47pictures - Tumblr blog

[47pictures]

“Cataclysm” (Horror/Thriller)

The outside sky yawned a growing storm, rumbles of thunder so loud I felt it shook inside here. Looks like my cue to be on my way. I knew I shouldn’t get another shot of whiskey - my mind had wandered enough in the passing hours. Where was I headed? Who knows? Who cares? It didn’t really matter right now. I just needed to get away…

The bar was brightly lit and decorated with pink and green neon lights on the outside, contrasting with its light golden brown interior hue. It was clear that the hangout stood for decades, but you wouldn’t know that by its hospitality and noticeable renovations.

I and only a few other people sat in the bar (two other older gentlemen chit-chatting at the barstools). I had no clue where I was. Kansas, I was pretty sure, or maybe Oklahoma. Wherever, I was hours and miles apart from where I was supposed to be. Again, none of that mattered.

The bartender, an older man in his middle ages, came over to me from the other side of the bar.

“Probably best you start hittin’ the road, son,” he spoke in a smoky but chipper voice. “Looks like a storm’s comin’ any minute now, and around here, that typically turns into something much worse.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Tornado,” he says. “It’s that time of the year. I’m guessing you’re not from around these parts?”

I smiled bashfully. “You guessed right.”

“Well, no harm in that. I’d be more than happy with you staying here, but I gotta start closin’ up here soon myself. I’ve got babies to take care of. Eh, they’re getting about close to your age, I should say.”

I nodded.

“How old are you, twenty?” he guessed.

“Close,” I said. “Twenty-one.”

“Ah, little older than I thought” he nodded. “You in school?”

“Yeah…”

“You like it?”

I shrugged. “If my grades say anything, I guess not.”

The man nodded with understanding.

“I never did it myself, just worked,” he added. “For some of us, that’s all we need."

I looked at my phone and saw that I had two missed calls and unread messages from Seth, my buddy from campus. I rolled my eyes. We were good friends… were good friends, as of 17 hours ago. Good laughs, trips, deep conversations, secrets, inside jokes, exchanges of advice… all ruined in a matter of moments in an exchange of heartless, callous words to one another.

At this moment, I read the messages, asking where I was and to call him, and a voice message I didn’t bother to listen to. With a swift few taps, I blocked him. Who knows if I’d forgive him for what he’d done. That was the least of my worries now, though.

I stepped out of the bar and looked out at the distant field. There were a few other small buildings in sight - a small convenience store and gas pump - but I was dead smack in the middle of the rural midwest. Fields of grass and occasionally corn for miles.

The sky was turning a dull dismal green, puffy clouds forming above in an unusual shape clumping next to one another. The bartender was right, it was about to get ugly.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I got on the interstate and kept heading north. I swear it’d been damn near 20 minutes ago since I’d passed an exit. I was on the longest highway, it seemed, a long line of concrete that stretched for eternity, nothing but endless fields of grass at my sides. As a kid, those were the worst road trips with nothing interesting to look at for hours. Years later, that hasn’t really changed.

In the short amount of time from when I left the bar to getting back on the interstate, the sky darkened to damn near pitch black. I couldn’t see a thing beyond the vision of my headlights and the occasional cars or trucks that passed by on the opposite lane, as well as a few dazzling but ominous flashes of lightning hidden beyond the clouds.

I turned on the radio to play some music, but at the moment, the local station was giving out a tornado warning that was imminent in the area, telling everyone to take shelter immediately.

The AI-prompted voice from the broadcasting system delivered a forbidding message caught some seconds

“...national weather service in McPherson has issued a tornado warning for: McPherson County, Kansas, south central Saline County, Kansas, until 11:47 P.M. Central Standard time, at 11:10 P.M. Central Standard time. National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. This dangerous storm was located…”

In a low subtle tone, I heard what I could only describe as the faint howling of the wind, tuning out the broadcast as background noise. To be sure, I turned down the radio and listened carefully. I heard just fine. It was a faint whistle of wind. It had been so quiet a moment ago - up to this point, matter of fact. Was it really that windy outside? Guess so.

With a crack of lightning and thunder illuminating the darkened sky, it was there that I saw it perched in the distant field on my right. The silhouette of a towering funnel-shaped cloud, a towering giant of rotating wind nearly as black as the wind surrounding it. No way… was that really it?

I wished to do a double-take, but just like that, the flash was brief, and the tornado vanished from my sight, the sky shrouded in darkness once more. If I hadn’t blinked for just another millisecond I may have been certain-

Another flash lit up the sky, and my suspicions were confirmed. Goodness, it was huge! I’d never seen anything like it before. Maybe on TV and in movies and pictures, but never in person. It was astronomically indifferent to its surroundings in both scale and potency, a relentless force of nature, just waiting in the darkness in silence. It was unreal… and unnerving.

The silhouette of the vortex was gone from my sight again once the lightning ceased, but at least I was well aware of its position. It was hard to say exactly how far it was, but it was a good distance away, at least for now. Again, like a steady rhythm of a tune, the lightning illuminated the darkness, and when I shifted my eyes to take another glance at the twister, I was in disbelief.

It was gone. The damn thing was nowhere in sight. I knew I wasn’t crazy. It was just there. I couldn’t be seeing things… how did it just-

Suddenly, a bright flash of lightning lit up the sky once more, revealing the colossal whirlwind of a monster, just to the side of the shoulder on the interstate - right next to me.

I’d felt fear many times before, but not like this. Not like this…

I was at the mercy of something I had no hope of subduing if my life depended on it. In those next moments, I’d forgotten about my physical body, as my soul already left and my life flashed before me, and the next thing I knew, my car swerved to the opposite side of the road. Seems I hit the brakes right then and there. My instincts decided for me that it was too late. It caught me. I’d have to accept my fate…

But as I regained composure, feeling my hands tightly gripped on the wheel, my foot pressed so hard onto the brake pedal I felt I could snap it, my heartbeat skyrocketing, there was silence. Dead air. Nothing.

Sitting in my car parked perpendicularly in the middle of the road, I turned my head every which way and didn’t spot a twister in sight. Baffled wasn’t even enough to describe - utterly stupefied was more suitable. Where was the roar of the vortex or the gust of wind? It’s as if it never existed.

Soon after, another car pulled to the side of the road from behind, their brights blinding me, and the driver stepped out and walked a good distance my way.

“Are you okay?” the passerby asked.

I was still in shock, I could barely speak properly. “D-d-did you see it?” I stammered, pointing my finger towards the direction where I last saw the colossus.

“See what?” they asked.

“The tornado. I-It was right there. Right on the side of the road.”

They were perplexed, as they looked to where I was pointing, another brief flash of lightning illuminating the area, showing nothing but more endless fields of grass ahead. They faced me again.

“Were you sure?” they said. “There’s nothing there.”

I was at a loss for words. Dammit, it was right there. I know it was. How could it vanish and be out of sight so swift? A giant swirling mountain of gust? Impossible!

"I mean, there could be,” the driver spoke. “It’s best if you keep heading towards the nearest exit to find shelter. There's tornado warnings a couple miles ahead of us - ‘ahead of us’ as in towards Saline. Best to stay clear of that whole area for now. Might get real bad from what my folks are saying.” He looked at me, seeing how noticeably petrified I was. “You good, pal?”

I looked at him. What could I say? That he was wrong? He proved otherwise.

I nodded. “Yeah. Thanks. I’m probably just getting tired is all.”

He nodded. “Stay safe, man. Probably a good idea to, you know, get out the middle of the road.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled.

He got back into his car and drove back down the interstate, and I soon did the same.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Still had 5 more miles to go before I’d make it to the nearest exit. That’s all I needed. Then I could finally get the fuck off of this road. I just needed a recharge. An energy drink maybe. No, what I really needed was rest. I knew that much. But the nearest motel was still some ways ahead, about another 28 miles.

I heard a light tap on my windshield, then another, then several at the same time, until finally I saw the tiny drops of rain hitting my windshield. I smacked my mouth. Of all times it chooses to rain, now? In a matter of seconds, light rain turned into heavy rain, forcing me to adjust my wipers to the highest setting. It was a struggle to keep my eyes fixed on the road through the blurred glass as they wig-wagged left and right.

Crackles of thunder boomed through the night. The storm wasn’t letting up anytime soon. It had a point to be made. But even through the boisterous sound, I could still hear a faint howl of wind, like the one I heard moments before…

It was so low, yet so resonant, gradually protruding my ears, almost like the hum of a creature.

In the blink of an eye, the area flashed a bright purple hue from bolts of lightning, revealing the shape of the vortex in the distance, now on my left. The lightning bolts ceased, blinding me to its presence again. I’d have to wait for the lightning to reveal its location.

“What the hell?” I said to myself. I couldn’t believe it.

Another cluster of lightning sparked, and I saw the shape again, but I could swear it was getting closer. Again, the clusters ceased, and it was gone in a flash. Once more, this repeated, confirming my beliefs that the twister was indeed edging closer to the freeway, directly in my path. How could it be doing that? How was it keeping up with me so fast - so precisely?!

I pressed on the gas, speeding down the wet highway as all get-out. It was dangerous, yes, but as was the twister. There was no time to consider the risks right now. There’s no way I wouldn’t be able to outrun this thing by hitting 65, or even 70 miles per hour.

Another flash showed the twister gaining on me, moving dangerously fast and close to the edge. It’s as though it were matching my speed. It was keeping up with me all the way, like it was intentionally chasing me. Like it had a mind of its own.

The lightning flashed again, the twister now just several yards away from the shoulder. I looked at the speedometer, the needle sliding into 70 mph now, slipping into 75.

“C’mon, c’mon,” I uttered through clenched teeth.

I was about to hit 80 any second now. Geez, I’ve never had any business to drive this fast ever, but there was a first for everything. The crackling sound of thunder began to hover over me, and I knew what would inevitably follow. It would be right there. It was going to get me…

I’d hit a slight bump in the road, and my car began to swerve diagonally along the pavement. Fuck, I was beginning to skid. I straightened out the car with the alignment of the road, only to have the same result in the opposite direction. I was hydroplaning in the middle of a thunderstorm and a tornado right on my ass. The car lost all control, and as it skidded towards the road off into the side, I closed my eyes. This was it…

The bright flash of lightning followed, lighting up the night sky in a spectacular display of purple electric tree roots. I went off the road and into a field of grass, the vehicle coming to a brutal halt. I experienced whiplash as my neck jerked violently to the side. I couldn’t feel the pain at the moment, however. I was still hooked on adrenaline.

As I sat in the car waiting for my inevitable demise, I noticed that odd sensation as with before when I stopped myself in the middle of the road.

Silence.

I leaned my head forward, peering under the windshield, searching for the monster. Nothing. Nowhere in sight. I stepped out of the car in the middle of the grassy field, glancing every which way, only to find thunder and lightning hidden under the dark clouds. And another thing I just noticed, was that the rain was gone as well.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once I’d made it to the exit, I got off the highway and pulled into a gas station so I could grab a quick energy drink and maybe a snack or two. I was a bit tired but not that tired. I know what I saw. I don’t ever hallucinate like that. I don’t do drugs, LSD, nothing of the sort. I didn’t imagine it. I couldn’t have.

I'd gotten a call from Trish, one of my friends in our group, Seth included. I wondered if Seth asked her to speak to me, or if she was doing this out of the genuine interest of a friend. I'd hope for the latter. Trish had a good heart and only wanted peace between us and everyone around her.

"Hey," she said on the other end.

"Hey," I shyly answered.

"How's it goin'?"

"I think you already know."

"Well... yeah, Seth did tell me what happened. But I didn't call because of him. I'm just worried, is all."

From my car, I gazed out into the ghastly black sky, the gas station the only source of illumination for miles in a twenty-foot radius, as though I were sitting at the edge of the universe.

"I know," I assured her. "I'm fine. As for Seth... well, not really my problem."

"C'mon, I want you two to work this out."

I shook my head. "No. He crossed the line. I'm not interested in this whole 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said so-and-so' or whatever. No, screw that."

She sighed on the other end.

"I'm not against your side, by the way," she remarked. "I think he was definitely in the wrong, but..."

"What? You agree with him?"

"Well, you did say your grades aren't exactly... stellar."

"They're not. That's my business, though."

"It is. But I don't think his intentions were truly bad. I think he's just worried. I am, too."

I chuckled sarcastically. "If I wanted to be lectured by my parents, I would’ve just moved back in with them. I decide when it’s time to throw the towel in."

“Look, my sister used to struggle for a while in school. Very smart, very bright just like everyone else in her class. And after a few doctor's appointments we got her the medication she needed and she was right back on track. It wasn't a crutch, it wasn't a handicap. It's just... a different challenge she had to deal with. It didn't make her any 'less than' than anyone else.”

“That's great, Trish. And I'm happy for your sister. But that's got nothing to do with me.”

There was a moment of awkward silence between us. I'd never been so aggressive towards her before, and I'm sure she didn't know how to react. I felt bad for raising my voice at her, but my point still stood. That's what I believed, anyways.

"Where are you?" she asked. "I knocked on your door earlier, but you weren't there. Derrick said you weren't in class either."

I swallowed timidly. "Somewhere," I answered. "Miles away from campus."

"Please come home. You don't even need to go right back to class, but just please, I want you back here. I want to fix this, even if you don't. Even if it’s not my problem. I just…”

She wasn’t wrong, I didn't want to fix it. Not now, though. Right now, I wanted to run.

I hung up the phone.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

While I was in the store, I emptied my bladder (since I didn’t shit my pants enough earlier from the whole ordeal) and grabbed two Red Bulls and two roller bites. As I was checking out with the cashier, the lights began to flicker until they eventually shut off entirely.

“Great,” the clerk uttered.

This storm was no joke. The power line was likely hit. The clerk fumbled with the register trying to get it to work, but it also was having issues reading my card.

“Sorry, just a moment,” they said, as they handed me back my card and stepped from the counter and into the back, probably to activate a backup generator.

I leaned on the counter as I waited. It was still and inaudible until I heard the faint whistle of wind from outside. The same as before when I was on the road. I slowly stepped toward the large windows to take a look outside. It was dark both in and out of the gas station. Not so much as the faint glimmer of moonlight seemed prevalent in the night sky. Only thing was the outside fluorescent lights at the pumps. They were enough, if not a lot to make up for the lack of visibility. Standing there looking into the black abyss of the night sky in the field ahead, an unsettling sensation itched me, as if wherever I was currently staring, something was staring back…

I stepped outside, standing by my car in the parking lot, keeping my eyes fixated on the black void of space. I didn’t blink for one second, as if doing so would be the difference between life or death…

Something inside me knew…

A burning sensation at the side of my temples, an electric charge of static rushing through me…

My eyes had nowhere else to lock on, and no intentions of looking elsewhere…

...

And then there it was.

Creeping more and more into the frame of light emitting from the pumps, the behemoth emerged from the shadows in a circling wall of wind. And as with before, what was most unsettling was not only its sheer size and how close it was at this very moment. It was how noiseless it appeared. How it snuck up on me with no sign or warning. It was almost as silent as a predator in the night. I couldn’t exactly hear the roar of the beast, but instead felt it. The mass and ferocity of the monster shook me at my core, a strong vibration oscillating through my chest and down to my knees through the ground.

It’s as if it… followed me.

I quickly got in my car and sped the hell out of there, heading in the opposite direction down the highway, pressing my foot hard on the gas. I had to have hit 100 mph or more. If there was ever a more appropriate time to speed, this was it.

I hadn’t bothered looking back. Five, maybe seven minutes passed before the rush of adrenaline finally died down, and I slowly began to hit the brakes, bringing the car to a gradual stop. I took deep steady breaths, regaining my composure. What was I thinking?

I looked in the rearview mirror, able to see the faint light of the gas station behind in the distance. I stepped out of the car and stood by to take a better look. The distant lightning and thunder rumbled together, a spectacular instrument sounding throughout the night sky, showcasing the tornado in all its glory. It was captivating to look at from such a safe distance, yet likewise terrifyingly beautiful. A force of nature unlike any other.

But I knew, it wasn’t real. And as before, it was merely a facade - a trick of the mind. I don’t know if I was ridiculously that tired or what, and the stress certainly didn’t help either, but-

The lights of the gas station began dimming in the distance as the towering titan engulfed it in darkness, tearing the structure apart to bits in a matter of seconds. I watched in horror at its sheer power. The clerk was still in there. That poor man…

“God...” I uttered.

It was real. The goddamn thing was real.

Then, a stroke of wind tickled the back of my neck, like the brush of a hand, and goosebumps trailed throughout my body. My skin grew stone-cold with dread. The howl of wind returned, but from multiple directions this time. From my left, right, behind me - everywhere.

I turned to face behind me, staring at the pitch-black wall of night. I could hear the thunder rumbling trailing through the clouds, its growl growing closer and closer to where I stood. And strangely, for a moment, there was pure stillness. Dead silence, as though the world around me came to a standstill.

I stood in darkness on the side of the road, turning to face the twister in the distance, but it was nowhere in sight. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared.

Suddenly, a blinding flash of lightning, followed by a deafening roar of thunder, revealed three monstrous tornadoes surrounding me in all directions. I was cornered. There was nowhere to run.

As I looked up at the towering titans, I got down on my knees, raising my arms to shield my face, feeling smaller than I ever have. I was an ant to them. Meaningless. Kneeling to such power fitting for god - or whatever deity had dominion over this land and universe - was only appropriate. At this moment, I’d die the worst possible way imagined.

In fear.

No. I couldn’t.

I ran to the side of the interstate, watching as the funnels began to close in on me, and scanned for an overpass. There was the one across from me that I’d driven under when I took that exit, but that was much too far for me to reach at this rate. I can’t outrun a twister, let alone three.

