Experiment in Terror 09 Dust to Dust(18)

I shut my eyes hard and cried out, not sure where my screams would end up.

I walked another step and suddenly the world was sucked away from me, violently removed, like it was being vacuumed.

I was no longer in the washroom.

I was no longer in this world.





CHAPTER FIVE


Perry


When I opened my eyes on the other side, I was in Bryant Park. But there were no people about. There was no sound. There was no real smell, except for a stale, musty odor, like the inside of an old, upholstered car on a hot day. Except it was no longer hot, like the hazy sun above Manhattan. It was cold enough to make my breath turn to cloud and my lungs to burn with each breath.

That was to say, of course, that I was even breathing air.

I turned around, wondering if I could find my way back to the other side. The air shimmered right behind me, though it looked like it was growing more faint by the moment. I could barely see the toilet on the other side and I wondered how long I had before Ada or Maximus or some New Yorker who really had to piss, would start banging on it. I couldn’t remember if time stood still while you were in the Veil or if it went on as usual. I couldn’t remember if there were any rules.

Fear pricked at the back of my neck but I straightened my shoulders, refusing it. I couldn’t start panicking now at what I had done. I had to follow through. I would whatever it took in order to find him or Pippa.

But where the fuck did I even start? This world was grey and devoid of life. Where were the lost souls, the reluctant dead? Hell, I’d even welcome the giant woodbugs and earthworms that I had seen once before.

Maybe no one knows you’re here, I thought quickly to myself. Maybe that’s a very good thing.

I made a mental note to keep quiet and stop wishing. I began to walk across the park and to the street, past the bench that Ada and Maximus would be sitting on the other side of things. I wondered if they could sense me, hovering behind their existence. Part of me wanted to stay there, feeling safe and tethered to them but the other, more desperate part, needed to go on.

I walked up and down the streets, keeping quiet and sticking to the walls of buildings, hiding in the shadows that formed despite there being no sun in the sky, just this grimy dead light that hanged above you.

For blocks there was nothing. The chill in the air lessened its hold on me, but my footfalls still had only a whisper of sound. I felt like I was walking inside a miniature city kept inside a jar, with only a few holes poked at the top.

I don’t know where I was going, my feet were not being consciously moved, but considering I had no other ideas, I just went with it and walked and walked.

Finally, I saw something.

Or, should I say, it saw me.

There was a grandiose building –a bank I think – with a row of wide, dusty steps leading up to stately-looking pillars, Grecian-style. At the top of the steps was a man, pacing back and forth.

At least I thought it was a man. As I came closer, my pace slowing, I could see some things were off about him. He moved with jerks, like a marionette puppet and his pants seemed too thin, too flexible, like he didn’t actually have any legs under there at all.

He also had no eyes and no nose – just black, crusted over cavities that I imagined would be bright red in another world.

I swallowed my revulsion. Then he turned his bald head toward me and I knew he saw me. Revulsion turned to fear.

Who are you? he asked quietly in my head. To my surprise, there was a note of fear in his voice too. I know you’re there.

I kept my mouth closed, wondering if maybe he couldn’t see me after all.

He reached into his suit pocket, then bent down and placed something on the ground. Two black and white creatures – insects – skittered down the stairs toward me. The closer they got, I realized they were giant cockroaches. But that wasn’t all there was to them.

The insects stopped a few feet away and my mouth dropped open. I took a step back, my hand flying to my lips to keep the bile inside.

The cockroaches didn’t have heads. Instead they had an eyeball each. Human eyeballs, staring right at me from skewed angles, their optic nerves forged onto the legs of the insects, like veiny armor.

Who are you? The voice repeated, and now I knew he could see me. Where did you come from?

It took a moment to gather my words. I’m looking for someone. Can you help me?

The cockroaches skittered closer to each other, their legs making a scritch-scritch sound on the pavement that seemed impossibly loud in this airless world.

The voice laughed but when I looked up at the man who was still standing on the steps of the bank, he was motionless.

I can help you, he said, no more than you can help me. You are here where I don’t wish to be. He paused and my gaze darted down to the cockroach eyeballs that were beginning to dance excitedly. You could get me out of here. There are so many people I wish to see.