An Augmented Fourth

by Tony McMillen

  In between some of these crooked pillars I saw more lights. Swimming in the air like schools of fish. Some of these schools were headed in my direction. I looked around frantically, waiting for the things that the lights grew out of to come into hideous view. I could hear a sound. It wasn’t the wind, it was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It must have meant they were close. But then the wind came back, and with it the snow in my eyes. Through the din of the storm I could still hear the new strange sound of the lights and they sounded closer. I prepped my axe, ready to swing at anything that came near. The sound of them rushed closer; was it the sound of them moving through the air? Or was it a howling of some kind? Screaming like a pack of wolves in the hunt. I gripped down on the axe, my back teeth clenched so hard I thought they’d crack. This time the sound was accompanied with a flash of light maybe twenty feet from me, swimming in the air. Then the snow came on hard and obscured it from view, but I knew it was still coming right for me. I heard the sound— I swung my axe and something screamed, “Jesus.” There was no shock of impact, I didn’t hit anything, but there was a flash of light and now I could see what I was swinging at… Marcus. He stood back like he had just backed out of the way of my swing. I noticed some pieces of color seemed to be falling out of his midsection. Dark blue, the same color as his coat. I didn’t see any blood so I must have just nicked his coat. Thank god. He looked terrified. I wasn’t sure if it was of me or not. Behind him was Rikki, she was charging towards us, same look on her face and then I could see her motivation following close behind. Behind her were the lights, only a few paces out of step. The sound they made took whatever Rikki screamed next with it. I turned around and ran. I heard Marcus behind me doing the same.

  I was running back towards the hotel, I knew nothing else. At some point Rikki had overtaken my lead and started leaving Marcus and me behind. “Come on,” she yelled back. I tried to keep up but damn that girl was fast. It occurred to me then that she was probably yelling at Marcus and not me. All around us I could hear the sound of them. Their light washing over the sides of my vision. The need to turn around and see how close they were, and what they actually really were, was nearly impossible to quell. But I couldn’t risk turning my head even a little and then running into something or tripping. Besides, it was getting hard to make out Rikki’s coat in all the flurry. It was getting hard to see the hotel too. If I lost her or it what was I going to do? Then my foot sunk into the snow and sent me to the ground and Marcus right into me as I went. There was some sort of hill and we were rolling down it together screaming. In the tumble the tip of my axe cut into my arm just above the triceps. The pain was sharp and sudden and it was accompanied with fear: I was cut before when I changed, was it going to happen again? The sting of it almost made me let go of the weapon as well but I thought better of that. If I lost that axe I might as well have left the hotel naked when I came out here. Our momentum stalled and finally me and Marcus hit bottom. I could see some of my blood pouring out of my sleeve but my arm still worked so it couldn’t have been too bad. I focused, tried to remain as calm as possible. Behind us the lights passed over the top of the hill we had just rolled down. The dark bramble of its tendrils flickered rapidly in the air as it soared over.

  “Get up now,” I yelled at Marcus who was already trying to get to his feet.

  “Fucking tell me to get up, I’m up.” We started running again and for a moment all I could see was the storm. White swishing this way and that like I was caught inside the television on a channel that didn’t come in. I couldn’t find the hotel, I couldn’t find Rikki. The thing above us made its whishing, screeching sound again. “Codger, Codger,” Marcus yelled to my left. There was the hotel and Rikki was almost to the front where the tunnel entrance waited. But she wasn’t alone. Above her a black shape wreathed in light was coming right down on her. Framed against the white and the gold of dusk it appeared like some great burning bat in the sky. Next to its size Rikki was a lone field mouse. I was going to call out but then it was too late. The shape engulfed her. We were close, still running towards her, but I couldn’t see Rikki anymore. Just the strange stringy limbs of the thing thrashing frantically. Its light suddenly pulsated out and it made its sound again just as we came up close to the thing. I was blinded by the pulse. Like getting out of a limo and the cameras started their snapping, and here was I without my sunglasses. But I didn’t stop moving. The thing continued to scream and as my eyesight returned in flashes all I could make out was the writhing mass of it and what looked like fire. It was on fire. I could see Rikki now, she had her lighter out and was spraying some aerosol can in the direction of the beast, creating a flamethrower. Fucking bostin’! I didn’t know what part of the thing was its head, if it even had a head, but whatever part was doing all the screaming was doing so because it was aflame. The light on the end of its lure blinked on and off then started to dim. It was hurt, maybe even dying. As I stood admiring the misshapen beast and its death rattle some part of it hit me hard in the chest. I don’t know whether it was a tail or a wing or whatever those phalange things were but something thrashing fast without control took the wind right from me and I curled up and fell to my knees.

