New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Page 5

  He squeezed his eyes tight and tried to will himself awake, but the dream was unbreakable.

  So there he lay, feeling as if he were wrinkling smaller in the alien light, drying out to a dusty ch that

  whispered away in the breeze, scattering through an incommensurable darkness.Black.

  A darkness that was palpable. A thick oozing mass of black. Immense galleries of space, choirs of distance and at their centre, a mountain of black convulsing, engulfing all sound, all light.

  With a terrible shriek, Henley wrenched awake. He was in a bed in a darkened room.

  He was sitting perfectly still in his hospital bed, Henley t utterly transformed. The room was empty, but that s

  only an appearance that confuted reality. The darkness of the room was cellular and shifting, its ative silence humming - a mockery of the void, the flute emptiness that he had just risen from. That dream deadhess was still there, but it was disguised, king as an emptiness at the centre of all things, rapacious black holes invisible behind reflecting surges: walls, a night table, a window...

  tt first light, a doctor came in with his medical trt. Henley could see through him, sensed the doc"s surprise at finding him awake, saw his body disolve into a cloud of atoms, a confusion of energies temporarily united, and, at their centre, blackness.

  The doctor unwrapped Henley's foot, and for the first time since waking, Henley stared at his own body. He could see through it as well, but at the foot there was something different - it was leaking darkness. Threads of blackness radiated from it, shafted up along his leg, his knee. Seeing it, he remembered the sharp rock, remembered hiding the cache beneath trees, remembered...

  all he could sense at first. His eyelids tugged open! 'Henley their mineral stare facing a wall.

  Gradually sou~

  sifted through, and he heard footsteps, sensed a fa~ medicinal stain on the air. He was in a hospital, al that

  realization calmed him. Yet there was no chance to wonder what had happened because it was s~

  happening. The very air around him seemed to pulse with the massed blackness of his nightmare -

  Easton snapped awake.

  Christ! Where am I?'

  The doctor looked up with a benign but puzzled expression. 'Relax, Mr Easton. You're in good hands.'

  Ralf prowled the carpet of a consultation room St Vincent's Hospital. He was exhausted, having been able to sleep only in snatches for the last week.

  No - not a nightmare. Reality! here were fever sores at the corners of his mouth, and He had been gangplanked into a perpetual nig! walked with a slight limp. Nervous as a rat, he shuffled from corner to corner, hands deep in vate room, and when Ralf entered, he essayed a pockets. He was of average height with flat downwa~nile. Ralf went over to him directly, without smiling,

  slanting snake eyes and a pachuco haircut. Bene~d leaned close to his face. 'Where is it, coconut?'

  his madras shirt he carried a butterfly switchblur Henley kept smiling. He made a small feathering and strapped to his leg under his trousers was~esture with one hand and stared remorselessly into specially modified bayonet. His face was smoot~h ~l~e flat dark good-looking, with flameporcelain,

  sun-dark and scribbled with many fine b10~bright hair, eyes. He was jawline clean as a knife, and grey glasswrinkles.

  ,[~plinter eyes that looked a little crazy from the medi-

  When he heard the scream, he stopped in his traC~ation. 'Since when did they start letting baboons in

  and his charred eyes narrowed. It was Henley. Hh:c~ere~'

  sure. Though he had known him only briefly, 'Don't loose-lip me, Easton.'

  certain that he recognized something about that 'How'd you find me, Ralf?'

  the . . .'

  a whimpering quality that he associated with 'When you didn't show last week It wasn't a scream of pain. It was fear. 'Last week? How long I been?'

  An hour later, a doctor came in - young, thin-bon~~ 'Don't you know? You been out nine days. The only

  with long intelligent hands. 'He's come around.' good thing that happened to you is that I tentwentied

  'What's wrong with him?' before Gusto or his bad boys did. They'd have left The doctor shrugged. 'No idea. It's the zaniest Ca,nothing for the hospital but a cleanup bill.'

  tonia I've ever seen. He sent off theta waves the wh~ Henley closed his eyes and shook his head. A weight time he was out - the EKG of an alert person. Yet!heavy as heat lay on the back of his neck.

