The Man From Taured (38 page)

I hid there all night and I could hear them calling and calling. They told me they were lost. They were cold. They were hungry. I just needed to let them in.

I have never been more scared than I was that night.

Somehow I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was twisted in the blankets and my head was pounding like there was a marching band inside my brain. The weird kids were gone. The sun was out. Everything looked normal.

I always told myself it was a dream, but there are times, late at night, when I swear I can still hear those kids out there. Asking to be let in. That they are lost.

***

Whitten watched with awe. Inside his mind the Void was talking to him.

"Yes, yes, yes, I remember Crimson," Void said into his mind. "He touched me, but he was not worthy. I had to dispose of him. However, he must have taken part of me and implanted it into Albert. And, for some reason, Albert's body did not reject it.
He manifested his own black-eyed children. Amazing. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I wasn’t even sure such a thing was possible and I’m not entirely sure how it now is possible. Remarkable."

Whitten shut out the nattering voice inside his head. Albert was holding his head, shaking it. The young man downed the last of his beer. Whitten quickly put another bottle in his hands and Albert downed almost half.

"Do you still see them?" Whitten asked.

"Who?"

"The black-eyed children."

Albert took another drink and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Not much anymore. Sometimes."

"And you never let them in?" Whitten asked.

"No," Albert replied as if he were dense. "Would you?"

"No, I guess not."

They talked well into the night. Whitten told Albert about a time when he saw something terrifying. That was not hard, given what his life had been like for the past several years. Albert got very drunk and he decided that enough was enough just after midnight. Whitten drove him home, made sure he got inside, and then returned to his barn.

Whitten strolled across the barn to the mirror. He removed the blanket. It was a bit shabby these days, with the glass was old, scratched and marked up and the wood chipped. He was going to have to replace the frame pretty soon.

He saw just his reflection for the moment and studied his face. The lines were deeper and there were bags under his eyes, but he looked the same age as when he first found the Void. That first night when It reached out to him through countless miles and found him receptive. He was strong, too. He also could not remember having gotten sick in years.

The image shimmered and he watched as his reflection became covered with black ichor. The reflected Whitten smiled that odd smile that stretched up the sides of his face as if the head were going to split apart.

"Well, well, well," Void/Whitten said. "We may have found our perfect subject, Augustus."

"I think so," Whitten replied. "What do you want me to do with him?"

"You must bring him to me," Void/Whitten said. "It's time to show him his reflection."

He felt a strange pang inside of him at the idea. Sure, he knew this was likely the next step, but now that it was said out loud it actually created a strange feeling inside of him. He didn't want to do it.

Whitten had never had a friend before. Although he had been friends with Albert because of the Void's prodding, it had still happened. If he brought Albert here and the Void had his way with the young man, that friendship would be lost. Albert could end up either a zombie or black goo.

"I sense hesitation within you," Void/Whitten said. The smile shrank a bit on its face. "Augustus, you have always had me as a friend. Do not let this bit
of play acting you have done cloud your judgment. We must do this. All we have been working toward is nearly at hand. Don't you see?"

Whitten nodded and plastered a smile on his face. "Yes. Yes, I understand. I will see about bringing him back here tomorrow, or the day after."

"The sooner the better, Augustus," Void/Whitten replied. "Don't fail me on this."

He felt a hand inside his brain. Slowly, that hand began to exert pressure on it. He put a hand to his head and cried out. His eyes became unfocused and the world swam in front of him. He thought he was going to pass out.

"N-no," Whitten said, his voice barely above a whisper. "No. I - I w-won't fail you."

The pressure was gone in an instant. He gasped in great lungs full of air and stood up. When he reached up to his nose, there was blood on his upper lip.

"Don't forget," Void/Whitten said. "Now get some sleep, Augustus. Dream well."

Whitten wiped his nose and nodded. He staggered to the bed and managed to get out of his pants before falling face-first onto the mattress. He was soon asleep, but he dreamed of darkness and within that darkness were things with teeth.

His last thought before sleep was, yeah, some friend.

It ended up taking about a week. Whitten kept finding reasons not to invite Albert over. The Void kept pushing him, getting more and more impatient, and bringing more and more headaches to him. He would acquiesce and the headaches would go away. Eventually, to prevent himself from having an aneurysm he gave in completely.

"Hi, Albert, can you come over tonight?" Whitten asked. "There's something I'd like to show you."

Albert said that he would be over that night. He even sounded excited. Whitten felt sick and then spent the rest of the day puttering around in the garage, fiddling with the frequency generators and receivers, but not really getting much done. The Void was absent from his brain this entire time.

As the sun rode across the sky and as the time got closer, he got more and more nervous and worried. He began pacing back and forth.

"Relax," the Void said. "Your anxiousness is becoming a nuisance for me. What is your concern?"

"Nothing," Whitten replied.

"You're going soft on me," Void replied. "You are forming bonds with this human. At this point, you should know that you are more than human. You are above things like friendship and caring about others. In fact, after tonight, Albert will be the same way."

