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  Even though there were no rules or laws that governed Joey’s actions, he still held onto something that didn’t truly exist anymore. Maybe he’d wanted to be a policeman before the forgetting, or maybe he was one. But he seemed too young, and the clothes didn’t fight right.

  “You know, you don’t have to watch over me,” I sighed.

  I’d never admitted guilt, never would. But I never discredited Frank’s story either. It didn’t really matter. It wouldn’t lead me back to Olivia, wherever the poor girl was, or was buried. They never found her. Frank probably hid the body. That dirty bastard.

  “Not today,” Joey stressed.

  “Sure thing,” I replied.

  There were only two days left anyway. No one had the faintest inkling that the timer was intertwined with my fate. My time was short enough to not worry about what Joey’s intentions were. As soon as that timer struck zero, my turning would commence, and whatever would happen, happened.

  “Hmm…” Joey responded. He drew in a breath and let out a long sigh. “Well, sooner or later, we all answer for our sins.” He departed without another word. His words carried a heaviness, and it was like he wasn’t directly saying them to me.

  “Maybe…” I said out loud to my empty cell. Maybe Frank and the rest of the mob could answer for their sins.

  The rest of the day was uneventful as usual. A few people below my window shouted hateful comments every few hours, but they didn’t carry weight anymore. Soon enough, day became night, and lightning struck repeatedly in the center of the city. The thunder said my name between each boom.

  Joey had lit a few candles in the hallway, and they flickered in the deep of the night. Three of the four sheriffs sat and conversed only a short distance from my cell. Focusing in on the only thing I could hear, I listened to their gossip.

  “…so, Lynn saw one apparently,” one of them spoke. I couldn’t remember what his name was, but he had a very distinct voice. I called him Big and Dumb, because that’s what he was. “Said it was bleeding, had cuts all over the body. Real scary shit I guess.”

  “I heards that too,” Bobby spoke up. “It looks humans I guess. But nots like us, you knows. I don’t evens knows.” Bobby’s diction was so broken it was hard to understand him. Yet his story was something else.

  “Damn it, Bobby! Can you speak clearly?” the dumb one announced.

  “Shut ups, Andy!”

  “Andy…” I sighed. The big dumb one was Andy. At least one of my questions had been answered before the end of it all.

  “Calm down, Bobby,” Joey added. “It’s definitely strange though, isn’t it? Just what the heck are they?”

  “Where you think them coming from boss?” Andy asked.

  “So, Lynn was the only one who saw it?” Joey asked, avoiding the initial question.

  “Yups. No one elses yet,” Bobby piqued up.

  “Okay,” Joey exhaled audibly. “Just keep an eye on her. She’s notorious for this type of stuff.”

  “Shes a liars, huh boss?” Bobby scuffed.

  “Not a liar. But likes to fabricate certain things.”

  “Fabricates…?” Andy asked, dumbfounded.

  “It means she likes to twist her words,” Joey answered.

  “Twists…?” Andy said, still dumbfounded.

  “Never mind. Just keep an eye out, for everything. I’m going to catch some z’s for a few. You just keep those doors locked. I don’t want anyone coming in unless it’s an emergency. And you wake me first, you understand me, you two?”

  “Yes sirs,” Bobby said without hesitation.

  “Sure thing, boss,” Andy followed the order.

  I knew Bobby would leap at the opportunity of burying a bullet into me, but the leash that Joey had on him was nearly remarkable. Both deputies followed his law with the upmost willingness. Joey was a natural born leader who would have done far superior things if ever given the chance.

  “Good. You know where I’ll be if you need me,” Joey said as he departed. He slept in the cell adjacent to mine. In that way, if something broke out he would be right there to defend me, in his odd sense of lawfulness.

  “Sherriff,” I nodded in his direction as he walked past my cell. He didn’t say a word, barely even noticed I existed. Instead he walked on, entered the cell, and lay down on the bed, falling asleep shortly after.

  “Sleep well, Sherriff,” I whispered.

  Something flashed outside my cage, out in the world. I rose from my bed and leaned against the bars, looking toward the Downtown area. There was something at the tower, something with the timer. It was flickering, like it was dying. Then it shut off completely.

  Chapter 18: It Begins

  “Uh, Sherriff?” I asked. My voice carried from my barred window to his.

  “I see it, Jackson,” Joey said. Apparently he hadn’t fallen asleep after all. I heard him get up, pace back into the hallway, and find his deputies once again. I didn’t pay attention to what they were discussing. I remained focused on the tower shutting down. Whatever it meant, somehow I knew it wasn’t something good.

