I was sitting on a brown smokestack. It had some shade from the tiny shack that they used to have as an office there. It had been easy to jump over the fence, but my aching muscles had made it a small torture.
I was checking my phone every two seconds.
Now, that fact wasn’t unusual for me, the social media addict that I was with narcissistic tendencies, as Billy would put it. The unusual part was that I was waiting for Prodromos to call me back, or at least reply with a message or something.
I had hoped for a result like: “Stand in a puddle of water facing east and she wont get to you anymore.” Don’t mock me, I was still optimistic back then! Sue me.
I was tapping and refreshing the damn phone at a steady pace. I was well aware that the attack would come in mere minutes. I must have been hoping for a cure before that. I certainly didn’t want to experience one more chase if I could help it.
The minutes went by.
Nothing.
I checked my watch.
Calmer this time, I stood up, left my bag on the ground. I puffed in some deep breaths, stretched my arms and my legs, just like during gymnastics time. I used to be on the volleyball team two years ago, but I got tired of it. Still, the warm-up routine had been ingrained to my memory, doing movements I didn’t even remember knowing.
I jogged in a small circle, checking my watch.
As the beep sounded I broke the circle path and ran straight ahead, towards a square brown-red bundle of roof tiles.
I vaulted over it and her hair missed me by an inch.
Purple time
Her hair brushed my neck as I fell on the other side of the roof-tiles. The gravel was noisy under my feet but gave me a steady grip. I ran between two lawn statues, Greek-style women that covered their nakedness with a small piece of cloth.
She came behind me, raised her hand and smashed the head of the statue with tremendous force. The pieces smashed and fell on my back, cutting my skin and letting it bleed. I wiped some of the pieces away with an awkward backhanded gesture but kept running.
I reached the spot I had marked with an arrow on the white gravel and spun left. I ran parallel to the street, through the narrow gaps between the various ornaments and stacks of ceramic tiles. I glanced back, and there she was, her face a breath away from mine, smiling.
I squealed and ducked, hitting my elbow on the edge of something hard. The blow hit bone, numbing my arm. I stood back up and ran away, my arm refusing to move along, needles piercing my skin on it.
I ran and wobbled, unable to maintain balance with one arm tightly gripped on my stomach.
I reached the next mark, spun left again and headed for an open space to make my finish. The Erinyes came up to me, touched my thigh and it turned bright purple. I fell on the ground, spinning from momentum and came to a stop.
Chapter 32
I was in a foetal position on the ground, in the middle of the strange place, surrounded by decorations and ornaments that nobody wanted.
I let it all out.
I cried and I vomited, then I cried again.
After a while, I felt a bit of relief so I stumbled back to my back and drank from a bottle of water. I checked my phone.
Prodromos had sent a message. “We have a problem. Come meet me at the barrels.”
I replied, “No shit we do. You better have something.”
I ditched school and went to our meeting place.
It took me a while longer than I thought to find the place. It wasn’t as if I was really paying attention the first time we got there. In the end I managed to find a bus that dropped me off a minute’s walk away.
I saw the white van from a distance and got closer. As I was walking behind the vehicle towards the passenger door, a hand swung it open and I hopped up.
I opened my mouth, preparing to deliver a stream of nags, insults, WTFs and some epithets, but Prodromos slapped a device on my head and that shut me up temporarily.
“You are late,” she said and adjusted the electrodes on my head.
I looked back at the umbilical cord of cables that linked me to the devices at the back of the van. “Wha- Hey! I don’t have a car you know. It’s called public transportation, you are always late with them.”
Prodromos checked the time. I knew what she was checking. My internal clock was ticking already.
“Take the seatbelt off, and grab onto something,” she said, and stood on the gas pedal.
Purple time
She appeared through the dashboard, angry and with wide dark eyes. As the car moved she glided with no corporeality through the van, opening her mouth in a silent scream and raising her arms towards each of us. Prodromos and me pulled ourselves away from her grasp instinctively, and I stared at the woman.
I realised she could see the Erinyes too. The van sped up and for a moment there was only the sound of heavy wheels spinning on dirt.
The Erinyes showed up on the van’s roof, tearing through the metal, rending noises as her purple hair reached down like tendrils and brushed my cheek. I fell down to the wide gap infront of my seat and she turned her attention to Prodromos. I realised it was worse that way, her going for the driver so I stood up again to get her attention back. I pushed up my bag in my hands like a stupid shield and taunted her loudly. Her eyes darted to me, her purple glowing hair swam in the air and twisted around my arms. They hurt, the places where she touched me burned scalding hot and I screamed and I let the bag fall through my hands.
I pulled against her gripping hair and she leaned further down through the hole on the van’s roof.
In a moment of terror I slapped her hard on the smug smiling face.
She jerked back and her hair turned into razor sharp ends, cutting my arms and my face in slices of flesh, blood gushing out, getting into my throat, denying me air.
