Twisted Tales

by Edward Grey

  After what seemed like thirty or more feet, he saw a strange flash of white light. It seemed like it could have come from lightning, but the color was more of a cool blue white than the milky shade common with lightning. Besides, he remembered that the day was hot and sunny, and there was no possibility a storm could form that soon.

  Shrugging off the strange light, he started to walk again. He only made it a few steps before two more flashes caught his eye. This time, the light seemed to come from below him, and when he looked down, his shoes seemed to glow with blue phosphorescence.

  As he studied his new shoes with awe, the glow became brighter and brighter. The steady incline was mesmerizing because he’d never seen anything like that before. Okay, sure, he’d seen the shoes that kids wear with the flickering red lights, but this phenomenon seemed to come from the fabric.

  Soon, the intensity became so bright that he had to close his eyes, and warmth seemed wash over him as if he was standing in sunlight.

  For a while he watched it from behind his eyelids. The red glow of his skin let him know it grew more intense by the second, but then it receded as fast as it had started. When it was gone, his body felt cold, and a soft breeze agitated his skin into icy tremors.

  He shot his eyes open because he knew there was no way the store would have such a climate change, let alone wind. He looked around, and he was no longer in the store. To his horror, he was now in a place that was as unreal as an imagination running wild in an animated flick.

  2

  Tommy knew he had dreams, and he must have passed out from his blood sugar. There was no way that he could be transported to an alternate universe, but that seemed to be exactly what happened.

  He was standing in the middle of the road that he had always known. It was the same one he’d driven to get to the department store just twenty minutes prior to his episode. However, the road was now made of red brick instead of asphalt, and various pieces of trash littered the street and its gutters.

  He looked at the trees as they swayed in the intermittent breeze. Some were blackened, no longer the lush green he remembered, while others where leafless and boney. Each time they danced, their steely fingers seemed to move towards him as if they planned to grab and consume him.

  Beyond the trees was the department store that he had visited. However, as he surveyed the store and those surrounding it, they appeared to be abandoned. The paint was old and stripped, rain had stained parts of it, and some of the windows were smashed out.

  The most terrifying part of it all was the electricity was no longer powering any of the lights, so nothing more than the murky glow of the moonlight allowed him to see the shattered world.

  He knew it had to be a dream. It just had to be. If it wasn’t, then it meant he was either crazy, or the world had changed in an instant. While he was reluctant to believe the latter, he was even more reluctant to relent to the fact that he might actually be insane. It was his worst fear, and he would rather be thrust into the unknown than submit to full mental dysfunction.

  He closed his eyes and hoped that the world would be back to normal. He took a deep breath of the cold desolate air, and when he reopened them, he was still in the street.

  Lost and without any hope of figuring out what to do, he started feel as if someone was watching him. He looked around hoping to see someone. If there was anyone else out here in this world, then they might know where he was and how to get back home.

  When Tommy glanced back towards the stores, he saw a pair of eyes watching him from behind the center’s sign. Though he expected to see someone as real and as normal as he, there was something else peering at him.

  The eyes were glowing gold, much like the refraction of light in the retina of a cat. Because it was so dark, he couldn’t tell by looking at the body, but he knew there was no way it was feline. The creature stood as tall as a man and the eyes were far too large.

  He knew that it could possibly be a dangerous and malevolent monster of some sort—which he wouldn’t put passed such a strange world—but he nevertheless took a step closer. His need to find a way out of this place superseded his fear.

  As he drew near, the eyes ducked behind the sign. When he stopped, the person slowly moved back into view, and watched him again.

  “Who’s there?” Tommy said.

  After a short moment of silence, a voice that sounded human but had a hint of something else to it responded, “Kitty.”

  “Kitty? What kind of name is that?”

  “My name.”

  “Okay… why are you hiding?” He asked, “Are you going to hurt me?”

  The man’s voice stammered with fright. “Me? N-no, I would never hurt anyone.”

  “What the hell is this place?”

  “It’s Irvine.”

  Irvine was the city Tommy was transported from, and even though this place looked like his home, he knew this was not Irvine. “This can’t be, because I live there.”

  The man said something else, but it was muffled by the sign.

  Tommy said, “Come out of there, I can’t hear you.”

  “N-no, you might hurt me.”

  “I’m not going to do anything to you, I just want to get home. I’m lost.”

  Truthfully, he didn’t want to tell the strange man that he was lost. He wanted to tell him that he was transported here from his own universe somehow, and needed to get home. However, he knew that it would sound crazy, and the likelihood that the man would help him if he sounded like a madman would be slim.

  “Really, come out of there.”

  “F-fine.” The man said, and then stepped out from behind the sign.

  Tommy wished it was just a trickery of light, but he knew that wasn’t the case. He thought he was talking to a human, but it was no human at all. It was a creature that appeared to have several characteristics of a cat. It stood on its hind legs and had a human upper body physique that was muscular with the arms and hands of a man, but its face and head were that of a cat. His body was covered in a thin black fur, and he was wearing a pair of pants and black boots.