Instinct overtook me again, similar to the first run-in I’d had. My body began to act, as there was no time to stand around and think. Whatever split decision I was going to choose at this very moment had better be the right one.

I jumped down and rolled into the ditch at the side of the road and huddled in a ball position, covering my head and neck. I felt so defenseless and powerless. But this was the best I could do.

The rumbles and belting of the twisters drew closer, akin to the roar of a jet blast or rocket. It was the loudest sound I’d ever heard. It drowned out everything else. I clasped my hands against my ears, risking any protection from my head, as the noise was too overbearing. Even still, it was too much to handle.

The high-speed winds passed atop me and the ditch, leaving me unscathed. The twisters were without a doubt nearly above me now, if not about to pass this way. Several feet ahead of me, my car slammed violently into the ditch, shattering every window and smashing every metal into a large dent.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, though, it was useless and mute against the overpowering roar of the titans. In my head, I remember praying that it would all be over soon…

And just as quickly and vigorously as it began, it was suddenly over. The deafening roar began to die off, the winds gradually slowed to a light breeze and eventually ceased altogether. It was a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon to witness, especially in the aftermath, so calm and serene, so quiet and tranquil, as if nothing ever happened.

I didn’t move at first. I refused to leave the ditch for a long period, uncertain if each of them was gone. I knew the twisters subsided, yet I lay there for minutes - hours for all I know. My sense of time and relativity to the cataclysm felt nonexistent. The whole thing lasted maybe five minutes tops. It felt so much longer than that.

I finally got up and pulled myself out of the ditch. I took a glance at my car again. It was totaled. I could either stay here and hope to catch a ride from a good samaritan or get to stepping. After what I’d just been through, I’d take anything, including walking for miles upon end rather than relieve that nightmare once more.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I disconnected my mind and body from one another to keep pushing forward. I had to keep going. I trudged for maybe an hour (or as I said before, might’ve been longer) before I heard the whistling again. I halted in my tracks, turning my head to the side, staring into the abyss beyond a large cornfield. I stood there and faced the sky wall, waiting. I knew it was there. It was waiting. There were no nearby ditches, no forms of shelter in sight. This was it.

The low audible rumble gradually increased. It was getting closer. Only a matter of time…

A flash of bright light began to drown me, not from lightning, however, but something else entirely. The rumble was now directly across from me on the road, and I turned to face two giant headlights charging at full speed, accompanied by the blaring horn of a semi-truck.

I dove into the shoulder of the highway, barely avoiding being pulverized. The roar of the semi passed, like the bellow of a monster of its own. I laid there on the ground again, rattled by the last of many close calls tonight.

Some ways ahead, the trucker brought the 18-wheeler to a full stop, pulling into the shoulder as much as possible. They stepped out of the truck and began to approach me.

“Are you all right? Hello?” the man called into the night.

Like before, I was unable to move. I trembled uncontrollably.

“Hello?” the trucker called again.

For the life of me, I couldn’t speak either. There was a lump in my throat to where I couldn’t utter a single syllable. The trucker pulled out a flashlight, the beam of light pointed above me, and the man began jogging towards me. I could tell he was out of shape by the width of his waist and the way he hurried. But when he finally did make it over to me, the light was now beaming directly on my face, irritating my pupils, forcing me to squint.

“Sir, you okay?” the man worriedly asked.

I slowly stood up to face him, still unable to muster any words. My throat was still restricted. However, one noise did utter from my mouth, with a constrained effort. It was a sob.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I sat in the passenger seat of the semi next to the man. He was in his late to early forties, guessing by a glance. I didn’t ask either. What I knew for certain was that he was kind. He offered to take me to the nearest roadside motel. At least there I’d be able to rest and figure out what I would do from there in the morning.

“I thought for sure I’d hit you,” the man said, sounding relieved. “What are you doing out here? There’s tornado warnings, you know?”

He saw that I was still visibly shaken, and I still had a hard time speaking. He didn’t pry too much, seeming to understand. Even if I told him, would he?

“You seem like a young guy,” he talked some more. “You got any family?” I nodded. “Got a car?”

“I did,” I answered. It almost sounded funny.

“I won’t ask too many personal questions, don’t worry. Just curious, is all. I don’t have much of a family myself. Just a daughter. She’s my world, as far as I’m concerned. She’s around your age if I could guess yours. How old are you?”

That question again? “Twenty-one,” I answered.

The man chuckled. “Yeah, that’s about right,” he said. “Still young, but old enough to do what you want, yeah?” I shrugged. “Look, I know it’s none of my business, but whatever you’re going through at this moment now in your life, it’s only temporary. Like a bad storm - it dies eventually.”

“How do you know?” I retorted.

“Because I’ve lived. We’re all different. Got different experiences, of course. Not always the best role models, not always the best people around you with your best interests in mind. But… I know through the wreckage, through pain, there’s always a way out. We don’t have to stay where things make us feel less than. Or you can do like some people and stay and fight, grow stronger. But you might be missing out on a ton of other things you could’ve done. It’s up to us.”

At the time I didn’t think much of what the man was lecturing me about. But looking back on it, it’s exactly what I needed to hear.

We’d made it to a roadside motel and I thanked the man for not only the ride, but for saving my life. He was humble, not thinking much of it, but of course, I didn’t tell him about what I’d endured. As he said, we’re all different in our walks of life, and it didn’t matter to him.

I checked in a room for myself with nothing but my phone and the clothes on my back. My phone battery was at ten percent, and I didn’t have a charger on me. I stared and watched as the number dropped to nine, periodically checking on it, then watching it change to eight.

I sighed. I kept hesitating. I was exhausted and could pass out at any minute, but knew that if I did, I wouldn’t have a working phone in the morning.

I immediately went to my contacts and tapped ‘call’ to the person I needed right now the most. I waited as it rang, hearing my own heart thump between my ears with anticipation. Would he even answer?

Then, a voice came on the other end.

“Hello?” they answered.

“Hey Dad,” I responded.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Um… I’m at a motel in Kansas. I don’t know exactly where but… can you please come get me? My car's ruined. I don't have anywhere to go.”

“Kansas? What’re you doing there? Don’t you have school?”

“Yeah… about that… I don’t think it’s for me.”

Brief silence. I was waiting for the lecture, but it never came.

“Send me the address, okay?” my father said.

“Thank you,” I said, a tear rolling down my face.

“Don’t go anywhere, okay? I’m on my way now.”

“Okay.”

“I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

The line disconnected.

I used the last bit of battery that I had on my phone and sent my current location to him. After I did so, I collapsed onto the soft bed, not bothering to take off my clothes or shoes, and finally drifted to sleep.

[47pictures]

“Dandelion” [PT. I]

Link to original r/nosleep story here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/libraryofshadows/comments/o7tj7w/dandelion_part_1/

I’d never participated in a group study of any kind before, so for it being my first, I felt like I was actually contributing something useful to the world of science. Some students around campus said there may even be some money involved, mainly just mentioned as an incentive to join in the first place, of course. I volunteered specifically for this one due to the subject matter that its research was geared towards, one that I found a bit fascinating.

Dreams… or, so they advertised. More so the study of how the subconscious works in correlation to our deep-rooted memories.

Dr. Ramirez, young and beautiful, and probably in her mid to late-twenties, explained it all just perfectly, and perhaps in the easiest way it could be.

In the room just ahead of the lab, she gave me a quick rundown of how exactly the machine was going to work. On a dry-erase board, she drew one big near-perfect circle, and inside of it drew another smaller circle. She then pointed at the smaller circle with her marker.

“Let’s say this is the Earth,” she started. I nodded, following along. “And this,” she went on, as she motioned around the bigger circle, “is space and beyond. Everything outside of here is full of endless possibilities, right? You’ve got your other planets, asteroids, comets, satellites, stars, and so on.”

I nodded again, a bit amused with her analogy, wherever it was pointing to.

She continued. “Now, can you imagine where I might be going with this?” she asked with a skittish smile.

I know she didn’t expect me to give her an even remotely correct answer.

“You’re gonna send me to space?” I dryly remarked.

She laughed. “Not quite, but I like your sense of humor.” At least she had one, I thought to myself.

Dr. Ramirez went on to further explain as she drew words over the top rim of each circle, labeling them. She started with the smaller circle.

“This is you, essentially,” she explained while simultaneously writing the word “conscious” over the top rim. She then moved over to the bigger circle. “And this is also you, but the vaster and more mysterious ‘you’, if that makes sense.”

She proceeded to write the word “Subconscious” on top of the larger one.

Thankfully she was a visual demonstrator and I was a visual learner. I remembered a decent bit of this when I took AP Psych back in high school, but then again, I barely passed AP Psych. Had a great teacher, though.

“Have you ever heard the expression ‘as above, so below’?” she asked me.

I suggestively tilted my head. “Here or there, maybe once or twice,” I answered.

“Well, the reason I ask is because I like to compare that exact same expression to how the subconscious and conscious works,” the doctor went on as she pointed at both words with her marker appropriately. “They are both one and the same, however, they like to work in different ways. As you may already know or at least have some sort of grasp on the topic, your subconscious stores most of your long-term data, you know, those memories that can go further back, or even some as recent as yesterday that your brain just decided to lock away in the back. These things don’t require your ‘conscious awareness’ or immediate focus, right?”

From what I noticed about her so far, Dr. Ramirez liked to talk with her hands, but I must say, she made it work for her. It was rather intriguing.

“Whether it’s driving a car, riding a bike, or playing the piano,” she continued. “Or heck, even learning a new language. At some point, you had to learn these things for the first time, and they required a great deal of conscious effort, yes?” I nodded. “So, thankfully, our brains have been blessed with the ability to ‘learn’.” She let out a short laugh. “And so, these memories are stored in our subconscious, where it basically becomes second nature to do these sorts of tasks. You with me so far?”

I nodded again to reassure her. My sandpaper-dry personality probably wasn’t helping, but she really did have my full attention whether she realized it or not. I hope she knew that I wouldn’t have volunteered otherwise.

“Now,” she started again, but this time drew another medium-sized circle just around the “Conscious”-labeled one, “Our understanding of dreams has always been sort of a mystery to science. Many say they’re just random jumbles that our brain picks from our subconscious, whereas some say they’re a state of mind that acts independently on its own. Well now, we’ve learned that both of those answers are… well, sort of correct.” She then labeled the circle that surrounded “Consciousness” under the name of “Dream State”. The entire diagram was starting to look like a big target, with “Consciousness” in the center, “Dream State” being the inner rim, and “Subconscious” as the outer rim.

“Think of our dreams as the Earth’s atmosphere,” she said. “Any sort of debris that enters the atmosphere at high speed, such as a meteor or fallen satellite, gets broken up into little pieces before it can cause some serious damage to all of us down below, right? I’m assuming you were awake for science class in middle school?”

“Eh,” I joked. She took it with a laugh, but if only she knew I used to have an issue falling asleep in school as a kid. “So, our dreams protect us from our subconscious, is that what I’m hearing?”

“Ooh, I like the way you think,” the doctor remarked. “I’d like to think of it more like, in a less catastrophic example, that our dreams ‘filter’ what our subconscious throws at us. Now, there’s still debate on whether or not our subconscious actively tries to communicate with us or our dreams are the ones pulling from our subconscious, but that’s beside the point. What we’ve come to learn, in the midst of all the chaos in our dream state, from being able to fly, seeing the sky turn a different color, seeing giant chickens cross the road, and whatever other crazy things people have mustered from their imagination is that dreams are no longer the barrier that stands between understanding our subconscious. We’ve now developed a way to essentially enter our subconscious state, unfiltered and uninterrupted.”

And that was where she threw me for a loop. I stammered to try and find the words to even begin questioning something so bizarre, but with no luck. I could tell she was amused by my bewilderment from the smile on her face. We'd come so far in technology and scientific advances - was this it? Is this what the future held all this time?

“So, Mr. Thompson,” Dr. Ramirez spoke. “Are you ready to explore space?”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She led me to the lab room where we would be doing our first session of the experiment. I was expecting something more intricate or complex. In reality, the setup was quite minimal. An operating stool sat in the center as expected, and next to it stood a monitor that I assumed was for checking my pulse. Along the wall was the real sight to behold. Large screens displaying all sorts of numbers and diagrams in which I couldn’t even comprehend their meaning. Though, from what I could probably guess, it looked like some sort of EEG setup. I’d seen it in movies and documentaries (and back in AP Psych class), but never in person.

“Now before we start, I have to ask if you’ve eaten in the past 8 hours?” Dr. Ramirez asked. “It’s a precaution we take for all of our test subjects due to the side effect of leaving the hub.”

“Uh, just a protein bar,” I said. “Did you say ‘hub’?”

“Oh, yes, that’s sort of the nickname we came up with for what’s basically the ‘subconscious state’.”

“Oh…”

“So that’s good that you’ve had some form of sugar and carbs at least today. Sometimes people report feeling a bit lightheaded or lethargic after the session, and the first thing they’ll usually want is a coffee or a soda. We have a vending machine for soda, snacks, or coffee - whichever you prefer - across the hall if you need them afterwards.”

All this time we had discussed going from point A to B, but not how. Looking around the room, seeing all the tech being used, I couldn’t imagine the funding that must’ve been poured into this project.

“I’m sure you’ll get to it soon enough, but how exactly does this work?” I finally asked, doing my best not to sound impatient. Dr. Ramirez, however, seemed more than happy to explain.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she replied. “Well let me just give you a basic rundown of what this all does and how it’s going to affect you.”

She picked up a small lightweight device from the table that clearly looked like some sort of headset, much akin to a VR one. However, it had a sort of synthetic material cap attached to it, with multiple white dot-like pieces carefully placed. It certainly looked like an EEG device for scanning the brain, as I'd guessed earlier.

“This is why we’re here today,” said Ramirez, pointing at the device with her free hand. “This little guy here is called the Cadacus.”

I cocked a brow.

“Supposedly it’s derivative of Hermes’ staff, you know, in mythology, the symbol used for ambulances and medical-related stuff?”

“Mmm,” I understandingly nodded.

“I tried to tell them that one, it’s spelled wrong, and two, it’s not even pronounced correctly,” she said, rather annoyed. “It’s supposed to be ‘Ca-doo-she-us’, but, then again, I’m not the one who invented it, so Dr. Lockhardt gets the final say on that.”

She then handed me the set for me to get a feel for it and analyze it for myself. Nifty, needless to say. As she had explained, the device was capable of not (and she greatly stressed) recording your dreams, per se, but instead taking you into your ‘subconscious’ world. Dreams are merely the barrier blocking us from seeing our subconscious thoughts and memories uninterrupted. In dreams, situations and objects might change sporadically at any given time without warning. One of the greatest struggles, she explained, when testing the Cadacus was trying to find the breakthrough in how exactly to bypass the REM cycle, which is when most of our dreaming occurs. But she explained that as well…

“In the world of science and medicine, or rather human innovation as a whole, we’ve learned how to basically pick certain parts of our brain and utilize them how we see fit, and not the other way around,” she preached. “Not have them decide for us. Essentially, Cadacus allows us to hack certain parts of the brain that are responsible for letting us take a peek inside our deepest embedded memories. I like to tell people the closest thing we have to a time machine is our own brain. In it lies a whole world of events and moments that you may have forgotten, or choose to have forgotten.”

“So what’s to stop it from peeking into memories that are… I don’t know, better left forgotten?” I proposed. Of course, she had an answer for that as well.

“Great question. So the beauty of Cadacus is that just like I mentioned, you now have the utmost control over what you decide to see… or, at least we’re testing to make sure things stay that way.”

And there it was. That was the catch. After all, nothing was ever perfect.

“I’m sorry, I just have to ask, how many people have you tested this thing on?” I boldly inquired. Ramirez seemed unbothered by the question, though. In fact, nothing seemed to bother her with everything I asked. To me, it conveyed confidence in the things she spoke on, which I hoped also equated to her being sincere.

She chuckled. “Honest answer? About twenty-four so far. Now I’m sure the real reason you’re asking is because you want to know how many of those tests turned out successful or not, yeah?”

I answered with a guilty smirk. Absolutely that’s why I asked.

“Well you have nothing to worry about, Mr. Thompson,” she reassured. “All of the people who’ve participated so far haven’t reported any negative side effects, other than the low energy blunder right after the exiting the hub. So you're not gonna have to worry about spazzing out or going 'mental' in any sort of fashion. And keep in mind, these tests were done over the course of weeks, and some even months, depending on whether or not we came across more interesting findings during the sessions.”

She really didn't back down from a fight. Ramirez stuck to her facts, despite how truthful or not they were, unbeknownst to me. I took in a short tense breath, then exhaled.

“All right, but you have to promise me one thing,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Call me Travis. If I’m supposed to trust you with handling my brain, we oughta start getting to know each other a little better, don’t you agree?”

She smiled and nodded. “Fair enough,” she replied. “In that case, you may call me Jennifer.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Cadacus was now all set, and we were ready to start. The headset over my eyes, electrodes covering my scalp, and the HRM hooked to my wrist and chest were all properly configured. Jennifer also had everything she needed set up on her giant monitor, where she could now see my full brain, able to pinpoint any changes in activity. From my perspective, the Cadacus headset made everything in the room look like I was peering through a fish-eye lens scope. It was all blurred and a bit disorienting, but it wouldn’t be for long once I entered the hub, Jennifer informed me.

“You ready?” she asked, sounding more excited than I was.

“Sure,” I answered, lying through my teeth.

“Oh yeah? ‘Cause from the looks of it, you seem pretty nervous.”

I knew she had to be looking at my heartbeat to know that.

“It’s okay, everyone experiences the same thing,” she added before I could say anything. “Just try to relax. Remember, it’s not like a dream where you have no sort of control over what happens to you. You’ll have control over the things you experience just like you would in the comfort of your own home, based on the words that I give you. You don’t have to see something scary if you won’t want to. Remember that, okay?”

