Dropping the strand of hair, John knelt down and felt the stone floor with his fingers. It was rough like concrete and warm to the touch as if it had been in the hot sun all day. The air wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm either. It was somewhere in the middle, as if someone had managed to set the temperature just perfectly.
Apart from these two features there was nothing else to see or experience in that empty space. Occasionally there would be a soft warm breeze from somewhere in the distance, but there was nothing else. There were no stars in the black sky there were no strange shadows in the distance and no sounds other than the breeze and his own heartbeat.
“Hello,” called John into the empty expanse, “can anyone hear me?”
He was shocked when someone actually responded.
“Is someone there,” came a frightened response.
John was so startled to find that someone else was in the void with him that it took him a moment to think of what to say.
“Yeah, my name is John…who are you?”
“Is this a trick,” asked the voice, a young man from the sound of it, “are you tricking me?”
“No,” said John as sincerely as he could, “I was going to ask you what this place is. I’m not…tricking you.”
The mysterious stranger was silent for a moment before suddenly crying.
“Are you alright?”
“I’ve been in this hellhole for who knows how long,” sobbed the young man, “I don’t know if it’s been hours, days, or even weeks!”
“You’re still alive so I imagine it isn’t weeks.”
“Yeah well this place doesn’t behave,” he said bitterly, “it’s like it has a mind of its own.”
“Where are you?”
The young man was quiet again before John suddenly saw something approaching him out of the darkness. It was as if one of the shadows broke away and became the dark shape of a person.
“My name is Mathew.”
“I’m John.”
“You already said that.”
“Yeah,” said John sighing, “it’s been a long day and I’m a little on edge. And that was before arriving in…the Void or whatever this is.”
“The Void’s pretty good, I call it the Abyss.”
The way the young man said it sounded like he was looking for approval of the name he came up with. John didn’t feel up for tedious small talk and back patting, so he cut to the chase.
“So, what do you know about here?”
“There’s nothing in any direction for miles. It never changes and nothing else is here, until you of course.”
“Do you know how you got here?”
“I was…in a hospital.”
The way he said it made John think it wasn’t a hospital, at least not in the traditional sense.
“I was in my room…recovering, when I heard this buzzing sound.”
John saw the young man spread his arms out to form a half circle above his head.
“It was probably this big and dark purple. It started…chewing…everything around it before it reached me. The next thing I knew I was here, in this place.”
“That’s about what happened to me too,” said John as the young man put his arms down, “I was in a garden when it appeared. I think when it touched me I…”
He paused as the memories of Salem and the kitchen came back to him. Subconsciously he ran a hand through his hair.
“Did you have a…hallucination before waking up here?”
“Hallucination? No nothing like that. One minute I was in my bed freaking out and the next I was here.”
“You weren’t…imagining you were somewhere else or anything?”
“No, why were you?”
John lowered his hand and sighed.
“Honestly I don’t know.”
The young man stayed quiet.
“So you haven’t found anything here?”
“No nothing,” he said in exasperation, “I’ve been looking and wandering around, but there’s nothing here. It’s all just one flat piece of rock for miles. The only difference is that breeze, that’s new.”
“Really?”
“Yeah the air’s been still the whole time until a little while ago,” he paused a moment, “maybe you being here has something to do with it?”
“Maybe, do you want to check it out, see if we can figure out where it’s coming from?”
“That’s what I was doing when I found you.”
“Alright, then let’s go.”
John started walking into the occasional breeze when he realized the young man wasn’t following him.
“What is it?”
“You seem like a nice guy,” the young man said slowly, “but are you armed or anything.”
John chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“Kid I’m wearing a hospital gown. Not only do I not have any weapons but I’m a little…exposed at the moment.”
It took a few seconds but the young man started laughing in fits as if it was bursting out of him and he was trying to contain it.
“I’m glad you told me,” he said between bursts, “I was planning on walking behind you, but I only want the one breeze in my face.”
Mathew sighed.
“Part of me was hoping you had something. I mean it would have worried me too, but I’d have felt better.”
“I know how you feel, though from what it sounds like there isn’t much to watch out for.”
“Unless some weirdo got brought here too.”
John didn’t like the sound of that and suddenly the darkness around them spooked him. In fact it was fortunate that Mathew was a nice guy as he easily could have gotten the drop on him before when he was calling out. He made a note to be a little more cautious moving forward.
“Good point, we’ll just talk a little quieter and keep an eye out.”’
“Agreed.”
The two stood silently for a moment, before John started walking away again. This time he could hear the young man’s footsteps on the stone and soon he was at his side.
