John, this is all going to be hard to believe. Maybe impossible. I know I’ve tried to tell you the truth in the past and it never works, but now that you’re in it…well, I have to try again before it’s too late. For both of us.
So all I ask is that you listen to the crazy-sounding woman waking you up in the middle of the night. Try to really hear what I’m saying and try to remember it. Try to remember me.
Yes, I know you. And you know me…at least when you’re not made to forget. It still gets me how well they can control us. How they can control everything. I don’t know how they do it or what they really are but…wait, that may not be true. I think they’re tampering with my memory even now, and there are certain things that I feel like I do know, but they’re slippery things, laying just outside what I can see or reach to pull into the light.
Either way, I can only tell you what I know right now.
We know each other because we’re married. We’ve been married for six years and we’ve known each other for over eight. Ruby knew me through that Godawful non-profit we both worked at, set the two of us up, and…well…we just clicked from the start.
Stop! Please, just stay in here and listen to me. I know how it sounds to you. I know how they fuck with your head. But soon there will be men dressed like cops at our door and they’ll take me away, even though you haven’t called 911 yet. So just give me this little time with you. Please.
Thank you. I…I don’t mean to get emotional. But I remember most everything most of the time. I remember you and our life together. This house, our plans, all of it. I miss you so fucking much, and every night, when they’re through with me, I wake up back here, watching you sleep, wanting to stay here forever. Just so they can take me away again.
This has all been going on for a long time. It’s hard for me to gauge time exactly, but best I can tell, I first went to the True Horror Movie Experience almost four years ago. I know, I know. But I’m telling you the truth. They invited me and I went. Initially you were going to go with me, but then you came down with a stomach virus at the last minute. I almost stayed home too, but we’d booked it months in advance and were so excited about it. You told me you wanted to make sure at least one of us got to go.
I barely remember the first few days of it now. They tweak your perceptions and what you know based on what suits them at the moment. Memories, skills, relationships, they all get shifted around. You get all scrambled, but it doesn’t really matter, because you’re always going in the direction they want you to go. Over time I started to remember more, whether that was due to building up a resistance or them wanting me to know what was going on.
In the end, I don’t know that it matters. Most days are the same. I mainly sleep during the day, and when I wake up, I’m stuck in some kind of horrific situation where I’m being chased or terrorized or killed. Then I wake up again here, get drug back to the Farm…at least most of the time…and then I get to start a new nightmare the next day.
I…I don’t even know that I’m me any more. I don’t understand how I could be alive or sane, so maybe I’m not. But I do know that you’re you. I still feel the same love and excitement and sadness when I see your face, and even if it’s too late for me, I have to keep trying to save you.
Don’t…shit, that’s them. See, I told you they’d come whether you called or not.
Don’t take the pills they give you. They’re poison. Venom. Fuck, I don’t know. Don’t take them. Try not to go at all. Try to stay awake and remember all this. Remember what’s happened already. Remember that you know me and that you love me, if you can. But most of all, please, remember not to take the pills and to never go near those people again. Run if you have to. Start over. But don’t let them trap you the way they have me.
I couldn’t stand it if I knew you were stuck in Hell beside me.
“Congratulations on being selected to participate in the True Horror Movie Experience. This is your orientation for Night 2.”
“The yellow pill you’ve been given is wholly safe and all-natural. Taking the pill is a mandatory requirement of participation, but rest-assured, it’s only purpose is to temporarily enhance your imagination and suggestibility.”
I glanced over at George, who was already popping his pill with a grimace. Giving me a strange look, he leaned closer as Swan continued to talk. “Make sure you don’t leave me behind, okay? I don’t remember last night so well, but I think maybe I got left alone part of the time.”
Frowning, I gave him a nod. I didn’t remember the night before well either, which was strange, but somehow not alarming. I vaguely remembered being really tired the night before, and when I got home I went straight to bed. Even now I felt tired, and that’s after managing to sleep through two alarms until almost noon. Still, I couldn’t imagine that we’d have left him behind, at least not on purpose.
Turning to look at Ruby, I saw she was holding her yellow pill up to the light like a jeweler inspecting a small gem. She looked worn down too, and she’d been nervous and fidgety on the ride over. Had the night before been that exhausting, or was something else going on? I felt a brief tug in my chest at the thought—a moment of panic without a clear source or reason.