I took a deep breath. “Okay,” I complied.

“Good.” She gave me a pat on the shoulder and walked back over to her desk by her computer and giant monitor. “Alright, so what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna have you count down to 'one', starting from 'five' when I say so. Sound good?”

“Ready when you are,” I answered.

“Alright…”

I couldn’t see her really from the corner of my goggles, but I could hear her hit a few keys on her computer, along with two clicks of her mouse.

“Okay...” she started.

And with one final click of her mouse, a high-pitched whirring sound began to emit from the Cadacus and straight into both of my ears. It reminded me of the times I had to get a hearing test done, and all those high-frequency noises sounding from left to right.

“Go ahead and countdown for me,” she said.

“Five,” I began. “Four. Three. Two-”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m not sure how quickly it all happened, but the next thing I knew, I was suddenly standing alone in the center of some vast blackness of space, as I opened my eyes. The only light came from above in the form of what looked to be a stage spotlight, which shined down on me. I didn’t have the sensation that I was dreaming, though. I felt fully present and aware of the fact that I didn’t even finish my countdown. Just moments ago, I thought, the last number I was on was ‘two’. And now this is where I was. Not laying in the chair of the lab room, no headset or goggles covering my face...

Then a faint, echoey voice sounded from no particular direction. It seemed to come from everywhere.

“Travis, can you hear me?” it spoke. “This is Jennifer. If you can hear me, just go ahead and say something.”

Amazing. She wasn’t kidding. It’s as if she were God herself.

“Yeah…” I answered unsurely. “Can you hear me?”

“Perfect, I hear you just fine,” Jennifer spoke back from the ‘beyond’.

This was a bit too trippy for me. I really didn’t know what to expect, but this exceeded anything I could’ve possibly rehearsed prior in my head.

“You never did count to one,” she joked.

“Oh yeah, um… one,” I remarked. I could even hear her laugh just the same as if she were right next to me. Her voice began to sound more and more clear as she kept talking.

“There we go. Now tell me, right now, what is it that you see?”

Not a damn thing, I wanted to say. But I gave her what I could.

“Well…” I began, looking all around me, still under the spotlight, “I’m standing in… what I think is a stage, and there’s like…” I looked directly up, “... a spotlight right over me.”

“Interesting,” I heard Jennifer say. “That’s a new one for me.”

“Where am I?” I asked.

“So, you’re actually in ‘the hub’ as we speak. This is just your interpretation of it.”

“My interpretation?”

“Uh-huh. So what happens is that basically, our own subconscious mind presents itself to us through its own unique layout, or environment, if you will. For instance, every time I went through it, I was always standing in a giant ocean of shallow water, and a bright blue sky with no sun in sight. Others see a never-ending field of grass, a barren desert, or maybe even an empty warehouse, in some cases.”

“Huh…” I quietly mumbled.

“So for you, your subconscious presents itself in the form of an unlit stage, probably waiting to be filled.”

I expected to be more afraid, given that there was basically a never-ending plain of darkness beyond the spotlight, but to my own surprise, I found it a bit peaceful. It also helped that Jennifer was still with me.

“Your vitals appear to be in great shape, which is good. Means your body is responding well to the Cadacus so far. And on that note, I’m gonna begin going down our list of ‘sensory triggers’.

I wish she had picked a less threatening word than ‘triggers’, especially when I’m in a place so foreign to me (ironic, given that it is me).

“How this is going to work is that I’m going to give you a word, and with that word, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate as much as you can on connecting that word to a specific thought or memory, okay? It sounds odd, I know, but trust me, you’ll see pretty soon. Don't overthink it.”

“Well, I trusted you this far, haven’t I?” I remarked.

“Yes, indeed you have, and I’m thankful for that. Okay, so the first word I’m going to give you is… golf.”

“Okay,” I spoke under my breath, as I began to close my eyes.

I visualized everything that I possibly could relating to golf, all the way from a golf ball, to Tiger Woods, to a golf club, then to a field of low-cut grass, to a golf cart, and so on…

I did this for about five seconds before opening my eyes again. When I opened them, I was met with what I could only describe as the piece of a house set design. It truly was like I was on the stage for a film studio or theater. The set design only showed an open door and small portions of the perimeters of the walls of the structure. It was as if someone cut a portion of the house like a slice of cake, particularly the front door, and placed it in front of me.

“Do you see anything?” Jennifer’s voice asked.

I saw something, alright. The problem was, I didn’t exactly know what. Obviously, it was a house, but an incomplete one.

“Uh, I see… a part of a house,” I said. “Like, it sorts of looks like those half-built set houses that you see on film sets, you know, like for shows or movies?”

“Oh, I see. Interesting… Your subconscious mind must be very, hmm… imaginative? Or strongly connected to the cinematic or theatrical.”

“Hmmm... it's a theory.”

“Hey, no one knows you better than yourself, right?"

I shrugged. "I guess."

"I'm not trying to intrude or anything, this is just me taking notes to see if there’s perhaps a correlation between your own personal awareness and how your subconscious views itself, does that make sense?”

“Yep.” Sort of, anyway.

“Okay, so go ahead and do me a favor and try to describe the house to me. Or what you can of it, at least.”

“Well, the door is open,” I started.

“What’s the door look like?”

I shrugged. “I mean… it’s just a regular door. Brown, wooden, has a peephole and everything. Nothing too unordinary.”

“Okay… what else?”

From the brief pauses in between her sentences, I could tell she was taking notes.

“Um, from the portion of the house that I can see,” I continued, “it’s made out of wood instead of brick. Light-blue wood, to be exact. I can see a small little porch light perched in the corner, like just before the wall cut off.”

There was a brief awkward silence in between, which I assumed was my cue to keep talking while Jennifer kept taking notes.

“And…” I started again, this time trying to peer into the house through the open door. Oddly, I could see that there was an abundant amount of space between the open ‘stage’ and the inside of the set design house. From where I was standing just several feet away, there appeared to be stairs leading up to a second floor, and a bit to the right was a living room with a couch and perhaps other furniture hidden from view, and beyond, a small hallway leading to what looked to be a kitchen, and maybe even a backyard door and other rooms.

Physically, it didn’t actually make sense. There was no way for there to be all that space in between here and there. It was like looking through a portal, essentially, where the space in which I stood didn’t proportionally match the one in which I was viewing. I liked to call it the ‘small house, big space’ phenomenon. But this was something else entirely...

“It looks like I can go inside the house,” I finished.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Jennifer replied. “Do you want to?”

I didn’t seem to have anywhere else to go, so it seemed to be my only real option. I went ahead and walked towards the open door, my view of the inside space growing more and more visible. Once I made it inside, an overwhelming sensation that I couldn’t quite put my finger on began to overtake me. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t joy, it wasn’t sadness… yet, in a strange way, it was almost all three of those things at once.

The house was well-lit in all spaces and corners, quite impossibly, given that there wasn’t enough light on the ceilings to emit such radiance. In fact, there didn’t seem to be a real source for light at all, as the one on the ceiling wasn’t even on. The house just emitted a sort of white luminescence, the kind I’d normally see from white plasma beam lights in bathrooms at gas station stops, and I could practically hear that low endless buzzing noise that filled the space.

But this time, I didn’t hear a noise at all. Silence filled the house instead. Pure silence. That was the only unnerving thing. Even odder, I couldn’t even hear my own heartbeat or breathing. Only the sound of my footsteps emerged here and there whenever I made a move across the wooden floor, leaving behind a faint echo, but that was it.

Taking in the overall atmosphere and setup of the house, for some reason, I felt as though I could guess, or even most certainly knew the time period in which the interior currently reflected. Perhaps late nineties to early 2000s. Maybe even pre-9/11. I wasn’t exactly sure on the year, but I just had that strange certitude of that particular era. Beige walls, carpeted flooring, and brown wooden kitchen cabinets all in a very particular layout that just seemed 'dated'.

“See anything interesting?” Jennifer asked.

“Well, if that’s the word you wanna use to describe this,” I muttered.

“Just say the first thing that’s on your mind.”

I looked around, trying to find the first thing I could to catch my eye. But something was extremely off about the house apart from its age. It’s as if I knew this place, but yet I couldn’t understand how. The smell even brought about a strange sense of familiarity. A faint scent of-

“Lavender,” I said. “It smells like lavender.”

There was a brief pause. Then Jennifer finally spoke. “Tell me, does the lavender scent mean anything to you? Maybe, bring you back to a certain time or place?”

“I… I think so. I’m not sure how, though.”

“What else can you tell me about the house?”

I glanced about again.

“There’s a corded phone sitting on a stand, next to a lamp and a recliner,” I said.

“Corded, huh?”

“Yeah, corded.”

“Does the house seem a bit… outdated? Or from a different time than present-day?”

Now it was as if she could read my mind.

“Yeah, that’s about right,” I concurred. “You know how some houses just look old? Like houses they just don't make anymore?”

I heard Jennifer let out a small chortle. “I know exactly what you mean.”

I shook my head confusingly. “But it’s like I know this place somehow,” I added.

“Well Travis, even though you nor myself know exactly where it is you are, I can tell you this. What you’re standing in right now is likely an old memory you’ve long forgotten, stored into the far reaches of your subconscious. You have been to this place before. This is your subconscious’s best replication and rendering - if you will - of the memory in a way that makes sense to you.” And yet, it didn’t make sense at the same time. “Can you see any pictures posted along the walls or perhaps over a fireplace anywhere?”

There actually was a fireplace in the living room, and plenty of picture frames. But there were no pictures. Not a single one in any of the big, small, and portrait-sized frames set throughout the house. Yet, they were all carefully positioned as though there were supposed to be photos within the frames for people to see.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t,” I answered, puzzled.

“I see,” Jennifer responded. “So as odd as that may seem, it’s actually a common thing people who’ve used the Cadacus report about seeing in ‘the hub’, or I guess I should say ‘not see’, in this case. Faces and actual people are a bit more difficult to render and replicate from stored memory banks. Over time, you forget exactly how someone’s face actually looks. You have an idea of how they appear, but you can’t actually remember all the fine details, such as exact facial structure, moles, size between the eyes, you name it. That’s why dreams tend to do a better job at showing you people you’ve seen more recently in your everyday life.”

It was a bit uncanny, if I’m being honest. The least my imagination could do was make up some pictures, I would think, at least just to fill the void. This was just flat out strange…

“Why can’t my subconscious substitute something, like how my dreams do?” I asked.

“Great question. This is where I have to break it to most people. Your imagination is practically meaningless in the hub. Scientists, psychologists and other researchers all over have started to come to the understanding that dreams and the imagination have more in common with each other than our subconscious and the imagination. The subconscious is more concrete and based on what actually happened, whereas dreams and the imagination focus on what could be, and possibly what can happen. So if the subconscious can’t actually remember something, it won’t be able to render it in the hub. That’s often why most subjects just see places and certain structures rather than actual people. Those things are easier for the mind to pick up on and remember to the best of detail.”

The longer I stood in this place, the more it gradually began feeling as though I were standing in a vacuum of space, with no real sense of time or reality. Where was I? How did this all come to be just from the word ‘golf’?

“Try exploring the house a bit more,” Jennifer suggested. “See if that does anything.”

I headed upstairs. Plastered along the walls leading up the stairs and beyond was a fully encompassing floral-design wallpaper. It was a very particular floral design, enough to bring back that sensation I felt earlier when I first stepped in the house...

“I’ve seen this wallpaper before,” I whispered, as I dragged my palm across the walls going up the stairs.

When I got to the top, I saw that the upstairs room was set up to be used for a gameroom. Oddly, the contrast in this room stood out from the downstairs. Small and ever-so-dim corners and shadows placed about the room reminded me of old photos that people used to take on those polaroid cameras from the 80s and 90s. It had a grainy look to it, as well as an uneven exposure. This time, though, it seemed as if I were in one of those pictures.

The space was almost entirely bare, except for a small entertainment system which stood against the wall (this one not being covered in floral design), accompanied by a bulky 30 to 35-inch CRT TV, and a Nintendo 64, with a game cartridge sticking up from inside that I couldn’t distinguish from this far. My mouth dropped open, astonished, and that excited feeling of electricity, the kind you get when you experience an ‘ah-ha’ moment, now replaced any other notion of uncertainty that I may have had before.

“Oh my god,” I spoke under my breath.

“Travis?” Jennifer’s voice sounded.

I let out a short, scoff-like chuckle as I clasped my hands over my head.

“This is my aunt’s old house,” I exclaimed. “My Aunt Deborah - this is her old house.”

"Now we're getting somewhere," Jennifer spoke in a proud tone.

I let out another laugh. “This is insane,” I commented. “I remember we visited here one time. A long time ago. And…”

I stepped towards the entertainment center, and bent over to get a closer peak at the N64. I now clearly saw what cartridge was inserted into the console, and a smile drew over my face.

“Good ol’ country club golf,” I finished. “Wow…”

“Country club golf?” Jennifer asked.

“One of the games we used to play on the ‘64 was Waialae Country Club. ‘True Classics’, to be exact.”

“Ah…”

“That’s insane...” I whispered under my breath.

“I told you you’d see where I was going with this, huh?” Jennifer teased.

I stammered, shaking my head, trying to contemplate what I was experiencing. This was something beyond any other thing I’ve done before. This was bigger than VR or AR. This was something else entirely. It knew my deepest memories and had made a place inside my own brain.

Jennifer continued. “You see, these words that I’m giving you is just a small example of what your subconscious can act with, based on just a single word that can trace back to countless other thoughts stored in your memory bank. We now are starting to understand why we dream something related to a conversation we might’ve had earlier that same day, and why our brains decided to cling onto that specific conversation or even a single word that was said. Cadacus allows us to do that exact same thing but on our own terms.”

Jennifer allowed me to explore the house a bit more. I tried checking out the other rooms, but each time I was met with nearly empty spaces. I’m not sure how my subconscious mind was trying to interpret the house, but it was the equivalent to a bad buffer, or loading bar that never quite finished. Some rooms had little furniture, and for the furniture that did exist, they were weirdly vague.

In different parts of the rooms, it was like a Picasso drawing come to life, just a little neater and more organized. At least I could tell it was furniture and decor for different sections of the house, yet, I couldn’t exactly describe what I was looking at. Some things looked like a chair, others like a lamp, maybe even some jewelry lying about, and other sorts of bathroom accessories like a towel or soap made sense here and there, but overall, when you looked at them altogether, the house was a huge enigma.

“Jennifer, why is everything so…” I began, trying to find the word.

“Disorganized? Jumbled?” she finished for me.

“Exactly.”

“So, remember what I told you, just like with the pictures, the hub can only render and replicate what it knows, or the best idea of what it ‘thinks’ it knows. What is it in your dream - I’m sorry, subconscious state - that looks disorienting to you?”

I let out a short burst laugh. “I wouldn’t exactly know how to describe it, you know? It’s so confusing to me.”

“Do things sort of look like, for example, like they’re pieces of furniture or specific objects, yet, they somehow don’t at the same time?”

Bingo. “Yeah, that’s exactly what it’s like. I don’t understand it, though.”

“Well, that’s what these studies are for, right? What you’re doing right now is a huge help to getting us to better understand how our subconscious minds continue to work in mysterious ways. It seems a common testimony in all the people who’ve participated report the same thing of not being able to completely interpret specific objects. It’s a known fact that over time, our brains will remember things much differently than how they actually occurred, and certain memories will slowly fade over the years.”

“So I can still remember the basic layout of the house, but not what was in it specifically?” I said.

“Mm-hmm. You got it. So… would you like to continue on to a different word?” I obliged. “Very well then. Just like before, when I say the word, you’re gonna close your eyes and just focus on every single thing you can related to that word alone. Ready?”

“Ready.”

“Okay… ‘summer’.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I opened my eyes and was no longer inside. I was outdoors, the sky was clear blue, and it was bright and warm out. Looking down at my feet, I saw that I was standing on grass, and when I looked back up around me, in the distance there were fields of trees that led to deep woods. Not too far to my left lied a small timber bridge just over a tiny creek with a bed full of rocks. It had to be in some sort of park. A summer camp, maybe? Or just perhaps a regular community park I may have visited some time ago.

I walked around to try and see what other things might pop up to spark something inside. As I turned a corner around a field of tall bushes, the scene beyond abruptly changed to that of what looked to be the grounds of a fare or some sort of carnival. A carousel, stuffed prizes, empty concessions, and other sorts of festivities lined up. I remembered a place like this once, I thought.

I told Jennifer all of this, and we both began trying to dig for clues as to what this particular memory was about. However, this one was a lot easier than my Aunt Deborah’s house, since I actually can recall this day. Or, at least the fact that we showed up. The only other moments I can maybe remember having on this day were playing tag with some friends, strangers, or even cousins, and us throwing this small toy shovel at a couple of wasp nests just under the timber bridge I’d seen earlier, then running like hell later to escape their fury. Funny how that thought decided to resurface the longer I stayed here, just goes to show how big of assholes kids could be, and I was no exception. I could never imagine doing something so cruel nowadays.

“Hmm, looks like your mood changed a bit,” Jennifer pointed out, more than likely reading my vitals again from where she was. “You seem relaxed. And the parts of your brain that are lighting up more seem to indicate a sense of joy and happiness. Sounds about right?”

“I miss my childhood,” I replied. “Sometimes it’d be great to just relive a time where I didn’t have to be an adult, you know?”

“Oh, I hear you. Why don’t you say it louder for the people in the back.”

I chuckled. But then I stopped as a thought occurred to me.

“Speaking of which, is it normal to not see anybody at all?” I questioned. “In the hub, I mean?”

