HEX

by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

  Of course, there’s a lot of the usual jokes, but let’s jump to the shot in which Katherine is moving farther back into the alley behind the supermarket and the boys are hurrying after her. Once they turn the corner, the witch is gone, but then the boys find what they’re really after: Burak’s Ray-Bans. Or what’s left of them. Amazed, excited shouts as the camera jerks and zooms in on the asphalt and Tyler says, “Careful, don’t touch them.…”

  The Ray-Bans appear to have melted away—there’s no other way of describing it. One of the lenses is cracked; the other is wavy like softened plastic after it’s been heated. The glass is held in place by burned, bubbly, molten plastic, one arm of the frames jutting out of the remains like an antenna. You can still see the Ray-Ban logo. And there’s something else: a black, crusty, layered substance that is clearly gooed onto the frames and is not part of the actual construction. It has the texture of insulation material bulging from a crack in a plastered wall. “Jesus, what is that?” someone asks. “God, it stinks!” another shouts. We see Tyler putting his hand into a freezer bag and picking up the glasses. “They’re still hot…” he says breathlessly. The glasses stick to the asphalt and make a popping noise as they tear free. Then Tyler holds the evidence up to the camera and declares, “This is a historic moment.”

  The next shot is a cabinet in a chemistry classroom: James I. O’Neill High School, Highland Falls, reads the subtitle. Lawrence VanderMeer and Tyler, the cameraman, are hanging on the lab assistant’s every word. He’s a dapper, gray-haired guy with tobacco-stained fingers, and he’s examining the remains of the Ray-Bans under his microscope. “So you really don’t know?” Tyler repeats, excited because that’s exactly what he had hoped for, but still visibly disappointed, as if he had actually … well, expected something. The lab assistant turns off the light and says briskly, “Be damned if I know what it is. It’s too badly burned to identify. Given the smell there’s probably some sulfur in it, but the structure seems more organic. But, guys … what on earth did you do to those glasses? To get glass to melt you need a temperature of fourteen hundred degrees. But the plastic arm is still intact, you see? And that’s impossible. Because if the glasses had cooled off that quickly, the second lens would have cracked as well.”

  OMG, 1400 degrees! Is it possible that the Black Rock Witch uses so much energy to manifest that she reaches temperatures that high? Is this some unknown, supernatural phenomenon? And what about that burned-on goop? Sulfur, but with an organic structure, says Mr. Mason at O’Neill High. Of course, we couldn’t tell him our theory, but—drumroll, please—could we have found the first tangible evidence of the existence of ECTOPLASM???

  For the uneducated among us: “Ectoplasm” is a term coined by French physiologist Charles Richet for a substance that can be exteriorized or projected by a medium or by spiritual energy (says Wikipedia). We’ve all seen photos of tripping mediums barfing up this gross cloud of mashed potatoes. Usually the mediums were fakes and it was mashed potatoes, which is exactly why the existence of ectoplasm has not been recognized by science. But even so, ectoplasm has been connected with ghosts ever since, like, the first ghost was seen. Even today, when that chick with the milkshake in her throat shows up in The Grudge, she appears as this puffy cloud in the upper corner of the bedroom. And in The Blair Witch Project, there’s this “blue jelly” stuff all over the illiterate hippie’s backpack the night before the witch gets him.

  I mean, we don’t want to jump to conclusions, but holy shit, this is exciting! This requires a thorough scientific investigation. We at OYE will carefully store the evidence in our archives for National Geographic to pick up. NG: you can get it for free from Tyler’s house, in exchange for a new pair of sunglasses (Ray-Ban, says Burak, preferably the type rb8029K Aviator Ultra, the limited edition).

  * * *

  AGAINST ALL EXPECTATIONS, they almost screwed up the whisper test. That was because the opportunity arose more or less accidentally, before they were able to weigh the options and discuss them at length. Looking back, Tyler decided that even if they had been given enough time, it still would have been one hell of a big risk. But sometimes science took place in the crater of an erupting volcano and there was nothing you could do about that.

