by Amanda Frame
He was as good as dead. I killed him. I dropped back onto the couch, sobs wracking my body. I had never felt this way in my life. Guilt and despair suffocated my soul. I wanted to die. I wanted to trade my life for Brian’s. I barely knew him, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t live with this.
I was crossing into the Void.
A tiny part of my mind that wasn’t overwhelmed by emotion realized this. My grief was crossing me over. I felt John’s arms around me but they were starting to feel different, stronger.
“Anna,” he whispered gently, trying to calm me down, then more urgently, “Anna. This isn’t safe. Take a deep breath. Try to relax.” But his voice sounded weird. It was warping, each word sounding less and less like John. My head was resting on his chest, but the stiff linen of his gray button-down shirt began to feel different on my cheek. When I opened my eyes, the buttons were gone. His shirt was white.
I tried to look up at his face and ask him what was going on but I could feel that he was physically restraining me from doing so. I could only look down. I saw bare, muscular calves sticking out of jeans shorts.
Confusion cut through my grief and calmed me down. I took some deep breaths, and John’s clothes faded back into a gray plaid button-down shirt and long pants.
My vision was blurry and watery with tears. Had I imagined that?
“What was…” I hiccupped, but he interrupted me, shoving a glass of water into my hands.
“Relax,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “Drink.”
I drank a few sips, took some shuddering breaths and started again, “John, how come you…”
He interrupted once more. “You started crossing over, Anna. It’s not surprising, given how upset you were, but it’s more dangerous when you’re aware of it. Your consciousness crosses over with your astral as well, whereas with someone else it wouldn’t. Given your recent experiences, I’d assume you are always going to be aware of it now. You need to be careful.”
“But you were…”
He cut me off again. “Yes, I started crossing too. You drew me in with you. That’s one way it can happen.”
He wasn’t going to let me ask, but I wasn’t going to let it go. I was calming down enough to know what I needed to move on. For now.
“I will find a way,” I choked. “I will find a way to fix him.”
“And I will help you as best I can. But unfortunately you can’t worry about him right now. We need to get the Leech back into the Void or it will find someone else to feed on. If you think you feel awful now, think of how you will feel when you have two people’s blood on your hands.”
His words shocked me, and he had meant for them to. He wanted me to focus. To forget about what had just happened.
I steeled myself and clenched my jaw in determination. “Okay. What do we do?”
“We kill it.”
CHAPTER 25
ANNA
Despite John’s promises, he clearly didn’t have all the answers. I refused to believe there was no way to help Brian. If we did kill it, like he claimed we could, things had to go back to normal. Didn’t they?
I locked my bedroom door and got comfortable in my desk chair. I pulled up Google on my laptop and rested my fingers on the keyboard. What should I even search, though? I needed to learn more about the Void so I could figure out how to get Brian back.
Searching parallel universe seemed like a good start, even though it felt ridiculous. I combed through search results for about forty-five minutes. It was probably the first time ever I’d clicked past page two of Google. Mostly stuff about aliens and time travel and chaos theory.
“…the idea of parallel universes has boggled the minds of scientists, philosophers, bloggers, and average folk alike. Perhaps we’re just a sliver of time away from an alternate existence, or perhaps regular people we pass on the street are beings from another universe that have already mastered the art of interdimensional travel.”
Ah, this seemed like a good term. So I searched interdimensional travel. More bullshit. I combed through a forum about people claiming they’d traveled to alternate dimensions. A few people talked about getting abducted by aliens on a regular basis. One guy claimed he crossed into another dimension in his sleep where everyone spoke backwards and he was invisible. After lots of sighing and eye-rolling I held my cursor over the close box when I spotted an entry by user RgulrCat78 titled Empty world? Anyone else?? I sat up a little straighter and clicked on the headline.
“Sooooo, hoping someone has had a similar experience. Sometimes when I sleep I end up this like alternate dimension or whatever. It’s pretty empty for the most part except one time I saw this huge scary ass monster looking thing, not human like at all. I got scared and kind of snapped back into my body and woke up. It used to be kind of cool to explore this place (even though I was pretty sure I was dreaming or crazy or something) because all the houses and stuff were empty and like old. But now I am terrified to go back because of this monster thing. How do I stop it?? I feel like if anyone is going to believe me it will be someone in this thread. HELP.”
This caught my attention. It sounded sort of like what John described. Someone had replied.
“whats your email, I might know what you’re talking about.”
Comment Deleted
Damn it! I assumed the deleted comment was probably RgulrCat78’s email. Then I noticed the date of the original post: 09/18/2013. I groaned. This was from over three years ago. The likelihood that RgulrCat78 still checked this thread was pretty low. Well, it was worth a try. I clicked reply underneath the original post and typed, “Did you get any info? I need some answers as well.”
I hit enter and a box popped up telling me I needed to create an account to post in the forum. I scoffed. Of course. After filling out the stupid form with my email and a fake name, it finally let me reply. My comment posted as username anonymous19001. I didn’t have much hope that this would reach Regular Cat, but whatever, it was worth a shot.