“Yes, it’s very normal. In very few cases, we’ve had some people report seeing long-lost family members or even some friends of theirs. When we talked about it after, all of them said that the people they saw in the hub had a strong relationship with them, which tells us that the stronger the bond we share with people in our lives, the longer we hold onto those memories, allowing us to paint a better picture of how they looked through the Cadacus.”

“I guess I don’t love anyone as much as I thought,” I dryly remarked.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Jennifer said, knowing good and well that I was joking. “It’s gonna be different for everyone else. The words that another host or myself gives to you or others won’t come up with the same results, obviously because you all have different life experiences and memories unique to you.”

It was time to move on to a different ‘trigger word’, as Jennifer called them. Still wish she would’ve picked a different name for it, but I digress.

“Alright, you ready?” she started as usual.

“Ready when you are,” I replied.

“Good. Okay… ‘dandelion’.”

As before, I closed, then opened my eyes.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I found myself standing in a vast lobby of some sort. There was some light, but very little to illuminate the entire space. The floor was a red-colored carpet, the same one you’d see in some movie theaters still. As I looked around at the barely visible walls, an artificial tree standing in a pot in the corner, and another obscure, jumbled rendering of an object that looked gold, I was beginning to think that I actually was in a theater.

I walked forward to explore, and found myself feeling, for the first time since I initially started, rather uneasy. But I didn’t know why…

The area was spacious, and from my perspective, the theater felt as if it could fit hundreds of people. I couldn’t tell if I had shrunk a little or if the design of the place was just that large, but everything felt so gigantic. Unnecessarily gigantic, I should add.

As I kept walking, in the distance I saw a faint shimmer of light grow more and more visible. With each step, I began to realize that it was an overlight, or a sort of spotlight, rather. Underneath the light was a random dinner table, perfectly arranged and set up for guests. But why here? It was so strange and out of place. Yet, I began to notice something else even stranger that I didn’t acknowledge until now. I didn’t hear Jennifer’s voice this time.

“Jennifer?” I called out.

No response. There was no hiding it now. I was nervous. Not just nervous that the Cadacus might have malfunctioned, but nervous because I was alone…

“Jennifer?” I called again.

Still nothing. That uncomfortable silence that filled the hub was louder than anything. I could hear my own heartbeat frantically pounding between my ears.

“Yes?” Jennifer’s voice called back to me. “Travis, can you hear me?”

It was an out-of-body experience to feel much-needed relief after nearly losing it, like being thrown in an icy pool of water just to be pulled back out and doused in warm water. Whether it was a simple mishap in the machine or not, it was fucked up.

“You had me worried there for a sec, Jennifer,” I spoke as I let out a breathy chuckle of relief.

“Yeah, that was kinda strange. Nothing seemed to show interference on my end… I’m not sure what happened. I was calling to you but I couldn’t hear anything back.”

And let’s add that to the list of ‘mistakes’ this test run was supposed to catch while we’re at it.

“Do you see anything interesting - well, I guess I should ask what do you see*?”*

I told her about the theater, at least it was what I thought to be a theater, as well as the obscurity of the dinner table. She of course tried to tie this back with the ‘theatrical’ theme I had going on in my subconscious mind, which I still thought might be a bit of a stretch. For now, she insisted that I kept exploring to see what else I could find that may explain things.

Near the end of the hallway, a door remained a jar, and a bit of a light projected from the room in a wedge shape. I’d have to keep walking further to see what was inside, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly more uneased. Something didn’t feel right about this place. None of the other ones gave me this same sensation.

I carefully stepped into the room with the open door, and was confused by what I saw. The scene had changed yet again, this time to what looked to be a party room of some sort. Long tables were aligned with chairs pushed in and spaced apart from each other. Plastic colored cups, paper plates, napkins, and birthday party hats were neatly stacked and perfectly organized along each row. The floor also had a retro-patterned carpet design like the ones I’d see in other theaters or arcades, making me feel like I was going to space.

The lighting in here was different as well. It was a dimly-lit blue ambiance, almost like a night light. I found it rather calming compared to the outside in the theater lobby.

Then from behind me, the deafening sound of the door slamming shut filled the room, and filled me with dread as I jumped.

“Travis, are you okay?” Jennifer’s voice sounded. “Your heartbeat’s escalating really fast. Is everything all right?”

I almost forgot how to breathe.

“I-I don’t know what just happened,” I stammered. “The door shut.”

“The door? What door?”

“The one to the party room. I’m inside the party room and the door just slammed. Am I alone? I-Is someone here with me?” I was panicking.

“Travis, remember what we discussed. You do not have to see anything scary if you don’t want to. You hear me? You do not have to be afraid. Just take a deep breath, close your eyes, and count to three, okay?”

That was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to yell at her to get me out of the damn thing. I was now getting the feeling that I maybe wasn’t alone after all in the hub. I hadn’t seen a single figure yet, and the first signs of anyone else being here with me began to seem more alarming than I once thought.

I closed my eyes and did what she said. I counted.

“1… 2… 3.”

I opened my eyes again, and this time, I was still in the party room, but the calming blue luminescence was now replaced with an unsettling crimson color instead. The place had turned into a red room. I didn’t tell Jennifer, but I hated the color red. It was a lot of people’s favorite color, but I never liked it. It made me feel sick, and now I was drowned by it.

I looked around and noticed other horrifying features of the room. Streaks of what I could only assume was blood were randomly plastered across different parts of the room. What kind of memory was this?

Anxiety returned. I found it hard to breathe yet again. I needed to get out of here.

“Jennifer, get me out!” I yelled. “You hear me? Jennifer, please get me out!”

This time, she didn’t respond. Fuck. It was malfunctioning again. This was not a good time to start fucking up now.

“Shit,” I muttered. “Shit, shit, shit…”

Panicked, I stood huddled in a corner of the room, not sure where to go, but definitely not wanting to leave myself exposed to whatever may be out there. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be stuck here, maybe forever for all I knew. But right now wasn’t the time to think of any of that. I had to get the fuck away from this place. Whatever positive mental tricks Jennifer tried to preach clearly wasn’t working. I had to be brave, I told myself. It was just my own subconscious. I tried to tell myself that to give me some sort of comfort.

I crept over to the door with nothing to defend myself with. Jennifer wasn’t here to accompany me now. I was alone.

When I got to the door, I hesitated to place my hand on the knob. But I slowly raised and positioned it over, and was just about to grasp the knob until I realized something. There was now a window framed onto this door, unlike the first time…

I looked up, and right before my eyes, a child, a small boy, slammed his hands onto the window from the other side, screaming at the top of his lungs. To this day, I have yet to witness something as bone-chilling and hair-raising, and something so fear-inducing as to make me feel as if my own soul left my body.

I jumped back, so frightened that I fell to the floor. I kept my eyes fixed on the child, though, and he continued beating on the window, screaming for help. He was the first person I’d seen in the hub, and he was so real. So vivid. The fear in his eyes, the franticness… I wanted to help him.

But before I could do anything, something, or someone snatched him away and disappeared from the other side of the door.

“No!” I gasped.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Before I knew it, I was back in the lab room with Jennifer right next to me, frantically removing the Cadacus from off of me. The sterile whiteness of the room blinded me as she removed the headset from my eyes.

[47pictures]

“Sedona”

Road trips were always fun, even if I didn’t get to go on a lot of them. I was invited to tag along for a visit to Sedona, Arizona, along with three other people - my younger sister Janice (19), Kenneth (25), and Matt (27). I was 23-years-old and a recent college graduate. For now, there was a little free time while I applied and waited to hear back from several employers.

Kenneth and Matt were doing this for their new ‘horror’ podcast, where they covered a variety of creepy, unexplained stories and phenomena around the world. Typical things you’d expect from an amateur horror podcaster. Several of the listeners recommended they cover the topic of certain ‘hot spots’ or zones that seem to harbor paranormal and downright strange activity. So to suffice, they decided to pay the city of Sedona a visit themselves, since they were adventurous like that.

The area had a reputation for being what’s known as a ‘spiritual vortex,’ a zone where people seem to be at a sense of peace, calming, and thought to bring healing capabilities to whoever stands in it long enough.

So why use it as the topic of a horror podcast? Well, it’s also known to be the sightings of many UFOs and other paranormal events from time to time that can’t quite be explained. Supposedly, there are other ‘zones’ like this in the world. Skinwalker Ranch in Utah. Taos, New Mexico. Aokigahara forest in Japan. The Bermuda Triangle. They all have the same thing in common.

Energy. Lots of peculiar energy compared to the rest of the world. Matt and Kenneth, being the urban explorers that they were, wanted to nosedive right into the heart of Sedona’s vortexes. The main one we planned on hitting first was Bell Rock, a large butte with one helluva peak that gives a panoramic view to die for.

Usually, I’d say fuck no to things like this, but then Janice agreed to tag along. As a matter of fact, she agreed without hesitation, as she was more adventurous than I was, always getting into things, in both a good and bad way. She also got into more trouble than I did. It was just me and her growing up, and you can imagine how much blame I’d get for when something unfortunate would happen to her. She was 100-percent on board, and even wanted to hike some of the trails with the two guys while she insisted I could stay in the van if I wanted.

Nope.

I knew Kenneth and Matt well enough to assume they were good people, truly, but older sibling instincts refused to let her go by herself with two older men. Even if I was overthinking it, that just wasn’t something I could afford to risk.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I knew of van dwellers and people who’d put a lot of effort into making their home on wheels look and feel like an actual home, but damn, Matt and Kenneth weren’t playing around. It was a high-top conversion van with more room than you’d expect from the outside looking in.

They fit a couch, beanbag, tabletop and chair, computer, mini-fridge, sink, mini-oven, and stovetop all in such a compact yet roomy living space. It was also decorated with various stickers and posters, and the floral pattern curtains paired nicely with the brown wooden interior of the walls.

What really set the mood, though, were the strands of LED lights taped around the corners and along the walls, each circuit lit in a combination of colors ranging from red, blue, green, and yellow, making it look like Christmas.

Janice and I were inside the back, sorting through our things and getting settled in.

“I’m glad you decided to come along,” she mentioned.

“What, you thought I was just gonna let you go by yourself?” I remarked.

“You know I’m an adult now, right?”

“Yes, and you’re still naive.”

She rolled her eyes at me.

“Think about it, me leaving you with two grown men?” I added.

“Um, have you seen the two of them?” Janice retorted. “Like, I’m just saying, I think even you could take them by yourself. Hell, even Mama could.”

“That’s because Mama can actually fight.”

“I can fight,” she argued, sounding offended.

“Eh, you talk a good talk.”

She scoffed. “Whatever, you know I can scrap when I need to.”

“Suuure.”

She hit me on the shoulder, as I teasingly smiled.

Then Kenneth came into the back where we were.

“Got everything?” he asked both of us.

“Yeah, think so,” Janice said.

“Sorry there’s not another bed for you to sleep in, Joe,” he said to me.

“Oh that’s okay, Janice will be perfectly fine on the beanbag in the corner,” I dryly humored.

“Ha-ha,” she remarked.

In one hand, Kenneth held two walkie-talkies by their antennas and raised them.

“Brought some two-way radios, just ‘cause,” said. “In case we feel like playing around or testing other points at the summit and other spots.”

“Ooh, sounds fun,” Janice sounded pleased. She then took note of the thing in his other hand. “What’s that?”

“Oh, this?” Kenneth said, raising the device for us to see.

It was a small wooden contraption in the shape of a triangle and what looked like a gemstone tied to the end of a string.

“It’s a pendulum,” he noted.

“What’s it for?” she asked.

He then walked over to the tabletop and placed the pendulum on its legs to stand freely, as the gemstone now began to swivel left and right on a single axis from the string.

“Well,” he started, “They say when you’re near a site that’s full of paranormal or high amounts of energy, the pendulum’s supposed to swing nearer in that direction or whatever.”

“Who’s they?” Janice remarked.

Kenneth looked at her then shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said frankly.

Janice laughed amusedly.

“Apparently, that’s what it does,” Kenneth went on.

“What kind of rock is that?” she pointed.

“Oh, that’s amethyst. Supposedly it wards off bad spirits, so, you know, probably a good idea to have it around while we’re camping out there.”

“I thought the vortexes harbor good energy only?”

“They do, but, you never know.”

You never know…

“Oh that’s okay,” Janice said as she clasped her hands on my shoulder. “Joe here will protect us, because our grandmother said he’s special,” she said in a mocking tone and a big smile.

Janice then walked out of the van.

“O… kay,” Kenneth replied.

But I knew exactly what she was referring to.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We made a rest stop at a gas station seemingly in the middle of nowhere. No big-name shop like Shell or Texaco, but a compact blue wooden exterior structure with two gas pumps that look something straight out of the 70s. They did, however, have a good selection of snacks and drinks on par with a 7-Eleven.

Everyone used the restroom and got something of nourishment at the least. I decided to grab a water and head back to the van before everyone else so that I could light and smoke a cigarette (or ‘cancer stick,’ as Janice referred to them as). Soon after, Matt followed, while Janice and Kenneth were still in the station looking for something to buy, or probably laughing and bullshitting. Those two, I swear. They shouldn’t shut up the whole drive.

Matt and I sat along the edge at the back of the van with the door open. From where we parked, the view of a wide range of mountains and desert terrain was ethereal, something I wasn’t used to from North Florida.

“Those two are something, aren’t they?” Matt said as he cracked open his Red Bull.

“Hmm,” I scoffed, taking a hit of my cigarette.

“He is on the older tip, though, so…”

“I don’t care who she sees, if that’s what it is,” I responded. “Kenneth’s all right, I think.”

“No bad vibes from him?”

I shook my head. “Nope,” then took another hit.

“No bad vibes from me?”

I turned to him and glared into his eyes. The intention was to make him uncomfortable. My humor was dry like that. After a few seconds, I backed off.

“No,” I said.

Matt chuckled. “That’s good to know,” he said.

“At least I don’t think so.”

“Would you have tagged along if you thought otherwise?”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Janice tagged along, so I did.”

“And if she didn’t?”

“If she didn’t what?”

“If she didn’t decide to come along, would you have still?”

I took another hit from my cigarette, taking in and exhaling the menthol, thinking of how nicely to put this.

“Honestly, probably not,” I answered. It was really definitely not, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“At least you’re honest,” Matt noted.

I shook my head. “It’s nothing against you or Kenneth or your guys’ podcast. It’s just… I don’t like to play with energies like that.”

Matt furrowed his brow. “Energies?”

I nodded. “The vortex?”

“But it’s supposed to be peaceful. You know, a ‘positive’ energy.”

“Yeah, it may be peaceful for some, hell, even most. But for others… you just never know.”

Matt paused, tapping his foot on the ground, then took a sip of his drink. After a while, he spoke again.

“Have you had bad experiences before?” he asked.

I looked at him. “No,” I answered.

“You believe in… possession? Or being overtaken by another force?”

“I believe in protecting your aura. At all times. Like you would your own life.” Matt nodded with content. “My grandmother, before she passed, told me when I was younger that me and a few other people in the family had ‘the gift.’”

“The gift?” Matt said.

“Like a… not necessarily psychic or anything like that, but that me and the others were just more… sensitive to certain energies. Vibrational frequencies, they say.” I shrugged. “I don’t know how true it all actually is, though. I don’t believe in absolutes. Angels, demons, gods, divine intervention. But that grey area always tests my faith every now and then…”

Then I saw the look in Matt’s eyes. Maybe he was wary or maybe he was regretting me coming along. Wasn’t too sure.

“Does Janice have the gift, too?” he asked.

“My grandmother says no,” I answered. “Then again, she never seemed to take a liking to Janice, for whatever reason. She seemed to cherish me more. I’m not surprised Janice is the way she is.”

“How’s that?”

“Just… free-spirited. Unhinged. Spiritual. Into yoga. Trying to find an inner peace and being one with the universe. Stuff like that. I see it as a way of compensating for our grandmother’s indifference. Basically a ‘fuck you’ to her.”

“Wow. What do you think might happen if you get near the vortex?” he asked.

I slowly shook my head. “I have no idea.“

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We hit the road again. About another 4 hours before we’d make it to Bell Rock. Janice and I played cards for a bit, chit-chatted here and there, and Kenneth, Matt, and I rotated between taking turns driving the van.

Eventually, we made it to the first stop, and found a good spot to camp out not too far from Bell Rock, according to Matt. We decided to take a short hike around the area, take some pictures and vlogs, etc.

Sedona is in a league of its own, I thought to myself. It didn’t seem quite like the typical American city I was used to. It was akin to stepping on Mars. Rock, sand, mountains, complemented with patches of grass and cacti. It felt like I was in another world entirely.

As we walked, I took note of a tall saguaro cactus surrounded by other shorter cacti and flowers. I told Janice it’d be a nice backdrop for a photo shoot. I had the good camera while she just had her phone.

She stood next to the tall plant - taller than her - and she began to strike various silly and some very Instagram-worthy poses.

“I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. Photographer,” she played around.

“My, my, madame, you’ve gotten fat,” I teased in a heavy French accent.

“Oh please!”

She really wasn’t fat in the slightest, I just liked to mess with her from time to time. She definitely was in better shape than the rest of us. I couldn’t knock her for that.

As I snapped various pictures of her, taking different angles, poses, trying to get better lighting, I got down on one knee, pointing the lens at just the right angle, finding the perfect shot.

“That’s money right there,” I commented.

“Well shit, watcha waitin’ for?” Janice exclaimed, holding her smile.

But before I could snap the photo, a loud ringing noise emerged in both of my ears. It crescendoed, then lowered, then raised in volume again, a pulsating sort of sensation. Regardless, the sound was distracting and unusual. Were my ears ringing? Probably, but they never rang like this.

“Joe?” Janice said impatiently.

I lowered the camera, where she could now see my face was disgruntled.

“You okay?” she asked, concerned.

