Oscar shakes his head and says, “Well, I guess it’s five o’clock somewhere.”
Hirofumi says, “Get serious.”
Yevgeny says, “Okay then. ‘Hey top, what’s the op?’”
“Just watch this,” Hirofumi says, then double-clicks the sandwich guy with the tentacles and glowy gnats clip.
Hirofumi raises his hand like he intends to start describing and sketching the weird stuff for Yevgeny like Felix did for him but before he can, Yevgeny laughs and says, “Woah, that’s crazy looking shit, dude!”
Felix and Hirofumi look back at him and he goes back and forth with a “what?” expression on his buzzed face. Oscar frowns and leans forward a bit.
Hirofumi asks, “What do you see?”
“The smooth squid arms all around his face and the bugs. I love the translucence and light and color but it looks kind of fake animating. His hands and sandwich go through the arms like they aren’t there. And the bugs.”
Hirofumi looks at Felix who shrugs, unable to help with an explanation of why Yevgeny can see the weird things on video already. Oscar squints at the screen.
Yevgeny takes another swig, swallows, and says, “There should be like… collision or something. Did you use Blender or finally just torrent Maya or something, you pirate fucks?”
Felix wonders if Yevgeny being quicker to see is related to his inebriation. Like, his eyes are more relaxed and so is he?
Oscar shakes his head and says, “Huh? I don’t see it.”
“Don’t see what? It’s so clear.” Yevgeny asks.
“Homie, I see a guy eating a nasty sandwich. I don’t see any squid arms or bugs or anything.” Oscar shakes his head.
Yevgeny continues, “Oh, forget you. You’re playing me. The compositing is fucking great, though, dude. I should switch Hudson Lives over to whatever you used foreal!”
Felix frowns and says, “‘Hudson Lives?’”
Oscar explains, “He has a new hobby or therapy outlet I call it. He’s re-editing and using mapping and compositing to make a version of ALIENS where the character Hudson lives through the whole thing.”
Felix can’t help but laugh and shake his head.
Yevgeny says, “It’s like The Crow sort of but not so IRL sad.” He takes another pull off the beer and sets it down then picks up the pipe and lighter to take a hit. “If it goes good, I am going to make Hicks and Newt live through Alien 3 and add Hudson to the whole thing!” He takes a big hit.
“That should keep him busy,” Oscar jokes.
Yevgeny exhales as he says, “In ALIENS, my shots where Hudson is firing on eggs in queen chamber with Ripley is my challenge right now. I have to use shots from the first cocoon chamber part and–”
“Zhenya,” Hirofumi interrupts. Yevgeny will go on and on if you let him. Felix watches the little spidermites crawl around on and in Yevgeny’s face waiting for his next hit like a wave at a big pool in a water park.
Yevgeny says, “Sorry,” and takes another hit.
Hirofumi stubs out his cigarette and lights another. He starts the blimpwhale barrel-rolling around the bridge clip again just watches it silently, dragging on his smoke a few times. After it ends, he says, “Okay. This is spooky shit and you aren’t imagining the video part at least. So… what do you want me to do about it?”
Spooky? These are the fun parts!
Yevgeny exhales, “What do you mean? Who made this?” and sets the pipe back down before picking his beer up. He takes a big swig.
“Felix says these are raw shots taken with his weird, haunted camera.”
Yevgeny does a genuine spit-take and chokes on his beer. As is sprays back out in bursts, Felix watches the stoned spidermites being flung off of his face and across the room. A few land in Hirofumi’s hair, not that he notices. Oscar slaps Yevgeny’s back a few times and Yevgeny twists away and gestures that he’s fine.
“Oh, whatever. I’m not going to rape you, fucker.”
As he recovers Yevgeny says, “Hhgt– Hk… what about camera?”
“You heard me. Haunted camera,” Hirofumi repeats.
“You shitting me?” Yevgeny asks.
Felix takes up the reins, “It’s true. Haunted isn’t what I’d call it, but the camera does pick up things we can’t normally see.”
