Cul de sac, p.20
Cul-De-Sac, page 20
“Oh... Got it, then. We need to clear this room.” That was just looking into the closet, gun drawn, and even if it was kind of funny, Calley looked under the bed. As if the thing from his dreams might just have hidden there, for safety.
It was cute, but did leave him glad he’d vacuumed under there, a few days before.
“Clear. All clear.” Then the woman, who wasn’t old seeming and had a slightly big eared and goofy look to her forty-odd something seeming face, nodded. “Can you cover what happened, Jake?”
He nodded and tried to be exacting.
“It was a dream. I think a real one, but I’m not certain. I was on a...” He stopped then. “That’s... actually classified. I mean, for real? Let’s just... I was on a type of spaceship, at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, just leaving it. A white mantis like alien, Wallace, my old imaginary friend from when I was little, you know, a few months ago? They told me that it was coming and that I had to wake up. In my dream, the man of fire came. The one who killed my parents. That...”
He waved his left arm.
“My arm started to hurt. It wasn’t just the scar or remembering burning. It also felt like when the reality anchor is doing something. I only felt that twice. It’s distinctive and this was different. I told the being on fire that I knew it now. That it couldn’t harm me. I punched it. It turned into a man. That was still hazy, but it wasn’t anyone I know, I could tell that much. I said something, but I can’t remember what that was now. It ran off, toward the window of the ship, which, there was a twisting, so that... There, the wall? Wallace, the mantis, got me to wake up, and when I sat up, the floor and wall were smoking and had those marks on it.”
He pointed, the others looking at the floor.
“I don’t suppose you see them, too?” There was pointing, without getting up from the edge of the bed.
Not that he couldn’t move, of course. He just wasn’t certain what was going on. Until he had a clue, doing something that would free a threat from his mind was a bad plan.
Calley pointed.
“Three boot prints. You can see the heel outline, and I think there’s a faint tread pattern to them. We need to get pictures. High resolution. They appear to lead to the wall, where it looks a bit like an impact pattern. Humaniform, upper torso and one arm, as well as partial head impact.” She mimicked the move that would be needed for that to have happened. Even holding it, it seemed a bit panicked.
Ken took his time, then nodded.
“Confirmed on the apparent footsteps. Three burn marks. The wall might not be what you think. I’ll go and collect the video and camera gear from the vehicle. Don’t move or touch anything, Jake. Are you good? You don’t need the bathroom or anything?” There was a grin then, which contrasted with the deathly serious tone of even a half moment before.
“I’m fine. Worried that this whatever it was might be from inside of me? If so, then I... Probably did kill my parents. I don’t want that to be true.” He tensed then. “If it is... Then I’ll stop it.”
He teared up but didn’t bawl like a baby. Calley snorted.
“We get that you won’t leave a threat like that in the world. We don’t know enough to think that at all, yet, however. Even the footprints tell a different story. They’re only moving away from the bed. Actually... No, go and get the cams first, Ken. We’ll wait here.”
They did that, not talking. It was, as most investigations were, a bit boring. The man came back, and took video first, then pictures, including of Jake in bed. Calley put her left hand out.
“Now, stand on the bed and jump over toward the door. I want to move some things here, but carefully. I have a theory. Let’s see if I’m even close.”
Jacob got to do the jumping thing, which seemed too playful for an actual investigation, and then Calley and Ken, working together, moved the bed. Right at the side, under the bed itself, were two more footprints, side by side. Burned deeply into the rug. All the way to the wooden floor beneath. Into that, in fact.
They got more pictures then, with Calley acting the whole thing out for them.
“These are likely the first two prints. The deepest ones, and were under the bed, so the thing, whatever it was, stood there for some time. The bed had to be interacting with it, but that isn’t showing. Possibly because the damage is internal to the bed itself? We need to check that. Order a new bed, Ken. We need to take this one for examination. Then, when startled into running the person jumped and twisted, like this...”
The movement looked a bit funny, but Ken nodded.