  “What the hell are you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t play games with me, you’re not human.”

  “Of course I’m not.”

  Tommy sighed and said, “Okay, look, is there a way out of here?”

  “I don’t really know. I was with my family, and we were traveling. I got separated from them, and I’ve been wandering around ever since. It’s been a couple days.”

  “So you’re lost too? Great.”

  Tommy started to walk down the street. He felt as if he was never going to find a way out, but he knew that if he kept moving he would have better chances at finding someone that new the way out of there.

  “Wait!” Kitty called.

  Tommy stopped. “What?”

  “C-can I come with you?” He said, “If there are two of us, then it will be easier to find a way home.”

  “Yeah, I guess. Just try to keep up.”

  Kitty jogged over to Tommy and they started walking down the street together. Much of the walk was silent, and after a quarter of a mile Kitty said, “What’s your name?”

  “Tommy.”

  “Oh, I knew of a Tommy once. So, you said you were lost?”

  “Not really lost.”

  “Well, if you’re not lost then you know where you are.”

  “I am lost, just not in the usual way.”

  “I see. Then in what way are you lost?”

  Tommy considered feeding him a lie, but considering that everything up to this point didn’t make sense, he figured perhaps Kitty could shine some light on the situation. Therefore, he told him everything that happened from the store up until he met the strange creature.

  “Wow, so you really are lost.”

  “It seems that way. That’s kind of why I was hoping you would know more about this place.”

  “Well, this place is technically home for me—” Kitty starte
d to say, but Tommy stopped dead in his tracks. “What is it?”

  At the side of the road, Tommy saw a small unnamed building. Inside, there was a blue light that was pulsating, and it reminded him of the light that took him to this odd world.

  As he started to walk towards it, Kitty said, “I can’t go in there, it’s too creepy.”

  “Stay here then, I’ll be right back.”

  “Why do you have to go?”

  “That light looks a lot like the one that brought me here. If there’s a possibility it’ll get me home, then I need to check it out.”

  After what seemed like ten minutes of heavy deliberation, Kitty finally relented and walked with Tommy to the building. The front of the structure used to have a large window, but it had since been broken. Tommy leaned in and looked around.

  The place appeared as if it used to be a retail center, and littered all over the floor were too many devices to count. Each one looked like it might have had a practical purpose, but none of them looked familiar to him. Some of these devices still hung to the wall, but the place definitely looked like it might have been looted at some point.

  The blue light he was looking for appeared to be emanating from the back room. Each pulse was consistent, and it didn’t seem to be getting brighter.

  Tommy was the first to step through the window, and he made sure to keep his limbs close to avoid the jagged frame. Kitty followed closely, and then they followed the lobby to the back room. What they saw was not a means of escape, but instead was a strange new development.

  3

  Tommy really couldn’t say with certainty what he saw, but it was definitely not human. Upon the floor, there was what appeared to be a man, but his chest was open, revealing several diodes, circuits, and mainboards. The blue light was not coming from him, but instead from a nearby desk.

  Kitty was hiding behind the wall. He seemed to be terrified of the android, and it wasn’t likely he would emerge from hiding any time soon.

  Tommy knelt down and studied it. Its skin was cold and fake, its hair appeared real, but there was no way of knowing without touching it, which was he had zero intention of doing.

  As he stood to check on the blue light, the eyes of the android shot open. Where normally there would be white on the outer part of the eye, there was silver instead. The area surrounding the pupil was purple, and in the center was a cold but dim white light.

  “Sir,” It said, “will you please help me?”

  Even though Tommy had thus far seen a strange world and an upright talking cat, he still felt a little weird talking back to the android.

  “What kind of help do you need?”

  “Fix me.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “I need to be fixed, otherwise I cannot move.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “My power device was removed during the invasion. Even though my head is working on my auxiliary power, the rest of my body needs the actual supply to work.”

  Tommy looked at its chest and had no idea what to do. “I don’t think I can fix you.”

  “What about that creature.”

  Kitty shyly corrected the android. “The name’s Kitty.”

  “Very well Kitty, can you fix me?”

  “I don’t know, but I can try.” He said, “What needs to be done?”

  “In the drawer, where the blue light is coming from, is a small self-regenerating capacitor. If you connect it to me, then I can move once again.”

  Kitty hesitated for a moment, but finally walked out from behind the wall. He went to the small oak desk and retrieved the device that made the pulsating light.

  For a quick moment Tommy wondered if the device would help him get home, but then he realized he didn’t feel the same sickness as he did before. If it was indeed a way of knowing when he was close to finding a way home, then this was certainly not it.

  Kitty seemed mesmerized by the light, and Tommy knew they needed to keep moving. He tapped Kitty on the shoulder, and when the feline flinched in fear, he said, “Hurry up, we have to keep moving.”

