I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE
Darrell B. Nelson
Copyright 2011 Darrell B. Nelson
Contents:
I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE
I NEVER MEANT TO HURT YOU
CONJUNCTION
CURSED SHIP
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN’T THERE.
“Important. Go to the building on Lake Shore and 14th St for the most important meeting of your life,” the note said. Ken recognized his own handwriting, but he couldn’t remember writing the note. He almost threw it away but then something in the back of his mind told him he needed to obey.
After seeing the grand exterior of the building the lobby struck Ken as odd, ornately decorated walls with cheap knock offs for furniture. He figured the building was built to sell condos to the rich and famous, but never attracted any big names so it filled up with people on the C-list. Ken went over to the front desk.
“I’m here for a meeting.” He told the young concierge.
“You must be Ken?” The concierge asked pulling out an envelope.
“Yes.” Ken took the envelope.
“It's in the Penthouse. They left the key.” He handed Ken the key to access the penthouse.
“Who lives in the Penthouse?” Ken asked.
“It must have been bought recently.” The concierge got a puzzled look on his face. “I don’t remember anyone living there, but I've only worked here a few months.”
Ken got in the dimly lit elevator and turned the key for access to the Penthouse. He noticed the elevator hadn’t had a thorough cleaning in a while, the carpet had been vacuumed but not shampooed and the mirrored walls had fingerprints all over them. He opened the envelope and read the note.
I ripped space and time beyond repair.
It killed a man who wasn’t there.
I’ve killed that man every day.
I wish that man would go away.
The variation on William Hughes Mearns poem was in Ken’s handwriting, but he couldn’t remember writing it or even guess at the meaning.
Halfway to the Penthouse the elevator lights brightened as if someone put in a brand new bulb, the carpet looked cleaner and the fingerprints magically disappeared.
Ken looked around wondering if it was an illusion and his vision blurred making his eyesight as bad as before he got LASIK surgery. He could feel his muscles fade away, leaving him not weak but not at the point an hour a day in gym earned him. He noticed his clothes had changed, they were still nice but had a rougher cut, and a cheaper quality. The surreal moment felt almost as if a black and white photo suddenly took on color.
He reached into his jacket pocket to get his glasses wondering if he had gone insane. He noticed a piece of paper stuck in his pocket with his glasses.
“This is your last chance to gloat.” The note in his handwriting said and all of a sudden Ken knew why he wrote those notes and what he had to do.
He stepped out of the elevator to be greeted by a frantic Donald. Donald, not Don, had been Ken’s childhood “friend” and later business partner. He took pride in controlling everything around him. Ken suppressed a grin at seeing the normally arrogant titian of industry so out of control.
“Ken, thank God you’re here.” Donald said, “The strangest things have been happening.”
“Oh really?” Ken couldn’t help from getting a knowing grin.
“It started about a week ago,” Donald said. “The world went dark.”
“It happens everyday, It’s called nighttime.” Ken said.
“No, it’s been dark all week, I could see the difference between night and day because the street lights would come on at night.” Donald paced the penthouse suite, “Oddly nighttime was better lit than daytime. Between the street lights and moonlight I could see the outside world okay at night, but two days ago, even the moon disappeared.”
“Did you tell anyone about this?” Ken walked into the living area that he had been to many times in the past.
“I thought they’d figure I had gone mad.” Donald confided in him, “I only told Barbara. She told me to relax and stay indoors for a few days while she made some discreet calls to some psychologists to see what might be happening.”
“What came of that?” Ken kept his face expressionless as he noticed the pictures of Donald’s wife had all disappeared.
“Nothing. She got in touch with a doctor in Switzerland, she figured the farther away from America the better as there would be less chance of news getting to our investors.”
“Such a caring thought.”
“We were just thinking about the company,” Donald said. “If the press reported that the CEO had gone mad what do you think would happen to our stock?”
“That would be your first thought wouldn't it? But what happened with the doctor?” Ken asked.
“Well nothing, he emailed me an evaluation to fill out, which I did. I sent it back to him and never heard from him again,” Donald said.
“Did you call?” Ken did his best to keep from grinning.
“That’s when it got really odd.” Donald’s eyes widened. “I tried to call yesterday but couldn’t get a line overseas. Barbara called the doctor and he had never heard of me. Can you imagine that, even the Swiss must have news channels, she must have called the only doctor on Earth that doesn't watch the news.”
“Are you sure she called the right number?”
“That’s what I asked her and she swore she had talked to him.”
“And where is Barbara now?” Ken couldn’t help but let out the smallest of grins.
“I don’t know. She went out last night to get a local doctor to make a discreet house call and she never returned. I tried the number to her cell but only got some 90-year-old Korean lady who had no idea what I was saying.”
“So you have no idea where she is?” Ken asked resisting the urge to tell Donald that he'd just seen Barbara when she gave him a kiss goodbye as he left his house, just like she had done every day for the last 25 years.