“So what were you in the hospital for?”
“To be honest I’m not sure,” said John slowly, “I thought I was dying, but then I woke up in a hospital bed in the basement of an evil tech company or something.”
Mathew was quiet for a moment.
“I can’t tell if you’re lying or not.”
“Honest,” said John a little irked, but understanding it probably sounded insane, “The orb I ran into was inside a huge…atrium or green house or something inside the building.”
“Of an evil tech company?”
“Right.”
John closed his eyes in frustration. He understood it sounded insane, but it wasn’t as if he could give more context. He couldn’t imagine how it would sound if he started talking about Avarlon for instance.
“How about you start from the beginning. Then perhaps we can reach a greater sense of clarity about why you’re here John.”’
John opened his eyes to look at Dr. Merlow. The man was sitting in the chair next to him and seemed to be making a point of showing that he was comfortable and relaxed. John wasn’t fooled.
“Look, I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“But it is necessary because your employers requested it,” said the man pointedly, peering at John from over the top of his glasses, “my job is to determine how healthy you are and in the interest of both of us meeting the requirements expected of us all I ask is for a little cooperation.”
John rolled his eyes and slumped back in the chair. Though he’d never admit to Dr. Merlow he was amazed at how comfortable the leather seats were.
“What happened that night?”
It didn’t take a clairvoyant to understand what night he was talking about.
“I came home and something was off.”
“What do you mean?”
“Normally when I come home she greets me at the door as if she’d been waiting at the window. This time she wasn’t there when I walked in.”
“Well surely that’s happened a few times,” said the doctor, “you’ve been married for nine years. I would imagine that every now and then she’s busy or you arrive from work a little earlier than anticipated and she’s not there to greet you.”
“No, not once. I send her a text when I’m coming home and she’s always excited to share the news about her day.”
“Alright, then what happened when you came home and she wasn’t there?”
“I was…concerned.”
“Why concerned?”
“Like I said, it never happens and something felt…off.”
“How so?”
John was getting annoyed by the constant questions. He wasn’t sure if the doctor actually wanted to hear the story or was trying to get under his skin a little. In all honesty it was probably a little of both, a way to get information and see how little it took to get him angry.
“I just had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right. I don’t know how to explain it, but…I was on full alert when I walked in.”
Surprisingly the doctor didn’t say anything so John continued.
“I started looking for her and couldn’t find her anywhere, then I looked in the basement.”
“Why the basement?”
John blinked.
“Because it was the only place I hadn’t looked so I was going to look.”
The doctor nodded and motioned with his hand for John to continue.
“Anyway,” said John irritably, “I went down into the basement and found her there.”
“What was she doing?”
“She was…sitting… on the ground. Surrounded by candles.”
“Candles?”
John nodded.
“A big circle of them, sort of like the thing you see in a movie about demons or witches or something. She was just sitting there, staring at something in the back of the basement.”
“What was she looking at?”
“How the hell should I know,” said John with a shrug.
“And this was unusual behavior for her?”
“Yes, in the nine years I’ve been married to my wife I have never seen her in the middle of a séance.”
“Was that what she was doing?”
John closed his eyes, taking a breath in.
“I don’t know what she was doing, that’s the point.”
“What did you do?”
Opening his eyes John was tempted to remain quiet, but he was going to have to tell this story to someone sooner or later so he might as well get it over with.
“I spoke her name. It seemed like she didn’t hear me so I said it again louder and…”
The doctor waited patiently.
“Her head spun around.”
“She turned toward you?”
“No,” said John shaking his head, “her body stayed where it was, but her head turned around, like an owl or something.”
“That must have been very alarming.”
It took several seconds of steady breathing for the urge to harm this man to pass. The worst part wasn’t that he was being patronized, it was that judging by the tone of the man’s voice and the curious expression on his face he wasn’t even trying to be. He was just naturally patronizing.
“I’m sorry John,” said the doctor suddenly, “I’ll try not to interrupt so much.”
“It’s not that you’re interrupting it’s that you’re stating the obvious.”
The doctor frowned.
“My wife’s head spun around, of course it’s alarming. I don’t know about you but apart from movies, I’ve never seen someone’s head do that.”
The doctor sighed and took off his glasses. Taking a cloth out of his pocket he methodically started wiping them off.
“I really need you to be cooperative John. If we’re to get to the root of what happened I need to understand your mental state at the time. What you were thinking, feeling, believing, and so forth.”
He tucked the cloth away and gently placed the glasses on his face again.
“Do you think we can accomplish that?”
“You want to know more about my feelings? You want me to be more open and expressive?”
“Of course John.”
