“Listen to me, Perry,” he said. He stepped closer to me, cornering me up against the fence, and suddenly I was totally afraid. “We have a job to do tonight.”
“We?” I asked, my voice stammering. I shrank back as far as I could go.
“I need to show you some things. Because you obviously don’t see them, do you?”
I shook my head, not understanding anything at all. It wasn’t the pot. What he was saying made no sense.
He raised his arm and pointed over at the back yard. A couple were in the middle of it, making out on the grass.
“Do you see it?”
I squinted. “See what? The couple about to hump each other?”
“No. Beyond them. Do you see that shimmer?”
I squinted again. I didn’t see anything.
“Relax your eyes. Like a Magic Eye painting.”
He placed one of his cold fingers and laid it on my temple. The temperature jarred me and I was conscious of having his mangled wrist so close to my face. I could almost…smell it. It smelled like death.
“Try again,” he continued.
I took in a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the space beyond the couple, on this shimmer. I didn’t see anything but a dark lawn and the outline of the wooden fence against the passing clouds.
“No, Jacob, I…”
But I stopped in mid-sentence.
There was something. Something sort of in between where the couple lied and where the fence was. It was a shimmer, like a mirage in the desert, or heat lines. It radiated from the ground straight up into the sky. It didn’t take up all of the yard, but it was there, and the more I stared at it, the more it was all I could see. My eyes were locked.
“What is that?” I whispered. Was the house on like a leaking gas line or something? That thought filled me with panic.
“That…is where I come from,” Jacob said.
I turned my head and looked at him, unable to process that properly. “What?”
He lowered his head and stared at me with his eyes. I watched them, mesmerized, as they turned from brown to bright red, like unripe cherries. “That’s where the rest of them will come from too. Tonight. The demons.”
Demons? That’s it, I’m quitting drugs first thing in the morning, I thought. Then I slumped to my knees and passed out at Jacob’s feet.
A solid tap on my shoulder woke me up. I blinked hard at the bright light and looked around. I was on Dex’s couch and he was standing above me, poking me repeatedly. The sound of vomiting filled the air. I had thought perhaps I had been dreaming about someone puking, but no, it was Jenn in the bathroom.
I groaned and sat up uneasily, holding my head.
“You just passed the fuck out,” he said, lifting up my legs over and taking a seat beside me. “You all right?”
I nodded gingerly and looked at the clock on the wall. It was 10 a.m. and I had only been up for an hour but my damn hangover was in full swing. I didn’t think I was all that drunk last night but I guess mixing all the drinks didn’t help either. I had lied down on the couch to watch TV and I guess I fell back asleep right away.
The vomiting noise continued, which turned my own stomach.
“Is Jenn OK?” I asked.
He bit his lip before saying, “She doesn’t do hangovers very well. I’m pretty sure this day will be a write-off for her. How much did you guys drink?”
“I didn’t drink all that much,” I told him. “It was her goal to get loaded.”
“Well it worked. Too well. She snored all night long before the snores turned into puke. That God I had the sense to put the wastebasket beside her last night.”
I made a disgusted face and wiped the fogginess from my eyes. Despite it being early in the morning, there was a weird creepy vibe in the apartment. I looked at Dex, feeling more than ashamed as the realization of what I had done hit me. He was going to be going down a dark road of mental torture and it was all because of me.
He caught me staring and opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. “I’m OK, Dex, really. I should be asking about you. Did you sleep OK?”
“Aside from Miss Snore n’ Puke? Yes. No…nothing else, if that’s what you are hinting at.”
“Good,” I said. I wanted to ask him about Abby more, and about his medication, to find out if he’d tell me the truth about it, but even though Jenn was occupied, I knew he’d never talk about it here, if he was even going to talk about it at all. “So what’s our plan for today?”
“Not too sure.” He leaned back against the couch and put his arms back behind his head, legs splayed open. His T-shirt lifted up a bit, displaying a sliver of stomach. I was tempted to lean over and poke his hairy belly. Then I was tempted to follow the trail of hair beneath his boxers. Start by undoing his belt and then unzipping his pants, slip my hand under…
I blushed and looked away. What a freaking mess I was. It was just morning and already I was a horndog.
I got off the couch and walked over to the kitchen, opening the cupboards absently. I wasn’t hungry and could barely eat a slice of buttered toast that morning, but it was something to do. Something to distract me from my weird conflicted feelings, all while Jenn was still barfing her head off.
Dex was watching me curiously as I pulled out a box of cereal and started picking at it.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I’d like to take you for a little motorbike lesson,” I said, popping some flakes in my mouth and chewing the cereal without tasting it. Taking out the bike would be the perfect opportunity to get him out of the house and away from Jenn.
“Are you serious?”
“I am serious.”