“No, not a clue.” Donald said, nearly in tears. “She’s never stayed out all night.”
“Have you tried calling anyone else?”
After trying to reach Barbara I tried calling a few people, but for some reason I couldn’t make long distance phone calls. The concierge assured me that the phones were working, in the 15 years he's worked here he has never let me down so I didn't know what to think. By the time I got done dealing with that it was too late to call anyone, so I decided to wait until morning. I was afraid the press would see me in this confused state.”
“Can't have that,” Ken said. “What happened in the morning?”
“I couldn’t reach anyone. At around 5 am I talked to the front desk but then the line went dead. I tried the elevator but it was broken until you showed up.” Donald’s face suddenly showed some suspicion, “How did you get the elevator to work?”
“I’ll answer that soon. But first I’ll give you some news.” Ken allowed himself a small smile. “The good news is you’re not crazy. The bad news everything you’re seeing is real and it’s going to get worse.”
“How can it get worse?” Donald threw his hands up in the air, “I’ve lost all contact with the outside world. I can’t even look out my window, its just blackness out there.”
“I’ll get to that, but first don’t you want to know why this is happening?” Ken glanced out the windows of the condo at the city skyline. “You might want to sit down for this.”
“OK why is this happening?” Donald gave a resigned look, Ken expected Donald to get angry over the way he was playing him, but Donald was so frazzled he would put u
p with a lot more than usual.
“Remember when you threw the switch to activate the Trans-Dimensional Origami reactor?” Ken asked taking the seat across from Donald. “And folded space-time in on itself.”
“Of course. That’s what made this company.” Donald said, his pride bringing back a glint of his normal self, “I’ve got a picture of that day 20 years ago…” He gestured over to the empty wall, “Where did it go?”
“Where are my pictures?” Donald looked around the room, stunned.
“I think you’ll figure that out soon enough.” Ken allowed himself a full smile, watching Donald suffer, “On that day we opened up a tear in the fabric of space-time, not huge just big enough for you to fit through. You’ve been falling out of our universe ever since.”
“What?” Donald’s jaw dropped in amazement, “How long have you known about this? When were you going to tell me?”
“I’ve known about it for 5 years before I designed the reactor. Since the day you first went out with Barbara.” Ken told him, “And to tell you sooner would spoil the surprise. After all, isn’t revenge is a dish best served cold?”
“Revenge?” Donald said, “Revenge for what? We’ve been best friends since high school.”
“No.” Ken said, “In high school you were friends with me because your father wanted you to do well in math and science, subjects you were lost in. If it weren’t for me you would have flunked out of school instead of graduating with honors.”
“So I cheated off you,” Donald said. “But I also made sure nobody, well almost nobody, bullied you. You know how kids treat the brainy geeks and you were brainier than the math club and chess club combined.”
“I could take care of myself, I was on the tennis team.” Ken told him. “That might not be as macho as you being on the football team, but it gave me enough exercise that the bullies would think twice. However, I can see how you thought it evened out. Then you went to the same college as I did so you didn’t lose your goose that laid the golden eggs. You could cheat off me and get a 4.0 in Physics while focusing on your business classes, making you a great catch for any tech company,” Ken said.
“It wasn't a one-way street you know,” Donald said. “I got you into the best social circles, got you laid, made sure you were invited to the best parties.”
“You did get me laid, but I could have done without the airheads you introduced me too. As far as the parties you dragged me to them so you wouldn't arrive alone,” Ken said.
“I know you enjoyed yourself at those parties, but even if you didn't, I more than made up for it by using the contacts I made in school, and Barbara's dad's contacts to get the seed money to start this business,” Donald said.
“When we started this business, you didn’t sell the ideas. You arranged meetings so investors could hear me talk about my great ideas.”
“But that’s how we worked so well together. Your ideas and my connections.” Donald defended himself, “Its what made us such a great team.”
“If we were such a great team, why did you get all the fame and fortune?” Ken asked. “It's rare that a month goes by that your picture isn't on the cover of a national magazine. On the other hand outside Physics circles no one recognizes me.”
“I didn’t think you were interested in that stuff.” Donald said and Ken almost believed him, “You only seemed interested in pursuing your theories. If you wanted more all you had to do was ask.”
“As the engine that powered the company, I shouldn’t have to ask.” Ken shot back, “In a way you’re right about the theories and business, but a little recognition would be nice. Still, I could probably forgive you for taking advantage of me until you crossed the line.”
“What line?”
“Barbara!”
“I didn’t know you were serious about her,” Donald said, “If you had told me I would have backed off.”