“That seems to match what we have here. Then two more steps, to the wall. Scorched, but there’s no actual fire that came from it. Some kind of... I don’t know. I’ve never seen this before. We need some experts in on this.”
Agreeing, Calley turned to look at Jake, standing in the doorway to the bedroom.
“You felt pain, too? Is there any way we can confirm that wasn’t just a dream artifact?” Her tone said a lot, and indicated she doubted that.
Except that he did have something that might work.
“Actually, call Sophie and ask if she felt anything from the anchor? If not, then, well, it was probably just me and probably imagination or... Well, I didn’t imagine those into being.” He pointed at the footprints, his bed resting against the wall on the left, on its side.
That got a snort and a grin from the woman in charge.
“There is that, isn’t there? Let me call this in.”
She left the room, pushing past him on the way out, but holding him in place for it, as if the idea was for him not to move at all. He just waited, since what he didn’t know about crime scene investigation was vast. For one thing, he didn’t even know if this one counted as a crime at all. He’d had a dream, and there was damage.
It might not, given that.
About five minutes later, Calley walked back in, her face a bit weird seeming. Not wry, exactly, but a bit bemused. She looked at Ken, who was getting the third round of video, trying to hit different angles.
Her voice was a bit soft.
“We have a reality anchor event for almost exactly the time you were dreaming, Jake. She said that it felt like a reality warper doing their thing, instead of a breach from outside our reality.”
The two guards, Calley in uniform, Ken in jeans and a green military style undershirt, both looked at each other. The lady, however, shook her head.
“Sophie also said that it was, with one hundred percent assurance, not Jake. Not even subconsciously. He’s linked to the anchor, which means that if he was a warper, he wouldn’t be one now. Not unless he was a relative of hers, which he simply isn’t. So, this wasn’t you. You didn’t create this or make it happen in any way. Clearly, it was still coming for you, and it interacted with your dreams, so that might be important to know, for later. At this point, we don’t even know if it was an attack or not.”
He could see that, so waved at the floor again.
“I wasn’t burned to death, so maybe not. Then, it didn’t try to chat me up, or ask me out for drinks, either. Not that I noticed. If it didn’t want me dead, why come at all? If it did... Why bother failing like this. Also, why? I’m not important and don’t know anything...” Except that he did.
Not a lot. Just some names and a mental image of some blueprints, but there was certain classified information in his head. For a moment, not meaning to, the knowledge of what he really knew came forward. He fought it back. After all, someone was hunting him, probably for the things he knew that a lot of people wanted and very few could be trusted with.
“What if... Could the goal be to stop information about a classified operation from getting out? To keep it from being used? This... If it was the government, wouldn’t they just tell you guys to off me? Or get General Hogarth and his men to do it? I don’t know, I get hit with a stray bullet, or a car in a hit and run, or something? This is a bit obvious, if it was them doing it, right?”
Calley tightened, but Ken just looked around, the video camera pointed at Jake.
His voice was calm and collected.
“Almost certainly. We have too much access to you to waste a resource like this on you, like you were suggesting. Which probably means that it isn’t the government doing this. Not in any official fashion. Reality warpers tend to be rare. We kill them, or turn them to our side, if we can. They aren’t used for direct assassinations like this seems to be, however. That could mean... Thousands of different things. Right now, we need to protect Jake from the next attack.”
Calley stopped and then tilted her head.
“Do we?”
Ken looked slightly baffled then.
“Um, yes? That seems like SOP.”
There was a bit of bobbing from the uniformed lady, for about ten seconds.
“Okay, I get that, but in his dream, Jake told the being or person something and hit them. It ran then. Jake isn’t burned, even if that seems like the most likely outcome. He’s linked to a reality anchor and this being seems to be a reality warper... We don’t know if it ran in fear or not, but it didn’t try to fight, or hurt him. You didn’t do anything else to it? In the dream?”
He tried to think back, then shook his head.
