Finally, there were Talia’s words about noticing things being wrong in this world, noticing things beyond “mere existence.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that something important was going on that he couldn’t quite grasp. If there were really important things going on that he was beginning to become cognizant of, what did this mean for him?
He really wished he had that video game to take his mind off of everything. Instead, he found himself wide awake at 7 a.m. on a Saturday. Not sleeping in on a Saturday was unimaginable to him, but he just couldn’t lie in bed anymore. He needed to do something. So he did what he always did when he found himself up early for some reason on a Saturday: go get McDonald’s for breakfast.
Terrance threw on jeans, an ironic T-shirt, and a jacket, and headed out the door. He went through the nearest McDonald’s drive-thru for a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit, an Egg McMuffin, three hash browns, and coffee. He didn’t feel like heading back home, though. There was nothing there to do—just all his old video games he was bored of, and the strange tunnel deep beneath his apartment that he still didn’t feel like dealing with. So he drove, not sure where he was going—though soon it became apparent.
He slowed down as he came to the unmarked road in the forested area and turned onto it. He followed the road until it ended, then parked the car. He grabbed his bag of food and his coffee, and walked through the forest into the clearing.
It was as he remembered it: fields of green stretching out in a way that made them seem infinite, yet he could see where they ended at a vast mountain range in the distance. What lay beyond that, he couldn’t fathom. In the blue sky, he could see the outlines of worlds hovering above him.
What he couldn’t see, though, was the floating crystal palace. Since he wasn’t in a rush today, Terrance thought maybe he could have a longer conversation with the faeries about the whole sword thing, but they apparently weren’t there anymore. It was a floating palace, after all, so it was feasible that it had moved.
Terrance decided to explore a little bit as he waited for his coffee to cool enough to be drinkable. He headed through a field of wildflowers, dodging past a couple of large butterflies, then hopped over a small brook. A shadow passed over him, and he looked up to see a huge bird flying far overhead. Or maybe it wasn’t a bird; he thought he could make out four legs.
He ignored it for now and headed up a hill to get a better view of things. He could see a single small tree at the top of the hill, which seemed like a nice spot to sit and eat his breakfast. When he reached the top, though, he could see that the land sloped far down below him. In the far distance, to his left, he could see water—perhaps a sea or a large lake. To his right, he could see a large forest that appeared to stretch out endlessly. Straight ahead were those mountains that seemed impossibly far away and impossibly large.
Terrance went over the map of the area in his head and realized he should be staring at the back of a Home Depot in this spot. This place seemed to exist outside of the regular world, which felt like something he should be concerned about. Using the shade of the tree, Terrance looked at his smartphone, but there was no cell signal, which was really odd since he had Verizon.
He sat down and leaned against the tree trunk, then pulled out his Egg McMuffin and ate it while staring at the mountains in the distance. He felt like he was on the cusp of something that he couldn’t quite articulate, and he was a bit scared about it.
He ate his breakfast, trying to peer past those mountains, filled with a sort of wonder he couldn’t completely understand. As he finished his last hash brown, he decided he was doing nothing but making himself crazy. Monday night, he’d be seeing Shannon again, and he wanted his head in the real world for that. He liked her—there was no question about that—and if she said Talia was dangerous and crazy, then he probably should just listen to his girlfriend.
He picked up the McDonald’s bag, which was now filled with trash, and continued sipping his coffee as he turned to head back to the car. There was nothing he needed to ask the faeries. He was done with all of this.
Then he saw something in the grass ahead, staring at him. A squirrel.
Terrance locked his eyes with its beady black ones. “You’re that same squirrel, aren’t you?”
It did not answer, its expression as inscrutable as that of any other squirrel.
“You got me here in the first place, and since then you’ve been following me. Why?”
Again, the squirrel did not answer, only staring at Terrance with its dark eyes. Or staring beyond him. Something about that stare creeped him out.
“You’re going to give me answers!” Terrance yelled, but the squirrel stood its ground. Terrance set his trash and coffee cup on the ground. “Know what I’m thinking? I’m between you and the only tree for at least a hundred yards. And while I know you things can scurry pretty fast, I don’t think you can move faster than a human in a straight-out run.”
The squirrel finally reacted, moving closer to the ground as if getting ready for a burst of speed. Terrance darted for it, and it ran away. But true to his supposition, he quickly began to catch up and was soon within a foot of being able to bend down and grab it.
It suddenly turned, stood still, and bared its teeth.
Startled, Terrance redirected his momentum to the side of the squirrel and quickly lost his footing, tumbling down the slope of the hill. He tried to stop his roll, but there was nothing to grab on to. He ended up tumbling right off a cliff and falling a pretty scary distance into some bushes.
He shook the dizziness from his head and stood up, adjusting his askew glasses. Nothing seemed broken. Ahead of him were much taller cliffs that he was glad he hadn’t fallen from, with a waterfall pouring down the center of them. The cliffs surrounded a large clearing of grass, at the center of which was a tall, shiny tower. A skyscraper. A very modern-looking one, with nothing but reflective glass visible on the outside.
