Figments of Fear (A Dark Fantasy Horror): The Edge of Reflection 2

by Carver Pike

  The sight of Cutter made her sick to her stomach and she knew that if it hadn’t been for Lisa’s desire to be with Gabe, she wouldn’t have been able to force herself to seduce him. He looked too much like his evil twin. It had surprised even her when she was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to screw Gabe’s brains out.

  What had been Lisa’s desire quickly became hers. She’d always heard the rumors on the dark side of the mirror, the rumor that a decent world existed on the other side, and that those who were pulled through were overwhelmed with bad thoughts that only amplified their darkest desires.

  Ivy had been a hooker by profession, a job that was perfect for her since sex filled her every thought, but the moment she crossed through the mirror, the thoughts seemed to intensify. She wanted nothing more than to hunt Gabe down and fuck the shit out of him.

  Since being with him, she’d discovered that he was a completely different person than Cutter, and somehow, even with the deranged version sitting in the front seat, she found herself longing to see him again. Was it Lisa’s desire still poking its way through or had he actually sparked something in her?

  Cutter glanced in the mirror and saw her staring at him. He laughed under his breath and reached out to turn the mirror so that he could look at her body. He kept his eyes glued to the way that her freed breasts hung slightly to the side. He followed her midsection down to her small waist and to her skirt. He laughed again.

  “You remember the first time we fucked?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes. How could she ever forget? She’d wanted the cocky, badass from Darkar so bad when he walked into her brothel. He walked with a swagger that dared someone to start something with him. She’d wanted his aggressiveness to be poured all over her. She’d had no idea what that truly meant at the time. If she had, she never would have pursued him.

  Ivy continued to watch Cutter in the rearview mirror, her eyes squinted in disgust. She truly hated the son of a bitch.

  “You were much braver on the other side, girl,” he continued. “As a matter of fact, you came after me. You walked up behind me, grabbed my cock, and said…what was it you said?”

  She didn’t answer. She remembered what she’d said to him but wasn’t about to repeat it now.

  “Ah, right, you said that you would suck my dick so hard spinal fluid would flow out.”

  That’s not what she’d said but close. She’d actually said bone marrow.

  Ivy’d never been able to confront him before. Now was her chance, but she was terrified. Her voice came out a bit shaky.

  “I thought you were handsome,” she told him. “And tough…and interesting.”

  Cutter threw his hands up as if he was completely confused.

  “So one fuck later and you avoid me?”

  Ivy had to bite her lip to stop herself from yelling at the man. How dare he act as if they’d simply slept together and she refused to call after? What nerve?

  “You hurt me. You bit me so hard I needed stitches.”

  Cutter laughed aloud.

  “I thought they called it eating out for a reason. Be careful what you wish for,” he teased.

  “Then you burned me and left me naked and tied up on the balcony, in the rain, for everyone in the street to see.”

  She closed her eyes and a tear trickled down as she remembered the dry rope cutting into her wrists and the freezing rain slapping against her naked body. The bite mark in between her legs had hurt so badly. The rain washed the blood down her leg and onto the gathering crowd below.

  He’d tied her up so tightly that she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even see the people beneath the balcony. She could only hear their laughing and jeering.

  “You said you wanted to turn me on,” he said.

  “I was humiliated and in pain,” she argued.

  “But you turned me on. You know where I went after I tied you up?”

  She had no idea. She only remembered the hopelessness.

  “I went down to the dark street corner and watched you up there. And I pulled out my cock and stroked it. Yeah, baby. You turned me on so much I had to jack off at the sight of you up there dangling all naked and shit.”

  He turned and looked at her in the backseat, his eyes drifting over her whole body. Ivy was afraid he’d wreck the car.

  “Keep your eyes on the road,” she warned him.

  He smacked his lips and chuckled.

  “You still are one hot piece of ass. If you didn’t take everything so seriously you could’ve still been my girl, you know? You gotta admit, I give a little bit of pleasure through all that pain.”

  Ivy didn’t want to cry. She didn’t want to give Cutter the satisfaction of seeing her fall apart on the outside, the way she was crumbling inside. Her tough exterior was all she had left. In all reality, she was a whore, not a fighter.

  “Please let me go,” she begged. “There are other girls you can take.”

  As Cutter watched her through his rear view mirror, red and blue flashing lights suddenly came into view from behind his car.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  He kept his foot on the gas pedal for a few more seconds, but then curiosity won and he pulled the car over and turned off the engine.

  “You want me to stay quiet, right?” Ivy asked.

  Cutter shrugged his shoulders.

  “I don’t give a shit what you do.”

  Ivy watched as Cutter turned his focus from her to the rearview mirror, and the advancing trooper, a large cowboy of a man with a mouthful of tobacco, who’d exited his cruiser and was walking towards them. The lawman pushed down on the trunk and continued to the driver’s side window.