  And

  there refused to respond to any form of stimulation, his e~ere memories, ugly nightmare memories, of

  darkwere dilated, his blood sugar way down. In some Winess, a maze, a black sun, a horrible whispering...

  it's all related to the wound on his left foot. That th~ 'I laid out a lot of coin to et ou this rivate box'

  g Y P ,

  ~m 1 refused to start heahn until about forty

  s' p y ' g ' -~Ralf went on. He reached into his pocket and pulled minutes ago. Fibrinogen was actually dissolving at t~ut a jangle of dog tags. 'Your brother's plates. I figured

  wound site.' they'd do more good here than they would where he's

  'But he's going to pull through, isn't he?' itrashed. I used them to convince the meds that you

  'I think so. His vital organs, nervous and lyr~nd I are kin. It was the only way of taking charge.'

  systems, are all unaffected.' 'What about Gusto?'

  Ralf released an audible sigh, ran a hand over i Ralf shook his head, contentious. 'He wants your face.

  'When can I see him?' ears, clown. He figures you ripped him. What else is

  'Now, if you like. He's remarkably alert for all ~. the stooge to think after more than a week? The best

  been through.' thing for you to do is tell me where that skeejag is so I Henley Easton was sitting up in the bed ~i :can Tighten him up.'

  60 New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos The Star Pools 61

  Henley rubbed the back of his neck. A retinal af~ ~trian landscape - a parking lot. Henley recognized

  image of the black sun seemed to be hovering befo ~Ralf's car and watched dumb-faced as a black man

  in

  him. Everything looked dark, outlined by a soft my iduck trousers unholstered a pistol and knelt down in

  cal shine. ' No way, huckster. You'd just run it.' the back seat of an adjacent white Chevy. Then, just

  'What?' Ralf's face darkened with indignation. 'r!as swiftiy, the image splintered.

  your cover man.'

  Henley looked cool and arrogant. 'You were my br~neeR~pf laidkiad.c'allused hand on Henley's shoulder. 'You rest,

  cover man, and he was minced at Ngoc Linh.' Henley blinked, rubbed his temples. With cold objec-Ralf's emotional valence swung from indignation,~tivity, every rift and flaw in the opposite wall, every

  fury and then to remorse with unnatural swiftneipore on Ralf's face, stood out sharp as glass. For a

  'Yeah. Well, budroe, you'll be on your way to a famemoment he had felt as if he was leaning outside

  reunion if you don't gratify Gusto. He wants those t~imself, teetering on the brink of a nightmare cliff

  kilos.' ~that mawed beyond the particled world. Now he was

  'And he can have them. I'm in this for the payoff I'~imself again, and it was difficult to imagine that not going to run it.' ~hat he had seen was real. But he couldn't take the

  'Fine. Then tell me where I can cop.' chance -

  'Forget it. Only I know where it's hidden. We ~ 'Hold on, Mike. There's a roofer waiting for you in a together or not at all.' !white Chevy wheelside of your car.'

  'Sure, and just how long before you're mobile? I co~~ 'Huh?'

  be so much fish chow by then.' 'Call it a case of the dread. Fever jitters. But stay 'We go tomorrow.' isharp.'

  'You think you'll be all right? These meds don't ev~ 'Yeah. Sure.'

  know what's wrong with you.' When Ralf left, Henley leaned back and closed his Henley nodded, but his eyes were glazed ov
er, h~yes. A cold magnetic brilliance was running along the face distracted. The afterimage of the black sun h~urface of his skin, and he seemed to sense that eerie

  expanded so that it covered everything like a ~hispering he had heard in his nightmare, sensed it film.

  Ralf's face was a reflection in a dark rn~r~e way the deaf hear sounds through the small bones wormed

  with far-off, unaccountable lights. The ro0~f their heads. Somewhere deep within himself the suddenly

  seemed foreshortened, and Henley was st~ightmare was continuing, an evil pushing out into ing through

  mistings of shadow. A blue light wh0~he world. He had a feeling that if he let himself he source seemed

  to be somewhere behind the bed s~uld fall towards it, that it was pulling him fused his vision, and movements other than wt~a~ ! He stared at the wall directly opposite, tried to root knew were there attracted his attention. Anot~rnself in its cracks, but it was beginning to shimmer. scene was superimposed on the room. It was a ped~e was certain that it was starting all over again.

  62 New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos The Star Pools 63

  Then, just as he was reaching for the call switch The man rubbed the side of his head and looked up solidified. He was suddenly warm, and the sunli ~th a scowl. 'Gusto wants his scag, plain-brain.