  That Sunday afternoon, Tyler had decided to go for a walk with Lawrence and Fletcher in the woods behind their house. The trees cast blazing colors across the sodden paths and shone with extraordinary brightness in anticipation of the end of the month, when they would fade and drop their leaves. When the path veered sharply to the left and went up the hill to the outlook point, the boys instinctively followed Philosopher’s Creek, which was out of reach of the hidden cams that projected the entire Mount Misery trail system onto HEX’s monitors.

  Lawrence and Tyler were strolling along, casually discussing the practical details of the whisper test, when Fletcher suddenly strained against his leash and began to growl, ears cocked.

  Tyler wrapped the leash twice around his wrist and braced himself.

  In the distance, they heard excited voices and something stirred in the foliage. Suddenly Fletcher began barking wildly. Tyler and Lawrence exchanged startled glances and hurried after Fletcher to the place where there was a split in the soggy streambed, with the creek branching off and the surrounding slopes growing narrower. Burak, Jaydon, and Justin were on the left bank with the Black Rock Witch in their midst. They were poking her body with long branches. When they heard the dog, Burak and Justin looked over their shoulders and raised their hands, grinning broadly.

  “Jesus,” Tyler muttered. “Easy, Fletcher. Down!” He tugged on the leash and pushed it into Lawrence’s hand. “Hold on to him and don’t come any closer, or he’ll freak.”

  Lawrence nodded and Tyler ran to the others. “What the hell are you doing? Cut it out!”

  “Well, if it isn’t our fearless leader,” Justin laughed. “We’re doing scientific research. We’re proving she’s made of solid matter.”

  “And she is. Look,” Jaydon said, and with unnecessary roughness he jabbed the witch in the shoulder with the tip of his stick. Katherine tottered and turned her head slowly to where she had been stung, but she didn’t move from her spot.

  Tyler was disgusted. They were mocking the witch. Sure, he may have been the one to come up with the idea for the lamppost test, but that was just a prank gone wrong. Mocking the witch was a no-go; you didn’t need an Emergency Decree to figure that out. What Jaydon was doing shocked Tyler. Jaydon had embarked on a slippery slope that would take him irrevocably to the abyss.

  “Cut it out,” Tyler said again, and he pushed Jaydon’s arm hard, more confidently than he felt.

  Jaydon’s glance froze and grew dark. He lowered the stick and turned around, two years older and a head taller than Tyler, and spoiling for a confrontation. Tyler felt his heart pounding in his throat, but he didn’t back away. “Dude, you’re sick, baiting her like that. I don’t want you fucking around with our research. You’ll blow our cover.”

  “That dog of yours; he’s the one who’s gonna blow your cover,” Jaydon said. Tyler saw something in his eyes he didn’t like at all, something that frightened him, something that had been smoldering within Jaydon since the day his father had left to meet his ill-fated death. Behind them, Fletcher started barking again and Lawrence was on his knees, trying to keep him calm.

  “We agreed we’d only do experiments together, and only in ways that help our research. The Council meeting is next week, and you’ll fuck up our chances for free Internet and privacy if they see you messing around like this.” Tyler licked his lips nervously, then decided to take it one step further. “Get your act together, or you’re out of OYE.”

  “And who made you boss all of a sudden?” Jaydon said, moving in closer.

  “Um … we did?” Lawrence intervened, and Tyler closed his eyes in prayerful thanks.

  “It’s his website,” Justin said with a silly grin.

  “Yeah, and his plan,” Burak said.

>   Jaydon stared at him coldly and Tyler was catapulted back to the past. They were ten and twelve years old and both in elementary school, Tyler in fifth grade and Jaydon in sixth because he had been held-back that summer. It was less than a year after Jaydon’s father had left without a trace, but back then Tyler Grant was too young to make the obvious connection. All he knew was that you didn’t turn your back on Jaydon if you knew what was good for you because he was the kind of jerk who wasn’t stingy about passing along the punches he had received at home.