“Like what?” Yevgeny says through an incredulous smile.
Hirofumi says, “Yeah. Like what? What is this shit?”
Felix takes a deep breath and exhales then says, “Well, I don’t know anything concrete. What I do know is that we are surrounded by all these strange things. Some are really cool… beautiful even. Some are more messed up. Like, disturbing, scary shit.
”So, these things are all around us all the time. It’s like there are other dimensions merged with ours partly? I really don’t understand it myself. I just see the results of whatever happened… or just how things are? There’s all kinds of creatures from little bugs and jellyfish-looking things on up to whale-sized things like the one in that bridge shot. There are competing asteroid belts of black chunks floating all around. Sad ghouls or ghosts. Big, formless sacks of nasty muck. Monster cops in cosmonaut suits. Patches of glowing plants or flowers on buildings and cars and people here and there like pulsing moss and the bugs fight each other to pollinate or eat stuff from them? Maybe they…“ Felix gets lost in his thoughts.
Hirofumi raises his eyebrows and says, ”You alright?“
”Yeah, just a lot to process.“
Yevgeny laughs and says, ”You need medicine again.“
Oscar scoffs. ”Really? This is from the guy who thinks the moon landing was faked and there are Nazis living in bases on the inside of the empty earth?“
”Hollow Earth. Both true. And Moonbase Alpha is a better fake than what American government fucks tried doing with Stanley Kubrick’s fake footage.
“‘Yahtoob, yo-tube, eh-bay, John Madden, John Madden, John Madden, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh!’ Hey, at least I’m not in Flat Earth Society like that one sculpture major.”
Oscar chuckles and says, “I thought that was just her being ironic… or ironic-ish, like Felix calls it.”
“No. Totally believes it. We were making out after a party and I couldn’t get it out of my head. We talked about it for a minute. I almost didn’t let her gag on me. Almost.”
“You are a fuckin’ pig, Zhenya. Straight up.” Oscar closes his eyes and shakes his head like he’s trying to clear the images out of it.
“Guys,” Felix says.
Hirofumi takes a drag and lets it out. He asks, “Okay, so what? What do you want?” “You remember that one night we were all coked out in Osaka and you slapped on a multiple proxy thing and hacked into those porn sites?”
“Yeah, and I replaced the videos with slowed down clips of Adventure Time playing in reverse and solarized,” Hirofumi says, smiling at first then his expression changes. “Chotto…”
Felix says, “You said if you felt like it, you could hack a satellite.”
Yevgeny laughs on the couch and says, “No way.”
“I was joking. Mostly.”
“Hiro, I need you to help me flood the airwaves and web with this stuff. Force a wakeup call.”
“Do it! Do it! Priceless!” Yevgeny mockingly exclaims.
Oscar looks nonplussed.
Felix asks, “Can you do it?”
“You’ve really lost it, Felix,” Hirofumi responds.
Felix gestures toward the screen with his flat, open hand.
“You’ve seen it yourself… and believe me, there’s more! People need to see this stuff!”
“Do they? Even if I could do it, what’s the point? I saw it and I can’t see it’s done me any good.”
Felix stammers, “B-but…”
“I have too much going right for once to risk it on some wild goose fuck. That shit is federal, Felix. No chance.”
“Hiro, I need your help. I can’t…” Felix trails off. Was that a door opening? Hiro seems to have heard
it too. He seems relieved?
“No… The way I see it, you’ve got a weird modded camera and mental health problems. Zhenya is right. You need your medicine.”
Footsteps… Two sets?
Kaori walks in, still concerned but now with a touch of apprehension. She says, “I had to, Felix. I love you but you need more help from that hospital.”
Felix’s stomach balls into a fist and he swallows hard.
“No…”
Audrey steps into the threshold behind Kaori, face undamaged and with a concerned, cautious expression.
26
Audrey takes a step in wearing her track pants, Pumas, and a thin sweater, and still looks gorgeous to him somehow. That doesn’t stop Felix from jumping out of his seat and backing deeper into the room, hand raised reflexively to keep her at bay.