Then I realized Swan was asking me if I was ready. I looked back to find that Ruby had taken her pill as well and they were all waiting on me. Licking my lips, I swallowed my own and chased it with a cup of water. As I pulled on the black hood, I felt a buzz of nervous excitement and anticipation, but it was tainted with a constant low thrum of unease. Something just wasn’t…
“…right here.” Ruby gestured around at the empty promenade. “This is supposed to be a popular amusement park, right? But it’s like ten-thirty in the morning and we’ve seen like…what, maybe a dozen people?”
George nodded absently as he shrugged. “It’s not peak season probably, and it only opened at ten. Maybe we’ve just missed the rush. And no people means no lines, right?” He pointed to a nearby sign pointing the way to a rollercoaster. “Let’s go try out ‘The Hunter’s Blind’.”
We angled in that direction, but I was still thinking about what Ruby had said. Wizard’s Folly was a pretty popular amusement park, even if it was out in the middle of nowhere. It had won awards going back years, and when I bought our tickets I remember the pictures showing every ride and attraction filled with people. Even if this wasn’t the peak season, the emptiness of the park seemed strange. But it wasn’t just that…
“It’s the way people are acting.” I spoke out loud before I realized it, glancing around with embarrassment before meeting Ruby’s eyes. “The people at the ticket booth, the few people we’ve seen walking around, they all seem…off somehow. Like they want to be mean or hostile or something and are just holding it back so they don’t get fired.”
She nodded and pointed a finger towards me as we walked. “Exactly. Except it’s not just the people that work here. I went over to the water fountain when we came in and there was this little girl and her dad over there. Not getting water, or really doing anything. Just standing there like they were waiting for something or didn’t know what to do. Standing and staring.”
Ruby grimaced slightly at the memory. “Until they saw me. Both of their faces changed. It was like you’re saying. It was almost like they had to hold themselves back from jumping me. Even the little girl.”
George let out a sigh. “Goddamn, will you guys relax? If you didn’t want to come, you should have said so. But whatever this derpy creepy shit is…it’s killing my fun, man. Can we just check the place out? Ride a couple of rides? If we decide it sucks, we’ll leave. Sound fair?”
I nodded and Ruby grumbled affirmatively. And as we made our way down the path to the rollercoaster, I kept looking for more people or signs of normalcy. I saw a pair of teenage kids staring sullenly at us from a nearby bench, and then an old woman looking out at a set of empty pens that at one time in the past or future had probably been intended as a petting zoo. Now it was just barren and strange, just like everything else around here.
“See? No lines.” George was gesturing toward the empty zigzag of railing leading up to the small building where park attendees were loaded into The Hunter’s Blind. Except today we were the only attendees at the ride, and as we headed up to the rollercoaster platform, I felt my stomach begin to clench apprehensively. The ride had to be closed or something. Or maybe it wasn’t safe and they were working on it. Something had to explain why…
“Step up and pick a seat. Two to a row please.” I jumped slightly as I saw a wan-looking girl step out of the shadows near the edge of the platform. She gestured feebly toward the waiting rollercoaster cars while favoring us with a watery look that carried the same underlying malice I’d been feeling since we got there. My eyes began to water as well at the strange, minty smell that was wafting towards us from the girl. What was that, menthol rub?
The three of us slowed to a stop and I raised my hand. “Hey, um, is this ride okay? I mean is it open and safe and all?”
The girl focused on me slightly more, a muscle jumping in her neck so hard I could see it at a distance. “Safe? Why yes, it’s safe…..as houses.”
George frowned, first at the girl and then at me. I knew him well enough to see that his stubborn insistence that nothing was wrong was warring with the obvious wrongness all around him. In the end, his pride won out. Poking me in the ribs with a thick index finger, he scowled. “Come on, fucker.” George then glanced past me to Ruby and his gaze softened slightly. “Let’s try to have a good time, yeah?”
He climbed into the first row of the car and I followed into the second. Ruby had been right behind me, but I looked away for a moment as I pulled my shoulder bars down. That’s when she started to scream. I tried to turn, but the padded bar across my chest kept me from moving too much. All I could see at the edge of my vision was that Ruby was being attacked, either by the girl or someone else, I couldn’t say for sure. I started pushing against the bars, and ahead of me George was doing the same while yelling and cursing. They didn’t budge.
