CHAPTER FIVE
Perry
When I opened my eyes on the other side, I was in Bryant Park. But there were no people about. There was no sound. There was no real smell, except for a stale, musty odor, like the inside of an old, upholstered car on a hot day. Except it was no longer hot, like the hazy sun above Manhattan. It was cold enough to make my breath turn to cloud and my lungs to burn with each breath.
That was to say, of course, that I was even breathing air.
I turned around, wondering if I could find my way back to the other side. The air shimmered right behind me, though it looked like it was growing more faint by the moment. I could barely see the toilet on the other side and I wondered how long I had before Ada or Maximus or some New Yorker who really had to piss, would start banging on it. I couldn’t remember if time stood still while you were in the Veil or if it went on as usual. I couldn’t remember if there were any rules.
Fear pricked at the back of my neck but I straightened my shoulders, refusing it. I couldn’t start panicking now at what I had done. I had to follow through. I would whatever it took in order to find him or Pippa.
But where the fuck did I even start? This world was grey and devoid of life. Where were the lost souls, the reluctant dead? Hell, I’d even welcome the giant woodbugs and earthworms that I had seen once before.
Maybe no one knows you’re here, I thought quickly to myself. Maybe that’s a very good thing.
I made a mental note to keep quiet and stop wishing. I began to walk across the park and to the street, past the bench that Ada and Maximus would be sitting on the other side of things. I wondered if they could sense me, hovering behind their existence. Part of me wanted to stay there, feeling safe and tethered to them but the other, more desperate part, needed to go on.
I walked up and down the streets, keeping quiet and sticking to the walls of buildings, hiding in the shadows that formed despite there being no sun in the sky, just this grimy dead light that hanged above you.
For blocks there was nothing. The chill in the air lessened its hold on me, but my footfalls still had only a whisper of sound. I felt like I was walking inside a miniature city kept inside a jar, with only a few holes poked at the top.
I don’t know where I was going, my feet were not being consciously moved, but considering I had no other ideas, I just went with it and walked and walked.
Finally, I saw something.
Or, should I say, it saw me.
There was a grandiose building –a bank I think – with a row of wide, dusty steps leading up to stately-looking pillars, Grecian-style. At the top of the steps was a man, pacing back and forth.
At least I thought it was a man. As I came closer, my pace slowing, I could see some things were off about him. He moved with jerks, like a marionette puppet and his pants seemed too thin, too flexible, like he didn’t actually have any legs under there at all.
He also had no eyes and no nose – just black, crusted over cavities that I imagined would be bright red in another world.
I swallowed my revulsion. Then he turned his bald head toward me and I knew he saw me. Revulsion turned to fear.
Who are you? he asked quietly in my head. To my surprise, there was a note of fear in his voice too. I know you’re there.
I kept my mouth closed, wondering if maybe he couldn’t see me after all.
He reached into his suit pocket, then bent down and placed something on the ground. Two black and white creatures – insects – skittered down the stairs toward me. The closer they got, I realized they were giant cockroaches. But that wasn’t all there was to them.
The insects stopped a few feet away and my mouth dropped open. I took a step back, my hand flying to my lips to keep the bile inside.
The cockroaches didn’t have heads. Instead they had an eyeball each. Human eyeballs, staring right at me from skewed angles, their optic nerves forged onto the legs of the insects, like veiny armor.
Who are you? The voice repeated, and now I knew he could see me. Where did you come from?
It took a moment to gather my words. I’m looking for someone. Can you help me?
The cockroaches skittered closer to each other, their legs making a scritch-scritch sound on the pavement that seemed impossibly loud in this airless world.
The voice laughed but when I looked up at the man who was still standing on the steps of the bank, he was motionless.
I can help you, he said, no more than you can help me. You are here where I don’t wish to be. He paused and my gaze darted down to the cockroach eyeballs that were beginning to dance excitedly. You could get me out of here. There are so many people I wish to see.
Was he starting to rhyme all Dr. Seuss on my ass?
I ignored his plea. Like hell I was going to help him cross over to my world so he could start haunting people. I’m looking for a woman, I told him, she used to live in here.
Here is a large world, the man said, and the cockroaches scampered right up to my feet. I fought the violent urge to step on them and squish the eyeballs into the ground. But who knew what ire I’d draw if I did that. I needed to stay calm and play it safe.
Her name is Pippa, I said. Or was Pippa. The last image I had of her was that she was skin and bone and she was dying. I could only hope she was still around, but if she wasn’t, then I prayed she was somewhere where she was finally at rest. If the man with the detached eyeballs was any indication, the Thin Veil was not a world where you found rest or peace.
I went on. She said things would happen here, in New York. To be more precise, she had said “That’s where I saw you, Perry. When I first used the Veil to look into your life. It’s where Dex and Michael were born, brought into this world. Where both Dex and I were put away. It’s the beginning of so many horrors. And I believe it will be the end.”
This is not New York, the man said, even though I could see a glimpse of the Chrysler building through the glass office building opposite us. This is not anywhere. You will find no one here except poor souls like me.
Suddenly the man started walking down the stairs toward me and while my attention was on his body, the cockroaches began to crawl up my legs. I shuddered and shrieked, swatting at them in automatic horror.
The man was sprinting now, yelling out in pain as I managed to knock the cockroaches to the ground and leap backwards out of the way. They reared up on their back legs and waved sharp incisors at me, ready to take a bite.
I screamed again as they came for me and turned quickly on my heel. I ran as fast I could through the grey streets, hearing his footsteps after me and the scratching sound of the insect legs as they scraped over the concrete.
Thankfully I didn’t have to run for too long before the man and his eyeballs seemed to give up the chase. It didn’t make me feel any better – if something like him was here, then what else was? But at least I was out of immediate danger.
Unfortunately I was no better off than before. The man had never heard of Pippa, and even if he had, he wasn’t about to help me find her. Perhaps I should have struck some kind of bargain with him – you help me and then I’ll help you. But who knew what would happen if I brought that monstrosity back to the other side with me. Probably not a lot of good.
I stopped and looked around. Something about the place was familiar, though I didn’t know how. Just a feeling I had. I looked around at the buildings, down the empty street, wondering why buildings were here but cars were not.
Out of the corner of my eye something was moving. I cautiously turned my head and saw a black, hairy spider the size of a fucking cat crawl behind a row of stairs, its solid body and foot-long legs disappearing one by one.
Holy shit. Forget the noseless man with the eyeball roaches – a spider the size of a cat was another thing entirely. My whole body immediately went numb with terror and I stood there for a long time, waiting for it to come back out, debating if I should turn around and head the other way.
But something was compelling me to keep walking forward and when I noticed the air starting to fill with fluttering snowflakes, I knew what it was. Where I was.
The Brooklyn Bridge was just around the corner.
I gathered up what strength I had and tried to shake the cold flakes off my shoulders. Taking in a deep breath, I walked as briskly and as quietly as possible past the area where the spider had disappeared.
I had to look, of course, as I walked past. I only saw shadows and in those shadows, the sickly gleam of hundreds of eyes clumped together, shining like quarters as they watched me pass.