by B. P. Kasik
But it happened. She kept pumping and pumping away on the bike, never letting up for a second.
But she was gone. Her body was in motion, but that was all.
Hours and hours passed and the Gym finally closed.
And Kwan kept biking. Her cheeks were sunken and her bones were poking through her skin all over as all hydration evaporated from her body.
And she biked on.
And the lights went out.
And she biked on.
And no one came to check on her.
And she biked on.
And the moon shone through the floor-to-ceiling window to her right.
And she stopped biking.
Before the punishing force got a chance to attack and motivate her, her brain was seized by an unrelated aneurysm.
Her synapses overloaded and she collapsed off the bike, her neck snapping as she hit the carpet, splashing in her accumulated puddle of sweat.
Then someone finally appeared.
The personal trainer walked up next to her corpse. He gave her a kick. And got no response.
“Quitter.”
Chapter 17
Jerry stared at his phone home screen. He looked at the Tinder app. He wondered if he was getting his mojo back to the point that he could throw himself out there again.
Also talking with Becky made him feel lonelier than ever. He wanted someone to share Leverage with. Or some other new dumb show.
His thumb hovered over the app, having a heavy “To Tinder or Not To Tinder” moment.
Am I ready?
He looked around at his fellow exercisers in the main workout area at the Gym.
And then looked back at himself.
And he turned off his phone.
He wasn’t ready. He didn’t look nearly good enough yet.
He walked by the bike surrounded by a puddle and with an “OUT OF ORDER” sign on it. He looked up, checking to see if there was a leak in the roof that soaked the bike and the area around it. Nothing there. Plus, it hadn’t rained recently. Odd. Probably nothing, though. He went over to the water fountain and took a nice long sip. He toweled off his forehead.
He looked around at the people working out on the treadmill.
There was something the old and young woman had in common: small chunks of skin hanging off the bottom of their arms and legs.
He was puzzled for a moment, and then realized what was going on there.
The liposuction service.
It was giving everyone perfect bodies, but leaving the skin to sag.
“We’ll have that surgically fixed, don’t worry.”
Jerry turned and saw that Gym rep, Deane. “What?”
“You’re observing the loose-hanging skin on our wonderful and fully-satisfied liposuction customers, yes?”
“I wasn’t—”
“Of course you were! It’s only natural. But please don’t worry. We have no intention of letting our patrons look sloppy. The Gym employs only the best plastic surgeons and they’ll nip and tuck that extra skin away where it won’t bother anyone!”
Jerry just stared at him. The rep pointed at his belly. “Looks like you might want to utilize our liposuction services yourself. No charge! Would cost you thousands on the open market!”
Jerry instinctively sucked in his gut, the way he always did when changing his shirt in the locker room. “I’m fine, thanks.”
The rep shrugged. “Please don’t hesitate, if you should change your mind! We’re happy to help! It’s all for your health!”
As he walked away, Jerry heard a set of footsteps come up behind him. He spun, on guard, and then found that it was only Ben.
“What was that about?” asked Ben.
Jerry shook his head. “Sometimes this place gets to me. It’s so beautiful in here and I feel great about it, but every now and then something odd happens.”
“Yeah. I’m glad to hear you say that. I wanted to ask you,” he pointed to the hallway leading to the fourth floor. “Have you been up to the fourth floor?”
“No, I thought it was under construction.”
“It is, but I got curious. I went down the hallway and there were strange noises coming out of every room.”
“What kind of noises?”
“Like they were keeping animals in there.”
“Okay. Odd.”
“Right. Now I kept going because there were no signs up, nothing was roped off or anything, so why not go up there?”
“Why not, indeed!”
“And there was another flight of glass stairs going up there. Normal-sized stairs, not like these funhouse-distorted huge stairs over here.”
“Right.”
“And I got halfway up the stairs, saw the door at the top, and then looked down.”
“At the stairs?”
“No, though the stairs.”
“Oh, right. Because they’re glass. What did you see?”
“Nothing.”
“You mean they have storage spaces or something under there?”
“No, I mean I saw nothing. As far down as the eye could see.”
“Maybe it was just a room with a black carpet.”
“No, there was nothing there. Just a big gaping pit.”
“Huh.”
“So I got a little scared and came back down the stairs.”
“Understandable.”
“Weird, right?”
“I suppose it is.”
“I feel like it should bother me more than it does.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. Had some similar...thoughts.”
They heard a slamming sound over by the leg press station and spun to look.
A guy working with the personal trainer had just collapsed under the weight of a heavy bar and dropped the bar to one side and his body on the other.
Jerry figured the personal trainer would help the poor guy up. But instead, the trainer roared in rage and started pummeling the slender guy on the ground. He took care to inflict bruising hits on every part of his body and supplemented the punches with kicks to the ribs and back.
The slender guy sobbed, bleeding from several spots, as the trainer finally stopped, raising his hands to a lotus position and taking a deep breath.