Terrance looked behind him and realized it would be a bit of a trek to get around the cliff to be able to go back up the hill. He turned back to the skyscraper that stood alone in the field. It was curious, and he had nothing but time on his hands today, so he decided to check it out.
As he got near, it looked to be at least forty stories high. There was an automated revolving door, through which he entered the fancy marble lobby. The only slightly odd thing was that the ceiling seemed lower than he would have expected for a building this size. Ahead of him was a desk about half the height of a normal reception desk, but no one was sitting behind it.
“Can I help you?”
Terrance turned to see that standing near him was a little man with pointed ears, wearing a green cap. He was the size of a small child, but his facial features made him look middle-aged.
“Oh, I’m just looking. I was in the area, and I was curious what this place was.”
“It’s an office building,” the little man answered.
Terrance looked around. There were flat-screen monitors showing off the products being worked on in the building, such as magic dust, enchanted cloaks, and cookies. “So, are you a gnome?”
“An elf.”
“I thought elves were tall.”
“Why would you think that?”
Terrance thought for a moment. “The Lord of the Rings movies.”
“Well, it’s not true. May I ask why you’re in the area?”
“Oh, I was looking for a floating crystal palace with faeries in it.”
The elf narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What for?”
“They gave me a sword the other day, and I just wanted a better explanation of why.”
“You have the sword with you?”
“No, I left it at home. If I brought it to you guys, would you be able to tell me anything about it?”
The elf shook his head. “We don’t deal with weaponry. Are you a warrior?”
Terrance shook his head. “No. I’m a computer programmer who works primarily on web applications.”
; “So what are you doing here, looking for faeries?”
“It’s just…um…” Terrance thought about it. “I just want some answers, I guess.”
“To what?”
“Well, I’ve just noticed a lot of weird stuff lately—things that don’t seem right.”
“That’s not a question. Can I offer you some advice?”
The elf seemed sincere, so Terrance nodded. “Sure.”
“Let’s be logical about this.” Terrance found it hilarious that someone with pointy ears was talking about being logical, but he let it go. “As you said, you’re not a warrior, but the faeries like to interfere in things, and that leads to only one outcome: conflict.”
“Interfere in what?”
“Things,” the elf repeated. “Things over which blood is constantly shed. The point is, you’re not carrying your sword. That tells me you don’t want to use it. You’re not a warrior, but the path you’re going down will only lead to a fight. Are you looking for a battle?”
Terrance shook his head.
“So stop worrying about this. You explored. You found an office building in a hidden field. You looked inside, and it’s just an office building. Nothing interesting.”
“It’s just…”
“Nothing interesting. Do you want to get killed over things like this?”
“No.” Now he was more worried. “Are people going to kill me?”
“They just might. And you don’t look prepared to defend yourself. Now, why don’t you scamper back to where you came from.”
The elf stood there with an odd smile on his face, and Terrance turned and left the building. This whole area seemed weird—magical even—but he didn’t know what he expected to find here. He didn’t know what was so important to look for. And he didn’t see the point in talking to the faeries again when he already knew he wanted to be done with all this nonsense and put his focus back on his life, his job, and his girlfriend, who was cute and sweet and therefore ridiculous to think of as evil.
The blue sky had turned gray, and the occasional raindrop landed on Terrance’s head as he found his way back up the hill. He fetched his garbage and coffee cup, which were still by the tree, and headed back to his car. When he got to the trees at the edge of the clearing, he looked at his cellphone and saw he had a signal again. He checked his email and found a message from Shannon, telling him she was having lots of fun with her friends in the small village but she really missed him. He was about to reply when he felt a presence nearby.
Terrance looked up to see a large figure standing near his car. He was wearing dark armor, and his face was completely concealed by a horned helmet. Between his size and the horns, he stood nearly twice Terrance’s height. Strapped to his back was a massive battle-axe, the head of which looked to be about the size of Terrance’s torso. If this were a video game, Terrance would have felt like he’d just walked into a boss battle.
“Terrance, I presume,” the man announced in a booming voice.
“We know each other?” It seemed a dumb question; Terrance was pretty sure he would have remembered this guy.
“I know of you. What are you doing here?”
“Had the morning free, felt like finding a nice spot to eat some McDonald’s.” He held up the trash-filled bag. “Why?”
“Odd place to seek out.” It sounded like an accusation.
Terrance thought he knew what this guy was: a dark enforcer, another of the Hollow Ones that Talia had warned him about. But he had the sinking feeling he also knew exactly who this was. “So who are you?”
“I am a servant of the Darkness, and I smite its enemies. They call me Chet.”
Shannon’s ex. Terrance was already pretty certain he was a huge jerk. “Well, Chet, I have things to do,” he lied, “so I need to get going.”