I stood up. “Do you hear that?” I said.

“Hear what?”

“That sound. That ringing.”

She looked puzzled. “No…”

I turned my head in every which way across the desert, unsure of what I would even be looking for until suddenly, it stopped. The ringing was gone, and it fell silent. Only thing I could hear was the slight breeze of wind.

“Are you fucking with me?” she said.

“What? No, why would I be?” I said, seriously. I messed with her a lot, but not like that. Never pranked her once in her entire life.

She chuckled and walked past me to catch up with the other two, patting me on the shoulder as she did so. “Never mind, ‘gifted one.’”

I stood there for a moment. I didn’t understand what the heck just happened, but decided to brush it off and keep on moving down the trail.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I don’t remember how long I’d been asleep, but I woke up and found myself alone in the van. It was nighttime outside. Worried, I quickly got up and looked outside the window to check and see if maybe they were in the front.

Nobody.

I went out and saw that we were parked atop a sandy hill. They’d set up a small camp of some sort with three pull-out chairs and a large mat laid flat, which I already knew was Janice’s yoga mat. In the distance, I saw the three of them down about 23 yards away walking towards a mountain top. Could that be it? The vortex? I thought I told this chick not to leave without me, especially once they started the hike.

I saw Janice turn back to look, and she noticed me.

“Joe!” she called to me. I shook my head. “Come on! We’re gonna take some videos of the vortex!”

I thought about it. Really thought about it. At this point, I just decided F it. Something told me that she’d be all right. After my many objections to Janice going by herself with the two, finally, my intuition spoke to me. My gut never lies, so I knew I could trust it. Only this one time, though.

"I’m good,” I declined. “Go on without me.”

“You sure, bro?” Kenneth asked.

“I’ll stay behind and watch the van.”

“Ah, no one’s gonna steal it.”

I cocked my brow. “You sure about that? It’s a nice van.”

“Nobody’s gonna steal that junk.”

Matt hit him on the shoulder. “Fuck you,” he said, and Kenneth laughed.

I turned and started walking back towards the van.

“Whatever,” Janice spoke. “But you’re coming to take pictures with me when the sun comes up, ya hear?”

I raised my hand and gave her a firm thumbs up.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I laid on the comfy bed in the van with my noise-canceling headphones over my ears as I listened to music. The inside Christmas lights kept the area illuminated. Through the window, the night sky bathed in stars of various different shapes. I recognized the Sagittarius constellation, just aside from Gemini, but couldn’t make out much more from this view.

Abruptly, my ears began to ring again. The same one from before. It grew louder in pitch the more I listened. So loud to the point where I couldn’t even hear the music anymore. I removed my headphones and scratched and rubbed against my ears, wincing at the sound. The noise wasn’t exactly painful, but grew noticeably more discomforting.

I got up to look around, to see if maybe there was a device inside that might be the source of the noise, but it was hard to tell the direction from which it came. I checked the walkie-talkie to see if that could be it, but pressing it to my ear, I still heard the sound radiating from elsewhere.

I stopped for a moment to listen, and when I did, I realized it wasn’t exactly a ring, but more in resemblance to a hum. Crossing the line between the stroke of a chord of an instrument… or the audible sound of something else entirely that I couldn’t decipher at the moment.

Just as suddenly as the humming initiated, it ceased at once. The van fell silent. Dead silent.

I stepped outside again, finding it unusual that the same volume from within the vehicle matched the desert. Pure silence. It was almost distracting to all five of my senses. My body was confused.

I saw the three of them in the distance still, nearing the vortex, about to reach the edge any minute now to begin their ascent.

I decided to sit in one of the foldout chairs in front of the van and light a 'cancer stick.’ I gazed at the night sky where I could now see the full layout of the celestial bodies above. Breathtaking, needless to say. Out here where there were no city lights, the entire display of stars and constellations were there for us to take in. If anything, this was worth the long trip.

The pendulum sat just beyond where myself and the other chairs stood, in place of where I figured a campfire should’ve been. I was surprised to see that it swiveled just barely left and right.

“Hmm,” I laughed internally, taking another drag from my cigarette.

As I sat and smoked, I noticed that not only was there no noise, but likewise, even so much as a tiny breeze was nonexistent. I had no sensation of the air around me, no feel for any particular temperature, neither hot nor cold, dry or damp. It was as if I were sitting in a vacuum. How was the pendulum moving, now that I think about it? Couldn’t do that without the wind, right?

I took note of the smoke as I exhaled, following its trail. Bizarrely, the smoke didn’t merely dissolve into the air, but shot in a clear pathway upwards in a stream, curving inward in the direction south of me. Yet still, I felt no wind blowing in that direction. No wind whatsoever.

The humming resumed. Thrown off, the hairs on my neck raised at the abrupt return.

I could hear it clearly and audibly as I did in the van like it was right next to me. I looked around again to see if there was any possible direction for the sound to be emitting from again, but it was still very hard to tell. It was so strange.

When I looked down at the pendulum again, I grew wide-eyed.

The crystal stopped swinging entirely, and instead was pulled completely in one direction, suspended in an impossibly still state. I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but I went over and kneeled to get a closer look, and saw that it did seem to be pulled at one clear angle, as though it were attracted to an invisible force - or a magnetic field of sorts.

I turned to face the direction the crystal was, which pointed directly to the van, and was taken aback by the lights inside. They each began to flash in a sequence that made it appear as though they were looping in a complete circle inside - a phi phenomenon. All of the colors - red, blue, yellow, green - alternated and moved down the line of each circuit one by one.

Could they do that? I hadn’t played with the settings or seen Matt show us any other sorts of tricks and sequences it could perform. Either way, how could they just do that by themselves? Did he set it from his phone? Impossible, I thought. They were way too far away for the Bluetooth to even work. Even still, it wouldn’t make sense for him to do so.

I turned to face the three in the distance again, seeing that they were now starting the climb up the rock. It was right then and there that I noticed something very particular about the structure as a whole. It had twin peaks at the summit, identical in shape, almost like cone pyramids, as the base took the form of a rocky pyramid. There also was hardly anything surrounding the vicinity. No grass, cacti, anything. Only barren desert and rock. Around where we parked and set up our camping site only lie a few remnants of any sort of vegetation. Then I knew…

We weren’t at Bell Rock at all. This was the wrong spot.

I looked back down at the pendulum, and to my shock, it was now pointed downwards at full rest. Not even swinging. I turned to face the van and saw that the lights were now completely off. My eyes narrowed. I put out my cigarette, dropping it to the ground and stomping out the bud.

Hopefully at least one of the walkie-talkies Kenneth brought was in the van. I opened the door to the back and entered, shutting it behind me. It was too dark now with the lights off, so I used my phone flashlight to search for it. Bingo, one was sitting on the table, and I grabbed and pressed the push-to-talk button.

“Janice, can you hear me?” I spoke.

I waited a moment for a response. Nothing. I pressed it again.

“Janice, can you hear me?” I said loudly and clearly.

A few moments passed. Then her voice sounded from the other end, readable but very staticky.

“What’s up, chickenbutt?” she said back.

I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I don’t think we’re at the right spot.”

“Whatcha mean?”

“I mean, I don’t think this is Bell Rock.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Just look at the peak. It’s nothing like it. It’s not even shaped like it.”

“But Joe, I feel it. Like, we haven’t even reached the top yet, but I swear, I feel its energy, Joe. It’s real. It’s… it’s alive. It’s beautiful.”

I’m sure there was no doubt about it. I’m glad that whatever energy she was taking in felt good on her end, but whatever energy that began to overtake what now surrounded the campsite didn’t match hers. It felt wrong. I knew something wasn’t right. Something felt off…

“We’ve been climbing and… so f… ar it’s… been… ve… er… y…”

She was breaking up badly, as more static overpowered her transmission. Were they too far? I don’t know, but the reach should’ve been well within good range from where we were from each other.

“Janice?” I transmitted.

No answer.

Screw this. I reached for my phone in my pocket and decided to just call her instead. I waited as it dialed, putting the phone on speaker. Lo and behold, I heard her phone ring from inside the van. She left it behind.

“Fucking idiot,” I muttered.

I hung up the phone and dialed for Matt, when suddenly another transmission came through the radio.

It wasn’t Janice’s voice.

Under a heavy load of static, the hum faintly emerged.

In the corner of my eye, further from me towards the sink, a single red light remained on. It was the only thing illuminated inside the van. Then it shut off, but was quickly replaced by the one next to it, giving the illusion that the light was moving. It did the same thing again, inching closer towards my direction, as though it had a life of its own. As it inched over, the hum grew more and more resonant, feeling closer.

The single red orb trailed down the string of circuits until eventually, it was right across from me from where I stood. The light remained for a moment, burning brightly as I locked eyes on it.

And just like that, the humming ceased again, and the light suddenly died, fading to black.

In the blink of an eye, red lights filled every circuit along the van, a crimson luminescence engulfing the interior around me. Startled, I quickly tried to push the button again to call the others, but a loud error beep kept emitting along with a red light on the radio, letting me know that someone else was currently using the channel. I heard nothing, though.

Then the lights rapidly strobed in quick bursts of terrifyingly disorienting red flashes, as the humming returned louder than before, like the unified chant of hundreds of people around me.

Panicked now, I darted out of there and stood at the edge of the hill, waving my arms to get the three’s attention.

“Janice!” I called.

Curious, I looked at the pendulum again, seeing that it was now swaying side-to-side in a frantic motion, going haywire.

I glanced at the three turning back to face my direction. I doubt we’d be able to hear exactly what the other was saying. From what I could make out, Janice pulled out her binoculars. As she did so, I began motioning with hand signals for them to call it off.

I then jumped at the sound of Janice’s bloodcurdling scream across the distance.

I turned to the van. The red lights continued to emit for a moment, only for all but two of them to remain. From where I stood, they were positioned in a way that looked as though it were two glaring eyes peering directly at me.

Fearful, I slowly stepped back, eyes still fixated on the ones now staring at me. The amplitude of the lights began to grow, and diagonal lines curved inward from the glare, like the deadly eyes of a viper. I knew I didn’t have astigmatism. What I was seeing was unreal.

Janice’s voice transmitted through the radio again, clearer more than ever this time.

“Joe! Just run! If you can hear me, just run!”

I wasn’t paying attention as I kept stepping away, as the incline became too steep from where I stepped off. Before I knew it, I tripped and started to fall backwards, rolling violently down the hill.

Once I’d managed to stop myself, I forced myself up and turned to look behind at the van again. Those eyes… they kept staring into my soul. They were captivating and enticing. But I knew that if I stood there, I probably wouldn’t make it…

I ran towards my sister and the other two, as I saw the three of them were now climbing back down and racing my way also. I ran faster than I ever had before. I don’t know what was back there or what energy was inside the van, but I refused to look again for another second as I kept running towards the three of them.

When I finally reached them, Janice ran to me and tightly hugged me, squeezing the air from my lungs.

“Thank you, God,” she cried. “Oh, thank you.”

“What the hell happened?” Kenneth said.

I shook my head frantically. “I-I don’t know.”

“Did you see something?” Matt asked Janice.

She didn’t answer either one of them. She instead kept hugging me tightly, relieved that I was okay. And to think I was more worried about her.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We decided that it was time to go, and hit the road again very shortly after. Janice and I just wanted to get the hell out of there, and undoubtedly, so did Matt and Kenneth after us causing such a commotion. We contemplated whether we should keep on going with the trip and try to make it to the real Bell Rock, but it was still undecided. At this point, we had enough adventure, and likewise, Matt and Kenneth enough spooks for their podcast for sure.

After some time on the road again, we’d both calmed down, and Janice finally let up the nerve to talk.

“You scared me back there,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be. I think you might’ve saved my life. I don’t know how, but I just feel it.”

Janice stirred, nervously rubbed her arm. It was what she always did when she was troubled by something.

“Why’d you scream?” I asked.

She grew fearful again. I didn’t know if she would even tell, her mouth opening, then closing, then opening again, until finally mustering the courage to speak.

“Back at the butte, when we were climbing and you called to me, I looked through the binoculars and saw something in the van behind you.”

Chills waved throughout my body.

“The lights kept alternating and moving in a weird circle in the van,” she continued. “Matt said that they were supposed to do that. They were all supposed to just stay whatever color they were. And then they turned solid red… and then I saw a figure in the van. Like, a silhouette of someone… or something. It was peaking back at you. Back at me, too, I think.”

“Jesus…” I muttered.

“The lights just blinked and then it was fucking gone. Whatever it was, it just disappeared. I know I’m not crazy, Joe. I know what I saw.”

I now realized the answer to Matt’s question earlier when I told him about my grandmother’s premonition about me, and as to whether Janice shared the same power that the others in the family also held. The answer was yes. She had the gift. I could only hear it, but she could see it. Whatever presence was near me in the van the whole time, she was fully conscious that it was there.

“I believe you,” I assured.

[47pictures]

“Abysmal”

Link to original r/nosleep post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/o4mdi8/my_husband_and_i_checked_into_a_new_underwater/

______________________________________________________________

My husband and I are the first guests to check into a new underwater suite with a full glass display. Yet, all of the fish are missing… but I don’t think we’re alone down here, either.

“No peeking still,” my husband nagged, his hands still over my eyes as he guided me.

“How can I peek with your hands literally over my face,” I remarked. He chuckled.

After what felt like forever with him making sure I didn’t bump into anything up to the mystery destination, my husband Jackson assured me that we were finally there. Thank the Lord…

“Alright, open up!” he said as he unveiled his hands from my face.

Now that we were here, I felt the rush of excitement again, and a shy yet exuberant grin grew over my face as I slowly opened my eyes. Once they opened, however, they widened tenfold at the sight before me.

“Whoa,” I exclaimed.

Jackson chuckled. “Soooo, did I pick out a good birthday gift or what?” he teased.

It was truly a sight to behold. An underwater luxury hotel suite, with all the delicacies and comfort a guest could dream of, encased entirely in an underwater tank with a view to die for at nearly every angle. Undoubtedly, it was a great birthday gift.

“Baby, this is amazing,” I spoke. I turned to look at him. “I-I was just kinda joking when I said bring me the ocean if you could, you know?”

He and the usher who led us to the room with our luggage exchanged laughs.

“You should know by now I take almost everything you say literally,” Jackson said as he stepped my way, towering over me by merely two inches.

“Mmm-hmm,” I uttered through my smile, and we both leaned in for a kiss.

The usher awkwardly rolled our luggage over to the king-sized bed (really, it looked even bigger than king-sized) and neatly set them to the side.

“Happy birthday,” Jackson said.

“Thanks, Babe,” I replied, as we both went in for another kiss. Poor usher, I thought. I know it must’ve been awkward for him right about now.

“Um, sorry to break the moment,” the gentleman timidly noted, “But if you two would like, the kitchen staff has prepared a lovely four-course lunch, which should be about ready in the next 30 to 40 minutes?”

“Oh,” I uttered.

“Nice,” Jackson followed. “What do you think?” he asked me.

I gave him a crazy look. “Shit yeah,” I replied under my breath, but quite loudly. I noticed the usher, “Oops, I mean-”, clearing my throat, “Yes, my husband and I would love to attend,” changing my whole demeanor.

Me and him both chuckled like idiot children. That’s simply how we were together. Like children. Though, when it was time to be adults, I was usually the parent in the relationship. He was a messy eater, I used proper dining etiquette. He needed a haircut, I did it for him. He got bruised up or injured doing god knows what, I fixed him up. He wants to travel to a random city over the weekend, I do all the planning (except this time, to my surprise).

Jackson was smart - very smart… but dumb at the same time. He was like a golden retriever. Had lots of energy and charisma, always the center of everyone else’s attention, yet, he couldn’t hold his own to save his life. Very all over the place. In a way, however, that’s what I find attractive about him. His zest for life and a childlike curiosity outlasting his years. I liked to have my fun as well, don’t get me wrong. But I was more Virgo-like in my ways, even though I’m a Pisces myself.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lunch was held in the hotel’s center aquarium, giving us a full view of the ocean around us. Glass surrounded us with a bright blue luminescence as the sun reflected light through the large sea.

We were presented with a lovely four-course meal of seafood selections. Both of us got the seafood chowder as a starter. I got spicy Caribbean shrimp and he got oysters for appetizers. For the entrees, I got a nice big baked salmon, and Jackson got a huge lobster tail with a side of melted butter and mashed potatoes. It was all delicious, needless to say, and to top it all off, we had carb-packed tall slices of strawberry cheesecake. I could barely get up from the table after we were done.

After congratulating the head chef for such a fine meal, Jackson shot the question.

“Where are all the fish?” he asked.

It was one of those things I didn’t even think to ask, yet it was so obvious. Where were the fish? I didn’t know we were coming here until just a while ago. Had I not seen any pictures from the brochures in our room, I’d think this place didn’t have any fish at all. It was a good question.

“Ah, the fish,” the chef said. “They’re usually out most of the day and usually at night, they’ll obviously be harder to see and go elsewhere. But today must be one of those days where they’ll just… sorta hide.”

“Hide?” I remarked.

“Yes,” the chef replied. “Mostly from predators, if they’re around. But that’s strange, there usually aren’t any around. There’s the sharks, but even still, nothing that’s a serious threat to make the others leave.”

“There’s sharks here?” Jackson asked in a tone that I couldn’t tell was either amazed or afraid.

“Oh yes, a couple of them will show up from time to time. No great whites, or hammerheads, or anything crazy of the sort, but yes, there are a few.”

“Hmm,” Jackson uttered.

“Well, hopefully they turn up soon,” I added. “We gotta get some pictures, right Babe?”

I nudged Jackson at his side, to which he didn’t noticeably return much of a reaction.

“Mm-hmm,” he noised passively.

