Volume
One: The Road Out
Chapter One
Verse Five: Linking Rings
Marion trudged out the side entrance to
Allons-Y Books, passing through the Comet Coffee Shop that was
attached to each Allons-Y Bookstore. He would normally have grabbed a
Green Tea Latte, but didn't feel comfortable spending money this
time. Today could not have gone worse as far as Marion could tell. He
ran back over his situation in his head, trying to get a handle on
the scope to which his life had fallen apart and begun to split at
the seams. Marion knew that he was not the most put together of
people, his mind wandered and although he felt that he was smarter
than most people he met, he was acutely aware that his thinking did
not proceed in a manner that most people knew how to interact with
easily. Marion had felt adrift in his life, isolated from social
interaction by what seemed to be a translation barrier. People did
not think his mental language and he did not think theirs. They
shared a spoken language but somehow this did not translate into a
common language of thought.
Even his best friend, Harley Night, did
not think as Marion did. That was probably for the best, the two men
were each others crutches. Harley was utterly predictable and loved
rules and systems. He loved back up plans and redundancies. The fact
that the got along would have been considered a miracle if there were
not a much simpler answer available. The two had been friends since
the first grade. They had known immediately that they needed to be
friends. Their names being day and night, when the two boys met they
had realized that they either needed to become best friends or
arch-enemies, possibly both eventually. Family had argued that the
two had become so different precisely because they were friends;
offloading tasks to the other until the two friends were so
specialized that they almost didn't count as two people anymore.
Marion knew that if anyone could help him get through this rough
patch, it was his best friend since the first grade: Harley Night.
Marion reached into his pocket and
brought out his Samsung Ace to call Harley for advise.
Harley didn't answer on the first ring,
which he normally did. Marion wondered if Harley was in a meeting.
Harley worked for Pandora Data Storage Systems, a company that stored
huge amounts of electronic data for companies that couldn't afford to
maintain their own data. Harley was in the Data Coordination
Department, although what that mean was beyond Marion's continued
attempts at understanding. Harley's job seemed to Marion to be a
cross between constantly cleaning one's room and doing far more math
than any human should ever do when not involved in sending humans to
Jupiter. On the third ring Harley answered.
"Harley Night speaking, I can hear
you."
"Hi Harley, its Marion. How are
feeling?"
"I'm fine Marion. What's up? I'm
at work."
"I think I'm in trouble. They had
me work really late last night and wanted me to come in early on top
of that. And I was so tired I didn't wake up from my alarm, because I
was having a really creepy dream that still won't go away. I mean,
I'm had several flashes of the dream while I've been awake- and it's
like prophetic future telling dream, so that's creepy. And Mrs.
Trilby thinks I have a tumor like John Travolta in Phenomenon. And I
forgot to put on my pants so I had to break into my place through the
back window, and I broke it- the window not my place. And Mr. Grimly
is yelling threats at me and I was late for work. But I didn't get
caught, not for being late anyway I don't think. But I got in trouble
for helping a delivery guy, which is a really dumb reason to yell at
an employee, so I think he was just looking for an excuse. Which
means I think Mr. Wheately wants to fire me and he's just looking for
a reason.And the delivery guy was really spooky too, like he knew
about my hallucinations. And then I won't be able to pay my rent and
Mr. Grimly will evict me and I won't have a job or a place, and I'm
really kind of freaking out. So, you know, I could really use some
good rock solid Harley advice."
The silence on the line was not
encouraging. Marion could hear Harley breathing through the phone
line.
"Harley, man? I'm freaking out, I
need to know what to do. You know you're all I got. Don't leave me
hanging."
"Marion, you need to lie low, stay
away from places where you can rock the boat. How's your finances?"
"I gave Mrs. Trilby that money to
help her when she was short that money to pay for her cat's surgery.
I haven't got a paycheque since then. I'm overdrawn on my bank
account and I need the paycheck to pay my rent and make a payment on
my VISA so that don't cancel my card."