Whitten said nothing. He just found a spot on the cot in the corner and sat down. He wished the sun would stop crawling across the sky and that the earth would stop spinning. He wanted to fly off the surface of the planet and into space and never hear about the Void again.

Instead, the sun went down and Whitten heard the truck pull up. He stood up, adjusted his shirt and tie, and then waited until he heard the door of the van shut before heading to the barn door. He pulled the barn door open and waved, his smile feeling false and like it would slide off and roll around in the grass.

"Over here, Albert!" Whitten called, waving his hand over his head. "Come on into the barn!"

"Really?" Albert called, slowly heading across the lawn and toward the barn. "You've never invited me in there before, doc. I thought it was all top secret stuff in there?"

"Well, there's something you should see in here," Whitten replied. "Something special."

Albert made a curious face and walked a little faster. He looked tired, as if he had had a very long day. However, he still had that pleasant look on his face.  Whitten felt that pang of fear and worry again, hard. He wanted to run out there and wave both of his arms and warn Albert away. However, he knew that the pain he was going to feel would going to cause his brain to explode inside his skull like a small bomb and he’d collapse on the lawn and bleed out in front of him.

AHe came to the door of the barn and peered inside. He whistled.

"Wow," Albert said. "Look at all of this stuff. This is right out of some pulp sci-fi book or something. What is all of this?"

Whitten waved his arm at the barn and closed the door behind them as they stepped inside. "Well, most of it deals with radio waves," he said. "The Army and the government is always looking for ways to get the radio waves to go further or to listen in to people from further and further away. None of that has to do with what I want to show you, though."

"I have to admit, I’m very curious," Albert said.

Whitten tried his smile again, but stopped when he felt that it looked very false. He waved toward the center of the room. Earlier he had cleared out a space and in the middle of that space was the mirror, covered with a blanket. He walked toward it. There were lights fixed overhead and the area was fixed in a kind of spotlight. The shadows around the edges were very dark and appeared to get darker as he approached.

Albert followed right next to him. The young man had a smile on his face, but Whitten felt butterflies in his stomach. He was going to throw up, of that he was sure.

"What's under the blanket, Augustus?" Albert asked.

"Let me show you," Whitten said and with a flourish he removed the blanket.

Albert's eyes went wide and his smile faded. He reached out a hand and then pulled it back. Whitten watched from behind the mirror and felt something he had never felt before: tears. They were hot and stung his eyes and he felt them flowing down his face.

"What is this?" Albert said in a hushed voice. It was a voice Whitten had heard others make when they were in the thrall of the mirror. The Void always showed them what they most wanted to see, reading their minds and finding those things to show them. "That's amazing."

Albert got closer, his hand reaching. Whitten turned away when the fingertips got close to the surface of the mirror. When they did, he heard the sound of that black liquid emerge and touch his hand. When Whitten turned around, the young man’s hand was vanishing into the surface of the glass and his eyes were clouded over, turning black.

"Yes," Albert said to a question that Whitten could not hear. "Yes, I hear you. Yes. Yes, I understand."

There was silence for a long time. Whitten found a stool and sat down, leaning back against a work bench and watched. He felt like such a bastard. He had never felt this way before. He had never known this sense of betrayal. He was Judas.

"Yes, it makes sense to me," Albert said in a dreamy voice. "I agree. Yes. I agree."

Then it was over. Albert blinked his eyes. He turned around, unsure of where he was. His eyes found him and he looked confused.

"Doc?" he asked and then he fainted dead away.

***

It took some time, more than an hour, but Albert woke up and by then Whitten had taken him to the mattress so he wouldn't be lying on the floor. The young man woke up and put his hands to his head.

"What happened to me?" he asked.

"You fainted," Whitten replied. "Fortunately you seemed fine. I just put you on the bed here so you wouldn't be lying on the ground. Do you remember anything?"

Albert slowly shook his head. He was having trouble focusing his eyes and he kept staring down at his fingers. "No," he said. "I don't really remember anything. I remember getting here and walking into the barn. You said you had something to show me and then it all gets kind of fuzzy. What did you show me?"

He indicated the ancient Tesla device that, while Albert was out, he had gotten it working again. It was sending bolts of electricity from one pole to the next with thunderous crashes. It was always his ace-in-the-hole. This was not his original, obviously, as that had been destroyed, but every time he set up shop he either built one or found one. He loved watching the things as much as those who came to visit him did. It was rather impressive to watch.

Albert studied the device for a moment. His eyes reflected the bolts of electricity and his face looked pale when the man-made lightning crashed into the opposite side.

"That was what you showed me?" Albert asked. "I mean, it's impressive, but why the hell did I faint?"

"Perhaps you are just tired and working too hard," Whitten replied, patting the young man's knee. "You know I have always said that you work too hard. Perhaps we should end tonight's festivities and you should go home and get some rest. Or, I can call that girlfriend of yours."

Albert shook his head and waved his hands. There was a look of pain on his face as his head went back and forth. That familiar hangover feeling.

"No," he said. "I'm good enough to drive home. I've just never fainted before. How long was I out?"

