I started running toward them, the black flowers crumbling as I went and leaving a trailing scar in the dark field behind me. Connie was attacking the man, hammering his head and shoulders with blows as he held onto Andy, arms locked around him in a bearhug from behind. The thing called Burke ignored her efforts to free Andy, but I did notice a change in him as I drew closer. A change in him, or at least around him.
There was a shadow there—call it an aura or a shimmer or some kind of anti-glow that seemed to eat away at the light around the man—but there was something there with him, wrapped around him or a part of him. And as he held Andy, this thing held Andy too, spindly grey legs digging into him like a spider made of smoke or ash. And even before I reached them, I could see that they weren’t just holding Andy.
They were eating him.
Andy had still been struggling feebly when I first arrived in the field, but as I charged the last few feet, I could tell that he was already gone. Still, I had to try and stop this thing. I’d stopped the other version of this man somehow, so maybe I could do the same thing to this one. Putting my shoulder down, I leapt forward in a tackle, thinking that at the very least I should be able to distract it long enough for Connie to get away.
The next moment I was flying through the air in the opposite direction, my face and shoulder on fire as I landed and slid several feet before coming to a painful halt. I was dazed, and my back had now joined my face and left shoulder in a echoing chorus of agony. I could barely think it hurt so bad.
I didn’t have time for this. For any of this. I had to get Connie out of here. Get us both out of here and away from whatever that thing was that had just killed Andy. It felt like I had several things broken, but how could that be, really? Wasn’t this just a dream? I couldn’t really get hurt in here, could I?
But I knew that was a lie. Andy had really died in here, and I somehow innately understood that back in the “real world”, his body was dead as well. This wasn’t a normal dream, if it was a dream at all. What happened here counted, and that thing was in control. Struggling, I pushed myself up with my right arm. I tried to talk, but it was hard at first. My face was going numb now, but from what I could still feel, I thought there were pieces of my cheek moving around independent of each other. Closing my eyes and concentrating, I tried again.
“Take me. Let…let her go. It’s me you want.”
I opened my eyes again. I could see the man well enough through the path my body had cleared after he swatted me away. He had Connie’s throat gripped tightly in one hand, ignoring her as she frantically kicked at his side. Letting out a chuckle, he shook his head.
“You arrogant little shit. You think this is a negotiation? You think you’re in a bargaining position? I’m God in this place. My will is the law. Just because you are useful to me, it doesn’t change anything.” He snapped Connie’s neck without looking at her, and in the next moment I saw several lines of eager shadow caressing her body. “I don’t need your permission to take you, Daniel. Your natural talent and resistances mean very little other than a slight delay. I’ll feed on her, on the fools that led her here, and then we will conclude this…annoyance. You just stay there. I’ll be with you shortly.”
I was suddenly flung back down into the dirt as though invisible hands were pinning me to the ground. I tried to fight back, to move at all, but I couldn’t. Thinking back to the meeting with the duplicate of Burke, I tried to summon that same anger and willpower. To force things to be as I wanted them to be.
My arms moved slightly, and I could feel a shift in things, as though I’d gained the slightest leverage or strength I hadn’t had a moment before. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough. This man-thing was far too strong and he’d killed these people because of me and now I was trapped in here with…
“Just stay calm and quiet. I’m going to help you out of here.”
I would have jumped if I’d been able, but as it was, I just rolled my eyes in the direction of the voice. I found the face of a young girl staring down at me, her expression hard but her eyes worried. I muttered out “who…” before she shook her head.
“Just listen. My name is Lark. That man, Burke, used to be my friend. I’m going to try to stop him again. I’ve done it before, so maybe it’ll work. But you,” she put her hands on my arm, and immediately I felt the pain and numbness going away. “You can’t be here. He can’t get you. It would be really bad.” She glanced up as light flashed across the sky. “Okay, he’s fighting the two assholes that were hunting that poor girl. But they won’t last long.” She looked back down and gave me a nervous smile. “You’re going to be stiff, but you should be okay. Just…” She glanced back up. “Fuck, the woman is down already.”