“I did tell you, maybe not forcefully, but I did tell you.” Ken told him. “But you didn’t listen, you never listen to anyone because you are convinced that you are the center of the universe, so it’s ironic that soon you will be the very center of your own little universe.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“When I found out about you and Barbara I was a lot closer to figuring out how to manipulate space-time than I let on. In fact I was looking forward to having Barbara with me when I accepted the honors that would go with giving the world the biggest breakthrough in science since relativity,” Ken said. “What I spent the next 5 years on was finding out a way to push something completely out of space-time and do it in a way so it wouldn’t be noticed if I threw it into the same generator that powered the Trans-Dimensional Origami Reactor. Not that I should have worried, you never even bothered to find out any of the Theory behind my work.”
“Why would you want to throw something out of space-time?” Donald asked.
“Not something, someone. More specifically you.” Ken told him, “I observed you with other people, and it wasn’t just me you took advantage of, you did it to everyone. I noticed you didn’t even seem to think you were doing anything wrong. It was just that you thought everything revolved around you, that you were the only thing that mattered in the universe. So that gave me the idea.
“If you had actually bothered to learn the theory behind what our company does you’d know that the objects in space-time affect each other at the speed of light and that space-time is expanding. As space-time expands it makes every object move away from all other objects, the farther apart from each other the objects are, the faster they will be moving apart,” Ken said. “At the extreme limit of this, roughly 46.5 billion light-years away, objects are moving away from us faster than the speed of light, those objects no longer interact with us at all. This is known as the Observable Universe and anything outside that doesn’t have any interaction with what we know as the universe.”
“I don't need a Physic's lecture. I might have cheated a bit but I still had to learn the basics.” Donald said.
“When something, or someone in this case, falls out of space-time they are speeding away from the observable universe. So from their perspective the observable universe is getting smaller as the limit where things are moving away from them faster than the speed of light gets closer.” He continued. “I rigged it so that when you flipped the switch on the reactor you would be thrown out of space-time and ever since then your observable universe has been getting smaller.”
“Why didn't I notice this 20 years ago?”
“It's a slow process. But you might have noticed that shortly after we fired up the reactor I got an interest in stargazing. I would point out distant galaxies to you and you slowly stopped being able to see them, there was nothing wrong with your eyes those galaxies were outside your observable universe, but not outside mine. When you could no longer see Deneb, a mere 1,600 light-years away I knew my plan was working.” Ken smiled.
“That was your plan? To make me separate from the universe?” Donald said. “You could have just killed me, or tortured me, but this seems like a round about way to get rid of me.”
“Oh, not just separate you from the universe, remove you from all of space-time.” Ken said, “There is a difference.”
“What difference could possibly apply in this case?” Donald said. Ken could tell he searching his mind for all the astrophysics classes that he barely paid attention to. Ken would have liked to give Donald the time to work it out on his own, but he knew he only had a short amount of time so Ken spelled it out for him.
“Like I said earlier, all objects in the universe interact with each other at the speed of light. This is a two way street. As the limit of your observable universe gets closer the interactions are greater, that’s why you no longer see the light from the sun, it is outside your observable universe. I’m sure your interaction with it is felt as well but considering the relative size of you to the sun… I don’t think you’ve added or subtracted a nanosecond to its life.” K
en told him. “Where it gets really interesting is when your observable universe got smaller than the Earth. You stopped interacting with people not only in the normal three dimensions of width, length, and height but you no longer interacted with them in time.”
“What does that mean?” Donald asked.
“Yesterday the Chinese never knew you ever existed, followed by the Japanese then the Russians. That’s why the doctor in Switzerland never heard of you, to him you never existed in his universe. When Barbara went out last night she drove outside your observable universe and the last 25 years with you never existed.” Ken snapped his fingers, “Just like that.”
“That can’t be… I remember her.”
“I see I hit a sore spot, she’s a remarkable woman.” Ken said, “Now maybe you can understand why I was so upset when she left me for you. Or are you just upset that no one will ever remember you?”
Donald didn’t say a word. Ken knew the last question had hit the mark. He would have liked to say more and watch his victim squirm, but he noticed that the decorations on the wall at the far side of the room were changing.
“Just think, you don’t have to feel guilty about cheating off me in school, because you never went to my schools. Taking advantage of my work? Don’t worry, it never happened. And Barbara, we’ve been married 25 years now.” Ken got up and stood over Donald.
“Soon no one in this universe will ever know you existed not even your mom and dad, but don’t worry you’ve always thought that you were the center of the universe. Soon you will be, it will be a universe where you and only you exist.” Ken grabbed Donald’s collar and put his nose an inch away from Donald’s nose as he watched the color of the chair change from red to black, “What do you think of that idea?”
Donald didn’t respond and Ken fell forward face first into his prized recliner as Donald disappeared.
“What was that noise?” Barbara came out of the bedroom to see her husband of 25 years pick himself out of the very odd position on the recliner he had somehow got himself into.
“Oh nothing.” Ken replied as he turned around to sit in his chair the normal way. He looked around as he had a strange feeling that something in the living room was different, but it was the same as it had been for the last few years since Barbara had it redecorated. “I just had a strange idea, it would be possible to use my reactor to throw something completely out of space-time.”