“Kaori, what the hell?” Felix demands, almost breathless.
Audrey stops and stands just inside the room.
Kaori has a guilty expression but remains earnest.
“You need to go back to see doctors. We love you but you need more help.”
Oscar says, “Agreed. I think she’s right, Felix.”
In a calm, careful tone Audrey says, “Felix… I love you, baby. I just want you to get better.”
Felix knows he’s in a concrete cave with no exits but he glances around anyway. Nothing! No way out! You are so stupid, Felix!
Audrey continues, “Please, baby. Let me take you back there. Just until they can change your dosage or medicine or whatever works.”
Felix retorts, “You know damn well they won’t change the medicine, Audrey. Harmonia is for special cases!”
“I don’t know what you mean, baby. But I know they’ll do whatever it takes to–”
“Whatever it takes? Whatever it takes to stop me from seeing and shut me up, right?”
Hirofumi sighs and says, “That’s not what she’s talking about. You need help. When you say those things it is obvious.”
Felix knows he’s lost Hirofumi already and that Kaori was obviously never his to convince. Hiro must have just been humoring me to buy time. He looks at Yevgeny. Motherfucker looks like he’s at a movie. Smiling and trying not to laugh. I should slap the glowing mites off that shithead’s face.
There’s a hum building in the wall to Felix’s right. Grieves walks out of it and up to him. Felix ignores him as he has learned to do around others.
Grieves leans in, getting right in Felix’s face and says, “Ff-ounddyou– I fou-ndd yoooooou…”
Felix says, “Congratulations…” under his breath.
Grieves makes a disappointed, duck-faced frown in response to Felix’s rudeness and looks around the room, completely unconcerned with the situation at hand. He starts inspecting all the old built-in warehouse equipment and controls in the walls that Hirofumi left installed as decoration.
As Grieves passes between Felix and his other friends, Audrey’s expression changes a little but she holds her composure. Felix looks back and forth between Audrey and Grieves, watching her like a hawk as she struggles to keep up her pleading, “let me help you” expression up.
Audrey begins, “Just let me take you… Let me take you back…” She trails off and Felix notices her doing something with her fingers by her side. Little glowing characters kind of like Wahrheit’s bullet equations cut the air by her moving fingers and burn out, twinkling into nothing as they fall toward the floor.
The warping and pulsing starts in her eyes but stays relatively calm. She seems quite collected and in control of it now. Been practicing?
Audrey looks at Grieves then back at Felix and says, “Okay, what the fuck is that?”
Grieves is too busy with something on the wall and doesn’t notice her giving him the once over. Neither do H&K or Yevgeny.
“You can see him…” Felix says.
“Of course I can. But what is it?”
Felix points at Audrey and flails his arms, jabbing towards her as he yells, “There! There! She can see him!”
Hirofumi and Kaori look more and more concerned. Yevgeny is wearing a profoundly amused expression and watching Felix with his red eyes as he takes another hit.
“Oh, they aren’t hearing this, baby. They’re hearing something like ‘puh-lease let me help’ and all that. The responses they hear will sound roughly in context so we have privacy. Well, I do. You sound like a lunatic. So… what is that?”
Felix half whimpers, half laughs, closes his eyes, and says, “Grieves is what I call him. He just follows me around.”
Felix opens his eyes. Her distortions pulse a little stronger and darker, but not nearly as intense as he’d expect.
“That’s how you’ve been spending your time after trying to kill me? I’ve been at home furious with you… and worried about you and you’re out making home movies and hanging out with a glowing gelatin mold… anatomy model man?”
“I didn’t try to kill you.”
Hirofumi, Kaori, Oscar, and Yevegeny raise their eyebrows. They start to fade into a vague blur where they stand and sit and it’s all Audrey and Felix. Well, Grieves is still glowing and mumbling over by the wall. He must not be affected by her hypno-spell or whatever.
“Really? Seemed like it. It’s not like I was there or anything. So why did you shoot me, Felix?”
“I didn’t mean to. I saw all these photos and–”
“Photos? Of what?”
