I stood watching as people lined up for their turn at wearing the Heart Mask. “Wearing the Heart Mask”, as I quickly learned, entailed the person putting on a large apron like you would wear getting your hair cut, bending down in front of the corpse with the excavated chest, and sticking your face into the wound. I was in such shock the first couple of times I saw it, all I could do was stare. A few people held their breath, but most came prepared with a long plastic or metal bendable straw that they would use as a snorkel of sorts during their macabre dive into that dark, wet cave. Everyone, to a person, came out with a bloody face that was smiling from ear to ear.
I looked over at Darcy, speaking in a low whisper. “What in the fuck have you brought me to?”
She winced slightly. “Sorry, I would have told you more but it was against the rules and you probably wouldn’t have come. And this is something I wanted you to experience. That I wanted us to experience together.” She paused and then added, “This is only my second time. The first time was in Topeka and it was not nearly as cool of a crowd….I mean, it worked, but I have high hopes for tonight.” I could tell she was excited, but I was past caring.
“What does ‘worked’ even mean? What’s the point? What’re the nightlands?”
She gave me a nudge to keep the line we were apparently in moving forward. “The Twins…they figured out a way to use a dead body to see into another world. I guess another dimension? I don’t know. But basically what you do is you open up the chest cavity like they did, then you pour some blood over the organs…usually they use a small bit of the Twins’ blood, though I have heard of other blood working, just not as well.” A look of irritation passed over her face. “They must have prepped the body with blood as soon as the opening was done, which is why we missed it. That’s how they did it before at least.” She waved her hand as though wiping a thought away. “Anyhow, they put the blood in, then you stick your face into the hole. Eyes open or closed, I don’t think it matters. After a few seconds you will realize you can see something. Another place. They call it the Nightlands.”
The line was moving up again. “So you understand how insane this is? Are they putting LSD in the corpse or something?” I was whispering, but as I got more angry and afraid it was becoming harder to keep my voice low. “What you’re saying isn’t possible, and either way, I’m not sticking my face into a fucking dead body.”
Darcy’s mouth grew into a thin line. “Look, I get it. You’re not used to this kind of shit. You’re freaked out. But I’m telling you it’s okay. The bodies are always clean and disease-free, and all you have to do is wear the Mask for a few seconds. Then you can go if you want. But I hope…”
“Uh, no. I’m leaving right now. And if anyone tries to stop me I’ll call the cops.”
Darcy suddenly stepped forward, grabbing my shirt tightly. Her eyes were fierce as she spoke. “Look, you need to wake up here. If they want to, they can kill you and leave your body parts strewn across three blocks before a cop gets here. But they won’t do that. They’ll ask you to stay. When you refuse, they’ll step aside and let you go. Then a month from now you’ll just fucking disappear.” She rolled her eyes. “And since I brought you, I’ll probably get the same or worse. Is that what you want?”
“No…I just…”
She nodded, releasing my shirt and handing me a plastic straw. “Good. Then sack up and let’s get through this. If you don’t want to see me any more after tonight, I get it. But for the next thirty minutes I need you to still be my boyfriend and act like you give a fuck.”
I wanted to respond, but I didn’t see the point. I knew she was being manipulative, playing on my feelings for her and any sense of chivalry I possessed to get me to go along with it. But at the same time, I didn’t think she was lying. She had gotten us in with a very dangerous crowd, and I was going to have to see it through.
Ten minutes later and it was Darcy’s turn. The grey-haired woman that had greeted us earlier had rushed ahead and was already in a corner wiping off her face with a wet nap. We were at the end of the line, with only one thin, sullen-eyed teenage boy behind me. I felt like I could barely breathe, torn between dreading what was coming and just wanting it over with. Looking around, most of the people were in small clusters, talking excitedly or wiping themselves off. The Twins stood apart from the rest, watching silently, small smiles on their pale, perfect lips.
Then Darcy was turning to me, her face dotted in spots with gore. I realized that much of the blood had already been blotted away by the preceding nutjobs, and this led to me thinking about putting my face in the same spot as all those people, clean corpse or not. I inwardly cringed, but it was too late to worry about that. Darcy was looking at me expectantly, so I clinched the straw between my teeth, making sure the other end was pointed out behind my head, and I bend down. Even now I could feel and smell the cold radiating off the body, and at this distance I saw the internal organs inside far too clearly. I felt my gorge rise and fought it back down. Time to get it done. Count to ten and you’re out of here.