"So, you're not just tight, you're
over the limit. That doesn't give us any wiggle room to work with. My
company isn't showing the positive growth numbers this quarter that
people were predicting, and so nobody is likely to be getting any
bonuses. I've heard rumors of people being offered early retirement
packages, which never bodes well. The whispers have me a little
nervous, they don't add up to anything good. So I don't know that I
have room in the budget to help you much. You've got whatever I can
offer, but it may not be much. So lay low, tone down the Marion meter
from Marion to corporate drone and don't give anyone any reason to
fire you. You're a customer service clerk in a book store, and you
sell a lot of books. Just stop pissing people off and they'll ignore
you for bigger problems. Do you hear what I'm saying Marion?"
"I'm trying to do that. But I'm
not doing so great. I'm seeing stuff. I told you. I saw Men in Black
guys watching me from the alley when I broke back into my apartment.
And while I was in my apartment I had this hallucination of a phoenix
like out of Harry Potter flying through all sorts of weird places and
then landing in deep space and watching a little girl trapped in some
kind of giant space spider's web. The whole thing creeped me out and
Mrs. Trilby thinks it means that I have a brain tumor. I mean, I
didn't tell her about the phoenix vision."
"You don't have a tumor Marion."
"I don't think so either, but what
I'm trying to say, is that it feels like I can't keep things under
control, even as well as normal. I'm seeing things, and it's not like
I'm very good at acting normal most times. How do I act normal when
I'm going all possessed prophet on everyone? I walked out of the
house without pants today Harley. That's weird even for me."
Harley was silent. Marion wanted to
keep rambling, but restrained himself and waited.
"Have you seen anything weird
since getting to work?" Harley asked at last.
"Not so far. Just a creepy dream.
Forgetting my pants. Seeing an agent like in the Matrix. And a full
blown hallucination of a Phoenix in deep space. But no, nothing since
I got to work. But if it happens when I'm on the floor talking to a
customer then I'm doomed."
"You could call in sick, explain
that you're seeing things and think you might have a concussion."
"Wheately would find a way to fire
me. He would say that I was lying."
"You could apologize and say you
feel light headed as soon as a hallucination hits, then the customer
would probably be sympathetic rather than angry."
"If I remember to say it. I sat
like a moron for the Phoenix hallucination."
"Stop looking for reasons to fail
Marion."
"I'm not looking for reasons to
fail. I am afraid of what will happen in anything goes wrong. It
feels like I could get fired at any moment. It feels like everything
is hanging by a thread about to snap."
"You could always go back to
school. Get a teaching degree."
"That's a long term plan. I don't
have money to feed myself or put a roof over my head if I lose this
job."
"I'm not letting you starve,
you're my best friend."
"You just said you didn't have any
wiggle room."
"I don't care. I won't let you
starve unless we starve together."
"Amy would love to hear that."
"Amy would understand."
"No, she wouldn't. Amy has hated
me since we met. She doesn't like the fact that you've known me
longer than you will ever had known her. She thinks she needs to one
up me or something. She doesn't like me at all."
"You're a good person and she's a
good person, we can work things out if, and only if, it comes to
that, but keep your head down and do your job in the most mediocre
and boring way possible and it won't come to that. Can you do that
for me.?"
"I can do that as long as I'm
lucky and don't start going all Oracle of Delphi again."
Harley didn't answer. Initially Marion
thought that this must be due to his friend trying to think of more
strategies to manage the hallucinations, and then Marion became aware
of his surroundings and realized that he wasn't in the Park courtyard
beside Allons-Y Books anymore, but standing in a large vaguely Dark
Ages looking village beside a Motte and Bailey Castle.
People wandered the streets of the
village. Soldiers stood on wooden watchtowers that sat interspersed
on the out wall of the village and a few walked with large spears
through the village. The ground was a grey clay mud and the logs used
everywhere in construction were painted with some kind of white
paint. Pale straw thatch was the only real color visible. The
soldiers dressed in black and white cloaks and surcoats.
As Marion was taking all of this, a
human like figure in tattered grey rags with wide eyes and sharp
teeth peered out from behind a building. Marion saw it and recognized
it from his earlier dream as a Wendigo. Other people had seen the
Wendigo as well and people began screaming.
Marion shook his head in frustration.
"Why can't I be lucky? Am I
wearing the wrong underwear? Does the universe have something against
Astro Boy?"
The Wendigo stared at Marion, and then
charged.