  Cutter was waiting for him with the window rolled down. The cop stuck his big head into the window and stared directly into Cutter’s eyes. Something must have told him that Cutter wasn’t the kind to be trusted, because one look at his face, and the cowboy stepped back a little.

  “You were really flying back there, Pal,” the trooper said.

  “You shoulda seen me earlier. This was nothin’,” Cutter replied.

  He let out a cocky laugh.

  “I’m gonna need to see your license and…”

  He leaned forward once more and stared into the back seat, his face only a few inches away from Cutter’s. That’s when he saw Ivy hog tied in the back.

  “What in the hell is going on here?”

  In an instant, much too quickly to be prevented, Cutter reached out and swiped the trooper’s neck with his knife, splitting it wide open. The officer’s eyes immediately rolled back in his head. He brought his left hand up to his throat and reached for his gun with his right.

  “Unh…unh…unh,” Cutter warned him.

  He opened the car door, fast and hard, and knocked the trooper to the ground. Cutter stepped out and stood over him.

  Ivy stared out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on outside. She didn’t feel sorry for the trooper. If nothing else, she was bothered by the fact that he might not live long enough to save her. The sickening sound of the slaughter made her wince and close her eyes.

  When Cutter was finished, he let out a sigh of relief. He opened the back door and tossed the dead and bloody cop on top of Ivy, who screamed and pushed and kicked. The cop finally rolled off her and down onto the floorboard. Cutter tossed the cop’s pistol onto the front passenger seat and climbed back in behind the wheel.

  “I guess we’re going to need to change cars,” he said with a grin.

  Chapter 3 – Rancid Pools

  Sergio was still visibly shaken. He walked at the back of the pack and moved as if he didn’t have the desire to continue. Gabe glanced back every few minutes to make sure he hadn’t given up on their trek and fallen into a depressed slumber.

  He looked over at Lisa, who walked with her arms folded in front of her chest watching all around her with nervous curiosity. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and a strand had fallen down over her forehead and dangled in
front of her nose. She blew at the wisp of hair and Gabe’s heart skipped a beat.

  It was amazing how something so miniscule in the real world could be so important in this one. The fact that she still carried some of the innocence of the Lisa he’d always known affected him greatly. It reminded him of what he was fighting to achieve. He wanted to get back to the normal world, to a world where girls like Lisa were safe from harm. More than ever, he felt the need to protect her.

  She looked up through her wisp of hair and caught him looking at her. She smiled at him. He loved her smile. He wished so badly that he could wrap her up in his arms and tell her that it would be okay. But he was afraid of broken promises. He couldn’t ensure her safety, or any of theirs, for that matter. She was in as much danger as he was and nobody knew what lay ahead.

  Conductor led the pack. His shotgun was pointed out in front of him and he waved it slowly from side to side, traversing the open terrain ahead. Like a nervous and demented Elmer Fudd out to get that pesky rabbit, he crept forward cautiously.

  Eventually, a long chain link fence came into view. It stretched as far as the eye could see. Conductor pressed on until they were all standing in front of it. Gabe ran a hand through his sweaty hair and wiped his forehead. Lisa finally tucked the strand of hair behind her ear and leaned her head against Gabe’s arm.

  “It’s so hot,” she complained.

  Gabe leaned his head against hers. She stared up at him with a cute grin.

  “You’re exhausted, huh?” he asked.

  “Nah, I’m a big girl. I can handle it. Just get us out of here alive, okay?”

  Gabe laughed. “I’ll do my best.”

  “A fence,” Dozier announced aloud.

  Conductor grabbed the fence and shook it a little. The wave it created traveled down the fence in both directions. Dozier tugged on the bottom of the fence and a section came up easily and was split down the middle.

  “Don’t suppose some crazy kids did this,” Dozier joked.

  Conductor didn’t get the joke. He stood with his hands on his hips and shook his head in disagreement.

  “Ain’t beein’ a no kids o’er in these parts eva!”

  “Yeah, we’ve heard. No kids over here,” Gabe replied.

  Dozier limped a little further down the fence and then smacked an open hand against a rotted wooden sign. Sloppily painted in white paint were the words: “Caution. The Rancid Pools. Be aware.”

  Sergio snapped out of his funk and made his way closer to the fence.

  “Be aware of what?” he asked.

  Language looked afraid. She shook her head and pointed away from the fence. She didn’t want to enter.

  “N’ain’t no o’er way!” Conductor snapped at her. “Da mountains, da Mantis Peeks, be to da right an a quick sand pits to da left. Slums of York be straight ahead a ye.”

  Language continued to shake her head. She threw her hand in the other direction, pointing wildly for them to be smart about this and go around. She spoke but the others didn’t understand her words and she angrily stalked away from them, shaking her head and muttering curses in her native tongue.

