Void

by D Haltinner

  “Did you still want that drink of rum?” Darren asked.

  Audrey didn’t answer for a few seconds. “Maybe later.”

  “Not now?” Maybe the plan wouldn’t work after all. He’d have to club her over the head like a cave man instead.

  “Maybe later,” she said. “I’m starting to think that the only thing we have left to try is to figure out what those papers we picked up today have to say. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll have something useful with them.”

  “I guess so, it’s worth a try.” And then pop open the bottle afterwards.

  “Maybe we can if we-”

  Darren waited a second for Audrey to continue, but she didn’t. “What?”

  “Shh!”

  Darren lowered his voice to a whisper. “What?”

  “Look ahead of us.”

  The steps across the trench were becoming bathed in a dim yellow light. The light was growing brighter and shifted focus as its source must have bumped around. A few seconds later and a flashlight came into view.

  Darren didn’t think the flashlight was going to be bright enough to see across the tunnel, but the man holding it kept it pointed at the ground instead of raising it to look around. Without any light reflecting back at the man holding the light, Darren couldn’t tell if there was only one man or more than one until their voices carried across the trench as they reached the bottom of the steps.

  “Are you nuts?” One man said. The voice sounded like that of the man they called Kurt. “We can’t move his body anywhere.”

  “We can’t leave it there,” said the other male-the balding man.

  “We can, and we will. We have no choice but to let people think he’s missing, we can’t let anything about these tunnels come out. His body stays there, and I am not going to touch it.”

  “It just seems wrong to leave it there.”

  “Well, we have no choice in the matter,”

  The men’s voices were growing fainter as the light moved further away toward the south.

  “We came down to see if we can find those two down here yet, not to drag some dead body up to the surface,” Kurt said. “Even if he was our friend.”

  “Jeez man, how did this go so wrong?”

  “It’s those damn kids.”

  “What will we do about them though? They already must know what we planned to do.”

  “Tit for tat. Toss them into the blackness and let them fend for themselves I say.”

  “You sure we should do that?”

  “They killed one of us, and I bet they would have shot you too had you ran any slower.”

  “Maybe, I don’t know. He did kind of push them.”

  “It’s too late to play nice. They’re in the way, and we have to deal with it before it becomes too late.”

  “I guess.”

  Their voices faded too much for Darren to make out any more of what they said. The light bobbed and moved further away until it was just a speck in the blackness.

  “Maybe we should go now,” Audrey said. “Before they can come back this way.”

  “Fine by me.”

  “We’ll have to watch out for them when we come back.”

  “Yeah, we will.”

  Audrey’s flashlight clicked on, forcing Darren to squint at the sudden light. She held her soda bottle in her other hand and rose to her feet as Darren tucked everything back into the bag.

  “Let’s go,” Audrey said. “Before it’s too late.”

  Chapter 55

  The sun was falling low in the sky when Darren and Audrey made it back to her dormitory. They had to ask a passing student what time it was, only to find out that they had spent almost twelve hours below the campus.

  “How did time go by so fast?” Audrey asked as they ventured toward the building.

  “A lot has happened today,” Darren said.

  “Yeah,” she shivered. “Still, that’s a lot of time.”

  “I know. It is.”

  Audrey pulled her ID card out of her pocket as they approached the door.

  “Wait,” Darren said, reaching out to grab Audrey’s arm. “We can’t use that.”

  Audrey looked down at the card in her hand. “I almost forgot.”

  “They don’t know who you are yet-I hope-but it might not take them long.”

  “I suppose it would be better not to try.”

  “When was your roommate supposed to he back?”

  “Anytime,” Audrey said, looking around behind her. “She might even be up there now.”

  “No easy way to find out, is there?”

  “Not really.”

  Audrey’s head snapped to the side when a petite girl walked around the side of the building in a hood with more fur than a raccoon has on her head. “I have an idea though, stay close.”

  The girl ventured closer and Audrey moved in behind her as she drudged up the steps. Audrey stayed a little distance behind the girl as she fought to free her card with her gloved hands, then stepped in close as the girl swung the door open.

  Audrey grabbed the door before it could close with Darren waiting right behind her. She hesitated as the girl walked down the hall, not looking back at her tailgaters as she pulled the hood from her head.

  “Come on,” Audrey said.

  Darren followed Audrey into the warm air of the building. They moved down the hall past open doors and blaring televisions, and lumbered up the stairs one step at a time until they reached Audrey’s floor.

  She led Darren to her door and stopped outside it. “Let’s hope she’s here.”

  Darren nodded and Audrey went ahead and knocked on the door three times in a row. “What’s your roommate’s name anyways?” Darren asked.

  “Nelle,” Audrey said. “Nelle Lascomb.”

  “Anything I should know about her?”

  Audrey knocked again. “She’s a bit... bubbly.”

  “Bubbly?”

  “Yeah, you know-”

  The door swung open. In the gap stood a tall girl in the process of pulling her shirt over her stomach as if she was just interrupted while changing. Her short blonde hair was still damp, and a bead of water ran down her chin bone from her ears. Her wide eyes grew wider as they fell on Audrey.

