The Onset of A Panic Situation
Part
4
Christine informed me of the problem with Alan on the drive to Jerry's, so when I got there, I made myself comfortable on the floor at Jerry's feet (he was still asleep), laid my head on his knees and fell asleep with him.
Alan was still on the floor in the hall when I crossed over from my conscious to my subconscious mind, but he was pale and didn't look like himself.
"How long's he been like this?" I asked, kneeling down next to him.
"Tack on about 5 minutes before Chris came to get you," Naomi replied, casually flipping a penny in her hand. "So can ya fix 'im and get him outta the way fairly quick? We're in the middle of a game here."
I gave her a "show some respect" look, then turned to Christine. "And you're sure he's not just snowing us? This has been a problem before..."
Christine shook her head. "I know how Alan works now. He's serious. I think he's even dying, Daina," she confided.
I sighed, wondering how to help the guy. Christine wasn't gonna let me live if I didn't; evil as he'd been to us, he had somehow become her welfare case lately. "Has he said anything?" I asked.
Almost on cue, Alan clutched at my arm feebly. "Go help Jerry," he gasped. "She...exorcised Stevie..."
"Omigod," Chris whispered.
"She?" I echoed.
"S-She what?" Naomi asked in disbelief, her coin dropping to the floor. She suddenly grew ashen and got down near Alan, taking his other hand.
"...trying to...get...me," Alan breathed. His eyes flew open suddenly, as if something had just appeared in front of him and he gripped both of us tighter. "Don't let her take me!" he begged, looking at Naomi, then back at whatever he was seeing. "I'm not that evil, I swear, I swear...!"
"Alan..." she began almost desperately, but he screamed a bloodcurdling scream and disappeared completely.
No one spoke for a few tense moments.
"I think he just said something," Christine said in a low voice.
"No shit," I breathed.
"Who is she?" Naomi asked quietly
"What am I, over there or here with you?" I asked, not really wanting to be sarcastic, but too without answers to feel secure.
"Okay," she said, calmly standing up and pulling out her gun. "I'll tell you who she was when I get back."
"I'll pick up her pieces," Christine offered wryly, jumping up after her.
I looked at Naomi and Chris, realizing that they were potentially about to commit suicide.
"Sit," I said, standing up.
Naomi gave me a look. "You must be drunk," she said, moving to go around me.
"I'm serious," I said, putting out a hand to stop her. "I don't know what the deal is over there, but whatever or whomever it is got Alan from here," I said, pointing at the ground with conviction. "Who knows what would happen to the two of you over there?"
Naomi blinked at me as if trying to understand how I could be so stupid. "Didn't you see what happened???" she screamed. "She killed him!!! He's gone forever and I'll never see him again and you want me to just sit here????"
"Yes," said Christine quietly. "Because you going and getting killed is not going to bring Alan back." Naomi looked down at Christine with that same lost look and Christine solemnly slipped her hand inside Naomi's. Suddenly, Naomi's face began to crumple and she turned away from us both with one hand clamped tightly over her eyes and the other clasping Christine's hand just as hard.
Alan?, I mouthed at Chris. She gestured for me to lean over, then whispered,
"She's been going over to see him every night since that one time."
"What one time?" I asked. Christine gave me a look that told me not only did I already know what she meant, but that the subject was taboo. "Ohhhhh!" I said, expressing my understanding, then added, "Ohhhh," as I realized now how Alan dying in front of Naomi in such a terrible way would most certainly affect her. "Well, if she really was secretly...y'know, with him, then why didn't she freak out about him before?"
"I don't think she really expected him to die," Christine said softly. "I know I didn't."
"Maybe I should talk to her..." I said, but Chris shook her head.
"No," she said. "You go do what you gotta do. You're the only one who's real, Daina. Jerry needs that, not entities like us. And maybe if you beat whatever's over there, Alan and Stevie will come back, just like we do."
