by Amanda Frame
“All right, great. Well, uh, I’ve got your number. I’ll text you,” he said, finally releasing my hand.
“Okay. See ya.” I got in the car and drove off, giving him a wave in the rearview mirror. He waved back.
I’d text him another time. Maybe soon. I smiled.
CHAPTER 39
JOHN
The goat creature had sustained me for over two weeks, the next Leech over three. It had gotten knocked out of the third story of a parking garage after a fight with another monster. I had hidden nearby and waited for it to die as it writhed and moaned in agony. I cried then. Even though I was terrified of it, it was a living thing that was suffering and I should have put it out of its misery. But I was too much of a coward.
I didn’t know why I was getting weaker at different rates each time I killed one. Maybe some were stronger than others.
I sat on the makeshift chair I had built out of crates and plywood and played with the yo-yo I had restrung with fishing line. Up, down, up, down, up, down. The monotony was helping me forget. I wanted the numbness to return.
My life here was miserable, and that was putting it mildly. If I didn’t have to devise sick plans to murder monsters and then feast on their souls, it wouldn’t have been unbearable. Or even that bad at all. I was an expert with the yo-yo now, teaching myself all sorts of tricks. Throwing a rotting tennis ball against the back wall of my surplus store was another favorite pastime, although it was rapidly losing its ability to bounce.
Exploring people’s houses was interesting. Attics, basements, and closets often held the most fascinating artifacts. At first it felt intrusive, but then I began to crave the connection to humanity I felt when I held them, trying to spark a feeling deep inside myself other than crushing loneliness. Sometimes I would bring my deck of cards and play solitaire among the memories that I pretended were my own.
Dodging Leeches wasn’t too difficult. They didn’t seem very interested in me unless I was close by or startled them. I had been chased once and was certain I was about to meet my end, but I ran through a drainage ditch on the side of the road and it stopped pursuing me, almost as if it didn’t want to get wet. To my confusion, exhaustion had washed over me after crossing through the water and I avoided that area ever since.
I would get a distinct feeling if I was about to enter a structure where a monster was, so I was able to avoid them. It felt like the air was thicker, constricting and heavy, sticking my clothes to my skin. There was a dread that would build the closer I got, a survival instinct to stay away. I was grateful for it as it was probably the main reason I was still alive.
I needed to go outside. The walls were suffocating, shutting in the experiences I wanted to forget. There was a small park about a mile away that I kept meaning to check out. It was secluded in a small residential area where I had never seen any Leeches. I stepped outside after scoping out the area, making sure there was nothing around.
After weaving through the three rows of spikes, I crawled on hands and knees underneath the four-layered tin can alarm I had strung across the sidewalk leading up to my store. It was a pathetic measure, but I didn’t know what else to do. I wasn’t able to dig up the sidewalk, so I had just left it, and dug the ditch on either side. At least the sidewalk was now the only way to safely approach the building, so if a Leech were to try to get close, it would have to trip the alarm. Who knew if I would even hear it, but it made me feel better nonetheless.
I scanned the ditch now, as I did every time I walked across it, to make sure nothing had shifted. Strips of bark and cardboard still littered the bottom, seemingly undisturbed. I gave a quick nod of approval and moved on.
I took a few of my usual routes through areas I had discovered were relatively safe, but still walking through alleyways and sticking close to buildings whenever possible.
When I reached the park, there was a concrete sidewalk that led behind a small, one story building that were probably restrooms. I followed the pavement around the back and saw an old metal jungle gym and the frame of a swing set with no swings.
I leaned against the water fountain that was affixed to the wall and just stared at the playground with a small smile. This place was familiar; I think I used to come here as a little kid. I imagined my dad pushing me on those swings, me yelling for him to push me higher, squealing with delight. My eyes teared up so I tilted my head back and blinked, refusing to acknowledge the despair.
When my vision cleared, I saw an echo sitting on the ground next to the swing set. This one looked a bit different, though, far more solid, maybe because I was so close. It was a woman, sitting cross-legged, back toward me.
I observed her, making sure to keep an eye out for Leeches who might feel her presence. She began to fade after a moment, but not completely. I could still make her out if I squinted. It was very odd; I hadn’t seen an echo do this before. She started to move her head back and forth slightly, as though watching someone swinging on swings I couldn’t see.
Her image hardened; I could see her clearly again. I stood up straight and cocked my head, confused. She stopped watching the invisible swings and pushed herself up to her feet. I could see the sand was disturbed where she had been sitting. My heart beat faster. Something was very off.
“What the…” I said aloud to myself.
Her head whipped around and I took a step back, eyes widening, startled.
She had heard me.
The woman stared back at me, mouth agape. Clearly she was just as confused as I was. We held eye contact for a few moments, then she darted away, down a sandy path leading into a stand of palm trees.
“Hey, wait!” I yelled, running after her. “Wait! Come back!”
I ran down the path a ways before it forked. I scanned the area, panting, but didn’t see any sign of her. I ran my hands through my hair, turning in a circle, trying to process what had just happened.