  “Aud! Why are you knocking?” Nelle said. She didn’t wait for Audrey to answer before continuing. “I just got back myself! I had so much fun I almost thought about staying there!”

  “I think I dropped my ID in the library,” Audrey said. “I’ll have to check in the morning.”

  “The library?” Nelle said. “I try to stay out of that place, I can’t stand the smell of all those books. But then again, I don’t really need to do any research for my classes anyways!”

  “Can we come in?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just so surprised to see you knocking!”

  Nelle stepped out of the way and Audrey led Darren inside.

  He was beginning to see what Audrey meant when she said that Nelle was bubbly.

  Nelle went to the corner behind her desk and began to rummage through the top of her dresser. “So who’s your friend?”

  “This is Darren,” Audrey said.

  Darren smiled and gave a little wave, “Hi.”

  “I’m Nelle.”

  “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too. Aud has had a few good things to say about you at the end of the week.”

  “Has she now?”

  “Oh yeah, she’s just enamored wi-”

  “Okay you two,” Audrey said. “Don’t forget I’m right here.”

  “Oh, they’re all good things she’s said,” Nelle said. “What brings you over Mister Darren?”

  “Darren and I just have to work on that history paper I told you about,” Audrey said before Darren could even contemplate an answer. “Actually we were hoping to use your scanner for something too.”

  “Oh yeah, feel free,” Nelle said. She turned from the dresser with a bottle of yellow nail polish in h
er hand. “I have to go study with Marisa and Julie anyways.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Of course. I’ll be down in the second floor study room if you need me.”

  “I think we’ll be fine.”

  Nelle picked up a green canvas backpack from the floor beside her dresser and hefted the strap over her shoulder. She gave a small wave before stepping outside and disappearing.

  “See what I meant now?” Audrey asked.

  “Yeah,” Darren said. “How do you stand it though?”

  “After awhile, it just turns into background noise.”

  “I suppose, but that still seems hard to do.”

  “She’s nice, and usually pretty quiet.”

  “Quiet?”

  “It’s just that once she gets going, she doesn’t stop.”

  “Still, I think that would drive me nuts.”

  “At least she’s got a scanner though.”

  “I can’t argue with that,” Darren said just before Audrey yawned. “Getting tired?”

  “A bit,” she said. “It’s just been a stressful day.”

  “It has.”

  “Kind of takes a lot out of you.”

  “It does.”

  Audrey turned and bent down to her box of soda. “I suppose it would be a good time for a caffeine jolt.”

  “You don’t drink coffee?”

  “Can't stand the stuff.”

  “Neither can I.”

  Audrey turned back with a pair of Pepsi’s in her hands. “Like one?”

  “Got cups?”

  Audrey frowned. “Cups?”

  Darren let the backpack slide from his shoulders and onto the desk. He opened it up and pulled out the glass liquor bottle.

  Her face tensed as she appeared to think for a moment before relaxing. “I think Nelle has a couple of travel mugs we could use.”

  “Fine by me.”

  Audrey went over to Nelle’s side of the room and began to rummage around while Darren lifted the bottle up and looked at the label.

  He couldn’t believe he was actually going to drink the stuff. After alcohol destroyed his relationship with Rachel, he was going to turn around and give liquor to his new girlfriend, and not only that, he intended to drink some himself. Not a lot for his own glass, just enough that Audrey wouldn’t think that she was drinking alone.

  And when Audrey fell under the spell of the mystical fluid, Darren could go back into the tunnel and get professor Lasser’s car keys before she wakes up. It might be a bit awkward to get her out of the dorm when she was passed out, or on the verge of passing out, but he could manage it. He had to manage it. It was the only way to get her out of Redfern and somewhere safer. She would never do it on her own accord and without a clue as how to stop the thing inside of the void, it was the only thing they could do.

  He couldn’t let Audrey get hurt.

  “Here we are,” Audrey said, pulling a pair of steel travel coffee mugs out of Nelle’s property. “These will work.”

  Darren opened the bottle, and when Audrey set the cups down, poured the clear liquid in, letting the aroma of distilled molasses into the air. He handed one cup to her so that she couldn’t see the difference in the level of liquid between the two.

  In return, she handed him one of the sodas. “I hope this stuff really calms my nerves like people claim it does.”

  “It will,” Darren said, opening his Pepsi and pouring it into his glass. Audrey filled her glass and took a sip.

  “Tastes a bit strong,” she said with a light wince.

  “I just think we’re not used to the taste. I didn’t put a whole lot in.”

  Audrey took another sip. “I suppose.”

  Darren took a drink of his own. It tasted like sour Pepsi, but still drinkable.

  “Ready to get those pages scanned in?”

  “We can, or it might not be a bad idea to just take a little bit to try and relax. It might help to clear our heads just to try and forget about everything for a little bit.”

  “But-”

  “We have time,” Darren said. “Don't worry about that. But no amount of time will help us if we can’t think straight.”

  “I suppose.”