Maybe he was starting to get a food coma, too, and needed to lay down. I know I did. We’d gotten back to the room and done exactly that.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a pleasant nap, I woke up to the magical view of the suite being illuminated with hidden LED lights outlining the bed, walls, and other pieces of large furniture. The room held a bright gold luminescence along with the now dark blue to almost pitch black abyss of the ocean. I wonder if that was something that could be turned off or it just stayed like that. Either way, I wasn’t complaining one bit.

Jackson woke up not too long after, and I barely saw him shuffle over to the bathroom in a hurry, as I was on my phone with my back turned. Was he sick?

“You all right, Babe?” I called to him.

“Yeah,” Jackson replied. “Had to piss.”

Oh, well that made sense. With that, I turned on camera mode for my phone, and began snapping random pictures, and was getting ready to do a panorama view. I had the lens set at one side of the room, starting at the edge of the first wide window, then began to drag across the room. I made it past the first window, then past the walls and door to the bathroom occupied by Jackson, then to the other side window, and was about to come around to the end of the last huge display behind me, until I noticed something through the lens.

I lowered my phone to get a look with my own eyes and saw that there was an enormous shadow of space outside the glass. It could’ve been the lack of sunlight reflecting down on that particular spot, but then I thought, was it really that dark already? It was only a half ‘til six, so it made sense for the water to be dark, but not that dark. The thing was, it stood out from the rest of the area like a sore thumb. You could still tell apart the ocean floor from other sections of the room, as well as the tiny rocks at the bottom. But over in this particular spot, it was near-total blackness. An abnormally large disquieting contrast in the area around it.

Maybe it was just a large rock structure. Like a fjord, maybe? No, those are like mountains or something, I think.

Then I heard the toilet flush. I waited for Jackson to come back out, but a couple of moments kept passing longer than expected. I was getting suspicious again.

“You sure you’re okay?” I called again.

“Yeah,” he answered.

It would make sense if he got sick from the food, perhaps. It was seafood, after all, and that among other recipes could have a tendency to make anyone’s stomach queasy if not properly prepared. But I didn’t have any issues so far. We ate nearly the same thing, as we picked from each other’s plates all the time.

I went ahead and gave him another minute, but as more time kept passing and I didn’t hear from him, I decided that was it.

“Hey, I gotta piss, too,” I announced, as I got up and started approaching the door.

No response. Then, a few seconds later, “Okay,” I heard him respond. Weird, I thought.

I slowly turned the knob and opened the door slowly, as not to budge right in. To my confusion, he wasn’t in the bathroom anymore at all. Huh?

“Jackson?” I called for him.

I looked across and saw that there was another door leading to a different room, or closet maybe? It was cracked open.

I went over and swung open the door to find a nice tidy compartmentalized space, the only room that wasn’t encased in glass, with Jackson loafing around. It had a nice window seat cushion that extended along the side of the walls of the entire room, and a circular window that simply showed the outside view of the ocean, which was also nearly pitch black as the shadow that cast over near the bedside window I’d a moment ago. Perhaps I was right. It was just large boulders or rocky structures blocking the light on those specific sides of the glass.

“You know this wouldn’t be a bad room to crash in,” he said, as he kept aimlessly searching around for something.

“I guess not?” I awkwardly replied.

“Could be a good place to do… other things, too, yeah?”

“It’s kind of a tight space, don’t you think?”

“We’ve managed with worse.”

“You know, there is a whole bed back there,” I said, pointing my finger to the door.

“Yeah…” Then his mind trailed off elsewhere before he looked at me again. “I’m done in the bathroom. You said you needed to go, right?”

I gave him a certain look. “I lied,” I answered. “You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he responded, but I knew when he was playing clueless.

“You’ve been acting kinda strange since lunch.”

“Oh?”

“I mean, we both know you’re strange as it is, but… earlier you seemed sort of all right, but now since the sun is starting to come down, I don’t even know.”

“True,” he said, still not actually paying attention as he was still searching around the room.

I was getting a little fed up. “What are you looking for?” I asked.

“Something to cover this window with,” he said. “Can we get seasick from this? You know, with us being underwater and everything?”

“… Maybe?”

“There’s nothing but towels and a bunch of useless crap in here - are there any like really big pillows out there in the bedroom?”

My gosh, he was acting strange. The obvious question came next.

“Why do you need to cover the window?” I asked.

“Because… I don’t want anyone spying on us,” he answered.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re underwater.”

“I noticed.”

“Who’s gonna spy on us? The fish? There aren’t any.”

“You don’t know, there might be people with submarines or something down here trying to capture a couple of lovebird guests having a good ole time down here to sell on the internet or who-knows-what.”

“Okay, one, I’m not fucking you in this room, and two, what is going on with you? You’re just acting so weird. What’s wrong?”

He looked around nervously, biting his lip like a child keeping a dirty little secret. Then, he finally fessed up.

“I have… thalassophobia,” he guiltily admitted.

“What?”

“Thalassophobia.”

“What’s that?”

“Fear of the ocean. Like deep water, all the shit that lurks in it, you know? Being stranded at sea, even. I’ve always been afraid of the water, babe. I tried to work on it, believe me, but nah. It’s just always been that one thing I can’t get over.”

I was dumbfounded. “Wh-” I started, trying to find where to even begin. “You have a fear of the ocean and you booked us an underwater hotel with literally a 360 view of open water?”

His face was red. “Yeah,” he muttered.

“Why?” I asked.

“‘Cause, it was for you. It wasn’t about me. I wanted you to be happy, and I wanted to get you something nice for your birthday, something I knew you’d love.”

It was one of the many sweetest things I’d ever heard him say that I almost forgot how dumb he initially sounded at this moment. I went over to him and gently cupped his face with both my hands, my back facing the window now and his facing the door.

“Okay,” I started, “Baby, you didn’t have to get me anything - though, I’m very grateful for all of this. And besides, I still don’t want you to be uncomfortable even if I’m not. We’re… you know, a marriage. A unity, or whatever. A team. I wouldn’t do something for you if I didn’t like it either.”

Jackson arched a brow.

“Okay, I didn’t mean for that to sound as bad as it did. Of course, I’d make sacrifices for you, too. But you get my point?”

Then I realized he wasn’t reacting to what I said at all, and was looking across the room past me towards the glass.

“The rock is gone,” he whispered.

“Hmm?” I uttered.

I turned to face where he was looking and saw what he meant. The black abyss of space beyond the glass was no longer there, and instead, we saw the faint blue glistening of the evening once again. Strange… it’d been black as night a moment ago, I thought. But Jackson said the same thing I was thinking. He, too, thought it was a rock.

I looked to him. “Tell you what, I’ll order us some drinks - you pick - and I’ll bring them back and we can just hang out here, okay?”

His face lit up with excitement again. “You don’t have to do that, Babe? Don’t let me ruin your b-day.”

“To me, it’s ruined if you’re not happy.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’d gotten room service to order us a tray of varied alcoholic beverages (only under his card, Jackson insisted). Champagne, Moscato, Grey Goose, and a few other cocktails, along with some crackers and cheeses to go along. We hung out together in the small enclosed room with our backs facing the window atop a fortress of pillows I pulled from the master bedroom and threw into the other room. I even fulfilled his request to cover the window with other stacks of pillows and whatever else I could find so he wouldn’t have to look outside.

We cuddled in the pillow fort we’d made and watched a movie on his phone. Any other person might view this as a complete downer to their vacation, but for me, I actually enjoyed every second of it. We never usually partook in high-end sort of living activities, even with me thoroughly planning and making sure we budget down to a T, so they usually ended in us doing things like this instead where we much preferred the comfort of doing things the unconventional way, such as sleeping in another room aside from the bed on a stack of pillows. Plus, it made Jackson feel better, and he was usually always braver than me. For once, I saw a true vulnerability in him.

“We’ve been to the pool and stuff together,” I said.

“Mm-hmm,” he replied. He drank way more than me. He’d answer anything at this point.

“You didn’t seem scared then.”

“The pool isn’t scary, the ocean is. Remember though, I couldn’t go past six feet?”

Then I thought about it. He was right. He never went too far to the deep end of any pools we got in.

“Huh,” I expressed. “I never noticed ‘til now.”

We kept on watching the movie for a couple more seconds before I had the urge to ask more questions.

“What about it scares you the most?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I mean, a lot of things. Like the thought of how deep it is… you never know what could be down there - here. The feeling of being surrounded by a vast bunch of endlessness, and being so small…” He shivered with chills. “Yeesh. Fuck that.”

“Yeah, when you put it that way, that does sound pretty scary.”

“Nah, you love it. You and the ocean have a pact.”

“What?” I smiled.

“Admit it, you would love to be a little mermaid just swimmin’ along in the abyss, waving at seamen - haha, seamen - passing by on their little boats and just having a grand time-”

“Oh shut up!” I laughed.

“-Just floating around with your long red hair collecting seashells singing, ‘Unda da sea!’-”

“Whatever!”

“-Unda da seaaaa!”

He was hysterical, and we were both having a good time. At least he was enjoying himself now.

I had to get up and use the bathroom again. After doing so, I decided to go get my phone that I’d left on the charger from the bed. But when I stepped into the room, it was nearly pitch black. I couldn’t see a damn thing.

What happened to the LED lights? Did they automatically turn off by themselves? It’d be weird if they did, though, because it wasn’t at our discretion to do it ourselves, and who’s to say we still needed the light or not?

I decided to use the bathroom light by swinging the door wide open to let the rest seep into the room and illuminate. Now, I could discern where everything was, if only faintly.

I went over to the bedside and pulled my phone from the USB. 100-percent battery life. Nice. While I was over there, I also turned on the lamplight perched next to me, and saw that it emitted a bright enough radiance to fill the entire corner of the bedroom. Might as well leave it on.

Then a thought occurred to me to check on the vast space I’d spotted earlier through the window. It would be directly in front of me. So I lifted my head to take a look, and to my stupidity, of course, it was indistinguishable now at this time of night. Some hours had passed since I last saw it, making the entire perspective a dark blue tint.

Though I loved the ocean and all the creatures that inhabited it, after hearing Jackson’s opposing view on the subject, in a weird sense, I was now starting to get what he meant. The vast darkness of the underwater. The endless abyss. I could imagine how terrifying it must be to swim in such a colossal space with no sense of direction, no other object in sight. No way out…

And what made it more frightening, I think, wasn’t that the water was pitch black. No, it was the fact that it was nearly complete darkness, but not entirely. You could observe the murkiness of the depths shift from light blue to an uncanny shaded indigo. Were the shadows underneath simply an indication of how far the light could reach from above? Or, could it be that something waited - patiently - down below?

Geez, I could have quite the imagination when I got to thinking too much by myself. I was even getting scared at my own thoughts. But if anything, I could now sympathize with my husband’s dread.

I turned to walk back to the bathroom door when another thought struck me, stopping me in my tracks. The rock Jackson and I noticed earlier, or at least what we thought was a rock… wasn’t it black? Like, entirely black. Black as night? And we both thought we were seeing things, where the rock had suddenly moved and we couldn’t identify it anymore through the window of the back room. It was hard to say if it was a bad memory or the alcohol, but I could swear…

I went over to the telephone next to the bed and decided to call room service again.

“Hello?” the female clerk on the other line answered.

“Hi, yes, I was just calling because I noticed the lights in our room aren’t working anymore. Not the main lights for the lamp and bathroom and stuff, but for LED lights, you know?”

“Oh, I see. Yes, there’s a switch on the wall right next to the thermostat where you can turn them on. It has a knob where you can adjust the brightness, and another one that lets you change the color to whichever one you’d like also.”

I shifted my eyes over to where she was referring to and found exactly what she meant. I could’ve found that if I bothered to look first.

“Oh, I see it now,” I laughed. “I guess I’ll check and make sure it’s on or off.”

“Okay,” the clerk responded, sounding pleased. “But that’s strange. They normally stay on unless of course, the guests decide to shut them off or when they automatically shut off at sunrise.”

“Hmm… maybe there was just a short power outage?” I suggested, though, it was probably unrealistic.

“Could be,” the clerk fancied. “But either way, hopefully you and your husband can enjoy the lovely moonlight from above as well.”

I was confused. “Moonlight?” I said.

“Yes. From where your room should be, it’s placed in the perfect spot for the moon to be seen from the top of the glass.”

“Really?” I replied, very puzzled. I looked up to see if I could maybe notice it through the top. “I don’t see any-”

At the sight I was now witnessing, I felt every bone, every muscle, every nerve in my body turn cold. There was something on top of the glass. Not just on top, but engulfing the entire tank. Above were faint details of what I could only imagine was its mouth. It was circular almost, with rows of what looked like razor-sharp teeth getting smaller at the center.

“Hello?” the clerk said on the other line.

I couldn’t move. A sensation more than just fear overcame me. I was petrified. At this moment, I never felt so small.

Then, the creature began to shift its entire body away from the glass, sending a near-seismic rumble throughout the suite. I dropped the phone onto the floor, and I followed suit as I got down, raising my arms as an instinctual reaction to try and shield me from whatever was about to happen next - as if that would do anything. I was in the presence of something further up the food chain than myself. Further up than any other predator that I knew that walked or swam the face of the earth.

As it released its grip from off the glass, shapes of monstrous tentacles began to flail about, leaving behind a powerful swooshing noise through the water, along with a resonant sound that the only way I could describe it as is something that couldn’t be replicated. Not on this planet. It was deafening, earth-shattering, like something from a different world.

MuuuUUUuuuuuh

MuUUUuuuUUUUUUUuuh

It was so alien-like. It seemed to be coming from the thing itself. So powerful, even more so than the call of a blue whale or the roar of an earthquake. It was truly one of the loudest sounds I’d ever heard.

Suddenly, pure blackness no longer surrounded the view, as shades of the natural lighting of the ocean floor began to form again, and instantaneously, a white glow emitted from the glass ceiling. There it was. The moon. It had been there the whole time… and so had this thing.

As the creature rose higher away from my view, I was starting to get an even better look at its size. I still couldn’t even grasp its entire shape. It was huge. A behemoth of an unknown force lurking down here, waiting to be discovered.

I was amazed, astonished even, but not in a positive manner. The same sensation kept overtaking me as I began to curl up into a ball next to the bed. The sensation that I’d never felt so small…

I planned on staying there and hiding under the bed until it was gone. Then I’d be safe. But Jackson…

I got up and immediately ran towards the bathroom and over into the other room, shutting the door behind me. He was still lying against the pillows watching the movie on his phone, not noticing a thing about what lies beyond the glass. I couldn’t have been the only one to hear it, I thought.

“Baby,” I panicked.

He looked at me, concerned. “What’s wrong?” he asked. I guess he didn’t hear what I did after all.

But I couldn’t tell him, I thought. I was already scared as it was, but telling him might be catastrophic, and he’d never want to leave this room.

“I-I…” I stammered. “… I saw something.”

It just came out. What was I supposed to do, lie?

“What?” he said, now growing nervous as I was. Fuck, why did I do that?

“Th-There was something outside the glass, um…” Then I realized, I hadn’t told him the whole truth. “A shark or something. Like, a big shark.”

Jackson arched his brow, like he always did when he thought I was crazy.

“Are you pranking me?” he asked, his whole demeanor changing from worried to a perky suspicion.

I was dumbfounded. “Huh?” I said, still in a state of clear panic.

“I thought you loved sharks? Go play with your new friend,” he joked.

Without a doubt, the alcohol took the edge off of him from earlier, but he had no idea just how serious I was. Maybe that was a good thing, but right now, I needed both of us to leave this room asap.

I kneeled in front of him, looking him in the eye.

“Listen, I don’t wanna be in here right now. I’m getting… claustrophobic,” I lied. “Let’s just go to one of the lounges and hang out there for a bit where there’s no open water outside to look at, okay?”

He still wasn’t buying it. I’d be skeptical, too, if I were him. I never expressed fear of any sort in regards to the ocean. Even all the scary creatures he feared that swam in the sea, I took a liking to. But not that thing. Not that thing that waited outside…

“Your acting never fails to impress me, dear-

“Jackson!” I snapped.

He turned straight-faced again. I never snapped at him like that before. He knew I was serious this time.

“You’re serious,” he said. I nodded.

“Just put on your pants and let’s go,” I insisted. “I-I’ll cover your eyes so you don’t have to see out there when we cross the room.”

“Okay…”

He got up and started to put his hands on.

“By the way,” he started, “Did you hear something a minute ago? Or was it just the movie?”

“Hear what?” I asked, a noticeable fear in my voice.

“Well I don’t know, I thought I heard something, like a loud rumbling noise. Thought it came from the movie, but then I was like, there’s no way, because-”

MuUUUuuuUUUUUUUuuh

We both felt it rumble down in our feet and up to our rib cage, and stared at each other for a moment. Aware of precisely the same thing now, Jackson whispered under his breath, “Honey… what was that?”

Suddenly, the rumble sounded again, and was followed by both of us losing balance on both of our feet, and we both began to stumble. We both struggled to hold on to each other while simultaneously trying to grab onto the wall for support. Jackson managed to clutch one of the beams sitting atop the wall, and his strength alone was enough to hold both of us. I held onto him for dear life as the suite kept violently shaking.

His back was to the window as my arms hooked around him for balance. But I could see ahead that the barricade of pillows we’d put up on the window had now fallen, leaving the glass open for a full display of the outside. And to my confusion, I couldn’t see anything beyond it. It wasn’t a dark blue or black tint this time, but instead, a bright yellowish shade that now covered the window.

The rumbling had now stopped, and it was quiet as a mouse.

“You okay?” Jackson asked.

I didn’t say anything. I was too fixated on the window. Why was it that color? It’s like we shifted into a different environment altogether. Like a whole new backdrop.

“What the hell?” I muttered.