  What

  slanting through the blinds was reassuring, yello~ ou expect - CIA?'

  wine ~: 'Yeah, well you tell Gusto it's his soon as I cop it. My After a moment's thought, he reached out, and t~uch ~as laid up or he d have had ~t by now.

  time he pressed the buzzer. When the nurse arriv~'He wants it right away, marshmallow.'

  he was sitting at the edge of the bed, wearing, ~'Sure, sure. Everybody's double-time. You think I'd hoped, his most alert and gracio,u,s smile. 'Would still be in the country .if I was runnin.g it? Come on!'

  mind getting my clothes, please? I m signing out. He pulled the man to his feet, pushed him back a pace, and retrieved the Walther. 'Tell him he can have it Ralf left the hospital through the service garage emerged at Twelth Street and Seventh Avenue. car was

  parked in the Wavefly Building's lot, ant approached it the long way. When he got to the con

  ~omorrow,' he said, backing up to his car. 'Same drop.' Ralf threw the gun under the seat, slid behind the wheel, and drove off.

  For nine days, since Henley turned up at St Vinof

  the lot, he froze. There was a white Chevy park :ent's in a coma, he'd kept on the move, not daring to

  near his car. ~~turn to his fiat. He knew Gusto would kill him. The Without hesitation he circled the lot ~[~nan had a notorious temper. But handling the hit man gave him some confidence, and he decided to get back

  approached the Chevy from behind. When he ~ig~ . .

  his apartment He c~rcled the block slowly once and

  within four cars of it, he lay down and bellycraw~tø ú .

  oped the lobby cautiously Nonetheless, as soon as he

  until he was alongside its left rear door. From wh~c . . ú .

  rv ~ut h~s key m the latch, he reahzed that he had

  he lay, he could see the latch was up. He su eyed~~

  surrounding cars as best he could. No one was in si~~)lundered. _

  The door of the opposite apartment burst open, and

  In one fluid movement, he unsprung his butterfly bl~ '

  and jerked open the door. ~o men pounced on him, shoved him into his rooms.

  There was a black man inside who was peer through a drillhole on the opposite door. Ralf burst in and the man swung around with a Walther automatic in his right hand.

  Ralf was quicker. He chopped the gun out of his hand with a slash of his arm, then pulled him into a sitting position and boxed him on the side of the head.

  h nrn cocked low He was carrying a shopping bag In

  With a fierce tug, he dragged him out of the car, wa~~

  One of them handcuffed him immediately. The other bolted his door and led him by the nose to the bathroom. They were big, wild, mongrel blacks with natty lenims, their hair twisted into spikes.

  One had a beard and was missing half of his left ear. The other wore wraparound glasses and a pink hat.

  In the bathroom, they knelt him down before the toilet the butterfly under his nose. 'All right, rughead, any more surprises. Who put you on me? Hey cool out, Ralf pleaded. I m clean with Gusto.

  The bearded one laughed, said, 'My name's Duk Parmelee. And that's Hi-Hat Chuckie Watz. We the boys goin' to take your face apart.'

  Hi-Hat Chuckie Watz took four cans of drain cleaner and a bottle of Clorox out of the shopping bag and emptied them into the bowl. The Duke continued 'Gusto wants you to know, he's hurt you ignored him.'

  Hi-Hat grabbed Ralf behind the neck and shoved his face towards the fuming water in the bowl.

  The acid vapours seared up into his sinuses and scalded hi eyes.

  'Yaww? Ralf bawled. 'Don't! Please! Don't! I got the stuff!'

  Hi-Hat eased up, and Ralf pulled back with a gaq

  His face was slick with tears, and he was quaking. 'Where is it?' the Duke asked.

  'My touch has it stashed. Tomorrow, I'll lift tomorrow.'

  Hi-Hat steered Ralf's face towards the blue burnit water. Ralf screamed, but the fumes gagged him, and he went into a glide.

  The Duke pulled him back and slashed him across the face with a sharp-ringed hand. 'Cry for me, man - cry and I won't make you drink that soup.'

  Ralf was crying, his whole body was shuddering.

  Henley Easton took a cab from St Vincent's to Pennsylvania Station. From there he rode the train to Garden City where he rented a car. After eating at a McDonald's, he had fifty dollars left. The nightmare hadn't recurred, and he was beginning to feel confident. It was his plan to get to his cache and head west.