  “I don’t watch a lot of TV, but we could probably just watch a short show and sit together for a little while. Just long enough to help relax a bit.”

  “We can do that,” Audrey said. “But not too long.”

  Darren set his cup down and shrugged out of his jacket, then followed Audrey over to the couch. They sat down, and Darren noticed that she had drunk half of what was in her cup already. They weren’t very large mugs, but he put enough liquor in it to have equalized the amount of alcohol she would have gotten from two or three beers.

  Audrey turned on the TV and snuggled herself closer to Darren. “Want anything in particular?”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  Audrey began to flip through the channels.

  “Want me to top off your cup for you?”

  Audrey looked into the mug, hesitated, then put it to her lips and drank the rest of it in two gulps. “The taste gets kind of addicting, doesn’t it?”

  “It does.”

  “Put a bit less in it, if you don’t mind.”

  “No problem.”

  Darren took her cup and moved over to Audrey’s desk where the rest of their cans and liquor sat. He put in a tad more liquor than he did last time and filled it the rest of the way with Pepsi. He only added enough soda to his to look like he filled his up as well.

  “Here you go,” Darren said when he went back to the love seat and handed the cup back to Audrey.

  Audrey sat up while Darren retook his spot and sipped her drink. “Did you put less in it?”

  “Yeah, isn’t that what you wanted?”

  “Yeah, it just tasted as strong as the last one.”

  “Must be your taste buds are getting used to the taste.”

  “Maybe.” She took a drink.

  Audrey settled against Darren’s shoulder and the pair watched the television. Darren could actually feel the tension in her muscles relax as the minutes passed and she continued to sip at her drink.

  Darren yawned a couple of times and set his cup on the desk behind them. His body was worn down too much from the day. The running, the walks across campus, the stress of the gunshot. It was a lot for a body to take.

  It might not be such a bad idea just to snuggle up into the back of the couch and take a quick nap. If he was going to drag Audrey out to a car and drive most of the night, he was going to need all the rest he could get. Maybe an hours worth of sleep-not too much more-and then he'd get some energy back. By then, Audrey may have even had enough to get herself groggy.

  Darren laid his head back and closed his eyes.

  It felt nice sitting here beside Audrey. Too nice. He had to wake up soon enough to get her out of here before it became too late. She was too important to Darren for him to let her get hurt.

  Darren’s mind cleared after a minute, and sleep took him.

  Chapter 56

  A door closing woke Darren. He pushed himself up from the couch where he was laying and looked around him.

  He was alone on the couch, covered by a blanket. Audrey was in her own bed, limbs sprawled out from beneath the sheet covering her. It was dark, but light from a rising sun was streaming in through the window.

  It only took Darren a moment to realize he and Audrey had slept through the night. With the day they had, it didn’t surprise him, but what would he do now? He needed to get Audrey out of Redfern as soon as possible.

  Darren stood up and saw Nelle out of the corner of his eye, standing beside the desk.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said at a near whisper. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  Audrey stirred in bed, sucking in a loud breath and opening eyes that took a minute to focus in on Darren and Nelle. “What’s going on?”

  “They just canceled my morning class, so I was coming back in and wo
ke Darren.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Seven thirty or so.”

  Audrey yawned and sat herself up in bed. “We slept all night?”

  “It would seem so,” Darren said.

  “You fell asleep, so I was just going to take a short nap too. I didn’t think we’d sleep all night.”

  “You two looked exhausted when I saw you yesterday,” Nelle said. “I though I was supposed to let you sleep, so I just went to bed, I didn’t know I should have waken you two up.”

  “Don’t worry about it, it’s our fault,” Audrey said. She raised her arms and stretched them high into the sky. “We don’t have much time though.”

  “Late for class?” Nelle asked.

  “Not quite.”

  “They canceled a lot of them anyways.” Nelle said, “At least everything in Jefferson and Rosch Hall.

  Audrey’s face didn’t say that she thought anything odd about the fact that they canceled classes in those two buildings, but Darren couldn’t ignore the coincidence.

  “Why’d they do that?” Darren asked.

  “Something about electrical glitches.” Nelle shrugged. “Guess the lights in most of the classrooms aren’t working. Only the ones with windows for some odd reason.”

  Darren turned his head toward Audrey, meeting her eyes as her face grew tense.

  “The void,” Audrey said.

  “Huh?” Nelle said.

  “It’s growing,” Darren said. “Fast.”

  “We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Until three.”

  “That isn’t much time.”

  “But we still don’t know what to do.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Nelle asked.

  “I don’t have time to explain,” Audrey said. “But Nelle, if I were you, I would stay as far north on campus as you can.”

  “That won’t be a problem with them canceling classes.”

  Audrey kicked away her sheets. She was still in her clothes from yesterday. She stood up and turned to Darren. “We need to do something. Now.”

  “Audrey,” Daren said. “What we need to do is get out of here. You need to get out of here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Audrey said.

  “I don't want to see anything happen to you. I’ll stay and deal with this, but I think you should leave Redfern.”