Chapter 33
I kept staring at the van’s roof. It was as expected, grey and well, just sitting there. No holes. I kept my eyes up on the same spot. “You can see her too,” I whispered.
Prodromos exhaled and gripped the steering wheel. The dust we shook up was settling around us. We were stopped, a good distance from our original spot next to the barrels. I noticed a saint’s picture hanging from the mirror, and her rubbing her own cross between her fingers. “Nai. It’s happening to me too.”
“Since when?”
“Since last night. I was up all night poking and prodding at the veil phone.”
I snorted. “I was up all night running away from the Erinyes.”
“I know. It began for me this morning too.”
“What began? What is it exactly?” I asked, prodding the crown of cables on my head.
As if she was suddenly reminded of something, she got out the van and went round the back. She opened the door and sat on her computer system, looking at the data. I could see digital displays that showed crooked lines like the ones they show on the news when there’s an earthquake, but I could tell this was from my head.
A small brain was in a diagram, with lit areas around it. Half of it was turned off.
I gasped. “Hey! Am I becoming brain dead? Cause you won’t be able to see any difference on me, you know.”
Prodromos smiled at me and said, “No, you shook the EEG away when you were thrashing about earlier.”
“Excuse me for playing decoy,” I said and folded my arms, throwing the cable mess away on the seat.
She wasn’t even listening, just staring at her monitors. “It’s OK, I got the data.” She was murmuring to herself. “Just gotta compare them to mine. Yup. Damn. Oh, wait… Yup.”
I just waited in silence. She was in the same mode as Deppy would sometimes go to, mumbling incoherently over a computer. The only way out of it was straight through.
Mumble mumble. Mumble. Grunt. Mumble.
A couple of days ago, I would combat my boredom at this point by taking selfies of myself. Somehow, since the Erinyes appeared in my photos I wasn’t really in a mood to take any more.
I twisted around the front seat, resting my head on the hole to see the back of the van. “Well? Is it a boy or a girl? Don’t keep me waiting woman!”
“It’s unholy, is that it is,” she said seriously.
I went pfft.
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh, you don’t believe me?” She tapped her keyboard, did something too fast that I couldn’t really figure out and a slight pressure came to my ear drums.
I felt uneasy.
Just like during an Erinyes attack.
I checked my watch, it was hours away.
“No, she’s not coming yet,” Prodromos said and took off her jersey hat, tossing it on her desk. She tapped the keyboard again and the pressure stopped. “Infrasound. 18Hz to be precise. It’s below human hearing, but the mind perceives it all right.”
“What about it?”
She picked up my phone, the one she had borrowed and waved it around like it was something disgusting. “This emits that frequency, in specific intervals. The infrasound also matches the eye’s resonant frequency, creating visual hallucinations.”
I leaned in, my arms splayed through the hole. “Wait, are you saying this is just a hallucination? I almost died yesterday!”
She sighed. “I don’t know. Of course it’s a hallucination, because the damage you-” She stopped. And gulped. “-We experience is not real. The Erinyes tears through stuff and breaks things, cuts your flesh and rips out pieces, but the only damage is what you inflicted on yourself during the chase, cuts, scraped elbows, impact bruises, twisted ankles.”
“So… She will hunt us to death. That’s what you are saying. There must be more than that.”
“There is. The science stuff is pretty straightforward-”
“If you say so,” I interrupted.
“-but, the rest is bordering on witchcraft.”
I pfft again.
She tapped her keyboard and showed me a row of selfies of various people, myself included, that had the hazy glow in the shape of a face next to them. I just stared and was lost in thought at the magnitude of this.
“All these people, have been ‘touched,’ by the Erinyes. I looked them all up, they all have something to regret about themselves, something tragic in their past, just like you.”
She paused for effect and she looked into my eyes.
“They are being tormented by guilt. Then, the unholy part comes in. People have noticed the Erinyes showing up on photos, and they have begun making speculations about it. Urban legends. Creepypasta,” she said, checking my face to see if I was following.
“I’m sorry? Whatpasta?”
“Creepypasta. It’s the internet’s spooky legends. Videos that make you crazy, chats that are haunted, the Slender man in the photos, crap like that. The point is, that people actually believe in those things because they sometimes become viral.”
“So you are saying that because other people believe in the Erinyes creep…”
“Creepypasta,” she added helpfully.
“Creepypasta, I get to see her and get chased around every two hours,” I said exasperated.
“Precisely. It’s a demon reinforced by idolatric beliefs.”
“OK. You’re nuts. Bye,” I said, and stepped out of the van and into the street.
Chapter 34
I was walking with a quick pace towards the bus stop. My phone was ringing. I ignored it.
Prodromos drove the van next to me and spoke to me through the window as I walked. “I need one more thing from you.”
“Of course you do. You are a nutjob,” I said, suddenly regretting I hadn’t brought Billy again with me.
“Hermes is instigating this for some reason. I need your father’s access card to get into the R&D lab and see why they are doing it,” she said, having to speak loudly over the engine.