John punched him square on the nose. The glasses went flying and blood started spurting from the man’s now broken nose. The doctor slumped against the back of his chair eyes wide in disbelief.
“That probably best expresses how I’m feeling right now.”
The doctor’s trembling hand reached for the end table that was next to his chair and his fingers went under it. John was confused about what he was doing until two security guards in gray uniforms with the logo of a shield on the shoulder burst through the door a few seconds later.
John continued sitting in the chair smiling as the doctor took out his little cloth and pressed it to his nose. He was only able to enjoy the moment for a second before the two men yanked him out of the chair and pinned him to the ground.
“John,” seethed the doctor, his voice distorted from the broken nose, “you’ve made a grave mistake.”
“What was that your best suit,” John scoffed, “send me the bill.”
“I’ll be advising a reassignment to another department, one I’m sure you won’t enjoy.”
John’s eyes widened in understanding.
“You can’t do that.”
“You’ve broken my nose,” said the man in a growl, “and you’ve killed your wife. My analysis was to determine whether you could ever return to your job, but I’ll make damn sure that isn’t the case.”
He sniffed and spat a mouthful of blood on the floor.
“My recommendation will be to send you to testing.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Enjoy your time in hell both in this world and the next,” the man spat as he stormed from the room, “I’m sure your wife Samantha will be more than thrilled whenever it is you arrive there.”
John frowned as the guards fastened his wrists.
“Samantha?”
The doctor ignored him and the door shut firmly behind him as he left.
“My wife’s name is Salem, not Samantha.”
“Come one,” growled one of the guards as they tried to haul him upright.
“No wait,” he said resisting their attempts, “her name is Salem.”
“I don’t care,” barked the other guard, “get up.”
“It’s not Samantha, why would…”
Suddenly memories started flooding back of a dark place, a young man, and images of a fire-lit kitchen.
“This isn’t real.”
“Let’s go,” said the guards as they got him upright and started pushing and pulling him from the office.
“This isn’t real,” screamed John, “this isn’t real!”
#
“John!”
John blinked in surprise as the young man shouted in his face and shook his shoulders.
“John what’s going on?”
Shaking his head John raised one of his hands and the young man quickly backed off.
“I’m alright,” he said, a headache forming behind his eyes, “I’m ok.”
“No you’re not,” cried the young man, “what the hell was that?”
“I was…I was hallucinating again.”
“For twenty minutes?”
John stared at the dark shape in shock.
“I was out of it for twenty minutes?”
The young man shifted in place.
“Ok maybe not twenty minutes, but I was shouting at you for a while. What happened?”
“I don’t know,” said John as the headache receded, “one minute I was walking along talking to you and the next I was in a therapist’s office or something.”
He ran a hand through his hair.
“It was so real.”
The young man was silent for a long time.
“Is this normal? Should I be worried about you?”
“This hasn’t ever happened before,” John reconsidered that statement, “before I came here anyway. I’ve never had a hallucination or sleepwalking dream, or whatever the hell this is before.”
He tried to see the young man’s face but it was impossible in the dark.
“Have you had anything like that here?”
“No never. I haven’t even been able to sleep here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t sleep here, I lay on the ground and try, but it’s like I don’t need it or something.”
“That’s bizarre,” murmured John.
“Dude you were like standing there like a statue,” said Mathew with a tinge of panic in his voice, “I shook you, shouted, and even slapped you and you didn’t react at all.”
He heard Mathew take a deep breath.
“It was freaky.”
“I’m sorry,” said John uncomfortably, “I don’t know what’s going on, like I said it’s never happened before.”
“I think you’re lying,” Mathew suddenly said angrily.
“Why would I-.”
“I think you’re crazy or something.”
“I’m not crazy.”
“No,” said Mathew with a scoff, “you just randomly have episodes about being in hospitals and with therapists and stuff. Why were you talking to a therapist John?”
“It wasn’t me.”
“What?”
“Look.,” said John trying to keep his irritation in check, “I had a hallucination I was talking to a therapist or doctor or something, but it wasn’t me. The guy said my wife’s name was Samantha, but it’s Salem. The hallucination wasn’t about me, I was just having it.”
Mathew was quiet again.
“You lying to me?”
John closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he did. When he opened them he was glad to find himself in the dark place still, sort of.
“Look. I don’t know what’s going on with me, where we are, why we’re here, or how the hell we get out of here. I’ve been through a lot of craziness in the last couple of hours and this is by far the tamest. At least here nothing is trying to kill me, rip my chest out, or check what blood type I have.”
He took another breath.