The trainer smiled and purred, “Okay, that’s much better. Now we’re ready to continue.” His face hardened, as did his voice. “Now get up. Get up!” He resumed beating the man as he tried to get up. The trainer knocked him back to the ground every time he made any progress toward getting upright.
Jerry turned to Ben. “Okay, so we’re still on for dinner tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, see you then.”
“Cool.”
Chapter 18
Becky dropped the kids off with her parents and drove to work in her car. The “Check Engine” light was ominously flashing at her. As usual.
She didn’t have the time or money to take the car into the shop, so she checked the fluid levels regularly and only drove the car around town, below the speed limit. She prayed the car wouldn’t die on her. The nearest bus stop was a half mile from her place.
And her parents didn’t have a car. They both failed their most recent driving tests. When they drove her kids around in her car, they were doing so illegally.
If they ever got pulled over…
She tried to let that all go and focus on work. She pulled into the employee garage and came in through the front door. Five minutes early, as required.
Deane was waiting for her at the front counter. He looked annoyed.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning,” he responded. “Thank you for finally joining us.”
“Excuse me?”
“We don’t appreciate our employees stumbling in late.”
“But I’m five minutes early!”
“As of yesterday, 10 minutes early is mandatory. Earlier is preferred. But you can decide how much you need this job.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know—”<
br />
“Ignorance of the law is not a defense for violating the law.”
Becky fumbled for a response.
“See to it that you don’t break the rules again. This isn’t baseball, where you’re allowed four strikes.”
She nodded, not correcting him.
“So today we’re gonna need you to help us move some supplies.”
“I thought I was hired for counter—”
“That job was filled five minutes before you finally decided to grace us with your presence.”
She bit her tongue.
“So if you’ll get to work, that would be most helpful.”
Becky looked around. “Okay. What do you need help moving?”
The rep opened the nearby closet and pointed to a series of large, misshapen, bulging boxes. “These need to go downstairs.”
“Okay. Where are the stairs?”
The Gym rep rolled his eyes. “Down the hallway, between the racquetball and squash courts. The door to the left of the drinking fountain.”
Becky tried to picture the spot. “There’s a door there?”
“How much time am I going to need to spend explaining how to do such a simple task?”
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, and walked toward the closet as the Gym rep stormed off.
She picked up the top box from the stack and was pretty sure it weighed 70 pounds. And she looked back and saw that they were stacked three high, two deep, in rows of three. That was...18 boxes.
She started to ask the Gym rep if there were any carts she could use for stacking and moving the boxes. But then she caught herself and realized that she was on the verge of getting fired, so she kept it to herself.
She braced herself and tried to do what she’d heard on TV: “lift with your legs.” She carried the box through the lobby, down the hallway, and past the courts. Sure enough, there was a door by the water fountain. She could swear that had been a wall before.
She rested the box on the water fountain as she reached with her left hand to pull open the door.
The stairs were dark and steep and shiny. A small light in the basement illuminated the stairs and she used it as a guide.
Becky did her best to lean back, maintain her balance, and take each step one at a time. Left down one. Right down one.
She was halfway down the steps when she looked back for a moment and saw that the stairs were some kind of shining stone. Glass.
Her shoes didn’t have much traction so she started moving even more slowly, making each step deliberate as the stairs suddenly felt like slippery ice.
And she tried not to think about the strange, endless darkness beneath the glass.
When she finally made it to the cold concrete basement floor, she followed the stale yellow light to a narrow door, beyond which several boxes were stacked.
She squeezed through the door and set the box on top of another similar-sized box and noticed several other boxes knocked over on their sides, emptied of their contents. She couldn’t see it clearly in the darkness, but its smell reminded her of fried chicken.
And then she smelled something else. A massive, overpowering stench. A combination of sewage, ancient Earth, mildew, and stringent saltiness.
She looked into the basement chamber and saw there was a shallow swimming pool-shaped pit containing something impossibly large.
Its features were hard to discern, but when it started moving in her direction, she knew exactly what it was and why these boxes were here.
She couldn’t hold in her breakfast. It came up and out and splattered the empty, fallen boxes at her feet. She took a couple steps back. The thing moved closer to her.
She held in a scream because she knew if she started screaming she would never, ever stop. She turned and raced back up the stairs and slammed the door behind her.
Dazed, she took a long drink of water at the fountain. Then she spat it back out, realizing that the water pipes might have some connection to that...thing.
She collected herself and walked back down the hallway, past the cheerfully oblivious racquetball players, the smiling folks with towels over their shoulders on their way to a pleasant swim, and the sweaty folks ready for a shower.
None of them seemed real. Everything felt like a nightmare.
This place can’t exist. That basement can’t...it can’t…
She didn’t even notice her supervisor until he was right in front of her. “Taking our time this morning, are we?”