I put my head inside, my eyes closed and my breath held tight in my lungs. I had no intention of being inside long enough to need to actually use the straw. I felt slick softness press against my face as I leaned in, the rough edges of the sawed ribcage lightly scraping my right ear as my head sunk down. I began counting in the dark behind my eyelids.
One. Two. Three.
Something…I saw something. At first I thought it was just the weird flashes and afterimages you see when your eyes are closed and pressed against something, and I kept counting.
Four. Five.
No, I was actually seeing something. It was a wide swath of beach bathed in pale moonlight. The sand looked like green powder, but it was hard to tell for sure. I wanted to turn my head, and I found that at the mere thought my vision rotated to look out at the black ocean. The water was calm at first, with no sign of waves or tides, but then further out I saw a stirring. Something large was coming out of the water.
Its head and long craning neck were above the black mirror of the ocean as it surged toward the shore, its anvil-shaped head covered with glowing spikes of amber that I somehow understood were its eyes. I knew that it could see me, that it was looking at me. And I had a sense that it was feeling the same thing I was. Familiarity.
As it drew nearer, I could hear a strange song coming from it. It was singing to me. And I could feel my heart swelling and thrumming in-tune with an answering rhythm. I had never felt more joy or rightness in my entire life, and when I was suddenly pulled away from that slowly decaying corpse, I let out a wail like a child being ripped from the warm comfort of the womb. I struggled with unknown hands to go back in, but a voice cut through my frenzied need and caused me to turn and look for its source.
It was the woman known as Janie. She was smiling at me and placed a hand on my filthy cheek as I looked at her.
“There, now. Come back to us. You did so well.” I felt a small stir of pride as I tried to get my bearings back in the old, lesser world. “Your friend, she said this is your first time?” I nodded dumbly, the sound of her voice filling me with a sense of profound comfort and pleasure. It somehow reminded me of the music I had heard in the Nightlands. I said as much, my words coming out slow and mumbled. Janie’s eyes widened, and I saw her brother stirring in my peripheral view as well. “Music? So you heard music when you were there?”
I nodded again. “It was wonderful. It came from…I don’t know what it was…but I knew it somehow.”
Janie’s smile had widened, and she had tears in the corners of her eyes. Martin had stepped forward and was slapping me on the back, congratulating me about something. I still was unclear what exactly was going on, but I supposed it was good. I just wanted her to keep talking, and I wanted them to help me get back to that wonderful place again.
A man wearing some kind of tactical vest and sporting what looked like a submachine gun suddenly stepped up and whispered in Martin’s ear. Before I would have been terrified at the idea of armed men hiding in the shadows, but now it was more a curiosity. I did want to hear what he was telling Martin that caused his good mood to sour so quickly, but all I could make out was a couple of words that sounded like “mouse” and “claw”. It made no sense, but it provoked a strong reaction nonetheless.
Martin glanced meaningfully at Janie and then turned to me. “We’ve just learned we’re about to have some uninvited guests in about five minutes, so we’re about to go. We would love for you to come with us if you’re willing.”
I glanced at Janie and then back to him. “Yeah, sure. I want to. I want to understand.” Janie beamed and gave me a quick hug. As she pulled away, she glanced past me.
“You can bring your friend too, if you want.”
I turned to follow her gaze and saw Darcy standing a few feet away, her face only partially clean and her mouth hanging open. I had forgotten about her completely, but I didn’t really see how she mattered now anyway. “I guess she can come if she wants.”
Darcy’s expression grew hurt, but she bounced back quick enough to say she would love to join us, stepping forward to take my arm. I fought down a wave of irritation and looked back to the Twins. Martin handed me a towel and beckoned for us to follow.
Two minutes later we were down some back steps and getting into a black SUV that was ready and waiting just outside the building. As we drove off, I saw the angry, orange glow of the fires being set on the third floor. Journeying through the dark, I soon grew drowsy in the companionable silence of my new friends, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
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Credits
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