That wasn’t an echo. Echoes didn’t leave footprints. They weren’t aware that they were in the Void, let alone hear and see what was around them. Even though she had been slightly transparent, she was far more corporeal than any person I had seen thus far.
My mind flooded with questions. What was she? Who was she? Was she stuck here like me? Was she dangerous? How was she surviving? Did she know a way to survive that didn’t involve slaughtering monsters? How long had she been here? Maybe she knew things I didn’t. Maybe I knew things she didn’t. Maybe if I could find her, I could also find some answers. Maybe I could escape.
Maybe I could go home.
CHAPTER 40
ANNA
After several heated debates with my parents, I finally convinced them to let me go on a road trip to South Carolina to visit “historic Charleston”, which was obviously a lie. I was sure they knew I was lying but figured they thought it was because we planned on partying instead. Becca’s mom was more laid back and agreed to it pretty easily.
The hardest part was lying to John. I knew he would do everything in his power to not let me go, or at least insist on coming with me, which would mean he would learn that Becca knew almost everything. He would not be happy. I had promised him I would never go into the Void by myself, but never said I wouldn’t do any other research. I tried to tell myself that made it okay…ish.
We were going to leave literally right after we got our diplomas. I hadn’t been excited about the graduation ceremony anyway, and being anxious to leave made it feel twice as long.
I met up with my parents a few minutes after the ceremony finally ended and my dad gave me a rib-crushing hug.
“We’re so proud of you, Anna!” my mom said with a giant smile, trying to hold back tears. I chuckled, rolling my eyes.
“Thanks, Mom,” I responded, my dad finally releasing me.
I handed my diploma to my mom and started shedding my cap and gown.
“That’s it? Just like that and you’re off?” my dad said with a smile, shaking his head.
“Yep, my bag is already in Becca�
��s car. Hey, you guys agreed to this.”
“I know, I was just really hoping we could have a congratulatory dinner or something,” my mom sighed.
“All the parents are probably thinking the same thing. Any restaurant is going to be packed. It’s better if we do it when I get back anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she conceded.
After a few more minutes of obligatory conversation, I finally convinced my parents to go home and found Becca.
“That was so freaking boring. You’d think the culmination of our school career would be more… climactic,” she said. I laughed.
We wove through the crowd and finally reached Becca’s car, our bags in the back seat. It took forever to get out of the parking lot. We expected to reach the motel around 7:00 pm.
We managed to pretend we were on a real road trip for the first three hours or so. Blasting music, laughing, talking about nothing important. The closer we got to our destination, the harder it got. We were somber by the time we saw the motel sign with “vacancy” lit in neon underneath. It was the cheapest room we could find. We promised our parents we would pay them back once we both got summer jobs. I had an interview at a restaurant next week.
We zoned out watching late-night TV, trying to relax. It took me hours to fall asleep; I couldn’t turn off my brain. I heard Becca tossing and turning in the bed next to mine. Clearly neither of us was excited about this plan. I wondered if she was also starting to regret it.
CHAPTER 41
JOHN
I searched for weeks. I went back to the playground every day. I followed those paths to the very end. I wrote messages in the sand for her. I looked for human footprints that weren’t mine.
I alternated between excited and vastly disappointed. I had potentially found another person here, but she clearly didn’t want anything to do with me and I couldn’t figure out why. Did she think I was going to hurt her? I tried to put her out of my mind so I could focus on a new plan. I checked my hash marks. It was my four-month anniversary here, and if my calculations were correct, it was also my nineteenth birthday.
My luck at killing Leeches thus far was making me lazy. It seemed like my go-to plan always worked, so I wasn’t trying very hard to come up with a back-up, which I felt would probably come back to bite me in the ass.
I would stalk a Leech that seemed on the weaker side for a couple days. Most of them seemed to have a pretty clear-cut routine. I would dig a pit near the area it usually traversed, or somewhere I could lure it to, and overlaid it with palm branches and cardboard, my bear trap at the bottom. I’d wait for it to fall in and give it a few minutes to weaken, then shoot it. Usually I went through at least three bullets, either because my aim was bad, or they were duds. Most of my exploration was spent looking for guns and ammunition. Guns weren’t hard to find; it was ammo that was the issue.
The last time I killed a Leech, I was out of bullets, so I had let it starve to death. It took eight days. I fought down the nausea that came with that memory. The memory of being desperate enough to let a creature die a slow and painful death. I didn’t have any ammo; what other choice did I have? I was disgusted with myself, not just because I had committed that act, but also because at the time, it didn’t bother me very much. This place was changing me. I didn’t like the person I was becoming.
I really just wanted a clean and easy way to do it. I wished for the thousandth time that I had more bullets that worked. Guns were useless without ammo. I had a week or so before I started getting too weak to successfully pull off another hunt.
It was morning and I was planning on leaving for an overnight trip to travel to a Bass Pro Shop that I remembered being about a twenty-minute drive, so maybe ten miles away. I had found a bike trailer, which I considered to be the best thing to have happened to me so far in the last four months. Factoring time to have to hide out from any Leeches, I estimated it might take a whole day to get there. I would have to take the highway and I was not looking forward to being that exposed. I was seriously considering chickening out but I might get a really good haul.