“Hmm?”

He turned to what I was perceiving and shared the same confusion. It was a strange sight indeed. Then we saw a black circle shift from nowhere and down into different corners of the circular window. The direction of the circle bounced randomly from corner to corner as if it were a corrupted game of Pong, until finally sitting dead center on the glass, facing us.

I felt a sick sensation in my gut, and Jackson’s jaw dropped in terror at the realization of what we were now both seeing. It was an eye… and it saw us.

MuUUUuuuUUUUUUUuuh

The sound rumbled the whole area again.

“Go, go!” Jackson shouted, trying to lead us both out of the room, and we did just that.

We’d crossed into the bathroom when the lights cut off. There was darkness again. We were blind to the lack of light as we both tripped into each other, him almost knocking me down completely. I grabbed onto what I could only guess was the sink as Jackson quickly grabbed me to keep me from falling.

“You all right?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“What the hell is that thing?” His voice trembled.

“I don’t know,” I cried.

We needed to get ahead into the room and out into the main lobby and let someone know what was going on. But the lamp I’d left on in the bedroom ahead was out, too. Otherwise, there’d be some lighted path for us to distinguish. It was pure darkness. The only faint light, if any, came from the dark hue of the water surrounding us.

I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight to lead us.

“C’mon,” I demanded.

Jackson followed closely behind with his arms still over me for protection. Though, I’m sure it was more for him than it was for me. I could only imagine…

We raced through the bedroom and for the door in a matter of seconds. But in that time, we caught a glimpse of the outside. It was a nightmare. Just an endless void of murky dark water that appeared to stretch for an eternity. We were two small, meaningless creatures in the center of the vast universe.

When we got to the door, I turned the knob and pulled back without hesitation, as Jackson reached over and helped by yanking it back into the wall, and we both hauled ass out of there. In the halls, the lights were out as well. No source of illumination anywhere except the faint moonlight protruding the ocean’s horizon. Like the suite, the halls were made entirely of glass like a giant walkthrough tube to behold the ocean life exterior.

“Which way is it?” I anxiously asked.

“Here,” Jackson said, pointing down to the left corridor.

He and I made our way down the halls, but slowly this time. Something outside caught our eye. Indescribable. Countless dark silhouettes of fish. Hundreds of them. The ones that had been gone earlier were now all here for us to see beyond the glass. However, something was wrong.

The way in which they swam didn’t align in a fluid horizontal motion. Some of their bodies were positioned diagonally, vertically, and in a strange sense, seemed to be floating rather than swimming…

Then the realization hit me. They weren’t swimming at all. They were dead. Lifelessly drifting in the water down to us.

“Jesus,” Jackson gasped.

“L-let’s just keep moving,” I said, trying to be brave.

Then to our left, the creature emerged from below, its massive tentacles and fins rising into view, its bright yellow eyes glaring into us. The hall began to shake as the earth-shattering rumble sounded throughout the structure.

Without hesitation, the two of us raced down the hall to reach the next corridor that would eventually get us to the lobby. We just needed to make it. Where that thing could no longer see us.

All throughout the long glass tube, it followed from the outside. But not like a predator chasing its prey, but in an unsettlingly forbearing nature, as if it knows its place in the animal kingdom hierarchy. We were no challenge for it. It wanted to taunt us. It knew…

We’d managed to run down to the lobby and thankfully, one of the clerks was still there at the counter, likely the one I’d spoken to earlier on the phone. The woman saw us in our state of panic and immediately stood up to ask what was the matter. We told her of the creature that was terrorizing us, to which she was understandably struck by. We even told her about the fish we’d seen that were now regurgitated from the monster. It was hard to say if she bought our story or not, but based on her facial expressions, she innately knew we were dead serious.

The two of us refused to spend another night in that room. We asked if there were any other rooms available that didn’t involve windows of any sort, or better yet, any that were at the surface, but truly, Jackson and I both wanted to get the hell out of this place.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A couple of hotel staff offered to take our belongings out of the room and personally hand them over to us in the main lobby, as the clerk informed us that there was a vacancy in the only other room available at the top above the water, on top of the fact that neither one of us agreed to enter that hellish fishbowl again.

In our new more relaxing suite on the surface of the land, it’d taken a while for either one of us to fall back asleep. Jackson, in the shock of it all and for good reason, had taken it harder than me. I lied there with him in bed and stayed until he felt comfortable to drift off.

At some point in the night, I’d got up to peer out the window, which gave a view of the ocean’s horizon under the full moon. Any other day, I’d find the sight to be an ethereal beauty, not one to literally die for. What was supposed to have been a beautiful day for the two of us, at the expense of Jackson going out of his way to try and make me happy, was now ruined by the untethered force of nature that resided beneath.

I began to quietly sob, as not to wake Jackson from his slumber, my vision becoming blurred from the muddiness of tears.

But as I looked down again at the ocean below, I could sense that somewhere in my line of sight, it waited. And with a startling revelation that haunted me from when we first looked the creature in its eye, there was an undeniable fact that it knew.

It knew…

[47pictures]

“All-Star”

Link to original r/nosleep post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/mv9j9a/for_my_blog_i_toured_a_movie_studio_to_find_the/

________________________________________________________________

I finally made it to Hollywood… at least, I suppose that’s what I’d say if I were trying to make it big. That wasn’t exactly the case, though. On the contrary, my old hometown friend was the one who I’d say ‘made it big,' and she was the only reason I managed to get there. No way in hell I could just stroll through these Hollywood gates without some sort of reputation associated with my name.

I’m currently pursuing a degree in journalism, and right now I’ve got a pretty successful status as a blogger, and hopefully podcaster in the near future. My topics typically cover things involving entertainment, specifically movies, television, some celebrity gossip here-and-there, the ins and outs of the film and occasionally music industry, nerd topics about comic books or comic book movies, and I could go on. Essentially, all the things you’d expect from an entertainment blogger.

I don’t have a secret or special tip for how I grew a mass following. It just sort of happened. I did it since I was in high school - sophomore year, to be exact, and it started mainly as a hobby. Most people are surprised to hear that I was such a good writer and articulate for my age when they look back on the articles I’d put up during that time, speaking on topics such as the ‘downfall of blockbuster films,’ and the ‘toxicity of media's body standards on the youth.’ Truthfully, I didn’t know all of what I was saying half the time. Writing was sort of just my natural gift that I honed to where I could essentially bullshit anything well enough to make a great story. However, being ethical always remained my moral code.

The topic I was covering now involved my own personal ‘investigation’ of a famous movie studio known as Gemini Films. They’ve put out several flicks now that have garnered what most would consider moderate success (they're no Warner Bros. or Paramount, that's for sure). They deal mostly in the thriller/horror genre, sort of like Blumhouse. I’m a bit more in the sci-fi, comedy realm when it comes to my tastes, but really, I’m a bit of a pussy when it comes to scary stuff.

So why am I 'investigating' them? Well, as it turns out, it's their amazing use of special effects. Yep, that’s it. Special effects, that thing we fell for as children we called ‘movie magic,' and growing up learned that some of it were all the crafty work of well-put CGI. Though that’s usually the case, this time, something about Gemini Films seemed different. They’ve always been praised for their ‘hyperrealistic’ visual effects and pulling off stunts that would otherwise seem impossible. I was watching one of their action/horror films titled Last Thorn, and in a particular scene, a character’s on-screen death is, well, very lightly put, gruesome. I’ve seen my share of on-screen gore and played plenty of Mortal Kombat growing up, but I gotta say, I found the scene hard to watch. To clarify, it involved a character literally exploding before the camera, and from the way it was shot and the lack of cuts and edits typically required to create the illusion of a scene, it seemed quite real. A little too real…

They’ve done other things aside from their special effects department that some people on internet discussion forums found a bit too impressive. Take the actors, for instance. In their dramatic scenes, especially the horror flicks, I’m almost always convinced that the actors are actually going to die on screen. I’m surprised all of them haven’t been given Oscars yet, ‘cause goddamn, you’d think the director was holding them at gunpoint. We all saw just how amazing the acting was in films like Hereditary and The Babadook were, but I gotta say, after watching these films, they make those two look like child’s play (no pun intended to the Chucky series). I was so impressed with the actors that I had to look them up and see what other work they’d done, but from what I did find, their resumes didn’t seem that much greater than the work they’d done for GF. It was almost as if that was the peak of their careers unless they decided to further their contracts to star in any more of their movies. Anything else they did pale in comparison that showcased their acting chops.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jamie Douglas.

It had somewhat of household name potential, I thought. She was the next rising star. She’d just won a Golden Globe for her leading role in a TV series I’m sure no one had high hopes for in the beginning, and her name was now attached to an Academy Award-winning film for Best Original Screenplay, all at the age of 22. Her acting was stellar, always had been even growing up back in high school when we did theater together. I was never for the acting side of things; I always preferred the technical realm and behind-the-scenes work. She, however, had the ‘it’ factor. I never once doubted that she’d be famous. It was destined for her.

The taxi driver dropped me off in front of a luxurious one-story home in the Beverly Hills neighborhood, surrounded by other similar houses with a property value larger than what I’d probably make in my lifetime if I was being honest. From the outside, her home reminded me of that gilded, golden age of Hollywood back in the 60s, with a slanted roof and art deco-styled exaggerated features. It was nice and simple. But that’s how Jamie was. Nice and simple.

I could see her peeking through the curtains of her window before she came running out the door to meet me in the front yard. That big beautiful smile and those joyous eyes came rushing at me with open arms.

“Christian!” she screamed my name with excitement, as she gave me a big, suffocating hug.

I hugged her back with my free arm, as my other one was still carrying my trolley bag and she had that one pinned in her grip.

“I’m so glad you made it,” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, I made it to Hollywood, right?” I dryly humored.

Jamie giggled as she began to pull back from her hug and put both her hands on my shoulders.

“Yes we did,” she said with a big smile, flashing her perfectly straight, white teeth. “We sure did.”

She led me inside the house and gave me a tour. Compared to the outside, the inside was the complete opposite in regards to the decorative era. Whereas the exterior was ‘groovy’, the inside was a bit more with the times. Wide-open spaces, tan or beige-colored furniture and walls, a wide sliding door for the backyard where you can see the pool. Jamie recently moved into the house, so I figured there wouldn’t be a lot of things to fill it up with just yet.

“Someone said Bette Davis used to live in this house, which I knew was bullshit, otherwise the value on this home woulda been way outta my league,” Jamie commented.

I chuckled. “Oh, I think you’re well on your way, trust me,” I reassured.

I was going to be staying with her for a week while I did my journaling/blogging. We did tons of catching up. She gave me all the inside scoop of what goes on in Hollywood - or ‘Hollyweird’ as I liked to call it - and even some of her other famous neighbors you might recognize living double lives on the down-low. She said she’d been to a couple of big mansion parties as well, where you’ll see all sorts of celebs from different categories of entertainment. Actors, athletes, musicians, models, influencers, you name it. But Jamie insists that she doesn’t attend those very often, if hardly at all. She prefers to be a homebody when she’s not seeking work through her agent, and her extraversion mostly comes to play when it involves networking.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The rest of the night we stayed up watching TV and YouTube videos. One that fascinated both of us was a video explaining how scientists managed to find a way to make a perfectly cooked steak from a cow, but without actually harming or slaughtering it. Instead, they extracted a small sample of the cow’s cells and took it to a lab where the cells would essentially grow into muscle for it to be cooked later.

“I’d consider that over going vegan,” Jamie said.

But I grimaced at the thought. “I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem right,” I remarked.

"What, are you vegan?"

"No, not that. Just the thought of cloning animals, ya know?"

“I mean, it’s not like they’re killing the cow or anything. They said it’s perfectly unharmed.”

“I know, but still…”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning was day one for me. Jamie had the right connections to get me an on-set tour of the studio lots associated with Gemini Films. I was greeted and led by the third assistant director (or AD as they’re commonly referred to).

“Hi, I’m Tiffany, nice to meet you,” she said, with a rather forced smile and handshake.

She carried a clipboard in her other arm, as well as a hand-held radio clipped to the pocket of her jeans, and I saw that she also had an earpiece nestled in her right ear. I could tell she was about her business and probably didn’t have time to be overly nice or talk too much.

I got a sneak peek of their most current production under the production title *"*Cold Silence", which required me to sign an NDA beforehand, of course. That wasn't actually their final name for the movie, but it's a common thing for them to do when shooting a film when either they haven't decided on a name yet or to keep the nature of the project a secret. It sort of took me back to my theater tech days with all the set designs and props lying around, except these were much more detailed and intricate thanks to their higher budget than what my high school had at the time. Here, there was limitless potential. Tiffany also introduced me to the other ADs, PAs, boom operators, cameramen, make-up artists, and then last but certainly not least, the director.

“Jeffrey?” Tiffany called to the man sitting in the director’s chair. The man turned to face her and then me. “This is Christian Watkins. He’s the man we’re giving a behind-the-scenes scoop for his… blog?” She looked to me for confirmation, to which I nodded. “Yeah, for his blog.”

The man in the big chair stood up with a cool smile and classy charm and extended his hand for me to shake.

“Christian, nice to meet you,” the man spoke in a tenor pitch. “Jeffrey Bachmann,” he introduced himself.

I didn’t take too much time last night trying to read up on his bio, but from what I could tell at first glance I knew that he was about in his mid to late fifties, as his hair was greying and skin was starting to wrinkle, and I could see that he had a surprisingly calm and laid-back demeanor. Surprising to me, at least. I always thought directing was a high-paced, chaotic mess that never ceased to present a myriad of complications onset that’d make any man want to pull their hair out. But Jeffrey seemed calm, collected, and very personable.

“Hi, thank you for having me,” I replied. “Seriously, this is like a really cool opportunity for me and my blog.”

“Hey man, it’s my pleasure,” Jeffrey said. “I heard you got a big following behind your name. Props to you. I respect the work ethic, especially giving your readers what they really want to see, ya know?”

I shrugged modestly. “Well thank you, but this time was mostly in my own interest to seek out this idea for my current blog,” I said.

“Ah, an interest in GF, huh?” Jeffrey replied. “Well, what would you like to know? We’ve got nothing but time today. In fact, we’re just getting ready to shoot the mangle scene for today and then we’ll wrap it up before we review the dailies.”

“Mangle scene?”

“Oh yeah, if you’ve got a weak stomach or aren’t into gore you don’t have to watch.”

At least he gave me discretion. “Hmm, I think I’ll tough this one out,” I said. “For the blog.”

Jeffrey gave me a sincere but slightly unsettling grin. “That’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.”

He was a nice guy so far, but you know how you just meet certain people that for whatever reason, out of their control, their aura seems off? Maybe it was my preconceived notion and warranted cynicism I had of people working in Hollywood. Just a bunch of sharks in a pool with hungry eyes for desperate young talents eager to take a dive in the spotlight. But as I’d imagine with any field, there had to be a decent share of lambs among the many wolves.

Suddenly, one of the makeup artists scampered over to us, their attention directly at Jeffrey.

“Hey,” they said to him with a noticeably fake inflection.

“Hey, what's up?” Jeffrey returned.

“Savannah? She’s losing it back there. Said she wants to talk to you and only you.”

Jeffrey nodded. “Don’t worry, I got it,” he said, as he patted his hand on the MUAs shoulder. He then gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Christian, duty calls, but hey, Tiffany?” he looked to the stern AD. “Make sure he gets a front-row view for the martini shot.”

“Yes sir,” Tiffany replied.

Jeffrey and the MUA stepped off to handle whatever business needed handling regarding one of the actresses backstage in the dressing room.

“Martini shot?” I asked.

“Last shot for the day,” Tiffany explained. “For me, that’s a term I like to take literally.”

She seemed so serious all this time that I found the joke almost funny.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There was now quiet on the set. Shooting was about to start shortly. At this point in the movie, the main character has a stand-off that turns into a big fight scene with the main bad guy at a warehouse factory building. At first, there’s a gunfight, then eventually they both run out of ammo and it comes down to a fistfight before finally having a standstill on top of a rail just over a giant industrial shredder.

Right now, the actor playing the bad guy, Will, is hanging on for his life over the rail above the shredder, while Thomas, the main good guy, is standing over him victoriously. My question was, is the shredder real? ‘Cause it sure as hell looks like it. It wasn’t turned on yet, but just from a glance it seemed legit enough that if I dropped something as sturdy as a microwave in there, it’d come out jelly on the other end.

For the blog, I told myself. For the blog…

Suddenly, my suspicions were confirmed once Jeffrey called to have the shredder turned on. The machine roared to life, the inverting sharp metal gears rotating past each other being a black hole eating everything that passes through it with no escape. Holy shit. It was actually fucking real.

Jeffrey gave the nod to the 1st AD, and the AD returned the same.

“Action!” the AD called.

Based on what Jeffrey showed me from the script, Thomas is supposed to stomp on Will’s hand that’s gripping onto the edge of the rail, causing him to fall to his death into the shredder. The camera was now rolling, yet, I didn’t see Thomas do the deed. Was he pausing for dramatic effect? Was he acting for the camera? I wasn’t quite sure why he was hesitating.

I peaked over to notice that Jeffrey, the once calm and collected man I met backstage earlier, was now beginning to seem noticeably impatient and about to snap at any moment. There was now that dark edge I noticed about him from before but couldn’t quite put a finger on that I could see now coming to light.

Hesitation filled Thomas’ veins, about to raise his foot, then not, dragging on the scene longer than intended. From this distance, I tried to see Will’s own expression, and I regret ever doing so. Surely he was acting, but I’ll be damned, it was too good. Whatever fear he portrayed transmuted itself into me now. It was the kind of fear that I didn’t think could be replicated on command. Jeffrey stood up from his seat, but just before he could say anything or call ‘cut’, Thomas stomped his foot down on Will’s hand, and we all watched as his fingers slip from the railing. Will sent out a bloodcurdling scream as he plummeted to his ‘death’. What followed will haunt me forever.