“What possible use could that be?” she asked him.
“I honestly can’t think of one,” he answered.
“Well maybe you should keep that on the back burner for now then.”
“Yeah you’re right, that’s why I leave the running of the company up to you, and I can work on my theories.”
I NEVER MEANT TO HURT YOU.
It all started two days ago. It was a childish prank, but I swear I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I never dreamt that my prank would doom the entire human race to slavery.
The new girl was a snob and a tease; plain and simple. She was gorgeous, and I knew she knew it, with her high price clothes and expertly done hair and make-up. She kept to herself like she was too good for any of us.
It’s not like I didn’t try to be nice. I went over to her in the hall between classes and introduced myself. She turned to me and gave me a smile that for some reason made me lose my usual nervousness I have around pretty girls and I started talking.
“I know it can be tough being an outsider.” I opened up to her, “I just joined the football team this year and even though I work harder than the rest of the jocks, who have known each other since grade school, they still barely tolerate me breaking into their little club. It can help to have someone to talk to and if you need someone to show you around all you have to do is ask.”
I paused to let her speak. I figured with my opening up about my not fitting in she would have to talk about how she felt being in a new school. Instead she opened her mouth to speak and no words came out. She got an angry look on her face then quickly turned her back to me and scurried off, rejecting me just like all the other girls in school.
I could feel everyone in the hall staring at me. I’m sure if I had still been the size I was last year they would have been openly laughing at me, but I’d spent the summer working out and joined the football team so the other students would stop laughing at me. They couldn't laugh at me now, at least not to my face.
It was bad enough she completely blew me off when I tried to be nice, but the next day she purposely stared at me and was grinning over the fact that she blew me off. She made me look like a fool and could feel her gloating.
Every time I looked over at her she was staring at me smirking. It made me feel like I was still the scrawny kid that everyone laughed at.
When I looked at her perfectly made up face and her supermodel body, all I could think of were the cheerleaders who still refused talk to me. I spent three hours every day working out to earn my spot on the football team but that wasn't enough to get them to talk to me.
When we had a fire drill I quickly came up with a plan to embarrass her like she embarrassed me. I told two of my buddies, Bob and Paul, to “persuade” her to take a slightly longer route to go outside during the drill.
“How?” Bob asked me.
“Each of you grab one of her arms as she walks by the basement door.” I had to explain everything to these stoners, “If you do it fast enough no one will notice a thing. Now go!”
By the time my buddies brought her to me, I already had the manhole cover off of the abandoned sewer line. I knew from experience that the iron rungs were still quite strong. They had held my weight when Bob dared me to go down there a few months ago, so they would have no trouble holding her weight.
“I bet you don’t feel too high and mighty to talk to me now.” I told her as my buddies had a good grip on each of her arms.
With the only light coming from the badly maintained florescent lights, she didn’t remind me of the cheerleaders who made fun of me anymore. She just looked like a normal girl who was a little scared of what we might do to her. Looking at her in that light, I thought about letting her go but Bob and Paul were looking at me, wondering what I was going to do. They might be stoners, and even less popular than me, but they were pretty much the only friends I had and I didn’t want them to think I was a wuss.
“W-W-What?” Her face went from being slightly scared to astonished.
“Too good to talk to us,” I told her. “I think if you’re found in the old sewer no one will think your such hot stuff anymore.”
“I-I-I…” She swallowed and took a deep breath and smiled before continuing, “I’d like to talk.”
“Oh sure now.” I responded trying to maintain a tough face, even though I really liked the way she said she’d like to talk to me. “But not out in the hall in front of everyone.”
“It-It-It…” She once again had to take a deep breath before continuing, “I have tr-trouble with…with…stop!”
“Oh, you want me to stop.” I said motioning my buddies to bring her closer. I was actually hoping that she would say something, anything, I could use as an excuse to let her go without embarrassing me in front of my friends.
“No, I m-m-mean yes, it’s just th-th-that…” She said as they brought her over to the opening to the old sewer.
“Why don’t you beg for us not to throw you in?” I asked her.
“Please…” She tried to take a deep breath but my buddies were holding her over the edge, “I-I-I, - anything y-y-y- want.”
“Dude, is she offering…” Bob started.
“What will you do not to have us throw you down there?” My mind was scrambling to come up with a plan. It was hard to understand her since she was obviously frightened, but I was afraid Bob was right and she was offering sex. As much as I wanted that, I didn’t want it under these conditions.
“B-B-B…” She started and stopped. “Just you, I’ll g-g-g-g…”
“What’s that again?” I
laughed, genuinely relieved that she was going to give me a way out of the dumb plan that I hadn’t really thought out. I had a perfect revenge for her blowing me off, saving face at the same time. I’d give her the choice of going to the movies with me that night where everyone would see the two of us together, or we’d throw her in.