  The walking cat examined the device once more and then looked at the connections in the androids chest. After a long moment of consideration, he set the device into the chest cavity and attached the four wires to different locations on the power source.

  For a moment, the man-thing seemed to breathe heavy even though he had no lungs. In less than a minute, he moved his arm and pressed a small button on his neck. A rush of power surged through his body as if he had been shocked with a defibrillator. At once, he was sitting up and smiling.

  “Thank you so much for helping me.” It said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “What are you?” Tommy asked.

  “I am an artificially engineered machine that was created using both technology and human biology. In other words, I am a robot.”

  “What’s your name?” Kitty asked.

  “Though I do not have one, I am branded with a serial number on my central processing unit. Since I have not seen it, I cannot give you a reference.”

  “Well, why don’t we just call you Robot?” Tommy said.

  “Names do not mean much to me, but if that is your decision.”

  “We are trying to find a way out of here, do you know the way?”

  “I do not, for this is where I was born. My creator never filled my memory banks, so I know only how to speak, move, and do simple calculations.”

  “Well, how do we fill you up?”

  “I do not know.”

  Even though Robot seemed to lack the capacity to help them mentally, Tommy knew that he might be an asset physically. He probably had tremendous strength, and if there came a point where they needed it, he would be more than useful. “Why don’t you come with us? I am trying to find my way home, and Kitty is too. Maybe along the way we’ll find something meaty we can squish into your head.”

  “I do not require brains, just a simple download of information.”

  “Oh, right. Anyway, you want to join us?”

  “I would like that.”

  The android stood and then they left the store. In the time since Tommy had arrived at the shop, the moon had turned from a cool white to a pale yellow. The surrounding area seemed far more ominous than before, perhaps even a little foreboding.

  As they arrived at the empty brick street, Kitty stopped abruptly. He moved behind Robot, and Tommy could tell he was shaking. “What’s the matter with you?”

  “Can’t you hear that?”

  Tommy was about to reply with concern that Kitty was now terrified of nothing more than the stir of leaves in the wind, but then he realized it was more than that. The leaves were in fact being crushed under the weight of something, but when he looked around, he didn’t see anyone near them.

  Robot said, “I hear it too. It sounds like it might be coming from across the street.”

  On the other side of the road was a thicket of trees. Here, most of the branches still had black leaves hanging on for dear life. Deep inside that dark woodland, Tommy heard the crunch of those leaves, and he stepped back with alarm.

  As he turned to say something to Robot and Kitty, he saw something from the corner of his eye. Deep in the brush, behind several branches and hidden in oily black shadows, were two red orbs. They were eye-width apart, and must have been a pair of eyes, for they blinked in and out occasionally.

  “Let’s keep moving. I don’t think it’s safe to sit here.”

  “I totally agree.” Kitty shamelessly said.

  They followed the road, and Tommy kept an eye on their visitor. It seemed to move as they moved and kept its distance, but also kept perfect pace.

  Tommy looked away to make sure that he didn’t trip on any of the debris in the road, and when he looked back, he saw at least a dozen pairs of eyes appear with the original ones. All red and all terrifying.

  4

  It could have been any number of things hiding in the darkness, but those crimson red
eyes were more than enough to convince Tommy that they needed to get the hell out of there.

  As the eyes moved with them, Tommy noticed that they stalked with an efficiency that seemed as if they were hunting. He felt like they were there to kill, and it was an unwelcome vibe.

  “We need to move faster. I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Tommy said, and then hastened his retreat.

  The eyes appeared to move quicker, and then suddenly a loud cry erupted from the darkness. It sounded half-human, half-monster, and fully dangerous. Then, a man came running out of the trees and entered the street.

  He looked sick, maybe even on the verge of dying. Tommy couldn’t really tell which, but he did know that it was pure evil heading his direction, because its clothes were soaked in blood and its skin was pale and slimy. Inside its screaming mouth were jagged broken teeth as if it had been chewing on rocks or perhaps even bone. The red he’d seen earlier was its pupil, and everything surrounding it was inky black.

  Because it was running faster than them, Tommy decided to stop and look for a weapon. He couldn’t find one, but thankfully Robot took note of the situation and stepped between Tommy and the demon.

  When Robot grabbed the creature, it tried to bite into Robot’s arm. While it gnawed and tried to chew through the metal bone structure, Robot swung his body and threw it as far as he could. It sailed through the air as if it was nothing more than a ragdoll and finally stopped when it smacked into a lightless sodium vapor street lamp. It fell to the ground and remained still. Tommy hoped it was dead.

  Tommy had forgotten about the other eyes that accompanied it. When he looked back towards the trees, most of the eyes were growing closer together as if grouping for an attack.

  “We need to go. Now.” Tommy said, and as he did, the demon that Robot threw started to stand up.

  Kitty, being the terrified creature he was, already started running. He was far ahead of them, and that’s when Tommy realized there was no way he would be able to keep up with his strange friends.