She just stared at him with haunted eyes. “Please...the basement...don’t make me…”
“We have 17 more boxes in the closet here. They’re not just going to move themselves.”
“I can barely move.”
“Is there a problem? I’m about to make the schedule for next week. I’m happy to take you off it if you’re feeling overworked. Are you feeling overworked?”
Her heart raced. “No, no. I’m fine.”
“Then get back to work and stop lollygagging on company time!” And he ascended the enormous glass stairs, leaving her alone in the lobby.
She kept taking the boxes downstairs, positioning them by the base of the stairs, staying close to the narrow basement door.
Her back was strained and permanently damaged by the sixth trip, but she kept going.
By the 12th trip, she forgot what she was so upset about. She had a vague memory of some pest in the basement, but nothing too unusual.
Everything was fine at the Gym.
Chapter 19
Ben lived in a nice apartment overlooking the miniature Downtown skyline. Jerry had to pay for parking at a nearby garage and have Ben buzz him in at the building’s front door.
He felt silly on the elevator, as he just realized he’d forgotten to ask if he should bring a side dish or bottle of wine. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been invited over for dinner, so the customs were alien to him.
When Ben answered the door, Jerry immediately blurted out, “Dude, I’m an idiot and I didn’t bring a bottle or side dish, I’m sorry!”
“That’s fine, we never discussed it. So consider your faux pas forgiven.”
“Thanks.”
Jerry walked into their pleasantly furnished apartment with a burden lifted. “Nice place!”
“Thanks. We’ve been here a few years now. The rent’s ridiculous, but we’d rather pay it than pay for homeowner hassles.”
Jerry nodded. “Yeah, I hope to never own my house. I send a property management company a check every month and I call them when something goes wrong. And they fix it.”
“Good arrangement!”
Jerry looked out the window. The sun was setting over the Blue Ridge Mountains and the constellation of lights from businesses and houses around town was slowly emerging. Of course, the orange light emanating from The Gym’s sign overshadowed all. It shot up like a tower of pure light.
“Is it weird looking out on that thing?”
Ben shrugged. “You get used to it.”
“You can get used to anything. Gotta love the Gym.”
“Gotta. Have a seat!”
They sat at the dinner table and ate and had a nice get-to-know-you conversation.
Ben’s wife, Imani, worked in City Council. She confirmed they’d met in the Northern Virginia punk scene. And she confirmed that they were total sell-outs these days.
“Hey, nobody’s allergic to money!” she laughed.
Jerry smiled. “More money, more problems. Good problems to have!”
“Absolutely!”
Ben leaned in. “We’re not rich, though! I always feel the need to point that out.”
Jerry waved him off. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. You’ve done well for yourself here.”
“Right, but I grew up in a normal, lower-middle-class home and after we got married, we lived in one crap apartment after another. I’m still adjusting to the fact that we live here. It’s been years, but it still feels unreal.”
“Embrace it, man.”
&
nbsp; “I probably should. Maybe I’ll get a ‘LNS Financial’ shirt to boast about my sweet job everywhere I go.”
“Why not?”
“Yeah!”
Imani laughed. “So Jerry, I understand you met Ben at the Gym?”
The laughter stopped.
Jerry felt like his brain was getting rewired as he instinctively responded, “Yeah! Great place! We have a lot of fun there. It’s all for our health.”
Ben stared ahead, not making eye contact with anyone. And he nodded vigorously.
Imani’s smile became a bit more forced. “Okay, glad to hear. Jerry, would you like some dessert?”
Jerry shook his head. “I have the kids tomorrow, I need to go home and get some rest. It’s still a pretty intense strain to take care of with them.”
“Right, Ben told me about your accident. You’re barely limping, I noticed!”
“Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot better since I joined the Gym. It’s all for my health.”
Imani smiled politely. “Okay, well...it was nice meeting you. Ben, it’s your turn to do the dishes tonight, so I trust you can handle that while I do some paperwork?”
“Paperwork, riiiiight. I know you’re really looking at online porn.”
“Of course I am, dear. I love that online porn.”
Ben laughed. “Yeah, go ahead. I got this.”
Jerry helped Ben clear the table and do the dishes. They didn’t talk much.
As Ben followed Jerry to the door, Jerry whispered, “I think something’s wrong with me.”
Ben whispered back, “What?”
“I don’t know! Something seems off. But every time I think I’ve figured it out…it becomes like a thing off in my peripheral vision. It blurs and I can’t...can’t see it…”
“Yeah, something’s off. I don’t think we’re supposed to talk about it, though.”
“Is it not safe? Are we in danger?”
“I don’t know.”
Jerry looked down, then walked out the door. “Okay. Goodnight, and thanks for having me over. I appreciate you following through on your invitation.”
“Glad to have you. And I won’t just say, ‘We have to do this again sometime.’ If I haven’t invited you over again within a couple weeks, invite yourself over!”