“You from all different times. And paintings before that.”
“So you shot me. Because of some pictures?”
“I didn’t mean to. You scared me–”
“Oh sorry about that. Sorry I scared the boy with the huge pistol in my face. Suppose I believe you didn’t mean to do it. I’d really like to believe that… But, what were you thinking coming here? What’s your big plan?”
Felix considers lying and starts, “I came here to…” but realizes Kaori probably told her about the camera and footage already and, in a resurgence of purpose, he defiantly belts out, “I’m going to blow this wide open!”
Audrey looks genuinely confused and says, “Why?”
“What?” Felix asks, instantly disarmed.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because nobody knows what’s really going on!”
“Why would they want to?”
“Because… it’s the truth.”
“And they’re better off not knowing it.”
“But…”
“Is that all this is about for you? Show and tell? Whistle blowing? You want to drop some knowledge on all these blissfully ignorant yet somehow still miserable wretches? Like they don’t have enough going on in their little self-constructed rat mazes? ‘First world problems’ doesn’t cover how out of it all of these homo inermis are. Wow, that bastard really doesn’t have anything to worry about.”
Felix frowns and says, “What ‘bastard?’”
“They have such a short time. If they only knew what’s coming… Just let them fight their wars and worship their silly celebrities and politicians and porn stars and religious idols without knowing they’re pretty much all the same, false thing. Let them check out with drugs and alcohol to escape a world they think they understand too well. Let them eat themselves to death. Let them screw so they can have little oblivious babies.” That last part makes her stop herself and she looks genuinely sad for just a moment before returning to her confident, sarcastic smugness. “Let them enjoy themselves before their hearts stop and their brains let go for the last time. Why rob them of that?”
Felix doesn’t know what to say and he lets his defeat sink in deep. All he can muster is a sarcastic, “You would have had great conversations with a dead friend of mine.” He sighs big and lets his shoulders slump down and his arms dangle. He figures he’s beaten. He’s coming down from his pill high and his exhaustion is creeping in. He lets out a meek, “Okay.”
Audrey beams with glazed, pulsing eyes and says, “So you’ll come then? You don’t really have much
choice after they heard all of that on your end. But… you understand now? I mean… I’ve taken Harmonia for years to be like them–”
“You what?”
“I only stopped recently so I could keep an eye on you and figure out what you could and couldn’t see. I grew to hate seeing things as they are long ago, but that’s how much I love you. Now, once you forget all this, we can both take the medicine and be happy together like these sheep. We’ll have nice, little sheep problems.”
Forget?
Audrey’s eyes take on a subtle gleam of desperation and the swirling strangeness in and around them looks different than he’s ever seen it. She looks like she’s going to cry thinking about all of this. Then her face brightens into a visage of pure, willful denial.
“Or better yet like cats! Compared to what’s coming, our biggest problems right now will amount to which angle to stretch to make best use of sunbeams coming in through the blinds.” Even through the weirdness, she looks like a little girl trying to re-convince herself there’s a Santa Claus after catching her father arranging presents.
Felix doesn’t know the hows or whats, but seeing Audrey like this forces him to realize that he’s dealing with a broken, miserable creature. The happy, vibrant, beautiful girl he loves is a mask this bitter, old, scared thing wears to forget something or a lot of somethings.
“Audrey… What’s coming?”
Audrey’s eyes pulse in the fearful pattern and she says, “He’s going to wake up the gods. I tried to convince him not to but I don’t have sway like I used to. Not now that he has that revolting doll.”
“Gods? What gods? Who–”
“It doesn’t matter who. Or what… or anything. It just doesn’t.”
“Fine. What do you mean by ‘forget’?”
“The center has machines. They can make you forget. We can be happy again.”
As Felix considers this, his eyes dance around and his gaze falls on Grieves. One of his hands is phased through a panel on the wall and he appears to be rubbing something inside.
“What if I don’t want to forget, Audrey?”
“You have to. I need you to.”
“But what if I don’t? Do I have options?”
A Tear in the Veil Page 34