  I tried to calm myself, forget about not being able to breathe. Hold my axe up, at least shield myself from another blow. Looking down at the blood river painting my sleeve didn’t help matters. Neither did the feeling that something was wrong internally. Was it in my head or was something going to change with me again? I felt threatened, that’s how I felt before… Was I being pulled back into the We? I saw some more fire and forgot about it. Marcus had his own aerosol can and lighter and he used it to burn the nearest black wing of the beast. The flame cast Marcus’ roaring face in a hellish glow and I wondered if Vietnam wasn’t far from his mind now. The light on the creature dimmed again and then that was it, it took to the sky and clumsily started swimming away into the air. With it being on fire and all it made me think of a comet that had come whizzing down into earth, then decided it didn’t care for the place and turned around and promptly fucked off back the way it came. I could sympathize.

  And I could breathe again. But I couldn’t shake the fear that it might happen again, that I might change again and soon. I started to get up off my knees when I noticed the fire hadn’t been put away yet. Standing above me were Rikki and Marcus.

  “Don’t move,” Marcus said almost gently. Both held their torches out in opposing directions and looked down at me. I could see it in their eyes, the searching. Evaluating, judging, hoping, fearing. Could I blame them? But it was getting cold sitting on the ground bleeding.

  “…What do you need me to say?”

  Marcus gave me a long look. His eyes were black dots, told me nothing. “Did you know before? What you were, what you are?”

  “No, and I don’t think I am anymore.”

  “Don’t think?”

  “How can I be sure if I didn’t know previously?”

  “Did Frankie know?” Rikki asked. I gripped my axe.

  Marcus looked down, his eyes black dots, nothing more. “I don’t think Frankie knew either…” Marcus said. “Sorry, Codger.”

  “Wait.”

  “…see you when we get back to the world.”

  “Wait.”

  “Sorry.”

  “WAIT!”

  They pressed down on the aerosol can levers and the fire came for me. I had one thought: I have a song to play. A song to write. A song that could only come from me. And no one will ever hear it.

  But the fire never touched me.

  The heat of it kissed my face but then quickly pulled back and away. And then up… the fire went up into the air. Marcus and his fire disappeared behind the mass of writhing black wings and strange glistening barbs and phalanges which dragged them up into the sky.

  I was relieved. Not just to still be alive but because the weird limbs that claimed Marcus were not my own.

  Grave Expectations

  The thing dropp
ed him back down to the ground a moment later. It did this from a height of twenty feet or so. Then it scooped Marcus up again, flew a little higher, and dropped him again. Repeat. Marcus made two sounds each time. His screaming, unending screaming, as well as the crunch and snap of his bones breaking and popping out of his skin with each new crash. When it brought him back up the fourth time, Marcus’ scream had given way to a steady sob. I’m ashamed to admit I would have rather heard the scream. I wasn’t watching him or the thing with the light that had him anymore, I was busy trying not to get put in a similar situation. Or to be burned alive looking like some sort of heretic chef. Rikki had turned her flame off the second the thing snatched Marcus and now she was trying to figure out how to help him. Poor kid still thought she could help him. She alternated between staring up in the air aiming her aerosol and her lighter at the ready but not firing because the thing was always too close to Marcus, and running to wherever it dropped his smashed, bloody body, hoping to get to him before it did. She was lost. It had happened to me earlier in the kitchen, bound to happen to anyone with this sort of shit. She was in shock. Which was good for me I suppose, since she was no longer trying to incinerate me, but as I made my way to the tunnel leading into the hotel I looked back and saw more of the lights swimming towards her in the nearly dark sky. Another thud and crunch announced that poor Marcus had been dropped again. The thing was toying with him the way killer whales do with those poor screaming seals they volley back and forth like tennis balls. Like a gull dropping a razor clam from on high repeatedly until it cracked so it could feast on the soft tissue within. I could still hear Marcus whimpering softly on the ground and Rikki still wasn’t moving. She stood ten feet or so away from him with her hands in the air doing nothing but being easy prey.

  The lights were all around us now. If I was going to get out of there I needed to leave. “Rikki, you thick-headed bitch, move your tits if you wish to keep them.” She didn’t move. The lights came close. I put my hand into the snow, took a handful of the stuff, packed it with the other hand and lobbed it at the side of her head. She turned away from Marcus still lying on the ground. Tears streaked her cheeks. “We have to go, love.” She ran towards me. Behind her the thing came back for Marcus and took him away, still weeping, up into the near dark. Another of the things landed between Rikki and me with a detonation of sound. I swung the axe, lashing again and again at whatever part of it was moving towards me. A burst of flame erupted behind the beast and set its backside on fire. Rikki came darting around the right side of it still wielding the fire and for a moment I was afraid she’d turn it on me again. But she either had a change of heart or was too preoccupied to give it another go. Two more of the things touched down. One Rikki put the fire to immediately, but the other snarled in its syrupy voice and charged towards us, taking my foot in its grip. I lost my footing and was turned upside down when it started moving us up, dragging me off the ground. Up into the air where it’d start playing with me like they’d done to Marcus, until I cracked apart. I swung my axe again and again. After the first three whacks I stopped being afraid of cutting into my own foot and just swung blindly. Luckily I didn’t hit myself but I also didn’t cut through the beast. Red blood was oozing out from its feelers but it still had me tight in its grip.