  One day while they were playing soccer during recess, Katherine appeared amid the children on the field behind the school. Some of the kids were frightened, but Miss Ashton told them to move their game a little to the left and keep on playing. “Remember: We run to our teacher or parents as soon as we see her, and then we go on with whatever we were doing as if nothing happened,” she said. Andy Pynchot, a cocky little boy one year Tyler’s senior, suggested using her as a goal post and was rewarded with a firm slap on the back of the head. When Miss Ashton finally clapped her hands and the children ran inside, much relieved, the ball had rolled outside the lines not far from the witch. Tyler and Jaydon were the closest and Tyler was about to go get it, but Jaydon had looked at him with the same cold eyes as he did now, seven years later, and little Tyler became frightened—not of the witch, but of Jaydon. Later, when he was able to see the bigger picture, he imagined that wild animals must feel the same kind of uncontrollable fear when they first inhaled the smoky air of a forest fire. Then Jaydon did something appalling: He ran up to the ball, bent backward, and kicked it at the witch, hitting her like a sledgehammer. Katherine doubled over and the leather exploded with a loud bang as the witch disappeared.

  All those images shot through Tyler’s mind in the few seconds that he and Jaydon stood face-to-face in the woods. Seven years was a long time, and since then they had hung out together off and on. But the foul taste the incident had left in his mouth had never gone away, and Tyler had never forgotten that cold look in Jaydon’s eyes. If a boy of twelve had been able to kick a soccer ball at the witch with so much pent-up rage, what would the same boy be capable of at nineteen?

  Finally, Jaydon lowered his shoulders and grinned. “Don’t cry, faggot.”

  Tyler relaxed a little, but remained on guard. “Listen, this is not about who’s boss. I just don’t want to fuck this up. We’re not taking any chances. We may be free soon, so just keep it together, okay?”

  “No prob. Best friends forevah.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes. “Do they know she’s here yet?”

  “Nope,” Justin said. “App says she’s somewhere in Lower South, and there’s no new alert since then. We just bumped into her here.”

  “We were just screwing around, that’s all,” Burak said.

  Tyler walked back to Lawrence and gave Burak a frigid look as he passed. Burak caught his gaze, didn’t understand it, and probably felt hurt. But Tyler couldn’t make it any clearer: Sure, Jaydon and Justin would stoop this low, but he hadn’t expected it of Burak. He turned aside and said, “So can somebody please send an app? We’re not that far off the trail, and there are fucking hikers around.”

  “Sure,” Jaydon said, and pulled out his iPhone, maybe to show that he truly meant well. Tyler was bending over to calm Fletcher down when Jaydon let out a surprised cry. Tyler’s head jerked up. The witch had taken a vigorous step forward and had almost bumped into Jaydon, who had been busy with his text message. Startled, he took a few steps back. The witch stood there motionless, the black stitches sealing her eyes and mouth standing out like hastily made scratches against her pale face.

  Jaydon forgot the phone in his hand and all of them fell silent. Fletcher stopped barking and switched to a low, bestial growl. Maybe there was danger lurking within Jaydon, but Katherine possessed a much older, primordial power, and with that one step she had reminded them who was at the top of the food chain. Something’s gonna happen here, dude, Tyler thought. Something pretty creepy, I think.

  “Hey,” Jaydon said shyly.

  The witch stood facing him, motionless.

  “Sorry? What was that? What did you say, Katherine?”

  He tilted his head, listening.

  Tyler’s pounding heart suddenly overwhelmed everything around him.

  “What do you want me to do?” Jaydon asked. “Really, Katherine? You want me to touch your boobies?”

  Justin and Burak doubled over and shrieked with laughter. Tyler and Lawrence didn’t laugh, but they did exchange glances, and Tyler thought, Please stop it; you’re way out of line. Don’t mock the witch. Keeping a safe distance, Jaydon cautiously reached his hands forward and pretended he was fondling Katherine’s breasts as he bumped and ground his hips obscenely.

  “You haven’t got the guts,” Burak said, egging him on.

  “Oh no? I’d fuck her, all right,” Jaydon said. Suddenly he bent over toward the witch and bellowed into her face, “You filthy whore! You’d like that, wouldn’t you! Dirty cunt! That’s how you did it back in your day, huh?”

  Fletcher started howling and sprang forward so suddenly that Lawrence almost fell over. Tyler grabbed the dog by his collar to help control him and yelled, “Jaydon, knock it off!”