“It had grabbed me, but I wasn’t burned. I hit it, but my hand is fine. I could feel it, but it... Really, it just felt like hands. I... The flames went away. There was a face and... Clothing. I remember it had that. Not the colors, or what it was. I think it was a guy? Then it turned and sort of became all covered in glowing again. Not... not exactly on fire, but that’s as close as I can get to describing it.”
The woman waved at him then. It was a lazy thing.
“So, for the moment, I don’t think we need to protect Jake from this thing at all. This person. We just need to make sure he has a chance to take it, if it comes back. It might not at all, given that it just ran away. Not unless it’s really important for you to not be living. As for the classified material... I’ll make some calls? I can’t know what you’re talking about there. We need to get someone in who does or is allowed to learn.”
That was a bit cryptic sounding, even if he also kind of understood it.
He was on his own, as far as fighting the flame man, it seemed. Only, she hadn’t said that at all. Calley had simply indicated that he might be able to do that, and if he could, Jake should.
After a while, he was taken to the living room, and had to go over the story another six times, as people came and took his bed away. Then, rather efficiently, they brought in a new one. The people doing the work even provided new sheets and a comfortable looking spread to go on it. A shiny burgundy one. Then, at about three in the afternoon, everyone just left him sitting there. Waiting for the monster to come back. Armed with only a radio.
So, he made some food, then sat there, studying plumbing. Nothing happened of course. Even that night, waking up every hour or two, ready to fight or run, nothing did. Even his dreams were just boring things. Regular ones, of him going for a hike, at a lake, with Clara, Sophie and some kid, a guy, who he didn’t know. They were chased around by a monster, for some reason. He had a gun on him, even if that was illegal. They called for help, but ended up having to kill the thing, by pushing it into the water and holding it under.
Then when it came up, dead, it was just a man. He woke up before they’d worked out how to hide the body.
Not that Jake didn’t already know the answer there. He’d just call the number he knew and have the body picked up for cremation. Easy.
That day, Tuesday, he spent most of his time tending lawns, and making sure that everything was ready for the first of the animals to come the next day. Also, the materials for Mr. Prentis’s altar. Honestly, he was mainly puttering in the garage, when night came, and was just about to ask for someone to give him a ride home, when the radio spoke to him.
For him, in fact, which was different. It had happened before, but not at night, or near it.
“Jake, are you on?”
He had to grab his sling bag, and bring it around, to grab the radio inside.
“Here. At the garage.” He didn’t ask why. That wasn’t how it was done. If they wanted to know more from him, they’d ask.
The other person, sounding like Henry, spoke again.
“We need cleanup in blue? Blood on cement. Bring the pressure washer? Also, a guard, for while you work. There’s been a bit of a tense scene, but letting it dry all night won’t make it easier to hide. We also need a body taken care of.”
“Understood. Just one body? Adult?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll call that in and be there directly.” He didn’t say out, since he might still be needed on the line. He didn’t know. He was just some kid, who could check out the pressure washer.
That and get a body removed. Possibly even at night. Just in case it wasn’t going to work that way, he ran in and called for pickup, at the front desk, then loaded the trailer and added in a nearly empty box of heavy plastic gloves, the yellow kind used for washing dishes on television, and some clear heavy plastic they could wrap a body in. Also, a tarp, to hide it, if that became needed.
That turned out to be a good thing, he realized, about ten minutes later, as he pulled up to blue three. It was the obvious place, given all of the still visible blood in the front, which was mainly on the grass. How he was going to clean that off, he didn’t know.
There did seem to be a body, but it was, mainly, in chunks. Some of them were big, like most of the torso and the head was intact. That was a man. One who didn’t look familiar at all, thankfully. Standing to the side was Henry, along with Julio and Faraday. They all seemed uneasy. Jake just pretended like it was an ordinary thing.
“We need to package up the body. Someone help me lay out the tarp first? We’ll put plastic over that, and then fill it.” Like a death burrito. He didn’t say that part out loud, thankfully.
