Experiment in Terror 04 Lying Season (31 page)

Tara pointed at me and asked Angus, “Her? That’s my friend Perry. I thought you two were in the same math class.”

I sighed internally and walked over to them. I gave Angus a shy smile. He was cute but not my type. “No, it’s the same biology class.”

Angus nodded quickly, thinking it over. A flash of recognition came across his freckled face. “Ah, right, Perry. You sit at the back with the Asian dude.”

Actually there were several “Asian dudes” in our class but my partner was Andy Lao.

“
Listen, I better go find Adrianna. I think there are some people who shouldn’t be here.” Angus patted Tara on the shoulder and disappeared into the crowd.

She exhaled all dramatically and threw her hands up in the air. “I can never win.”

“
Oh come on,” I said. “Just forget about him. You know he’s with Adrianna. Go find someone else.”

Tara shook her head angrily. “Easy for you to say. You don’t have anyone and you don’t care about anyone.”

I was a bit shocked at that. Tara made a disgusted noise and then took off into the crowd, going the same way Angus went.

Well that sucked. What did she mean, I didn’t have anyone? I had…well, her. And I had…and what about me not caring about anyone.

I looked around me awkwardly, feeling like I stood out like a sore thumb in this place. Of course, no one was paying attention to me at all. They never did.

I chugged back the rest of my beer that Tara had stolen for me from the fridge and then made my way to the back of the house, squeezing through people, too many of whom couldn’t handle their alcohol.

It wasn’t any better outside. The air was crisp but a few people were puking here and there. Mrs. Gee’s garden was going to be totally obliterated by teenage vomit come morning.

I walked out away from the noise and smell and around the side of the house. I wanted to be alone, needed time to get a hold of my heart, which was racing. I had done a line of coke in the bathroom earlier and it was already wearing off. I didn’t have any more, so I brought out another joint and lit that, taking in a deep breath and slowly exhaling it while keeping my cough to a minimum. My lungs were so used to it now, and this strain was surprisingly gentle to me. Potent as hell though, which is why I liked it.

“
Perry,” I heard someone whisper.

I sprang up from the fence I was leaning against and grabbed at my pounding chest. I couldn’t see anyone in the shadows where the motion detector light didn’t reach, but eventually I heard a shuffling noise and Jacob stepped out in front of me.

The tips of his inky Mohawk sparkled in the light. He was looking unusually pale. The bandages around his wrists were gone and what remained were two vicious looking red welts. Whatever he had used to attempt suicide with must have been jagged in nature. It made me feel sick.

“
I need your help Perry,” he said.

“
Jacob, what are you doing here?” I asked, trying not to sound frightened. He had been so obsessive with me lately, the way he followed me around when people weren’t looking, that it was starting to freak me out. And now, he was here, at this party that he wouldn’t have been invited to.

“
My girl is in there,” he said. His voice sounded strange and metallic. He nodded at the house. “Adrianna. I’ve come to free her. And help you.”

“
First of all, Adrianna is not your girl. She’s with Angus. I’m sure you can go plan a line of attack with my friend Tara, she’d be happy to take him off your hands, but for now, those two are a couple. Get the net. And, help me…help me with what?”

I took a smaller toke of my joint and offered it to him. He shook his head and pushed my hand away.

“
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.