  Jaydon turned to the others with a foolish grin. “Twenty bucks,” he said. “Twenty bucks for the one who takes a picture of her tit. Naked, I mean. I want to see what a seventeenth-century tit looks like.”

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Tyler said. “That is so wrong.”

  “Oh, come on,” Jaydon laughed. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind, would you, Katherine? You don’t mind, do you?” He scurried around behind her and continued with a high little voice: “No, Tyler, I don’t mind at all! In fact I’m getting a little wet just talking about it! You want to come and see for yourself, Tyler? You want to feel how wet my panties are?”

  More laughter. Katherine van Wyler endured the humiliation silently, seemingly unaware. Maybe there was no awareness behind those closed eyes, Tyler thought—no human awareness, at any rate. But you couldn’t be sure. Maybe Katherine was waiting for her moment, as she had been waiting for centuries in this dormant state. The very idea made Tyler’s insides churn.

  Jaydon had gone back to the HEXApp on his iPhone when Lawrence suddenly said, “Wait. We can record her.”

  They looked at each other. It took three seconds for Tyler to consider the possibility: The dense silence of the woods and the fact that they were out of camera range created an opportunity that wouldn’t come again anytime soon. The excitement ignited a blazing flash in him, and he said, “Oh, fuck. Okay, but make it quick.”

  They used Fletcher’s leash. Tyler let him loose and Lawrence led the dog farther downstream, holding him firmly by the collar. Jaydon handed over his iPhone and, without stopping to think about it, Tyler wrapped the leash around the phone several times and tied it off. Then they knotted it at the far end of the long stick that Jaydon had used to poke the witch.

  In the distance they heard the cackling laughter of children. The boys looked around, startled. The sound was coming from the south but carried in a strange way beneath the leaf canopy. Probably hikers. They listened for a while but heard nothing more.

  “Come on, quick,” Burak said, and he took the stick from Tyler. “You got this?”

  Tyler took the GoPro out of his pocket and began shooting. “Okay, Sunday, October 21. This is the whisper test. Wait…” He took a few steps back. “All right. Go.”

  Jaydon turned on the voice recorder on his iPhone and whispered, “Okay, everybody quiet…” Burak raised the stick in the air like a fishing pole and the iPhone swung forward on Fletcher’s leash. Moving cautiously, he held it in front of the Black Rock Witch’s face. Tyler saw that Burak’s hands were trembling and that he was having a hard time keeping the phone still. Then he shifted the fishing pole to the left so the phone smacked into Katherine’s cheek with a fleshy thud, right in front of the corner of her mouth with the severed
stitch.

  For a full minute, no one made a sound. When Burak finally reeled in the fishing pole and Jaydon plucked his iPhone from the air, they all cheered and clapped their hands for another successfully completed stage in their experiment. Yet Tyler was only lukewarm in his enthusiasm; while the others shared their excitement, he had turned off the GoPro. He walked over to Jaydon and they all bowed over his phone with appropriate respect. On the display, the voice recorder asked if he wanted to PLAY the file or make a NEW SAMPLE.

  “This is Katherine’s dead-whisper,” Jaydon said, as he gave the phone a portentous shake. His thumb hovered over the touch screen, as if to demonstrate that he had the guts to play the sound file. “This may well be the most dangerous recording in the world. You could kill somebody with this.”

  “Yeah, so who’s sacrificing himself?” Justin asked. The others laughed, but not convincingly. No one was willing to volunteer for this one.

  “Not yet,” Tyler said. “First we find somebody from outside. Then we’ll listen, in a secure environment. Jaydon, can you send it to me by Bluetooth? That’s a signal they can’t pick up.”

  “Sure,” Jaydon said, and he sent the sound file. Tyler accepted it on his own phone.

  “You gonna put it online?” Burak asked.

  “Of course not. This shit is fatal. You don’t fuck with it. Delete the file as soon as it’s finished sending, okay? I don’t want any accidents to happen.”

  He glanced sharply at Jaydon and Jaydon grinned back. Then their phones indicated that the file had been transferred. Jaydon tapped his thumb on his screen a few times and said, “Okay, it’s gone.”

  Jaydon’s face brightened and he slipped his phone into his pocket. Tyler imagined himself reaching his hand into that face and feeling nothing but darkness.