Not the greatest way to ask a girl out, but my attempt at being charming didn’t work. The worst thing that would happen is she’d tell the principal, I’d take the blame and get a couple days suspension.
Before I could think up the words to give her a way out, she started speaking again.
“I’ll g-g-g. Oh Fuck It!” She surprised the three of us yanking her arms loose and dropping into the sewer hole.
It was so surprising that the three of us could only stare motionless with our mouths open. After what seemed like a few hours, but was probably less than a minute. I walked over and peered over the edge.
All I could see was darkness. Bob and Paul joined me in looking down the hole, but there was nothing to see. The sound of something moving down there brought us out of our shock and we did what teenage boys do when they’ve done something they know is wrong, we looked at each other and ran like hell.
We got outside to join the rest of the students at the track before the teachers started roll call.
“Shouldn’t we tell them what happened?” Paul whispered to me as we stood in line waiting to hear our names called.
“No!” I told him, “They’ll search the school when they find out she’s missing. If they don’t, I’ll start asking the teachers if they’ve seen her. That will make them search again.”
Sure enough when they called out her name and no one responded several teachers went back inside the school to look for her. I was relieved I could stay silent
About 15 minutes later, Mr. Pemphrey, the math teacher, came back out with a very concerned look on his face and whispered something in the Principal’s ear.
“We are going to have to keep you out here a little longer, I’m afraid.” The Principal announced, “There is a small problem in the school and we can’t go back in until it is resolved.”
I couldn’t get too far from the crowd of students, but I was able to work my way over to the far end of field so I could see the front corner of the school, it gave me the perfect view to watch the ambulance arrive.
I kept my eye on the ambulance while trying not to look like I was staring, although since the 20 students around me were making no attempt to hide their stares I don’t suppose it mattered.
After about 10 minutes, I saw my worst nightmare; the paramedics were wheeling a body out on a gurney, and the blanket was over the head. As far as I know they only do that for dead bodies, but I’m not sure that was covered in health class.
When we were finally let back into the school my panic had moved to my gut, it needed to get rid of all it’s contents. I didn’t blame it, even I didn’t want to be around some one like me right now. I raced to the third floor bathroom that hardly anyone used.
I had just finished my business and was about to start on the paperwork when I heard it, a soft female voice that was unmistakably familiar.
“Y-y-you…” It screamed in a whisper.
The next thing I remember was pulling up my pants in the hall outside the bathroom. Luckily, there were only a couple other students around. They dispersed quickly when I yelled, “What are you looking at?”
When I finally got back to class I tried to act cool while wondering how I was going to cover the fact that my butt stank. As it turned out, that was the least of my worries. I was immediately sent to the principal’s office.
When I entered the office I was glad I relieved myself earlier, because entering the office to see the principal and police officers might have made me have an accident otherwise.
“Son, have a seat.” The principal said. It’s never a good thing when the principal calls someone son.
“I’ve got some bad news about your friend Wendy,” he said solemnly after I sat down. I noticed one of the police officers was sniffing the air wondering where the strange odor was coming from.
“Who, sir?” In my shock I was accidentally polite.
“The new girl in school. Her father said you were the only one she mentioned talking too.”
“Oh.” It felt like a knife was plunged into my gut.
“I’d like to thank you for reaching out to her. My first reaction was not to have her in regular classes due to her speech impediment. But her father was convinced that the incident at her previous school was caused in a large part because she was in the special-ed classes. I thought she wouldn’t be able to get along with the other students. I’m glad you proved me wrong, and showed that our students are a lot more accepting than the ones at the city school.”
I felt like the knife was twisting hitting every internal organ.
“Unfortunately, there was an accident and during the fire drill she fell into the old sewer line, She didn’t survive.”
“I see.” I took a deep breath and even though I felt like my guts were going to come out and land on the principal’s desk I managed to say, “I just barely met her, but she seemed nice.”
The police officer that was standing behind the principal stopped sniffing and addressed me. “I need to know what you two talked about.”
“I really just introduced myself and she blushed and walked away.” I said truthfully.
“You didn’t think that was odd?”
“I just thought she was shy.” I lied.
“OK?” He scribbled something in his notebook, “Do you know why she would go down to the basement?”
“I have no idea,” I lied, “Maybe with the rush of students she got confused as to where the exits are. She seemed so shy, maybe she thought she’d avoid a crowd.”
“At this point we don’t like to speculate,” he said sternly, “Can you tell us anything she might have said that would indicate why she would go down to the basement?”
“Like I told you, she never actually said anything to me.” I looked him in the eye since I was telling the truth, “I tried to talk to her one time and she didn’t respond.”
“Do you know of anyone else she might have talked to?” he asked.
“No one, as far as I know.” I said, “She kept to herself, I didn’t even know about her speech impediment until you told me.”
He pulled out two photos and handed them to me. “Have you ever seen these two?”
I looked over the photos of two high school girls I had never seen in my life. “No, sir.”