Do you know what it sounds like to have a person’s body mangled to death? Have you bitten into the bone of any sort of meat? Heard and felt the crunch? Or maybe even the crunch of celery? I myself have never broken a single bone in my body, but imagining what it might sound like other than what I’d heard in movies or video games all seemed elementary now. At first, I had to look away, but what forced me out of my seat to leave was Will’s horrifying screams. He’d fallen feet first into the shredder, so his lower body had to suffer first before reaching his upper body and finally silencing him at the head.

I ran to find the nearest trashcan and hurled. I guess I really didn’t have the stomach for gore, at least, not to this degree. Will’s screams kept looping in my head. It was a new primal sound that evoked a dread within me that I wish I never discovered. The sound of torment. One thing was for sure, Will was one fucking hell of an actor - if this was acting. But the shredder…

It seemed so real. And there was no greenscreen besides the ones to be used for the background later in post-production. I saw him fall right into the damn thing. With my own eyes. In living color. There were no edits, no crazy tricks, no lighting effects. There couldn’t be. It just wasn’t possible.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was sitting down trying to recuperate, as everyone else around me was wrapping up set for the day. Tiffany came over and handed me a bottle of water.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it.

“You feelin’ better?” she asked.

“Hmm,” I answered with a scoff, raising both my eyebrows and taking a sip from the bottle.

“I’m surprised you stuck around if you had such a weak stomach. I mean, he at least warned you.”

“I usually don’t. But that?” I shook my head. “How do you guys do it? It looked so real.”

“I’m just pulling your leg. I almost vomited too my first time. Nothing to be embarrassed about.”

If it was a shame to flinch at something so vile, I don’t wanna know what goes on in Jeffrey’s mind to even come up with such a scene. Speaking of which, I still didn’t get a one-on-one interview with him as I’d hoped. All I had was the end result of his ‘movie magic’, but not how he did it. At this point, I'm not sure I really wanna know.

I went to go get my belongings, which were left in one of the dressing rooms, and was stopped by the sound sniffling from the one a couple doors ahead of mine. I looked on the door to read whose room it belonged to. It read: SAVANNAH YOUNG. She was one of the lead actresses in the movie, or rather I should say the only actress in the whole film. With the makeup artist and Jeffrey thing that happened earlier, it was evident to me that something sour had gone on behind the scenes I didn’t know about.

The door was cracked open and I couldn’t see her face entirely from my view, but I knew she was sobbing. She looked to be sitting in front of her mirror. I was about to just ignore it and go on about my business.

I lightly knocked on the door. “You okay in there?” I asked.

She stopped and I could hear her get up and approach the door. She pulled it back just enough to where I could see her whole face. She was beautiful, just like Jamie, even if she had been crying.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Savannah said. “Thank you.”

There was a brief awkward moment of silence between us. Clearly, she wasn’t fine, but I didn’t wish to pry any further than that.

“Are you one of the new PAs?” she asked. I arched a brow. “Production assistant?” she clarified.

“Oh, no, I’m just a visitor,” I assured. “Writing for my blog. I was supposed to be writing about behind-the-scenes things and how it all works around here, but I bitched out from the ‘mangling scene’.”

Savannah gave a short nod. “I see,” she said. “Well… I don’t blame you.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the way she said it or just from the state that I was in, but her words gave me chills.

“I should get going,” I told her. “Nice meeting you.”

“Likewise,” she replied, and then shut the door.

I got my stuff from the dressing room and got ready to head out. I wonder what could’ve made Savannah so down to where the director had to get involved and set her straight. Jeffrey seemed pleasant to work with at first glance, but who knows, maybe he had a mean streak to him after all, especially the way he looked during the shooting of the scene. God, I just wanted to forget about it. I can’t unhear the sounds. The bones crunching, the blood splattering, and the screaming. The fucking screaming…

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As I was leaving the studio lot, I noticed the cleaning crew of two men dump a large amount of black bags in the dumpster. From the way they swung the bags over into the bin, the shit didn’t seem light. The bags were in several different sizes, some small, some big, some disproportionate. I stood there and watched as the two men finished disposing of the junk and walked away to go about their other duties.

Regular, common sense me would’ve just picked up the phone, called Jamie to let her know I’m ready to get picked up, and go about my day. But the nosy blogger me kept itching…

I made sure the coast was clear and made my way over to the bin. I can’t believe I was actually dumpster diving, and for what? What did I really expect to find? In my head, I knew the answer, but was avoiding it, either out of how ridiculous it may sound or, God forbid, I was right.

The trash wasn’t stacked high enough from the bottom for me to simply reach, so I had to literally get in there myself. I climbed over on the other end, raised the lid, and jumped down on the piles of plastic bags, holding the lid up with my arm and my breath so I didn’t get a huge whiff of the smell. Though, if I did need to puke again, I supposed this would be the place to do it.

I immediately noticed the bags the men threw away, but in order for me to check what was inside, I’d have to crouch down and let the lid close on me. Fine. That’s what the flashlight on my phone was for. Surrounded in darkness and garbage now, I turned the flash on, illuminating the four dirty walls around me and I pulled back one of the bags. I felt around to try and see what sort of contents might be inside. Mush. It felt all mushy with chunks of solid and a little bit of liquid.

This was stupid, I thought. I realized how stupid I probably looked right then and there, sitting in a bin full of filth looking for clues like some sort of private detective. My followers have no idea how far I’d go, but this was ridiculous. Oh well, I’m too deep in it now, no pun intended.

I held my phone in my mouth as I used my hands to rip open the plastic. My heart began pounding as I slowly pried the bag open. Once I got a peek inside, shame and embarrassment came over me.

Food.

I should’ve just called Jamie to come get me. Had I really become that desperate? I threw the bag over and out of my way. Then I noticed the bag underneath had trickles of fluid. Curious, I shined the light down on it. They were red trickles. Considering how I’d just overreacted only to find a bag full of thrown out lunch, I wasn’t about to get all up in arms about finding red drops behind a Hollywood studio lot. I didn’t know the full recipe for fake blood, but if I recall correctly, Alfred Hitchcock used chocolate when they filmed the shower scene from Psycho.

I tried to follow the small trail and see if it led to another bag. I slowly pointed the light further up and it led me to the bag just behind the one I tossed to the side. Looks like it had a small bust that caused it to leak. When I pulled this one over, a very noticeable smell filled my nostrils and erased any other scent of the trash that surrounded me. It was a metallic, rusty sort of odor, like copper from a penny. However, that smell also belonged to something else…

I ripped open the bag, and with the shine of my light beaming down, I was welcomed to a bright crimson sight of mashed blood and guts. It had to be fake, I thought. It had to… but the way I recoiled from the putrid metallic fresh scent of carnage, my primal instincts told me that wasn’t the case. I innately knew that it was real. I was staring at Will’s mangled body.

Frozen from fear, I sat there for who-knows-how-long. What the fuck was I supposed to do? I’d call the cops first, of course, but they would need evidence, and even then they’d probably dismiss me after I told them I dove into the dumpster of a movie set where fake blood is a common prop. I’d tell Jamie the same, but she’d look at me crazy, too.

I unlocked my phone and started snapping pictures. As much as I could. I even opened some other bags and did the same. I tried to snap every bit of remains that was left of Will and saved them into my phone. It felt like a sick test to see how long I could hold my breath so I wouldn’t gag, and I think I broke a new record that day.

I snapped probably about 47 pictures on my phone before I finally shot up and threw open the bin. The wave of fresh air hit me like a truck, and enjoyed it for only a brief second before turning to see Jeffrey, Tiffany, and the other AD standing by his side. My soul left my body right then and there.

“Christian?” Jeffrey said, sounding concerned.

Fucking say something, I told myself. I did my best not to stutter and look stupid.

“Hey, Jeff,” I said, raising the inflection of my voice, probably sounding dumb.

“Going for a swim there?” Jeffrey joked.

I fake laughed, then put on my best acting skills. “I cannot for the life of me find my ring.”

“Your ring?”

“Yeah, my mom’s ring?”

Then, with the slick subtle motion, I hid my hands to where they couldn’t see them behind the walls of the bin, and with careful coordination used my fingers on my right hand to pull the ring I already had on and flicked it down onto the trash below. I shuffled my feet over the bags I stood on to make noise so they wouldn’t hear the ring drop. Please God, don’t let the ring hit the hard bottom floor or one of the rusty walls, I thought. To my relief, it didn’t.

“Oh man, I’m sorry, Christian, I haven’t seen it,” Jeffrey said, as he looked at the other two as they also shook their heads. “But we can definitely look around again and let you know if we find anything.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” I said, trying not to make my voice tremble with anxiety.

“Now, c’mon, let’s get you outta there,” Jeffrey said, waving his hand over.

I nodded and shot a quick timid smile. I climbed out of the bin and faced the three before me, wiping myself down.

“Hands a little messy there,” Jeffrey said.

Anxiety raced through me again, but adrenaline had my back to make sure I didn’t fuck up by saying anything dumb.

“Oh, the fake blood?” I chortled. “Yeah, you guys lots of that shit in there. Smells like a chocolate factory.”

Jeffrey fell for it, and laughed. Good. But he could just as easily be playing me right now.

“Given how you ran off earlier back there I’m surprised you can stand to look at it, better yet, touch it,” he remarked.

“I’m sorry about that,” I stammered but stayed on track. “It’s just… I now see for myself, no one does it like GF.”

“Haha, you don’t have to flatter me to get back my respect. Don’t sweat it. I totally understand.”

Is that so? I thought.

“You could use that martini shot right about now, huh?” Tiffany joked.

Definitely not with her any time soon. Or any of them, for that matter.

“Well we’re just heading out for the day, you got a ride?” said Jeffrey.

“Yeah, I should probably call Jamie now and let her know I’m done,” I replied.

“It’s no problem, man, I can give you a lift. I can drop you off wherever you need me to.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“Seriously, I insist-”

“Jamie and I got a spa appointment to catch in a bit. Otherwise I appreciate the offer.”

Jeffrey had a brief look in his eyes, a glint of what I could only compare to a wolf’s gaze hiding behind that sheep’s clothing he carried himself around as, and then smiled and nodded.

“Okay, Christian,” he said. “Once again, nice to meet you and I hoped you enjoyed the tour, and hopefully make some good content for your blog.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “Thank you so much again. Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”

“It’s nothing, Chris,” Jeffrey said, throwing me off a bit. “Can I call you, Chris?’

I shrugged. “Sure. I mean, I called you Jeff by accident,” I said.

“It’s fine. Chris and Jeff it is.”

I needed to get away from here. Now and as fast as possible. But I still needed to do one more thing.

“Any chance I can wash these off inside?” I said, raising my bloodied hands.

“Oh of course,” Jeff said.

“I can lead him back,” Tiffany said, ready to go with, but Jeffrey stopped her.

“Ah, he knows his way in, right?” Jeff looked to me for reassurance.

“Yeah,” I answered confidently.

“Good, well hopefully I’ll see you around, Chris, and you enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Thank you, Jeff. And you all do the same.”

As I walked past them and towards the studio lot, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was being set up. Why hadn’t he let Tiffany escort me back inside? I’d think that would be customary for them to do for visitors entering and exiting the building. But I felt that they were watching me from behind, and with every step, I grew more and more anxious.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’d made it inside and the lot was now nearly empty and quieter. I didn’t see a single person in sight, and only a few lights remained on, making it mostly dark. I hurried the fuck up and did what I came to do, as I didn’t wanna be here any longer and didn’t feel safe.

Down the hall where the dressing rooms were, I rushed over to Savannah’s door, and saw that it was closed. I tried opening it only to see it was locked. Looking down, there was no light shining through the cracks either, meaning there was no one inside. She wasn’t there. Shit.

I washed my hands in the bathroom, scrubbing the dried blood off as thoroughly as possible, getting under nails and all, cringing at the thought of it being Will’s. Suddenly, I heard a noise from outside the hall leading to the bathroom. Petrified, my heart sank into my chest, and I froze. I shut the water off, and carefully approached the door. I listened for any other sounds as I placed my ear closer. After a few moments, I heard the noise again, but then realized that it seemed to be coming from one of the dressing rooms just outside in the hall.

Since I carry a notebook around most of the time for jotting down notes, I certainly always carry a pen. What most people don’t know is that I carry a military tactical pen for a variety of uses, and in times like these, it can be used as a subtle but effective weapon. I switched the tip from an ink ball to a small slick blade.

I opened the bathroom door and crept through the hall over to the dressing room door that made the noise, holding the pen underneath the breast pocket of my sweater. On the outside of the door, it read, “WILL BANKS.”

Confused, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Common sense me once again kept barking in my brain telling me to GTFO, but I had to be sure. I gave three shy knocks and waited. There was definitely someone in there because whatever noise I thought I heard from behind came to an utter halt. I could hear faint whispers of someone’s voice, and then another. There was more than one. My hand trembled as it tightly gripped the pen underneath with sweat as I heard whoever it was on the other end of the door approach.

It swung open, and there stood Will Banks, the man whose blood was just on my hands moments ago, alive and well, in the flesh. It couldn’t be, I thought to myself.

“Can I help you?” he said.

I just stood there, baffled, without answering. Behind him, I saw Savannah, who instantly recognized me and came over.

“Hi,” she said. “I thought everyone left.” She looked to Will. “He was visiting the set today for his vlog, or I’m sorry, blog.”

Will nodded, understanding now. “Oh. Sorry, I didn’t get to meet you. Will Banks,” he said, pointing at his name on the door. “As you can see.” Savannah chuckled, and Will extended his hand for me to shake.

“Christian, or Chris,” I said, releasing the pen from inside my sweater and reaching my own hand out to take his. "Whichever you please."

He had a firm shake, and it felt uncanny considering what I’d just witnessed. I was touching him, feeling his skin and bone underneath, the warmth of his body temperature through the flesh. He was real. He was alive and breathing. That couldn’t be faked. That couldn’t be a visual effect. This was real. After we let go, suddenly my hand went cold. Everything about this seemed off and downright strange.

“Did you stick around for the shoot?” Will asked.

“I did, as a matter of fact.”

“Well, what’d you think?”

I wanted to say so many things right then and there, he had no idea.

“Um... y’all are some damn good actors,” I said.

Will laughed a bit, accepting my sham form of flattery, but Savannah, not so much. She gave one of those forced gestures as to not make it feel awkward, though, I noticed it right away.

“How do you do it?” I asked.

“I would give you some artistic bullshit answer like ‘study your craft’ or ‘years of training,' things like that, but honestly… it just kinda clicks, ya know?”

I fake chuckled. “No, I don’t. It looked kinda real from my end. Too real, I might add. Care to go into detail how you guys pulled it off?”

“Well, uh-”

Savannah interrupted. “Wait, you know what Jeffrey would say,” she whispered to him.

“I know, but it’s for his blog,” Will argued.

“But still.”

“I mean, Jeffrey’s not here, right?” I chimed in.

They both looked at me, then at each other. There seemed to be some sort of nonverbal understanding between them, and Will looked back at me.

“All right, for the sake of your blog, I’ll give you what I can to the best of my wording, that sound good?” Will proposed.

I took the pen back out from inside, switching it to the ink ball with a short click, and whipped out my small notebook. “Hit me,” I said.

“Get ready for this one. Basically, we’ve been using a new thing in the biz lately sort of like mocap but it’s not exactly. It’s also kinda like hologram sort of tech?”

“Really?” I said, eyes widened with interest as I wrote words down.

“Yep. That’s how we did it. What you saw, was as real as the hologram thingamajig allowed you to.”

“Hmm.”

“The shredder, too.”

“What?”

“The shredder. That was a hologram also.”

“Really? Okay…”

I finished writing on my notepad then turned it so that Will could read it.

BITE ME, I wrote with a big circle around it.

He laughed. Savannah did, too, but, again, in a strange nervous and restrained demeanor.

“That’s a nice story,” I said. “So if you’re ready to quit bullshitting with me, and tell the truth, I’m ready,” I spoke in a playful yet no-nonsense tone. “How’d you do it?”

“You’re good, man,” Will said with a smile, pointing his finger at me. “Like a true journalist.”

Any other day I’d be pleased to hear that, but I was serious. I needed to know, so much that I’d forgotten how long I’d actually been here. I told myself I was gonna leave as soon as I could, but now, for some reason after talking with Will and seeing how personable and genuine he came off, he put me a bit at ease. Maybe I was blowing this out of proportion. But then the screams echoed in my head again, and the smell...

“You’re not gonna tell me, are you?” I said.

“Look, I wish I could, honestly, but if I did, Jeffrey may not be too happy with either of us,” Will responded sincerely. That much was true, I could tell.

“All right, I think I tortured you enough,” I said, then immediately regretted my choice of words.

“No worries, man. Nice meetin’ ya. Good luck with the blog.”

“Thanks.”

I looked at Savannah one last time, and she looked back with a serious and almost scary gaze as though she needed to tell me something very bad. That’s who I came back for anyways. But that opportunity was a lost cause now, as I left with nothing and still no understanding of how Gemini Films did their visual effects? And I lost my mother’s ring. Fuck, I didn’t have time to go get it right now. I didn’t wanna risk being seen again. Hopefully, Jeffrey keeps his word and they somehow manage to give it back. That being said, I'd be fine with not having to see him ever again.

Whose blood was that? Whose body was that in the dumpster? Was it real? Was it actually just that well made to where the average person could be fooled into thinking it was actual flesh? Who’d go through the trouble of all that?

The screams of losing your life inch by inch, the sounds that would haunt me forever. And the smell of what was inside that bag. That instinctual gut feeling… how was it not real?