  “Give me your hand.” Rikki was below me but I didn’t think I could reach her. I stretched my left hand and my fingers were at least a foot away from her own. I swung again with the axe, cutting into the creature. Blood shot out in a wild torrent but still it climbed up in the air. And again, like before, I thought of my song. My little song that I wanted to share. That I wanted to make. I thought of it and it alone and I pulled my axe out of its skin and held it down just below the blade so Rikki could reach the handle. She took it and started pulling. The creature couldn’t lift up any further with our combined weight, but Rikki wasn’t quite strong enough to drag me out of its grip either.

  “Give me the fire,” I told her. She pulled down on the handle as hard as she could, pulling us down just a little bit closer, buying her some time so when she let go with her other hand and the creature regained its pull in this tug-o-war its recovery wouldn’t be so lopsided as to destroy Rikki’s entire share. She took her hand away and I felt myself being carried away again. She handed me the aerosol can and the lighter. My fingers were greasy and I felt the lighter slip away, but I caught it before it fell to the ground. There was a flash of light and I heard another creature close by, probably angling to get a piece of Rikki, and the thing that had a hold of me roared at it. For an instant it stopped trying to drag me up, distracted by this newcomer, and I took the lighter in my hand and started spraying the aerosol can. A wet slap of olive oil spray hit me in the nose and mouth and I turned the can around and thanked Christ I had tried the can first and not the lighter followed by the can. I hit the lighter and the whole beast went up like a roman candle. It dropped along with me and we both fell on Rikki and the new creature that had joined the fray. The burning beast rolled around in the snow, either trying to put out the fire or simply because it was mindlessly in pain. Either way this scared the other one enough that it took to the air and left me and Rikki to finally make our exit into the tunnel. We scrambled in, her first and me right after. I still had the can and the lighter and kept turning back ready to blast anything that followed. We got to the door of the hotel and into the lobby without any trouble. “Where to now?” I asked.

  “No fucking idea. You were a monster, you know how they think, right? Where should we hide?”

  “I wasn’t… I guess I was but it doesn’t work like that.” Something heavy hit the ground in the tunnel. I looked at Rikki and she turned around and started heading towards the stairs. I could hear the thing in the tunnel getting closer. I liked Rikki’s idea so I started running after her.

  Remote Guidance

  We were making our way to the third floor, using the crème brûlée torches to guide us when Rikki started talking; it had been a lovely exercise up until that point. “So what the hell are you? A monster that’s been pretending to be a wanker? A wanker who got turned into a monster? Or a wanker who got turned into a monster and then somehow got turned back into a wanker?” Before I had the chance to answer, “And where the fuck are we? Are we not on Earth anymore? Is that what this is? Fucking aliens? That’s just perfect. I mean it made more sense when I thought it was demons.”

  “Did it?”

  She was whispering all of this but also sort of whisper screaming it so I did the same. It sounded like my folks when they’d be in a row outside my bedroom door trying to keep it quiet to spare me, my brother and sister. It just made them sound angrier actually but it was also a bit of a laugh. Ahead of me Rikki rounded the corner and I tried to keep up. “Kind of. I never believed in aliens but I did believe in the devil… at least when I was younger. Thanks to stupid scary shit like your first record.”

  I thought of her back in the kitchen, when I wasn’t myself, and her singing my own words back to me. “…What made you… before, you started singing my song back to me, why? What made you think to do that?”

  She turned around. Up close with all her black makeup smudged and running down her cheek I could see how young she really was. Twenty-four at best. Maybe ten years younger than myself, and my last ten years had felt like two lifetimes. “I don’t know exactly. I was in shock and you looked… it was… I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to reach you… if you were still in there. I was singing it before I knew what I was doing.”

  “Thank you. It worked.”

  “Why did it, you don’t mind me asking?”

  “…Those lines. They were an old bit of poetry I wrote back before I had even joined the band. Years later I put ’em to music. But they still always felt like they were mine. Just mine, you know what I mean?”

  She nodded slightly. “It was my favorite song, you know?”

  “‘Visitation Rites,’ yeah?”

  “Yeah, back before you went to s
hit.” I grinned and we kept moving up.

  We were on the third floor now, still moving ahead. “I don’t think it’s aliens,” I told her.

  “Maybe it’s jinn? My aunt used to warn me about them and I laughed at her for being so superstitious. Fuck me, maybe she was right?”

  “Gin? What, we’re all drunk and hallucinating all this? Bollocks?”

  “No, jinn, like jinni. Typical Brit, doesn’t know a thing about any other religion than his own.”

  “Brit? What do you consider yourself then?”

  “I don’t know? Artist, arsehole, lover of artisanal cheeses? I don’t fucking know? I don’t really put little titles—let alone national identities—on myself like that.”

  “So just titles on others then?”

  “Fucking Brummie.”

  I’d have laughed if I wasn’t terrified. “Since you’re in the mood to pontificate, tell me what it was about our first record you liked so much and what we’re doing wrong now?”

  “Oh god, Codger, you want me to tell you how you lost the plot?”

  “Just trying to pass the time as we climb these stairs. Take our minds off of… all this. Forget it.”