn’t stop until he was standing outside the window where they saw the creature.
“Gone,” he observed as he stared into the darkened window.
Jeremy turned and searched the lawn around them. There was a row of trees along the border between this and the adjoining property. Beyond these trees was an empty parking lot and beyond that was the street. Nothing stirred out there. “What was that thing? Why was it here?”
Corey had no answer for him, so he said nothing. He turned and walked along the building’s wall, toward the back of the property.
“Where are you going?”
“Just looking.”
“Be careful!”
“I am.”
“No, you’re not! If you were careful, you never would’ve left the apartment in the first place!”
“Just looking,” Corey said again.
Jeremy caught up with him and then kept pace beside him. “What do you think it is?”
“Don’t know.”
“Did you get a good look at it when it was in the window?”
Corey shook his head. “Disappeared too fast.”
Jeremy nodded. He figured as much. It only remained in the window for a brief moment after Corey appeared. He’d likely only gotten a glimpse of it as it vanished from sight, just enough to recognize it as the creature from the parking lot that afternoon.
Corey stopped at the back corner of the building and looked around at the lawn that separated it from the next. There was nothing out here.
“It’s a pretty big coincidence, don’t you think? I mean what are the odds that we would see something like that twice in one
day? Do you think it has something to do with me?”
Corey glanced down at him. “You’re the common variable,” he agreed.
“That’s what I’m saying.” Jeremy had a bad feeling about this thing. “You think it has something to do with what happened to me this afternoon, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
Corey’s honesty was brutally blunt. “I think so, too,” Jeremy replied. “I don’t know what happened in that office, but it was unnatural. So is this thing. It can’t be a coincidence.”
Corey turned and walked back the way they came. He paused again at the window outside his and Violet’s living room and then turned and scanned the yard again. But the thing was apparently long gone.
“I’m putting you in danger.”
“We don’t know,” Corey assured him.
“I’m not prepared to take a chance. I should leave. I don’t want it hurting you if it’s looking for me.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I also don’t want it hurting Violet. And neither should you.”
“Safety in numbers. We don’t know what it wants.”
“I’d rather not take the chance. I’m leaving.”
They did not have the chance to discuss the matter further. At that moment they heard a rustling in the branches of the nearest tree. Both of them turned, startled. It was there, wrapped around one of the branches like a coiled snake, a black, almost fluid shape sliding toward the trunk. It defied the parking lot lamps next door and remained perfectly dark, even when it passed through the light.
Oddly, Jeremy felt a sudden twinge of recognition. Something about this bizarre creature was familiar to him, but he could not recall ever seeing anything like it before today. He watched it ooze from branch to branch, fascinated, but also terrified.
“We should get back inside.”
Corey said nothing and did not take his eyes from the thing in the tree, but he did begin to move. Slowly, he began to shuffle away from the tree, careful not to lose sight of the mystery thing.
When they had retreated a few yards, the black creature suddenly dropped from the tree and thudded against the ground in a heap. Jeremy and Corey turned and ran as fast as they could back to the apartment.
Violet was standing at the door when they returned, waiting for them nervously. “Did you see it?” she asked as Jeremy slammed the door shut behind them and locked it.
Jeremy didn’t have time to point out that they wouldn’t likely have been running if they hadn’t seen it. At that moment, they heard the sound of breaking glass from one of the bedrooms.
“It’s in,” Corey announced, as if any of them were in need of his excellent skills of observation.
“What is that thing?” Violet asked.
“Whatever it is,” Jeremy decided, “I think we need to get as far away from it as possible. Where are your car keys?”
“In my purse.” She gestured toward the kitchen counter and he saw it immediately, right next to the hallway that led back to the bedrooms. She started to move toward it, but Jeremy grasped her arm and held her back.
“I’ll get it." He did not wait for her to protest. He started forward, his eyes fixed on the hallway. The door to Violet’s bedroom was open a little. The light was on, but from his angle, he could see nothing but a narrow swatch of the far wall. He could see no shadows, but he was certain there was something there, just out of sight.
Something gnawed at his mind, like a long-forgotten memory, and it was filling him with a strange and almost primal fear.
“Be careful!” Violet whispered after him. She did not have to worry about that. The last thing he wanted right now was to do anything reckless.
Slowly, quietly, he crept toward the counter where Violet’s purse was sitting. He could hear nothing from the bedroom, but he knew it was there. He could feel it somehow. It was lurking just behind the door, as aware of him as he was of it. It listened. It waited.
He had time to consider this strange connection he felt. Was it only his imagination? What was this thing? How was it related to his experience in the human recourse woman’s office? There must be some connection. Why else would this thing suddenly be so interested in him? There was certainly no reason to think that it could be after Corey or Violet.
He approached the kitchen counter and reached for the purse, but he froze as the bedroom door swung closed a few inches. Was it just a breeze from the window?