“Guns don’t kill people. People with mustaches kill people.”
For a moment, Terrance was confused. Then he realized Chet was reading the T-shirt Terrance had thrown on that morning.
“I notice you don’t have a mustache,” Chet said.
“Do you?”
Chet was silent for a moment, then said, “I have an axe.”
“Well, you have fun with that.” Terrance took out his keys and unlocked the car.
“I’ll be watching you,” Chet said as Terrance got into the driver’s seat.
“That’s creepy.” Terrance pulled the door closed, started the car, and got out of there as quickly as a four-cylinder would allow.
Chapter 10
Terrance wasn’t sure what to do with himself the rest of the weekend. He watched a couple of shows on Netflix and putzed around the internet. He checked if there were any games on Steam that he hadn’t played and that he felt like buying and downloading, but his spirit was too broken from not having Legendary Quest. A couple of times, he thought about checking out that strange tunnel beneath his apartment, but decided he’d had more than his share of nonsense this weekend already. He was bored and frustrated, the only highlight of the weekend being the occasional text or email from Shannon.
Sunday evening, there was a knock at his door. It was Lance. He lived in the apartment above Terrance, which was the main reason they were friends, since they didn’t really share any interests and were nothing alike. “You busy with your game, or do you want to go get some drinks?” Lance asked.
“I wasn’t able to get my game.”
“Then I bet you definitely want a drink. Come on.”
It was raining hard, so Terrance grabbed an umbrella. They headed over to Tappers, a small bar within walking distance of their building, and ordered a pitcher of beer. Terrance had a number of things he wanted to talk about, and after they settled at a table with their drinks, he decided to start with the subject he thought Lance would consider most relevant. “I ran into Shannon’s ex. Actually, I think he was following me.”
“He’s stalking you?”
“Looks like it.”
Lance scanned the faces around the darkened bar. “Did he seem dangerous?”
“He’s giant and has an axe.”
Lance took a sip of his beer. “Might need to pop him one to get him to back off.”
“I’d have to get him to take his helmet off first.” Plus, Terrance wasn’t sure he could reach that high. “Hey, did you know there’s a tunnel under our apartments?”
“A tunnel?”
“Well, you know how sometimes in my apartment, something beneath knocks on the floor because I’m making noise?”
“Yeah.”
“But I’m on the ground floor.”
Lance thought about it while sipping his beer. “I guess it’s something beneath the earth that doesn’t like noise.”
“Yeah, well, I opened what I thought would be an entrance to a crawlspace in a closet and found this tunnel that leads deep down below the building…and I could see light down there. What in the world do you think it is?”
Lance shrugged. “Storage?”
“I feel like it’s something big. Like it’s something I should check out.”
“So, if you’re left alone for the weekend and don’t have a video game to play, you get weird and obsessive.”
“It’s not just that. When I went to this Walmart to find my game—which was weirdly on some mountain and surrounded by monsters or something—I ran into that woman, the one from the empowerment ceremony at work who got away.”
“Oh yeah; you got weird and obsessive that day, too, and made a big scene.”
Terrance ignored him. “Her name is Talia, and she talked as if there was some big conflict going on. I got the same vibe from an elf I talked to in an office building in a hidden meadow.”
Lance looked confused. “Why are you going into random office buildings?”
“Because it was all alone in a secret meadow!” Terrance noticed that some people were now looking at him, so he lowered his voice. “It seemed important. I dunno. It just seems like there are weird, important things going on all around
me and no one seems to care.”
Lance nodded. “So is everything all right between you and Shannon?”
“Yeah, she’s great, it’s just…” Terrance took a deep breath. “I’m really starting to wonder if she’s…evil. I think this weekend she went to slaughter a defenseless village. And Talia warned me about her kind; called them the Hollow Ones, whatever that means. What do you do if you think your girlfriend is evil? Do you confront her about it? I mean, I really like her, but it just doesn’t seem like I should let that go.”
Lance was quiet in contemplation for a few moments. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Over there are some hot college girls.”
Terrance looked across the bar to where two attractive young things sat talking to each other.
“We’re going to go hit on them,” Lance said.
“I have a girlfriend.”
“So this will be just for fun. All we’re going to do is get their numbers. It will be a confidence-booster so you’ll have less trouble satisfying Shannon in bed.”
Terrance turned red. “That’s not the problem.”
“I’m getting a vibe that it is. So come on. Just follow my lead.” Lance got up, and Terrance followed. He wasn’t sure how far he was going to take this hitting-on-other-women business, but he knew better than to argue with Lance. As he got near the girls’ table, he noticed a pale man in the corner, with what looked to be an unconscious woman in his arms. The man was looking greedily at her, then bared his teeth—which included fangs.
Terrance grabbed Lance’s arm. “Is that a vampire over there?”
Lance reluctantly took his eyes off the prize and looked over to the corner. “I dunno. Maybe. Why?”
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