Giving up on pushing them up, I started trying to slide out from the side. I made it part way out and was craning my neck to see what was happening to Ruby when her bloody hand reached out and grabbed my arm. I tried to hold on to her wrist, but it was slick and I began to lose my grip almost immediately. Pulling with one hand, I used the other to push my way past the bar so I could get out and help her.
That’s when the rollercoaster started.
Everything jerked and jolted forward, and then Ruby slipped from my grasp. I looked back to see her being pulled into the shadows at the far end of the platform, her eyes and mouth circles of terror and agony as she screamed out for us.
“Don’t go! Don’t leave meeeeee!”
“Fuck fuck fuck!” I heard George’s screams above the rattling of the rails beneath us and George’s own flailing as he continued to work himself free of the safety bars. He finally managed to get where he could turn around and peer at me between the headrests with crazed eyes. “We have to go back and help her right now. Before those crazy fucks kill her!”
I nodded, clutching the bars beside me as we twisted up and down along the track. “I know. We will. But we have to wait until we come back around!”
He shook his head and yelled again. “What?”
“We have to wait! We’ll come back around…wait, we’re slowing down.” I looked over the edge of the car. We were at one of the highest points on the rollercoaster’s path, a long straight stretch before one final high peak and a long, spiraling drop. But instead of moving at speed toward the drop-off, we were slowing to a crawl. In another few seconds, we were completely stopped.
“What the fuck? They’re keeping us here so they can fucking hurt Ruby!” He started clambering out of the car and I had to stand up and push him back down. He looked ready to punch me and I held up my hands.
“Calm down. You’ll break your neck. Let’s think for a second.” Looking around, a thought occurred to me. “Our phones! We can call the cops on our phones!” George was already shaking his head. “They make you lock your phones in lockers when you come in, remember?”
“Fuck. You’re right. Well, maybe we can…” But it was too late. George was already back over the side, step hopping down the track toward…what? A service ladder maybe? Or did he think he could just walk down the steep drop on the other side of the rise? Fucking moron. There was already a stiff wind picking up, and I watched his steps grow less steady as he pushed on against it.
I felt anger flaring in my chest. Anger at someone hurting Ruby, anger at George for being so reckless, and anger at myself for being a coward. I didn’t want to risk falling, and I didn’t want to get attacked by whoever was hurting Ruby. I wanted to help her, of course, but I clearly wasn’t willing to go as far as George was. I tried to tell myself that was okay, that he was the one with the crush on her, and that the two of us hadn’t dated for years. But it sounded hollow, and I was still debating going after him when I saw the first hands poking up through the rail slats between George and the rollercoaster cars.
“George!” I screamed as I stood up in my car, the immediate sense of vertigo temporarily overridden by blind panic and fear. “Something’s coming! They’re coming for us!”
He turned around, first looking angry, and then registering my words, terrified. George’s eyes fell on the first figures that were crawling up onto the track with us. This close, and with the wind blowing past them on its way to me, I could smell the twin stenches of mint and rot thick enough to gag me. Wiping at my eyes, I yelled for George to run even as I realized he had nowhere to go.
I could see in his face he was realizing the same thing as the first of the figures stood up and started toward him. It was a little girl, maybe the same one Ruby had mentioned before. But how could it be? This girl was clearly rotting—gray, mottled skin peeking out from the sleeves of her faded sweater, and it looked as though the climb up the rollercoaster track had scraped away several bits of decaying flesh on her legs and cheeks.
Yet despite all that, her voice sounded loud and strong as she paused and let out a strange, chittering cry. I shuddered as the half-dozen rotting people standing with her echoed the sound, and this was followed by many more. Some distant, some directly below us.
One right behind.
I started to turn as a hand dug into my shoulder, sinking in past the skin and muscle to reach the bone. Screaming, I tried to twist away, but it was too late. I was yanked backward into the row behind me, the silhouette of my attacker a dark, upside-down shadow as I looked up into the steel-gray sky. I felt raindrops begin to fall on my cheeks, and it was only as the thing above me leaned down that I realized it wasn’t rain at all.