He laughed to himself and got up, peering out the balcony doors to the street below. “Well, lucky for you, it’s not raining out. I don’t know, we should really work on the footage we have and see if Hasselback calls. And we haven’t checked out the voice recordings either.”
I shuddered and put the cereal back, wiping my hands on my pants. There was no way in hell I wanted to listen to the recordings, at least not right now when I had this weird icky feeling. “We can do that later. The doctor will call you when he calls you. I just…I need to talk to you.” I eyed the bathroom door and lowered my voice. “In private.”
Dex nodded, understanding and walked over to the front door, slipping on his skate shoes and jacket.
“OK, let’s go,” he said quickly.
I was surprised at how fast he moved. “Don’t you want to tell Jenn?”
He sighed and yelled at the bathroom. “Hey babe, we’re going out for a bit. Fat Rabbit might need to be walked later, just so you know.”
There was silence. Then she said in a tiny, quavering voice, “Harvey, you moron.” And the puking resumed, which thankfully now sounded like dry-heaving.
As soon as we headed down into the parkade and I rolled Putt-Putt out onto the busy street, I felt better. My head seemed to be a bit clearer, thanks to the brisk air, and the hazy winter sunlight was making me feel less creeped out by the second. It was weird how his apartment would take on that feeling from time to time. It made me wonder if it had something to do with Abby. Maybe sometimes she just watched us but didn’t make herself known.
I shivered at that thought as we waited to cross the road.
“Cold?” Dex said eyeing me up and down.
I shook my head and pushed the bike across the street. There was a large empty parking lot up ahead, which would be perfect for a few rounds.
“Hold on, I’ve got to get rollies,” Dex said, and quickly ducked into the convenience store beside us. I waited on the sidewalk, avoiding the eyes of the passersby, who were looking at me and my bike and probably assuming I wasn’t cool enough to ride it.
I looked up at the apartment, still visible on the other side of the monorail line.
Abby dead, decaying body was at the balcony window. At least, that’s what it looked like. I froze but kept my eyes locked on her. I stayed that way until Dex came out of the store.
“Guy keeps trying to sell me cigarettes, won’t take no for…” He stopped beside me and followed my gaze across the street to the balcony window.
“Do you see her?” I whispered.
“Yes,” he said, swallowing hard.
“Is…Jenn in danger?”
We looked at each other. We hadn’t thought of that before. We assumed that because we were the only ones who could see her, that she wouldn’t be of harm to anyone else. But what if she was? Jenn was alone in the apartment with her. Jenn was his girlfriend; maybe Abby wanted her all along.
Dex looked like he picked up on that thought. Panic strained through his eyes. “Maybe, just in case, we should go back.”
Even though the light was red, he sprinted across the street, narrowly getting hit by a white sedan that had to slam on its brakes.
I watched him run past the corner and disappear. With my bike in my hands, I had to wait for the light to turn before I could cross. I kept my eyes on the balcony, watching Abby.
She watched me for a few seconds, her grey goo of an eye barely visible against the window glare, then turned her head and disappeared from sight, moving farther back into the apartment.
Come on you fucking light, I thought wildly.
Since it was a one-way street and the traffic had let up, I chanced it and rolled my bike across. Of course, now the problem was, how was I going to get back into the building? I didn’t have a key and I didn’t know if Dex would buzz me in. I didn’t even know if he’d be safe in there.
I waited anxiously by the door, sneaking glances up at the other balcony of their corner suite, the one that came from their bedroom. Finally, tired of waiting and on the verge of a heart attack, I rolled my bike down the steps to the buzzer and buzzed him. It rang and rang with no one picking up. Eventually I stopped and looked around me, hoping someone would come either in or out of the building and let me in. I took out my phone and called him at the same time.
There was no answer. I did simultaneous buzzing and ringing until there was movement inside the lobby and Dex, Jenn and Fat Rabbit walked out of the elevator toward me.
Jenn looked like wrecked and extremely put out as they opened the door and stepped outside to join me. Fat Rabbit was straining at the leash that Dex held, oblivious to what was going on.
“OK, OK, I’m outside,” Jenn said with a grunt and quickly slid her sunglasses down on her face, covering up her tired and ashen eyes. “What the hell is so important that you have to drag me out here?”
“I don’t want to discuss it here,” Dex said. He pointed up the street. “Let’s head to Seattle Center.”
She groaned. “Dex, I just want to go back to bed. I’m not walking anywhere.”
“Please babe,” he pleaded, putting his arm around her. It didn’t help her expression but she relented with a sigh.
We walked off toward Seattle Center and the Space Needle, the same route Dex and I had made on that wet Monday, only now I was awkwardly pushing my bike behind them.
A block into our excursion, near the fountain in the small square, Jenn demanded that we stop. She looked faint and had to lean against Dex. My goodness, she really didn’t do hangovers very well. What a princess.