“Are you sure?” He asked with a scowl when the principal surprised me by defending me.
“It’s been an emotional day for all of us.” He told the cop, “He’s told you all he knows, which in this case isn’t much. I’m sure he’ll co-operate and give you a call if he remembers anything else.
“Right, son?” The principal stared directly at me.
“Of course,” I told him.
“Okay,” The cop pulled out a card and handed it to me. “Give me a call if you see those two girls around, or if you remember anything else, no matter how insignificant it seems.”
I left the principal’s office and as I walked past the secretaries I heard the cop ask, “Doesn’t that boy know how to wipe his ass?”
I should have been offended by the insult, but it just made me relieved. If they were concerned about how I smelt, they couldn’t be worried that I had anything to do with killing Wendy. I still made a beeline to the nearest bathroom to clean up. I might have accidentally killed someone, but that was no reason to wander around with a stinky ass.
To my relief the bathroom was empty. I headed into the nearest stall, dropped my pants and grabbed a wad of toilet paper.
“Y-Y-You…” I heard the same voice as before.
If there were a competition for speed wiping I certainly would have won. I did a good enough job in about two seconds that I wouldn’t be labeled “the stinky kid”.
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“Y-Y-You h-h-hurt…” I heard as I raced out of the bathroom.
The rest of the day I was in total daze. The only thing I remember was meeting briefly with Bob and Paul and telling them to tell the truth about everything except grabbing Wendy in the hall. If no one remembered them doing that, and they said they had been discreet, then there was nothing to pin the crime on us.
The sad truth about Bob and Paul is I knew they wouldn’t be talking to anyone, since they had no friends. They would probably just go get wasted and be too paranoid to leave their house.
Once I got home I was relieved that I could go to the bathroom normally, without ghosts talking to me.
Unfortunately, even though I escaped the ghost, my mind still wanted to torture me.
I dreamt that Bob and Paul brought Wendy down to the basement for me only instead of stuttering she boldly declared, “What do you want?”
“I think you know.” I responded.
The harsh, badly maintained lights were replaced by a soft glow that made her look even more beautiful. She winked and Bob and Paul mysteriously disappeared.
She slowly undressed for me and seductively asked, “Is this what you want?”
All I could do was nod.
“Come get it.”
I walked over to her and took her in my arms, our lips met and her tongue slipped into my eager mouth. At first it tasted delicious then the taste changed into the foulest taste of sewage imaginable. I pushed her away and saw her gorgeous body had turned into human shaped pile of sewage.
“Don’t you like me anymore?” She grinned, “After all you turned me into this.”
I woke up in a cold sweat.
I stumbled to the bathroom to relieve myself and get her image out of my mind. I had just positioned myself in front of the toilet when I heard her again.
“Y-Y-You…”
I raced out of my own bathroom and back to my bedroom. My heart was racing and I couldn’t organize my thoughts until my bladder protested having its work interrupted.
There was no way I was going back into the bathroom so came up with an alternative. I opened the window and relieved myself onto my mom’s cherished rose bush. If she found out I’d be in serious trouble but it was better that than the ghost.
I spent the night huddled in my bed, afraid to sleep and afraid to go to the bathroom.
At the crack of dawn I knew I had a problem, I could skip a shower without a problem, and I could hold my bowels for awhile, but everyone I talked to would notice if I didn’t brush my teeth.
I thought about not talking to anyone all day, but that plan didn’t turn out so well for Wendy.
I gathered up my courage and raced into the bathroom, snatched my toothbrush and ran out before Wendy’s ghost had time to start talking.
I remember thinking how I was lucky her speech impediment kept her from starting to talk right away, then thinking how horrible I was for thinking that.
Before breakfast I slipped out to the backyard and “watered” one of the bushes. I figured if I kept moving the spot I used my mom would figure it was the neighborhood dogs.
Without thinking I mindlessly chewed away at my breakfast, something I regretted around 10am when my breakfast started to ask to be removed from my body.
I spent the whole day in torture, my body wanting me to go into the one place I feared more than anywhere in the world.
The only gossip I overheard about Wendy was that the police were looking for the two girls that the cop had shown me photos of. Naturally, the stories got more elaborate as the day went on, the last rumor I heard during the day was that the two girls were girlfriends of mobsters that Wendy had ratted on.
I actually had to suppress a chuckle at the thought of Wendy testifying in court.
After getting home and relieving a little bit of the pressure by “watering” another bush, I realized I couldn’t go on like this much longer. Something had to be done.
“Y-Y-You h-h-hurt me!” Wendy’s voice told me as I walked into my bathroom, ready to finally face my tormentor.
“Sorry, I honestly didn’t mean to.” I pleaded. “It was an accident.”
“Y-You h-hurt me!” She said again.
“Again I’m sorry. But what do you want from me.”
“Y-You know.”
“I know what?” I asked.
“You must meet me.” Her voice got steady and firm.