It was Ruby drooling on me. Her right eye was gone and her lips had been torn to ribbons, but she still managed a ghastly version of her old smile as she pushed down on my shoulders and leaned forward with another of those chittering sounds. For a moment she just looked at me, but then her face was rushing into mine, darting forward for an impulsive kiss after all this time.
Pain exploded as her teeth sank into my nose at the base. She bit harder and twisted as everything began to flare black around me. I was only distantly aware as she kept tearing at me, and I had the dim thought that at least it would be over soon. I would be dead and I wouldn’t have to worry about any of this pain any more.
Then I realized that Ruby was talking to me as she chewed. Thick streams of crimson saliva trailed out of the corners of her mouth as she chittered, and as the pain in my face began to fade and new pains flared to life, I began to understand what she was saying.
She was saying that we were dead, but we still hurt. We rotted, but were never fully gone. We gorged, but were never really full. The only way to lessen the pain was to kill more, to add more, to share and spread out the burden until it was more bearable. She said that once the world was dead, we could all finally be at peace.
And then we could all rot away together.
I vomited on the immaculate blue gray carpet as I came around. Swan wrinkled her nose and rolled her chair a foot to the left before offering me a sympathetic smile. “Rough one, hun?”
I wiped my mouth as my stomach hitched again. “You…ugh…you could say that. Fuck this.” Ruby was already standing unsteadily on her feet. Rubbing her forehead, she shot the other woman a scowl as she held out her hand.
“John, you ready to get out of here?”
Nodding, I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Yeah, sorry I dragged you to this shit. Let’s go.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
I looked around at Swan. “Lady, if you fucking think we’re paying more for this after that...” I swallowed bile in the back of my throat. “Well, we’re not.”
The woman chuckled and shook her head. “No, of course not. Every night has been taken care of by your original payment and agreement.” She held out a pair of orange cards. “Comment cards. We like to get responses while everything is still fresh in your mind. No rush, of course, but if you can just bring them back with you tomorrow night.”
I stared at her incredulously. “Ma’am, maybe you haven’t been picking up what we’re putting down. There’s no way we’re coming back. Compliments to the fucking chef. You wanted to give us a terrifying fucking night? Mission accomplished. But we’re never coming back.”
Tucking the cards back into her palm, Swan just smiled and nodded. “As you say. We’ll put a pin in the evaluations then.” Her smiled widened as she stood up to usher us out. “But who knows? Maybe you’ll have a change of heart after a good night’s sleep.”
Ruby rolled her palms across the steering wheel as we stopped at the first stop light. “Shit. I’m still shaking all over. I don’t know if it was the pill or the shit they did to us, but…I…fuck, I don’t know. I feel all fucked up and wrong.”
I reached over and squeezed her leg. “I know, sweetie. I should have looked into them more I guess. We probably just need some rest and to drink some water. Flush out our systems, you know?”
She glanced over at me and then seemed to look past me into the back seat. “I guess, yeah. I just…I feel like we forgot something. Something important.” She met my eyes. “Do you know what I mean?”
I went to give a quick response, but I could see she was worried. So instead I looked out at the empty blacktop ahead of us and tried to gauge how I really felt. Exhausted and queasy, sure. More than a little freaked out? You bet. But did I think we were missing something?
I looked back at her. “I’m not sure, baby. Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the pill fucking with our heads. Let’s stop at a gas station or something and get some water. Then we can go home, relax a few minutes and then…”
“Fuck!”
I followed Ruby’s gaze to the blue lights flashing in the rearview mirror. Cursing, she began to pull over. “This is the last shit I need tonight. I stopped at the fucking light. And now with God knows what in our system…” She pointed toward the glove compartment as she shook her head and gave me a small smile. “I’m sorry, I’m just stressed. Will you hand me the insurance card?”
I found the card and went to hand it to her when my eyes fell back on the rearview. The doors were already opening on the patrol car and two officers were getting out. Their faces were illuminated in the raking flare of blue from the roof lights and I felt my bowels loosen when a thrill of unknown fear ran through me.
As they approached, I tried to rationalize my growing terror. It was the pill, it was the night, it was worry about getting arrested for whatever was in the pill we swallowed. Or maybe, in some irrational way, it was the strangeness of the cops themselves.
Because it was odd. After all, how often did you see twins, much less twin cops?
Why they might be the only pair in the country. Maybe even the world.
---
Credits
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