Clutching The Darkness

Chapter 18: Wooden Horse

The dark stream flowed gently but ominously down the gutters, and its presence harbored a malignant energy to it. It was water, just melted ice, but the more I stared at it, the more its shape disfigured.

Blades of grass, litters of paper wrappers, and bits of gravel churned in the river. The shape of the objects sloshing around appeared distinctly insidious. The way they howled along streetlights, the way they clawed along curbs, the way they bit into metal sewer grates. It was all...shuddering. I could swear that for every white plastic wrapper I saw, there was a soul being lost in the water. Its ghostly appearance swaying helplessly before drowning in the torrent of nothingness.

Hopping from car to car, I began to see the changes in the town. The flashing effects from before were gone, I no longer blinked away the distorted image. The town in its true form stood before me. The twisted streetlights in forms of snakes. The red veins and cracks spread throughout the ground with its fleshy tentacles absorbing the grass of its nutrients.

I was only nearing the beginning of this warped place. More lied ahead, and I could see it. But to near the more central part of the town where the university was, I had to go through these corner stores; the hotspots for the wandering hobos and laymen. The wandering lepers and transmutants. I dare them— DARE them, to come and fight me! We'll see who's so scary when they're swimming in a pool of their guts!

And by one of the corner stores, lied a walkway to a youth fitness center. It had a soccer field that if cut across, could lead me to go through a solid mile from the blocks that would narrow into school. So I wandered on, with a shaky calmness in my hand. WHISPERS EH!? YOU— YOU FUCKS, SHOW YOURSELVES! But the whispers only grew louder as I got to the field. Then I saw why. And I tried to solidify my steady, racing heart.

The field had become marshy, but not in a boggy way. More marshy in the sense that the ground sunk indefinitely, like a sinkhole, under any sort of pressure. Dozens of burrowed holes lined the field. Poison ivy wrapped around every stone possible of a footstool, like barbed wire around sandbags. And amidst this terrain, Nine stood threateningly. His image glitching in and out of reality.

"Oh Cali, Cali..." he began. "I can't believe you've fucked up this much."

"Out of MY WAY!"

"No. You don't deserve that lenience. You killed them. Coldly."

"Don't fuck with me. I'm telling you to STAY AWAY!"

"Or what? You're going to slaughter me? And prove just how much of an absolute dipshit you are?"

"I COULD KILL YOU IF I WANTED TO. DON'T. TEMPT. ME."

"My god...Zay was right. Ha, she was totally right. You're such an asshole. Everything she said seems to line up now. I could totally imagine it. Not that I have to, I'm witnessing it for myself. It's sad to see it be true."

My suspicions were confirmed. They had been talking about secrets. Secrets that not only pertained to Zay but also to me. And to think that the hushed words spread were the ones that I tried my very hardest to break out from. But Zay had been faster, and her lips had spoken the truth to Nine. Meaning, that my hesitation to him wasn't for naught. I had been right! I knew I wasn't crazy. He had been judging me this entire time. That smarmy, skeletal prick!

He had seen through my lies for a while. He had most likely mastered my ticks as well; had noticed which ones indicated where I was most nervous. This morning at the diner, when they both pressured me by sitting on both sides, was that coordinated as well? Oh, those LITTLE FUCKS! IN CONSPIRACY AGAINST ME! OH HO HO, I'LL MAKE THEM PAY!

I hadn't spoken to Nine much before today, but maybe that was also part of their plan. To have me lower my guard, make myself believe that somehow I could reconnect myself with an old friend. I AM THE BIGGEST FOOL! THESE CONNIVING TWITS. And today, when I spoke with him on the street, I had let myself get too emotional, too open, too vulnerable, too frail. And I guarantee, he definitely told Zay something. Twitch.