A kid, who was pale, blond and seemed a bit shaken, walked over, away from the clutch of equally light skinned adults. He rubbed at his short, bleached blond hair. The boy looked to be about his own age, or a bit older.
“Bix?”
There was blinking then.
“Yeah. You know me? Have we met?”
“Nope. I had a dream with you in it last night. Only, you know, you were shorter and had black hair, and didn’t look like you? Sophia Lewis mentioned you the other day. I think she was trying to set us up or at least get you a handjob.” It was probably a bad idea to mention, if he wasn’t going to pay off.
Except the kid laughed.
“That bitch. She knows I’m not gay. How do we do this? Clean this up? This is... Uncle Roger frenzied. It... He’s normally pretty cool. We have him in the basement, locked in a coffin.”
Jake winced.
“I hope he’s all right. We have it set up for this to be taken to be cremated, but we need to pack the body up and then clean the area as best as we can. Here, the tarp first. I have gloves, for the chunky bits.” He winced again. “God. I hope this guy wasn’t a friend of yours?”
The boy looked away, but walked toward the trailer, at the same time.
“Roger’s main blood donor. Danson. I don’t know his last name. He was nice. I don’t know what sent Roger over the edge like this. I mean, I saw it happening. We tried to pull him off, but he transformed and... Anyway... Blue tarp first?”
That was the order he wanted. First the tarp, which was sturdy and couldn’t be seen through, then the clear plastic, which could be, but would, hopefully, give them an extra layer of protection. Not that he wasn’t getting blood all over himself.
Bix got gloves, but as he put his own on, Jake stopped.
“Oh, um, you’re part vampire? Is this too hard for you? With the blood like this? For that matter should we move the others inside?” He blinked. “By we, I mean you, of course.”
There was a nod then.
“No one will frenzy, but that isn’t a bad call. It smells delicious out here.” The pale boy, who was probably about six-four, waved at his family. “We’ve got this. You can go inside? This will take a while.”
That wasn’t wrong. The guards didn’t help with the cleanup. Not because they weren’t willing, just because Jake waved them back. He had two pairs of gloves and the other one was on Bix. The guy did his share of the work though and while a bit shredded, Danson the corpse was mainly in four large pieces. One of those reeked, like shit, but by not breathing and wrapping quickly, they made the worst of that go away. Then he got the gloves from Bix and took his own off, since getting blood all over the trailer and pressure washer would be a pain.
Really, he needed to bring more gloves with him, if it happened again. The whole thing was gross, but he didn’t gag at any point and the cement was easy to clean. That meant doing the street as well and washing the grass didn’t work. It tried to tear it up, unless they used a regular hose. At that point, it didn’t seem to do much at all.
In the end, he took off with a dead body, being followed by Julio and Faraday, as Henry went inside to talk to the family. No one else looked through their windows or anything. Then, there had been no lights and sirens to keep them all awake.
At two in the morning, there was a military truck out front of Terrace Springs, waiting for the delivery. The men who got out both seemed serious and a bit scared, for some reason. Jake just waved.
“Help me with this? Take the tarp. There’s plastic inside and so far...” He looked as they helped move the body. “No leaks. Oh, take these gloves and trash too? Incinerate it, please? There’s blood all over it. We need to make this vanish. Totally.” Somehow.
The military guys worked fast and left without saying much. There were no forms to sign, even. Then, feeling tired, he turned and took the trailer to the garage, unloading the power washer and inspecting the whole thing to make certain there was no blood anywhere. There was a bit, so he sprayed it down, over the storm drain in the parking lot, using a regular green hose. Then he loaded the whole thing up, and grabbed some flowers in pots, which were sitting over by the side of the garage. Two bigger evergreen shrubs and three large bags of bark dust, to use as ground cover. Some black plastic, as well, since his plan was to leave the blood on the grass, and hide it, by taking the sod up and flipping it, then covering that with plastic. That meant he needed dirt too, so got three bags of that, planning for a slightly raised island. One that would curve around the front of the lawn.