He forced himself to start moving again and closed his hand around the strap. At the same instant, the door began to swing open again. This time, something black and oily oozed out into the hallway. He could see strange, finger-like things caressing the carpet.
Violet’s purse in hand, he began to back away, his eyes fixed on the growing black thing in the hallway.
“What is it?” Violet asked. “What does it want?”
Jeremy had no answer for her, but as he stared at the black shape that was quickly filling the hallway, he again felt that strange sense of recognition. It was as if a memory surfaced for only the tiniest instant and then vanished again into the depths of his mind.
Why would he feel something like that? He’d never seen anything like this thing before in his life. He would have remembered something as terrifying as this.
As he continued to walk backwards, retreating from the thing in the hallway, it began to advance toward him. It moved slowly, as he did, keeping the distance between them constant as he withdrew back into the doorway where Violet and Corey waited.
“Just go,” Jeremy said. He held the purse out behind him. Violet took it from his hand and opened it. It took only a few seconds to locate her keys and then the three of them were backing out the door as the thing in the hallway began to swell into something larger.
Jeremy pulled the door closed and the three of them turned and ran for the Liberty.
* * *
Pain like he had never felt before dragged Jeremy from the depths of his sleep. “I won’t…,” he groaned as he opened his eyes and gazed out at the passing trees. It was still dark, and for a moment he remained caught in his nightmare, standing beneath a black and starless sky in a vast and toxic black sea.
“You won’t what?” asked Violet, glancing over at him from behind the wheel.
Jeremy turned and stared at her for a moment, trying to remember where he was. Everything seemed so fuzzy. He was about to say, “I won’t go back there.” But he couldn’t remember why he would say something like that. He wouldn’t go back where? That strange, black sea? It was only a dream. He’d never seen such a thing before. And yet the dream had been terribly vivid. “Nothing,” he replied. “Sorry. Just a dream.”
He sat up, wincing at the pain. It was everywhere. His back and neck ached. His legs throbbed. His head was pounding. It was even painful to breathe.
“You don’t look so good,” Corey informed him.
I don’t feel so good, Jeremy thought, but didn’t say. He pulled down the sun visor and peered into the vanity mirror. For a moment, he felt as if he were looking upon a stranger’s face. He barely recognized himself. Even in the darkness, he could see that there were dark shadows beneath his eyes and his skin was pale. He couldn’t remember ever looking so awful.
“I still think I should take you to the hospital,” Violet said. “You might have really hurt yourself. What if you’re bleeding internally or something?”
“I’m not,” Jeremy assured her, although he supposed he couldn’t possibly know that for sure. He pushed the visor back up. Even his hands ached. “I just got banged up real bad. That’s all. I knew I was going to feel it later.”
Violet said no more, but he could tell she wasn’t convinced. For that matter, he wasn’t sure he was even convincing himself. But he was certain that he did not want to go to the hospital.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he eased back into the seat and turned to stare out at the passing trees again.
“Doug’s place,” Corey replied, as if Jeremy
had any idea who Doug was or where he lived.
“Corey’s Uncle Doug,” Violet explained. “He has a little farm out in the country. We decided to go see him.”
“Okay. And what if that thing finds us out there, too?” Jeremy asked, although he had a strong feeling it was not “if” but “when” that thing found them again.
“Weapons,” Corey said. “Doug’s got guns.”
“He’s big into hunting and shit,” Violet explained. Her tone of voice told him that she didn’t really care for Doug’s hobbies. “He’s a huge, second-amendment supporter, if you know what I mean. He’s the only person we know who might be able to help us protect ourselves.”
Jeremy thought about asking what the plan was in case Doug’s personal arsenal wasn’t sufficient, but he already knew that there wasn’t one. Instead, he asked, “How much longer until we get to Doug’s?”
“Not much longer,” replied Violet.
Jeremy closed his eyes and slipped back into fitful sleep.
* * *
The Liberty lurched to the side and shook Jeremy awake again. They were on a narrow, gravel road, deep in the forest, and crossing a shallow stream.
“Sorry,” Violet said as she eased the lumbering vehicle up the next hill. “Doug kind of lives out in the boonies.”
Jeremy did not reply. He sat with his head against the window, staring out into the darkness that surrounded him. He did not like the darkness. Something about the darkness was troubling.
At the top of the next hill, they passed through an open gate. No trespassing signs were posted on both sides of the drive and a barbwire fence stretched out into the thick trees.
Violet crested the hill and then began a steep descent down a twisting driveway that brought them to a clearing where an old farmhouse stood.
“Don’t see Doug’s truck,” Corey observed.
“He’s not here?” Violet asked.
“Probably catfishing.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“You catch catfish at night.”
“Kind of cold out, isn’t it?”
“Doug don’t care.”
Violet parked the Liberty and killed the engine, but she left the headlights on. “So now what?”
“We go in,” Corey replied. “Doug won’t mind.”