“I am meeting you, that’s why I came in here.” I told her.
“Y-You must m-meet me where you l-l-…” Wendy’s disembodied voice paused, “left me.”
“What about Paul and Bob?” I asked, “They were in on it too.”
“They’re ugly.” Wendy’s voice said firmly, then mellowed, “I w-w-want y-y…
“Come alone.”
“OK, after school tomorrow I’ll go down into the old sewer, I promise.” I told her then put forth my one condition. “But can I please use my bathroom now.”
“Very well.” She sighed, “But if you don’t c-c-come, it w-w-will be your last time. Y-Y-You have no idea w-w-what I c-c-can do to you.”
I’m not the world’s most nervous poo-er but having the thought of a ghost hovering around me while trying to go isn’t the most conducive way to get the system moving. Needless to say my one opportunity to have my life back to normal ended in a disappointment.
That night, sleeping was out of the question as well.
“Remember y-y-your promise.” Was the first thing I heard when I used the bathroom in the morning.
“I remember.” I said absently as I was able to use the bathroom instead of watering my mom’s bushes.
“You hurt me.”
“I know; how many times do you want me to say I’m sorry.” I told the voice.
“You’ll find out t-t-t…” The voice paused. “You’ll see.”
I was about to drop my shorts and head into the shower, but having the disembodied Wendy hovering over me brought back memories of the time in 9th grade when two of the bullies pulled me out of the locker room and threw me naked into the hall. I remembered all the girls laughing at my scrawny body.
I had gained 40 lbs since then, but I was still too embarrassed to let Wendy’s ghost see me naked. I quickly bushed my teeth and left.
“Remember…” I heard her say as I left the bathroom.
The day dragged by excruciatingly slow. My thoughts went from dread of the encounter I was about to have, to the pain in my stomach from holding two days worth of food, back to dread.
When the bell finally rang I didn’t know whether to be relieved or fearful that the time had finally come to confront my demon. I finally decided that Wendy couldn't torture me more than my guilty conscience and I deserved whatever punishment I got.
I was able to slip through the police tape and get into the basement surprisingly easily. The manhole cover was gone. The police probably took it to look for clues. Part of me hoped they’d find my fingerprints on it, maybe if I was in prison Wendy’s ghost would feel she had her revenge.
I slowly climbed down the old rusted ladder to the bottom of the sewer. I was prepared for anything. Anything except what I saw.
A mass of giant worms lunged forward.
I panicked and tried to get back up the ladder again, but one of the worms wrapped itself around my ankle.
“Let me go!” I screamed.
“Why don’t you beg for me to let you go?” I heard Wendy’s voice everywhere. The worms were talking in Wendy's voice. I looked all around the old brick sewer to get the shock of my life.
“Wh-What?” I said when I turned to see Wendy standing naked a little way up the sewer from the ladder. Seeing her like that was something I had dreamed of since I first saw her, but here in the sewer her nudity didn’t make her seem venerable and sexy, it somehow made her seem menacing.
“You hurt me.” She said firmly without a hint of a stutter. It was even more menacing as her voice was echoed from the mass of worms crawling up my leg.
r /> “You’re dead.” I told her, realizing that telling her that probably wouldn’t change her plans.
“Not quite.” She smiled, “My new friends here are quite gifted at biology. You wouldn’t think that in a less than an hour, they could clone someone and grow them to be a teenager, or at least something that would fool the doctors that examined the body. All by using just the waste found in an old sewer, but, surprise, they can.”
“Who the hell are your new friends?” I asked feeling slight pinpricks in my legs where the worms were holding me.
“The worms that are holding you and slowly entering your body,” she explained. “They are actually an alien race that has set up an observation post here.”
“In the old sewer?” Although the worms were wrapping around my legs and making them numb, I was more shocked that aliens would cross billions of miles of space just to play in our sewers.
“Yes, they are subterranean by nature, which makes mankind’s sewers an excellent place to observe from. It was with their help I was able to track you down to your bathroom,” she said. “And I was able to talk to you through them.”
“What happened to your speech impediment?” I asked.
“They fixed it. It took them a little longer to fix my speech, than the bones you broke when you threw me down here,” she explained.
“You jumped,” I started to defend myself. “I never meant…”
“No one ever means to…” She snapped. “Just like no one ever means to exclude the little girl who can’t talk. No one ever means to make her life hell by sending her to the retard class. No one ever means to destroy her self-esteem by sending her to worthless therapy sessions instead of playing with the few friends she has, in an effort to find out why she’s not making friends. No one ever means to uproot her from the only home she knows to move to a hick town and leave her to the mercy of some jerk like you.”
“I didn't know...” I told her.
“Nobody ever knows, or worse they look the other way when a boy figures out that if he is patient enough to let me speak, I will do almost anything for him, and he wasn’t even good looking. Then when his girlfriend and her posse decide they can embarrass me in front of the whole school, the solution was to leave town instead of letting me testify in court against them.