CHAPTER 26
JOHN
I traveled for three days. I spent the nights walking, and during daylight I holed up in buildings. I could feel in my gut that the mantis was still following me and I was coming to the reluctant conclusion that I was going to have to address the situation, to put it mildly, instead of just running from it. The biggest problem with that, though, even more so than how, was that I was fading fast. Every day I got a little weaker. It was like I was hungry but in my soul, like I needed sustenance but I didn’t know what it was.
The sun was rising for the fourth time since I had arrived in this place, and I was searching for shelter. I spotted a sidewalk leading across from what would have probably been a lawn, but here was just dry, brittle grass sparsely populating a lot of sand and gravel. It looked like it may have once been a house but had been converted into a business since there was a parking lot around the back. It seemed as good a place as any. None of the doors were locked here, but I could lock them once I went in. I had yet to figure out the reason for the idiosyncrasies of this world.
I ducked inside, pushing open the glass door gently. Tiny cracks spiderwebbed out underneath my fingertips. I eased it closed, afraid it would shatter, and took in my surroundings.
Some of the shelves actually still had items on them, the likes of which led me to believe I was in an army navy store. I gathered the available merchandise and lined everything up on the floor.
There was a camo jacket, three backpacks, several blankets, a flashlight, and four pairs of boots. The store was actually kind of neat. Of course, all the things I found were in very poor condition: the fabric was frayed and torn, the soles of the boots were crumbling, and, to my dismay, the flashlight didn’t work.
I rounded a corner to check out another room and froze.
Guns. Lots of guns.
I rushed toward the nearest one. My dad had taken me hunting a few times and showed me how to use a shotgun. Granted, these were nothing like a shotgun but after a minute or two of fiddlin
g, I figured out how to check the chamber. My heart sank. Of course it was empty. What was I expecting? First of all, no store would keep a loaded gun hanging on the wall, and it wasn’t surprising that this world wouldn’t have helpful details like functional bullets.
But there were also knives. A bit rusty, but in usable shape. A couple were frighteningly large and still pretty sharp. Big step up from the fireplace poker. I moved them to a shelf in the main room, afraid they would fall off the wall and injure me.
This is it, I thought, this is where I will stay. Why not? Would I ever find somewhere better? I could be armed here. There were probably a few other useful things I hadn’t discovered yet. I didn’t know if these monsters could be killed, but if I had a chance, this was probably the best place to be. So I addressed one problem. I hadn’t really realized it was a problem until this moment, not having a destination. I felt like I had accomplished something. A tingle of hope fluttered in my chest. Maybe I could find a way home after all.
But then there was the other issue. The one I dreaded thinking about. I was pretty sure I needed to kill the mantis. It was the only way I could stop running. And it had to be sooner rather than later because I was getting weaker by the day. Soon I wouldn’t be able to defend myself. I would be a sitting duck.
My morbid thoughts crushed the sliver of hope I had had a moment before. Maybe I was done for anyway. That was kind of what this hunger felt like, wasting away. I could accept that I would die, if it was possible to die twice, but I was going to go down fighting.
Time to stop being prey and become the hunter.
CHAPTER 27
ANNA
More than a week had gone by and I hadn’t gotten a response to my reply on the thread. I was losing faith that this would work. Waiting and hoping was making the days drag. The only thing keeping me from going crazy were my visits with John.
Every day he would tell me stories about the Void and explain a little bit more. We would talk for an hour or so after I got home from school, and more than once my mom had to text me to remind me to come home for dinner. My parents were so proud of me for helping the old man next door clean out his attic. I felt bad for keeping up the lie, but it wasn’t like I could tell them the truth.
Every time I brought up Brian and the Leech, John kept telling me he was coming up with a plan but wouldn’t give me any details. I was starting to think he was lying. He also still wouldn’t tell me how he got stuck in the Void for a whole year, how he survived there, or why he thought he was going to die and needed my help. That last one was the main thing that bugged me. I deserved to know. I had asked him multiple times and it was always some promise of “soon”, which seemed like a pretty bullshit time frame.
My relationship with Becca was suffering. She knew something was up that I wasn’t telling her, and she was waiting. We had told each other everything since the fifth grade, and I was pretty sure she would believe me, but I was still looking for the words to explain this new aspect of my life without sounding insane.
It had been awkward between us and I hated it, so I invited her over after school to try to regain some normalcy. I grabbed a couple sodas from the fridge and handed one to Becca. I opened my can and plopped on the couch. As I reached for the remote, she grabbed it first and stood over me, staring.
“What?” I asked.
“Come on Anna! Out with it! You can’t keep pretending everything’s normal. This is so stupid.” She sat down next to me and took my hand in both of hers, pleading with her eyes. “I’m your best friend. Don’t you trust me?” Tears welled up in her eyes, making the deep blue sparkle like the ocean at dusk, and its waves crashed over me with overwhelming guilt.
“Okay,” I sighed, and scrubbed the heel of my hand over my exhausted eyes.
“Okay?” she said, sitting up straighter.