Leaning down, Lark whispered in my ear. “I’m pushing you back out now. Waking you up. When you get there, get up and run. That place isn’t safe. Don’t try to help anybody. It’s too late for any of them. And if you get caught, you’ll get pulled back here.” She glanced up again. “Oh, and if you see a fox, trust him. His name…”
A roaring voice boomed across the field, making more of the black sunflowers around us shiver to pieces.
”Lark! I can smell you! I know you’re here! Come out so I can see you when you die!”
A look of fear flashed across her face as she looked at me one last time. “Remember. Run.” With that, she leaned down and kissed my forehead. Her lips were cool on my hot skin, and…
…then I was awake. I rolled over on my side, vomiting with a forceful spasm that shook my whole body. But I…I was okay. My joints ached and my face and arms felt strangely hot, but I could move again, and it didn’t feel like anything was broken. I wanted to scream, to cry, to huddle in a corner until I could convince myself it had all been a bad dream. But that was a lie. A very dangerous lie. And I had to get moving. Now.
I grabbed up my clothes and shoes, pausing to listen at the door for just a moment before opening it. The hallway outside was empty, and as I moved toward the elevators, I felt some relief that I saw no sign of anything being wrong. Still, it was strange, wasn’t it? Shouldn’t there be some of the staff wandering around or something?
As I rounded the corner, I glanced left as I turned toward the elevators. Down the other hallway, toward the conference room where we’d had our orientations…I could see someone’s foot jutting out from past the curve of the wall. It was just the edge of a pant leg and a black sock capped off with a scuffed brown loafer, but the strangeness of it slowed me for a moment.
Based on the angle, they had to be laying down. Maybe they had passed out or were hurt? I wanted to go check on them, see what was wrong. I could already hear a part of my brain arguing that there was no harm in just looking. That it might help me understand what was going on better. I felt myself hesitating, beginning to turn toward the other hallway instead of the banks of elevators.
Remember. Run.
Shaking my head, I turned back and ran the last few feet to the nearest elevator. Stabbing the button, I felt a surge of relief as the doors opened immediately. We were on the sixth floor, and it only took a few seconds for me to reach the lobby. My initial plan was to bolt as soon as the doors opened, running from the building and not stopping until I reached the car.
But as soon as the door opened, I saw the elevator across from me was open as well. Blocked open in fact, by a man in a short-sleeved dress shirt, a green tie, and…he was dead. He was dead and propped up in the doorway of the elevator like he had been posed, his eyes wide and staring up into nothingness. And someone…
Someone had carved the number “1” into his forehead.
It felt as though all the air had been sucked from my lungs. Struggling for breath, I poked my head out far enough to see no sign of other bodies or anything else near the elevators. I didn’t think it was safe to run blindly, but I still needed to get moving and get away while I could.
So I left the elevator, moving slowly out into the main lobby. There…There was a woman…she had been pinned against the far wall, somehow crucified ten feet up and left hanging upside down. Her bare chest was scored with what was either a six or an upside-down nine. My eyes frantically darted around for any sign of movement, any indication of whoever did all this still being around, but I saw nothing.
Nothing other than the mound of ruined meat stacked up on the security desk. Stifling another surge of nausea, I could see tattered scraps of clothing mixed in with the body parts…it must be the guards that worked the entrance. Maybe I could find a gun or something over there. I wouldn’t take long, but looking for just a second might…
Someone tapped me on the shoulder.
When I spun around, I saw it was a man. His face was lean and angular, framed by long, silver hair and set with intense eyes that seemed to brighten slightly as they fixed on my own. Giving me a thin smile, he produced a laminated black card from the pocket of his bright purple windbreaker, handing it to me with a magician’s flourish. Hands trembling, I read the words written there.
I’ve been waiting for you.
---
Credits
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