Riding the bike with the trailer attached sucked, but I was still grateful to have it. It took me a half hour just to get up the on-ramp to the highway, since I had to walk the bike. At least it felt like a half hour; I had no way to measure time in this place other than dawn and dusk.
The pavement was punishing. It was cracked and full of potholes. Regret came on quickly. I pulled next to the guardrail to take a break and groaned, stretching my miserable legs. The trailer had already gotten stuck multiple times. It probably would have been faster to walk. I kicked the thing and growled in frustration. I debated just abandoning it, but then I would have no way of getting anything back home other than my backpack. What if I found something big? I’d have to make the trek back with the bike anyway.
Groaning again, I climbed back on the bike and started pedaling, dodging potholes left and right. My mind began to wander. I was thinking about the woman again. I imagined a silly fantasy where we found each other and fell in love. We would destroy monsters with ease and rip a hole in the barrier between the two worlds, strutting back into the human plane, reunited with our shocked loved ones. We would tell them our horror stories with pride and then would stare at us with awe, marveling at our bravery.
My fantasizing was cut tragically short as the front wheel of the bike hit a crack and turned sharply right, stopping abruptly and nearly causing me to fly over the handlebars. The chain had come off.
“Piece of shit! Can’t something just be easy for once?” I yelled at the bike and kicked the wheel, dislodging the chain further.
I went over to the guardrail, leaning my hands on it and taking a deep breath, trying to calm down. I peered over the edge of the overpass and looked off into the distance. My jaw dropped.
Leeches. Must have been forty or more of them; I could just barely make them out. They circled a hospital whose parking lot was a short ways off the exit.
I wasn’t concerned about them seeing me. Even if they could, they wouldn’t pursue me. Why were there so many? It made sense that there would be a lot of echoes at a hospital. People in pain, scared family members, high-stress situations. But shouldn’t that mean they would be inside? There probably were a ton of them inside, preying on the emotions of terrified people.
I shook my head and got back on the bike. This was not somewhere I wanted to be for longer than necessary.
It was dusk by the time I reached the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop, and I was so exhausted I about passed out right there. I’d wanted to stop hours ago but didn’t feel safe camping on the side of the road. I left my bike right outside the front doors; it wasn’t like someone was going to steal it.
I pulled open the heavy front doors with a giant handle that looked to be made from a board of driftwood. Disappointingly, but not unexpectedly, the store was mostly empty. My best bet would be a storage room. I wasn’t going to worry about that right now, though. I moved out of sight of the entrance and lay down, using my backpack as a pillow. Sleep came hard and fast. For the first time in a long time, I had a dreamless night, too exhausted to weave my waking hours into tangled nightmares.
~
The next morning, I found a box with a bunch of random stuff in it, shoved into a corner. I suspected it might have been returned items that were forgotten about and ended up packed behind a bunch of other boxes.
A pair of canvass gloves, snowshoes, an ice-fishing pole, a set of walkie-talkies, a goose decoy for hunting, and a small plate of metal on a chain that I thought might be a fire-starter. Some of that was definitely useless, but I was going to take it anyway.
There was one more box way up on the top shelf. I pushed it off with a ski pole and caught the box before it hit the floor. The cardboard disintegrated beneath my fingers to reveal its contents. Holy Mary, Mother of God.
A crossbow with a quiver of a dozen bolts.
I ran my fingertips over the bow delicately, f
eeling its curves and sharp edges. My head was buzzing with excitement and hope, something I hadn’t felt in a while. I set it by my backpack. I’d have to wait to figure out how to use it; there was a lot more work to be done.
The store was huge and I scoured it from top to bottom, also finding some netting, a bundle of rope, three pairs of rock-climbing shoes, one of which actually fit, a pair of sunglasses, and a kayak, which was too big to come back with me. There were huge displays of taxidermy animals everywhere—no point in taking any of them. My surplus store was going to start looking like a hoarder’s house as it was.
I decided to spend another night so I would have ample time to get back. Leaving early was pivotal since the journey would take even longer than it did to get here. The trailer full of all this stuff was going to be a nightmare to get home.
At sunrise, I started packing up. Carrying the last few items outside, I pushed the door open with my hip and froze. The bike and trailer were tipped over on their sides. I set my armload of stuff down quietly and drew my knife, scanning the area but not seeing anything.
The trailer started wriggling. There was something underneath it. Moving. Heart pounding, knife ready, I crept around to the other side of the bike, giving it a wide berth.
What looked like a fat centipede had gotten trapped under it when it tipped. It was the smallest Leech I had seen, maybe about the size of a bobcat.
An easy kill. Before it could wiggle free, I stabbed it in the side of the head. It gave one final spasm and fell still. I waited a few moments for the death haze to rise, feeling that same electric tingle that I always felt right before the onslaught of emotion. I grabbed my head and waited for it to pass. It wasn’t as strong as usual.
Once I had my wits about me, I righted the bike and packed everything back up. It scared me a little how commonplace that had felt. It was just a part of my existence now. I had only taken advantage of a free meal. Every time I did this, the empty hunger would fade, but in its place was a wrongness, like I was tainted.