“I trust you, I was out of it for twenty minutes or however long it was and you didn’t try to pull anything. That tells me you’re not a bad guy or a mannequin or anything. I get that whatever’s happening to me might be freaking you out, but I have no control over it. I come out of it when I realize whatever I’m experiencing isn’t real.”
“If you want to go off on your own I get it, really I do. But I promise to watch your back when something happens to you and I’d honestly feel a lot better if I had someone watching mine.”
The silence was heavy as John waited for Mathew to respond. Again, his mind was filled with regrets over what he said, wondering if there was a better way to phrase things so they didn’t sound so absurd or confusing.
“You thought I was a mannequin? What the hell does that even mean?”
John closed his eyes and the number of regrets in his mind grew immediately bigger and louder.
“Look, I felt better when I was with someone I thought was sane. But it’s clear you have some issues and I don’t want to stick around when your episodes get worse. I’m think I’m going off on my own.”
“Mathew.”
“Don’t follow me,” the young man shouted as he started walking away, “I don’t want to see, hear or-.”
The sudden silence was unnerving and John felt the hairs on his neck raise. He didn’t have to ask why Mathew had gone silent, he could feel it.
That soft breeze had grown stronger, it was warm and came in patterned bursts as if someone was blocking and unblocking the breeze over and over again. It also had a stench, something that reminded him of bad fish and brackish water.
Then John could hear it, a slow steady scraping followed by a wet slap in the distance. The slap came in between the bursts of warm air and John had a feeling it was related.
“What is that,” asked Mathew, “do you see anything?”
“No,” said John peering into the darkness where it was coming from, “I don’t.”
“I don’t know that I want to follow the breeze anymore.”
“Same here, maybe-.”
He froze when something in the shadows moved in the distance. It was the size of a car and it rippled as it moved, as if its entire surface was slowly melting down the sides. It was too far and too dark to make out any further details, but he watched as layers of the shadow would fall down the sides without the object ever getting smaller.
“Mathew,” John said in a whisper, “we need to go now.”
“Where do we go?”
John blinked
“Anywhere, we just can’t stay here.”
“We can do whatever we want silly, it’s Saturday.”
John smiled as he traced his wife’s side. The room was dark, but small fragments of light peeking around the blackout curtains told him it was morning.
“You don’t want to go anywhere? No shopping, markets, or anything else?”
“I do that at home, why would I do it on vacation?”
“There are things you can get here that you can’t get at home. Maybe you want some clothes for the beach later?”
She turned to him, though John couldn’t make out anything more than the outline of her features he could tell she was surprised.
“Are you just wanting me to spend money or are you trying to kick me out of bed?”
He laughed and pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead.
“My ideal vacation is sleeping in, going for a swim, coming back for a nap, and eating in between. I just want to make sure we also experience your ideal vacation.”
Her hand traced his face.
“You don’t want to do anything else?”
“Well,” he said in a suggestive tone, “a few other things I suppose.”
“Hmm,” she said touching his lips, “that sounds nice.”
They kissed for a long passionate moment, content to be in each other’s arms. His wife was the first to break the embrace and he was confused to feel her trying to get out of bed.
“Where are you going?”
“Hot shower, hot breakfast, and brush my teeth.”
“That sounds great, probably spend an extra second or two on your teeth though.”
She had her legs off the side and paused before standing up, her head turning back to him.
“I love you to death, but you have the worst morning breath.”
She giggled and leaned back to kiss him on the nose, making a point of breathing on his face.
“Seriously babe,” he said chuckling as he pulled her in and started tickling her sides, “it’s like you slept with a fish in your mouth.”
She fended him off and wriggling out of his grasp laughing. Standing beside the bed she leaned back in and kissed him tenderly on the cheek.
“Thank you so much for this.”
“What are you thanking me for? This was your idea.”
“Thank you for helping make this possible. We’ve been needing this for some time.”
“I agree, now let’s enjoy it.”
Tracing his cheek she walked off towards the bathroom. John watched her outline go, waiting for the light to come on. He saw her hand drift towards the switch on the wall before she paused, looked back at him, stepped into the bathroom, and closed the door before turning the light on.
“Tease,” John said loud enough to be heard through the door, smiling when he could hear her giggling as the water turned on.
Lying back on the bed John gave a deep sigh, soaking in the relaxed atmosphere of the condo. Her fishy breath lingered on his face and the ocean air outside smelled a little brackish. But other than that, everything was perfect.
Author’s Note:
I hope you’re enjoying Darkshield: John’s Arc 1. A new chapter comes out free every week and next week’s chapter will be available on October 12th 2020.
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