  Conductor ignored the fleeing mute and approached the fence. He lifted the section up, slid through to the other side and gestured for the others to follow. Sergio stood at the fence opening and looked at his friends.

  “So what do you think?” he asked.

  “Conductor knew about those bug things back there. At least we can understand him,” Gabe replied.

  “I think we should follow the girl,” Dozier said. “It’s a fenced in area with a warning sign. It don’t take a daggone scientist to figure out we ain’t wanted in there.”

  “I think the fastest way is the best way. Every way sounds dangerous, so let’s get it over with,” Lisa recommended.

  Gabe followed Language. She didn’t walk far before she stopped and stood in place, staring out at the mountains.

  “Language! Please come with us! This way is faster and we need your help,” Gabe said.

  She paused for a moment, her eyes still on the mountains, and appeared to be struggling with her decision. Finally, she walked back over to Gabe, her feet sliding across the ground like an upset teenager in disagreement with her parents. She looked into Gabe’s eyes and let her gaze linger there for a moment. Gabe figured she must be looking for reassurance.

  “Look,” he said. “I need you to take me the rest of the way. We’re all tired. We’re all hungry. I don’t know if we’ll make it the long way around.”

  She looked past Gabe to where Dozier was standing, favoring his previously injured leg. She forced a smile and nodded.

  “Otay,” she said, mumbling her first understandable word.

  Sergio held on to the bottom of the fence and then lowered himself down and crawled through. He stepped cautiously onto the muddy ground on the other side and bounced up and down a little as if testing to ensure that the mud would support them all.

  “There aren’t any of those shivet things in here, are there?” he asked Conductor.

  “Ain’t even da shivets be a comin’ in here,” Conductor replied.

  When they were all on the other side of the fence, a greenish mist encircled them. It seemed to sense that they were outsiders as it seeped in between them and coated their skin instantly with a damp stickiness.

  Gabe held onto Lisa’s hand as she covered her mouth with the neck of her shirt and breathed through it.

  “I feel like I shouldn’t breathe it in,” she said with a muffled voice.

  “Imagine your lungs feeling the way your skin feels right now,” Sergio added.

  Conductor, who’d been leading them on the other side of the fence, dropped back a few steps so that Dozier and Language were out in front. As Language began to pass him, he held out a hand to usher her foreword.

  “Ah, ladies a first,” he said.

  Language held her hand out in front of her face and swatted the green mist as she led the way. None of them could see more than a few inches in front of them. Gabe held his hand out about a foot in front of his face and couldn’t see it through the mist.

  “Don’t let go of my hand,” Lisa warned him. “I can’t see you at all.”

  “You don’t let go of mine,” he insisted.

  Language stopped suddenly when she felt the ground below her squish a little as if being stuck in wet mud. She crouched down and saw that she was standing on the beach of some sort of pond. She withdrew her foot and gestured that everyone should stop. They didn’t see her hand and only stopped because they’d bumped into her.

  “What is it?” Dozier asked.

  Suddenly the fog began to lift. It floated away from them as if it were a living beast whose sole purpose was to push them in the right direction. Now that they were there, it was free to go on without them.

  As the mist floated away, a huge lake came into view, filled with greenish brown liquid. A dirt path about six feet wide ran straight through the middle, like a natural bridge. The land surrounding the lake was mossy. Traces of the mist left the entire area shrouded in a dark, mystical haze.

  Gabe rubbed at his eyes to see if he could clear them, but everything remained blurry.

  “Is it just me or is everything kinda blurry?” Dozier asked. “Like I just drank a twelve pack.”

  “Nah, this is more like when you wake up and you’ve got that tired film over your eyes,” Sergio replied.

  “Like when I was in the military, staring through a foggy gas mask,” Gabe added.

  “Alright, we just gonna stand around all day and discuss what it’s kinda like?” Dozier asked sarcastically. “Or can we cross this damned bridge and get the hell outta here?”

  Conductor turned to face the rest of them like some sort of crazy tour guide. He scratched his forehead with the barrel of his shotgun.

  “Is er Rancid Pools. Hear da stories ‘bout ‘em. Best ta hurry,” he informed them.

  Gabe laughed under his breath.

  “Th
is place is so random,” he said to himself. “Like I’m in Oz or something.”

  “The opposite of our organized world,” Lisa agreed.

  “I never thought our world was organized, but hell, now…” He didn’t need to finish. They were on the same page.

  Language led the way, stepping carefully onto the dirt bridge. Behind her Dozier inched along.

  “Stay close together,” he warned.

  Conductor was right behind them, keeping his gun aimed at the right side of the pools. Sergio, who was only a few feet behind Conductor, took note of his aim and focused on the left side. He slid his feet forward one at a time. He shivered with the chill as he stared down at the murky water.