Chapter 9: Midnight

For the first time in my life, I felt truly alone.

I slowly got off the bench and took a look at my surroundings. I felt like I was in a bad dream. The sky was red as blood, and the sun was black. The landscape was unchanged, but it was bathed in a red glow. It all felt surreal. It reminded me what it was like finding the Holder of Serpents, which I found odd, because I didn't remember much of that experience. It was as if my mind had blocked it out for me. I sat there for at least ten minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe I was in the Holder's world, I thought to myself. But I didn't understand how I got there. Derrick Todd had told me this was coming, that he had planned this with my Father and Rockwell. I couldn't understand how in the world they could have planned this. Some kind of alternate dimension, of sorts. In all my research I had done in my life, I had never heard of anything like this. But it all felt so familiar. I got up. I looked around to see if I could see anyone, but there was no one there. The streets stood devoid of any people. I checked my watch and saw that it had stopped at twelve exactly. Suddenly, my head pounded with pain, such pain that I fell down to the ground. It felt like I was dying, but I wasn't dying. I was only remembering something that should have been forgotten.

Flashes appeared in front of me. Some lasted enough that I could see them, others flew by too fast. It was like I was watching a movie I couldn't control. I couldn't pause or rewind, or change anything that was happening. I began to hear people talking. "He's out of town, dear, he can't make it." My mother. "No, I can't bring him!" It was my Father. "He's already had contact!" And then a different voice. One I barely recognized. "You have no idea how much you're helping us, child. I hope you can hold your breath." Then everything stopped moving. I was younger. In a motel. I was back to when I was with my Father, back when I saw it, and it saw me. I couldn't control my body, I could only watch the events unfold again. I got out of bed slowly. Did everything I could not to wake my Father. Walked up to the bag on the floor. A light was coming out of it, and it pulsed. Almost like a heartbeat. As if it was calling to me. I tried to stop myself but I couldn't. I walked up to it, and opened the bag. Everything went white and my ears began to ring. I woke up on the floor, just as I remembered, and my Father woke up as I coughed out some blood. But now the memory continued. He went for the bag first. Closed it and held it close to himself. He looked at me with fear and anger. Not at himself, anger at me. I didn't understand why. The cracks appeared. All along the walls. "You idiot!" my Father yelled. "Look what you have done!" I wanted to ask him what I had done but I couldn't speak. I just looked around me at the walls as a black oil began to leak out of them, as the liquid began to form shapes. My Father grabbed me and pulled me out of the room. We ran to the car outside. He put me in the back. The bag was in the passenger's seat. He drove without saying anything, faster than he ever drove before. I took some tissues from a box nearby to wipe my mouth clean. Then I looked out the window. The moon I had watched so long that night was gone. Nothing but darkness remained.

I woke up vomiting. When I was done, I rolled over and lay down on the concrete. I came to realize that I had been there before. In that red abyss. Through the looking glass. I just couldn't remember when or how. What did my Father do? What did Todd and Rockwell do? What did I do? I couldn't piece anything together. I decided to go back to Todd's house, thinking maybe that he was also in this world. I walked onto a street away from the park. All of it empty of humans. Or so I thought. I heard footsteps coming my way so I hid behind some bushes. There were men with guns. They wore full biohazard suits with body armor. They had the letters A.G. on their shoulders. "Keeping Us Better". Apparently, Rockwell could follow me even in this place, I thought to myself. They all had assault rifles, and all looked as if they were ready for a war. I could barely hear them without giving up where I was. "...find them... all of them... anything that moved..." I chose to stay hidden from them. I wasn't sure if they were there by accident, to rescue, or even for a search-and-destroy. I just knew that I didn't want to be anywhere near them. They all went into a building nearby so I left the other way, toward Todd's house. Todd clearly had to know about what was going on, and he would have to tell me something. I would have to hope I could find him though. So I sped up. But I fell over running down the street as what felt like an earthquake ripped through the town. Cracks began to form everywhere as I continued to run. I began to hear gunshots from the buildings nearby, shouts of orders from the soldiers. As, once again, I remembered something long forgotten. The voice again: "I hope you can hold your breath. Because without your help, your daddy will be very sad." A bullet hit a wall near me, and I snapped back to "reality". I told myself I wouldn't let myself die. Not until I had gotten some answers.

So I kept running, as tar seeped through the cracks.

-S