I kept on walking as if avoiding a clingy ex-boyfriend.
“I’ll go to a church for the next appearance. The Lord will keep me safe. Jesus won’t allow idols into his domain.”
I showed the way with my hands. “Got it. Jesus saves. Go to him then.”
We got past a pedestrian who was staring at us, so she hesitated a bit but then whispered, “Please bring me that access card so I can figure out what’s happening.”
“Whatever, you crazy lady.”
She picked up speed and drove off, then I stood in the bus stop’s shade.
I exhaled through my teeth, and muttered, “Unholy creepypasta…”
The old woman sitting on the bus stop crossed her chest and muttered stuff at me. I turned my back to her.
Chapter 35
I had stolen the phone back from Prodromos. Well, stealing is a word that does not apply when it’s already something yours. Repossessed then.
On the bus, on my way northeast, I was slapping the inactive phone on my palm. I had taken out the battery, we don’t want any more of those megahertz or whatever coming out of it anytime soon.
It didn’t make sense. Let’s accept that what Prodromos had said was real for a moment. Why would a huge tech company like Hermes Information Technology ship out a phone that triggers hallucinations? I was certain my father didn’t know about any of this. My daddy was perfect and I was his princess. Maybe someone had added the stuff without the corporation knowing? It wasn’t unheard of, it had happened before. Those back-doors by hackers or whatever. Deppy would know better.
Even so, what was there to gain? Scaring people to death? Spreading creepypasta? It’s not like it would help with sales, that’s for sure.
I was staring at the road, people getting on the bus, getting off, the same procedure, over and over. My destination was far away. I had decided to go to the temporary headquarters of Hermes, a big building in the Silicon Valley of Greece, in Gerakas. The town was under Penteli, a beautiful hill filled with antennas that kept getting torched by arsonists. For some reason years ago, a few tech companies had set up shop there seeking cheap office-space, managed to stay afloat and attracted new ones. Hermes, my dad’s job, was staying there until their skyscraper in downtown Athens was ready.
I was tapping the veil phone and biting my lip. I had to check it out for myself. This thing would mess up with my life if it went on. Prodromos might have been a religious nutjob, but her observations made sense in a way. It wasn’t her fault that this whole situation was crazy to begin with.
I checked my watch. Still had plenty of time.
I imagined what it would be like if I hadn’t, and Erinyes showed up for me in the middle of the crowded bus. What would I have done? Climb over people? Yell for the driver to stop? I’d look insane.
Was I?
Two buses later I stepped off at Gerakas. The place was nice and green, the roads were freshly paved and a silly self-driving car that looked like a soap-bubble was zooming down the road. There were open spaces of unused land right next to beautiful modern office buildings. An international ad agency had a brick-red building with a cursive typeface logo on it, and some smaller computer security companies touted their sleek presence. It was a wild mix of country houses and big office spaces.
I hung my schoolbag on my shoulder and walked towards Hermes HQ.
Chapter 36
“Mahi?” my dad said, coming to get me from the front desk security. He hugged me and looked into my eyes. “Everything OK? Weren’t you supposed to be at school?”
“Nai, one of the teachers was sick so they let us go early. I came to bring this to your department,” I said, showing my inactive veil phone.
“Alright. What about it?”
I shrugged and took on my most innocent face. “Dunno. Doesn’t work. Figured you’d wanna know.”
My dad took me past security and we went to the R&D department. On the way I put on a wide-eyed face on to cover up the attention I was giving to security measures. Father was swiping his card on every other door, cameras were staring down at us all the way, the security men were looking bo
red but capable, not like the public sector. I hadn’t decided yet if I was actually gonna help Prodromos, but I wanted to see what was happening here. As we walked, my dad was moving me along the way, opening doors and pointing down busy corridors.
We got to a computer lab that was a mess. It was the equivalent of a mad scientist’s lab, filled with computer parts, phones, testing devices, monitors, and I kid you not, a robotic arm that was welding one of those green electronic plaques with precision. It wasn’t one of those big ones they had in car factories, but a smaller one for petite electronics. It was bright orange.
We got close to a young man in his early thirties, and dad introduced us. “Dave, this is my daughter Mahi. Mahi, this is Dave, head of the R&D for the veil project.”
Dave stared at me for a second, obviously interested. He took my hand and kissed it lightly instead of shaking it. I smiled at him. He was the kind of geek who had confidence, not those socially-challenged ones. “Enchanted, my lady,” he said, with a slight bow.
“Dave is a Tolkien fan,” my dad explained.
Dave took my veil phone in his hands and said, “Oh, you are one of the beta-sneezers? Right, it suits you of course. Popular, young. Attractive.”
“Any more epithets and we are gonna have to sit down and discuss dowry young man,” my dad said in mock seriousness.
I slapped his shoulder and blushed. “Dad! Stop that!”
“Right,” my dad said and resumed business. “My daughter says it stopped working. Can we take a look?”
Erinyes Page 6