“Do you have any idea how powerless that made me feel? Instead of going to the one place where people would have to listen to me, I was told to shut up and try to pretend it never happened.”
“I really didn’t know, honest,” I said. “I thought you figured you were too pretty to talk to us hicks.”
“Really?” she smiled and her face softened, losing her menacing look.
“Honest,” I told her. “I thought, since you were the prettiest girl in the school, you were snubbing me.”
“You think I’m the prettiest girl in the school?” she was practically glowing and looking like the gorgeous vision in my dreams.
“Honest,” I said.
“And your idea of a first date was to throw me down 15 feet into a sewer that aliens have taken over to use as a base to observe mankind?” she regained her menacing look, “I’d hate to see your idea of a second date. Does it involve removing major organs?’
“I never meant that to happen,” I told her again. “I just wanted to scare you.”
“You hurt me,” she stated again.
“I said I was sorry for throwing you down here,” I said. “What more do you want?”
“Landing down here didn’t hurt,” she told me. “The shock made it so I didn’t feel any pain. Then my friends fixed up my body before I could feel anything.”
“Then how did I hurt you?” I asked.
“I made the mistake of thinking you were a nice guy,” she said. “I thought, somehow, you could understand me, what it had been like to be an outsider. The night after you approached me in the hall and talked to me, I made you a letter saying I’d love to be your friend and I can tell you now, since it won’t matter soon, I meant more than just being a friend. I never did that for anyone, ever. I was going to give it to you after school. I had these romantic visions of going out with you; or at least seeing some dumb movie with you, and you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen with the girl who can’t talk.
“I had this stupid idea that I might be able to live like a normal person, that maybe, just maybe, the entire world wasn’t filled with cruel and mean people. I thought I would take a chance and allow myself to be vulnerable to another person, you, and I hoped you would be the one exception out of all the people I’d ever met and you wouldn’t be a cruel bastard. So what did you do? You decided to be the meanest jerk I’d ever met. That’s how you hurt me.”
“I am so sorry,” I told her. “I never meant...”
“You never meant to hurt me, yeah. You hurt me more than anyone else in the world. I could accept that my father was misguided making me run away from my tormentors. I could almost understand that a boy might take advantage of a situation; he was just an unfeeling jerk. I know the catty girls who sent pictures of me naked to everyone in school with gross captions were just bitches, who will be mean all their lives.
“But you, you were an outsider just like me. After you talked to me in hall I watched you. I watched the other jocks pick on you. I watched the girls snub you. I watched as you were forced to only associate with your stoner friends, not because you liked them but because no one else in this hick school would hang out with you. I couldn’t speak, but I have eyes and a brain.
“Believe it or not that turned me on. I could see you were an outcast, just like me. I figured because of that you would have a little sympathy for another lonely outcast.
“Instead of having sympathy you took all their hate and all their cruelty and just forced it on the only victim you could find that was lower in the school’s pecking order than you. You convinced me that all people are just cruel bastards.”
“I'll do anything you want to make it up to you,” I told her.
“Yes you will. It turns out the aliens were able to skip observing the human race and learned all they need to know about humanity by reading my mind. After seeing how people treated me all my life, we have decided that mankind is too petty and selfish to join the rest of the galaxy.
“And when I say ‘we’ I mean me. The aliens had no concept of individuality, until now. When they tried to absorb my mind into their collective, my individual thoughts overwhelmed them. In a delicious irony the voice of the little girl who couldn’t speak was the loudest voice they had ever heard.
“I’ve made sure it will be the only voice they will ever hear.
“Thanks to you showing me that the human race is just a bunch of mean, petty, selfish jerks. I’ve decided that we need to develop a new breed of humans to take its place.
“A kinder, gentler breed of humans that will follow the commands of a single voice, who can respond with overwhelming force whenever someone is cruel to another person.” She grinned evilly. “Someone who already knows what people can be like if cruelty goes unpunished. Someone who has dreamt of how to punish the wicked, but she was never able to express herself.
“They’ve already changed my DNA so that I will be the Queen of this new race. I just need a suitable King. I could only think of one guy, you may be a jerk but you’re still kind of cute. I’ll have to alter your brain a little bit so that you will obey your Queen, but you’ll still retain the pleasure areas of your brain. Of course, those will be totally at my control. When you are a good little slave the pleasures will be unimaginable, when you are a bad slave… I think you get the idea.
“Of course, a proper Queen can’t have anyone talking back, but I’m sure you won’t mind losing the ability to speak. It’s not like the whole world will judge you over that one little disability and use it as an excuse to be jerks to you. Being a jerk to you is my job, and you already know why.”
As she spoke I could feel the alien worms entering my body, they entered my brain and stren
gthened my desire to do anything my beautiful Queen wished.
I managed get out the last thought that truly knew was my own, “I never meant to hurt you.”
And those were the last words I ever spoke.