“Yes. I’ll tell you. But you have to promise to believe me.”
“Of course I promise!” She scoffed. After all, I had already admitted some of the crazy shit that had happened, and she had seen how messed up Brian had been after our encounter, so she had a bit of proof that at least something weird was happening.
“You know how I’ve been helping my next-door neighbor clean out his attic?”
“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “That’s total bullshit. You’re finally going to tell me what’s going on there?” Of course she knew. “You’re not having some gold-digger affair, are you?”
“What? Hell, no! Seriously? That’s your guess?”
“Well, I had to ask. You don’t have a job and your parents are pretty stingy about giving you money, so…”
“Becca, stop!” Although she was right about the job thing. I should get on that.
“Okay, okay,” she conceded, “go ahead.” She clasped her hands in her lap and looked at me, eyebrows raised in mock patience. I sighed.
“John…my neighbor…knew some of what had been happening with me and sort of…talked me into telling him about the thing that happened with Brian.” I rushed through the sentence, hoping it was a good intro. “The same kind of crazy, unbelievable shit that’s been happening to me over the last few weeks started happening to him like fifteen years ago. He knows stuff.”
“Whoa. No way. Are you sure he isn’t messing with you?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“Positive. He described the same things without me saying anything first.” I sat back on the couch, releasing a deep breath. I felt a little better already.
“So what kinds of things has he told you?” She was rapt, soaking it all in.
I told her a lot of what he told me. About the Void and what it was like. About the leeches and the echoes of people they fed on.
“So he…crosses over…a lot?” she asked, looking more doubtful by the moment. It was making me nervous.
“Well, yeah.”
“Why? Why would he want to do that? It sounds awful.” She shuddered.
“I…I don’t know. He hasn’t told me that yet.” She looked at me skeptically. “He said he will soon, though!”
“I don’t know Anna.” She sat back on the couch and sighed. “What are the chances that this guy lives next door to you and just happens to have experienced the same stuff? How is that just a coincidence? This all sounds kind of…unbelievable. Like more than kind of.”
“You said you’d believe me!” I pleaded. And I was pretty sure the living next door to me thing wasn’t a coincidence.
“I know! I know. And I do,” she said. But I didn’t believe her. “It’s just…are you sure he’s telling you the truth? I mean, I know you think you saw what you saw, but maybe he’s just taking advantage…”
“I think? Becca, I know what I saw!” I was angry now. “I know it was real!”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” she said calmly, softening her features, trying to convince me. “Just to be sure that he’s telling the truth, though, could you ask him to prove it? To show you?”
“But would you believe me even then?” I felt my throat tighten and I clenched my jaw to keep the tears at bay.
“Yes. And I believe you now, I swear. But…just so you know. For sure.” She paused, and my tears spilled.
“I don’t know,” I said, sniffling, and she gave me a hug. “I’ve been too scared to ask. I don’t like that I’m dragging you into this.” Which was also why I wasn’t going to tell her about what happened when I went over to Brian’s house. Not yet, anyway. “And he uh…he doesn’t know—”.
“Doesn’t know you’re telling me? Would he be mad?”
“I don’t know. I mean, he’s a pretty nice guy. Like really, you should meet him. He doesn’t seem like a typical old guy. More like a cool uncle or something. He has a PlayStation!”
She laughed. “For real?”
“For real.” I smiled. We’d played a couple times when things got too overwhelming for me.
“But Becca,” I said, serious again, “I think I found something online that makes it seem like other people have been to this place too
.”
“What? No way!” Now she was curious. “Lemme see!”
I pulled out my laptop and showed her the thread I found. She nodded slowly as she read the post from RgulrCat78 and my comment underneath.
“Okay,” she said, “so have they emailed you?”
I looked at her incredulously. “Really? You think I wouldn’t have mentioned that as like, the first thing?”
She scoffed. “Fine. Well, I bet Aaron can help.”
“Aaron? Why? I am not sharing any of this with him.” Especially since he’d already seen Brian freak out on me.
“No, no. You don’t have to. You know he’s thinking about majoring in computer science? He’s really good. Just give him the username and tell him you’re looking for more posts anywhere online from this Regular Cat person. It’s a pretty unique username. I bet she uses it a lot.”
“She? What makes you think it’s a ‘she’?” I asked. Becca shrugged. “Okay. I guess we can ask him. But we need an excuse for why we’re looking.”
“We could say that she posted something online about writing college applications and it seems really good so we wanted to see if she wrote anything else. I mentioned to him that I was having trouble with my application.” She suggested.
“I don’t know,” I said doubtfully, “what if he asks to see it? And if he did find other stuff she posted, maybe it’s all weird stuff like her comment there.” I gestured vaguely to the laptop.
“Okay, well you suggest something then! Or we could just stick to the basics and Google it.”
An idea hit me and its obviousness made me facepalm. “Her username. Like you said, it’s pretty unique right?”
“Yeah. And?”
“Well, what if it’s her email? I use my email as my username all the time, without the ‘at gmail’ part.”