"About an hour," Whitten said.

"Shit," Albert replied quietly. "OK, I think you're right. Maybe I need to take a few days off."

Whitten smiled at him. Then he helped Albert get off the bed and stand up. He stood there for a moment looking like a man on a ship in rough seas and then he steadied himself. He stared at the Tesla machine again for a bit, seemingly hypnotized by the electricity, and then he shook his head again.

"I feel like I've been on a bender," he said.

Whitten laughed. "I swear you never touched a drop. Take some aspirin when you get home and sleep."

Albert nodded. "Thanks, Doc. Sorry about this. Weird."

"If it happens again, you may want to see a real doctor in a hospital," Whitten said, showing Albert to the door.

"Right, right," he replied.

Whitten knew what the man was going through. Everyone went through this after they were exposed to the Void. There was always some time of disorientation and hangover-like feelings. He pulled the barn door open and the night air blew in. Albert closed his eyes and sniffed the air, and Whitten saw that his eyes had cleared a bit when he opened them.

"Talk to you soon, Doc," Albert said.

He stood in the doorway and watched his only friend walk across the lawn. It had grown dark out and the stars were out, spinning in that endless blackness. As he watched, a shooting star streaked across the sky near the horizon. He sighed. The world was beautiful and it would stay beautiful without people destroying each other. Of that, Whitten was sure.

"What did you do to him?" Whitten asked. He asked it aloud to the backyard, but he directed it toward the presence in his head.

"I made him a deal," the Void replied. "I promised him a family and success, a home, but the payment for that was two-fold
.
When he dies, he becomes part of me and I get his daughter."

"What do you mean 'get'?"

"I think you know what I mean."

"How are you going to do that?" Whitten asked. "To have sex with his future daughter you'll need to create avatars a little more human-like than the black-eyed children."

"Exactly," the Void replied. "So, we'd better get back to work."

Whitten nodded and sighed. "Yes," he said, "you're right. Let's get to work."

He took one more long work at the back of the house, the clear star-filled sky, the moon and the lawn. Then he grabbed the edge of the door and shut it, feeling very much like he was shutting off the last of his humanity, the last of whatever it was that he had been all of those years ago. He closed the door and locked it and never looked back.

***

Decades later Dr. Augustus Whitten sat at an outdoor cafe in the middle of downtown Manhattan. He looked just as he had the day he first heard the voice, although he did notice a few gray hairs from time to time. This always amused him.

The air was clean and the sky was bright and blue. The cafe was far enough away from the dangerous part of downtown that there were families living on the cross-street just a few feet away. There were even hints of grass, leaves and plant-life, which was so rare in this city. There was a cup of coffee in front of him and he had just added the cream and sugar, stirring the cup with a spoon, gazing down at the newspaper next to him. The sounds of the city were all around him. Horns, people shouting, people walking, laughter, tears.

"Hello, Augustus."

He looked up and smiled. The sun was in his eyes and the man standing on the sidewalk was silhouetted against it. That didn't matter. He knew this man. This man was an old acquaintance.

"Well, hello Ezekiel," Whitten said. "Good morning to you. You look much older than the last time I saw you. When was that?"

"I don't know, Augustus," Ezekiel said. "It was quite a while ago. Since then you have been quite busy."

Whitten took a sip of his coffee and smacked his lips in satisfaction. He indicated the chair across from him.

"I like to keep busy. It keeps me young," he said. "Please, have a seat, or are we going to have a battle right here on the street?"

Ezekiel looked at the empty chair and then back at Whitten. Finally he sighed and sat down. A moment later a waitress appeared and Ezekiel offered a coffee, which came very fast.

"How is the hellspawn?" Ezekiel asked.

"Noble?" Whitten asked. "Last I checked he was doing well."

Ezekiel took a sip and then set the cup down.

"You are very proud of yourself, aren't you?" he asked.

Whitten leaned across the table, over the cup of coffee in front of Ezekiel, and put his hand on the other man's. He gripped the hand tightly.

"It is time that we stop fighting," he said. "You and your cadre of misfits from other worlds are almost completely obsolete. We have to join forces. You ask if I am proud and I am here to tell you that I am. Things will change here for the better. There will be no more hunger, murder, war, disease. Can you imagine that?"

Ezekiel yanked his hand away, rubbing his skin where he had touched him. He looked confused for a moment as Whitten smiled at him. Ezekiel took another sip of his coffee.

"You are mad," he said. "We cannot all be the same. We cannot be without emotion. Without love. Without anything but what the Void demands. The light gives us choice and the Void takes that away."

"You will never understand," Whitten said. "You will never understand until the Void comes for you. Which will be soon."

Whitten finished his coffee and folded the newspaper. He looked at Ezekiel, studied him. The man was in his long coat and hat. The red goggles were on top of the brim. He looked like something out of a horror movie.

"Look at you, running around with your costume on," he said. "For what? What has the Light offered you? Let me guess, you've never even spoken to the Light. That's the problem with him, isn't it, he or it demands total obedience, but never replies. Never there when you need it."