  He didn't want to burn Ralf, but he felt that he had no choice. The coma he had been in changed everything. No doubt Gusto and his black mafia felt ripped after a nine-day delay. They would be too suspicious to make him a good deal. It would be best now, Henley figured, to find another market and leave Ralf behind to answer questions.

  Henley spent the night in a motor inn where he nspected his foot for the first time since leaving the Hospital. There was no swelling, but the lips of the wound were a scaly black. Just looking at it made him feel drowsy. He put his sock on, lay back, and slid off into a dark sleep.

  The next morning he went down to the stream early. After he uncovered his cache and secured it inside the cat's spare tyre, he got behind the wheel to go, but something stopped him. He stared through the windshield at the larkspur, the myrtle, and the great bellowing fireweed that dotted the slopes like embroidery. He felt woozy suddenly, as if he were swaying with deep sea rapture out over whispering distances -

  with

  sobs. , ~

  'Just you remember,' Duke Parmelee said, you ~

  juke and everybody knows you a juke. If you don't hav~ becvming no one, everything, e.ndless space.

  that H tomorrow, you goin' to suffer. Mister, you goi~ ('orne alive! he snapped at himself and jerked to suffer.' upright behind the wheel. But it was no good. He felt They uncuffed him and were gone before he couli that he had to get out of the car, and when he did it

  get to his feet. All things considered, they had bee~ was like moving in a dream. He felt light as a cloud

  practically cordial. beginning to vanish. A shadow was spreading its ú ú ú an~nyrnous dark over everything, and the air was

  66 New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

  becoming soft as rock seen underwater. His limbs were remote and rubbery and seemed to be moving by

  their own will. He let them guide him down the slope and through a swatch of burned reeds. When he stopped moving, he looked down, and there, huddled among the crusts of dirt like a stunned animal, was the stone that had cut him.

  It came away from the ground easily, and the dry dirt crumbled revealing a palm-sized green rock.

 
When he had first seen it, wet, he thought that colour was moss. But the green and the oily shine were its own strange attributes, and when he saw them again, the dizziness and the nausea returned.

  Henley moved to heave it away, but something about the patterning on the rock stopped him.

  Looking closely, he saw that it was engraved with sharp cuneiformlike designs. He ran his fingers over them, studied again the fine cutting edge, and turned to take it back with him.

  The return walk to the car was uneventful. His body no longer felt light. It was hungry, and he decided to find a restaurant and eat. On the highway, he turned towards the city impulsively. He wanted to wheel around and go west, but it was impossible to do more than speculate about that. He felt stoned and uneasy, and he stopped several times to question his motives, but each time he stopped an overriding urgency, razorapt, urged him back into his car. When he arrived in New York, his clothes were soaked through with a cold sweat.

  He returned the rented car and took a room at the Elton on East Twenty-sixth. There he unbagged the heroin and repeatedly touched it with his fingertips. It had become the primary purpose in his life, yet he was doing everything with it wrong.

  He took a pinch of it, divided it into two thin slivers, and used his thumbnail to snort them. A few moments later, he was drifting slowly and powerfully through the cool red light of day's end. He mastered a small spasm of nausea and floated to the corner of his cot where he sat down, all of the day's problems already on the point of an energetic solution.

  An hour later the room was darkening. Stern shadows, deep as oil, gloomed on all sides. Everything seemed immense, and the apprehensions of the nightmare began to feel real. The cutting stone, propped up on the windowsill, pulsed a dull incandescent green. It's drug-action, he reassured himself, but he wasn't confident. Fear hazed around him like a thunder charge. He realized that at any moment the horror could begin again. Something dark and cold as an ocean current was tugging at him, pulling him away.

  He touched the bedspread to reassure himself. It was death-cold flesh! He hopped off the bed in terror before he saw that he had touched the metal backpost.

  He breathed deeply to calm himself. It came to him that the nightmare was still there, somewhere deeper, much deeper than awareness. It was continuing. It had never stopped. Like the thunder beginning too late to remember the light, his mind was shivering in the afterfall of an intractable doom. Clearly, he saw that it was only a matter of time before the darkness welling within. surged up. He sat shivering in the twilight and resolved to contact Ralf. He had to unload the heroin. If he went into a coma and was found with it, it would be better if he never woke up.