"Right," I said, but secretly, I wasn't so sure. Alan and Stevie, in a sense, were real, too, so if they had really been exorcised, they might not have a prayer.
Which meant that Jerry might not either and that went double for me.
I gave Chris a quick hug, then willed my laser sword into my hand from out of its secret ceiling panel in my room. Chris gasped. "Do you think it's that bad?" she asked, knowing I never took my weapon if it wasn't.
"I don't know what it is yet," I replied, "but just in case."
Actually, I was sort of lying. I, in fact, had a pretty good idea of what was going on in Jerry's subconscious.
Jerry, apparently, had found a new special friend.
"That's gotta hurt," said Julie to Jerry turning her face
upside down to look at him.
Jerry gave her a wry
look that suggested something other than a cordial response. "Fuck
you," he muttered.
"You don't swing
that way," she smiled.
"If I thought it
would hurt you, I would," he smiled back.
"You're funny,"
she said, pushing him a little to remind him of the position he was in.
Presently, he was hanging upside down from a rope tied around his bare ankles.
His wrists were tied together behind his back and the rope leading from them
was attached to the floor. Neither bond had any slack, so the slightest
movement pulled muscles Jerry never dreamed he had in excrutiatingly
painful ways.
"Don't...do
that," he groaned, his voice strained with pain as he slowly stopped
swinging.
Julie laughed. "You
do swing real good this way," she said. "I'm tempted to swing
on you myself." She moved toward him again as if to wrap her arms around
him and hang on.
"New subject!"
he said quickly and she stopped with a shrug.
"Yes?"
"What happened to Stevie?" he asked.
She shrugged again,
pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "Don't know," she said.
"I couldn't use him, so I just dumped him. I did use Alan, though."
"Alan's gone,"
Jerry said. "He got away from you."
"Well, he's
definitely gone..." she agreed with a grin, but her tone suggested she had
more that she wasn't saying.
Jerry frowned. She could
actually get to Alan from whereever he'd gone and
Jerry knew that it must have been a long way, maybe even Daina's
subconscious. "For what?" he finally asked.
"What did I use him
for?" she asked, exhaling smoke. "For the little bit of evil he
actually had."
"What's that
supposed to mean?"
She smiled and he
sighed. That smile was really getting to him. Every time she did it, she always
followed up with...
"Let's play a
game," said Julie.
"Aww shit..." Jerry groaned.
"No, this isn't
going to be painful, I swear," she said.
"Yeah,
right."
"I give you my
word." Jerry looked at her in surprise. He and Daina
used that as their signal for complete honesty. How Julie had known to say it
was beyond him.
"Well, it's not
like I have a choice, is it?" he grumbled.
"Not really,"
she agreed. His ropes fell away and he did too, hitting the ground almost on
his head.
"Oww, damn!" he griped. "You said...!"
"The game
wouldn't be painful, silly," she said. A big screen tv appeared next to her with a strange, but familiar
looking machine hooked up to it. "You like video games?" she asked.
"Yeah," he
responded warily.
"Good," she
said. "I win, I get what I want, you win, you get
what you want. Deal?"
Jerry shrugged.
"Whatever." He picked up the controller and watched the word "Subdoom" appear on the screen
in bright red and black. This could be cool, he thought, except...what's the
catch? What's tied into my winning or losing this game? "What's the idea
of this game?" he asked aloud.
"It's like a
maze," she said. "You have to find as many obstacles as
possible."
"What do you do
after that?"
"If you're still
alive, you find the end."
"Two player
game?" he asked.
"One," she
returned.
"So what do you
do?" he said, thinking he had found a catch.
"Nothing," she
shrugged. "Just watch you."
"Then how can you
win?"
"I win if you don't
find them all. There are five."
"And that's
it?"
"That's it."
Jerry scanned Julie's
face. He was pretty sure he'd covered all the bases, and her face looked
honest enough. And after all, it was only a video game. How bad could it be?
"You're going
down," he said, grabbing the controller.
"I hope so,"
she smiled.