  The doors outside my cell started opening and slamming shut. Whatever they were doing, the deputies were flying about, screaming down the hallways with flashlights lighting the area.

  “Okay,” Joey ordered, “Bobby you take…” Joey was cut off by a loud pounding at the front door. Someone rapped at it like the thunder that constantly cracked overhead.

  I couldn’t see what was happening, but someone ran towards the front of the building and opened the door.

  “Joey!” someone shouted. “The barrier! They’re coming from inside the barrier!”

  “What’d you mean,” Andy started.

  “Let me in, let me in, holy shit, let me in!” the voice screamed. Rushing to the bars, I looked into the hallway, trying to see.

  Suddenly the door to the outside shut, and someone panted heavily inside.

  “Tell me,” Joey ordered.

  “There was a lot of them,” a female voice replied, panting and hysterical.

  Glass shattered down the hallway and a scream erupted. I’d heard that inhuman howl before, when I was on the other side of the barrier. Whatever I’d seen that day, it was inside the police station.

  “What the hell was that?” Andy shouted from the other room.

  “Boys, arm yourselves,” Joey ordered. “Andy, take her and get her somewhere safe. Bobby, with me.” Joey moved into my hallway. The first shot rang out like part of a dream. The second woke me up. Bullets flew past me and I dove for cover on the cell floor.

  “Is that’s ones of em?” Bobby slurred.

  “Doesn’t matter! Keep firing!” Joey yelled.

  Another scream pierced the world. It was closer this time, and reverberated off the walls. Ammo again pelted at something down the hall. I could hear the shells clatter onto the cement, bullets pierce the flesh of something that howled in pain. The screams were so very different than human, yet possessed a tinge of humanity. It was a pitch too high to mimic, ear shattering and loud.

  The sheriff and the intruders battled beyond my metal bars. Bobby flew past, disappearing into the darkness, firing rounds at more of the things I couldn’t see. I only heard muffled screams declare their deaths. Bobby came flying back, crying, running back down the hallway.

  “Sooo… manysss…” Bobby huffed.

  “Move back towards the munitions room. We’ll barricade ourselves in there!” Joey ordered. “Jackson, move against the far wall!” he yelled after me, already moving away.

  This time, I followed the orders.

  Then, all at once, there was complete stillness. Bobby’s slurs and Joey’s orders fell away as shots stopped dead and the screams no longer ignited the night air. It was as if the whole thing was a hallucination, which, after all, had happened before.

  But I heard it, faintly. Whatever it was, it was coming this way. Claws drug along the concrete, and a heavy breathing rasped. I placed my back against the far wall, sinking
deeper into the cell. Crouching down, I tried to hide myself in the darkness.

  A shadow passed in front of the cell. It stopped in front, slowly twisting its head as if sensing me. The faint light made it hard to make out whatever it was. A low growl escaped through a pair of cracked lips. The creature leapt against the bars, raging on the metal, hissing, screaming, clawing and trying to fight its way in. A wet sucking sound left its throat, while saliva dribbled from its mouth. Its eyes glowed a shallow purple, somehow shimmering in the absence of light.

  A fierce round of gunfire ripped through the creature, two puncturing its torso. The creature fell against the bars. It breathed and screamed, struggling to stay on its feet, before falling into a heap on the ground.

  Joey stepped forward, gun still drawn. He made sure to make no sound, instead just crouched to examine the creature with his flashlight.

  “What the hell is it, Jackson?” Joey whispered without raising his head. He was low, trying to get a good look at the face of his victim, but kept an eye down the hallway waiting for anything else to come out. He remained tight-lipped, confused and afraid of the creature. He kept his gun pointed downward, making sure the creature’s chest was no longer rising.

  I didn’t speak. I was just as stunned as Joey was. It was the exact same howl I’d heard the other night. Up close now, I was sure it was exactly what I had seen in the shadows. The only thing that kept running through my mind was the idea that these things came from beyond the border, crossed over from the center of the city. Coming to the bars, I made sure to be as silent as Joey, unwilling to attract further attention.

  Joey’s flashlight lit the fallen body. The creature’s skin was pale white, badly cracked and bleeding, though the blood wasn’t exactly seeping from the gunshot wounds. The face bared a resemblance to human, but the skin was badly stretched over bone. Though the strange thing was it wore very human clothing, including a pair of ragged jeans, stitched sweater, gloves, though claws were reaching through them, boots, and even jewelry. It also had hair on its head, but most of it was falling out. Some blonde curls hung down, mostly covering the distinct features. It hit me hard.

  “Eve?” I asked. Stunned and bewildered, the hair was a dead giveaway. It was so familiar. I had never seen hair worn like hers. The curls were so faint now, most of them falling out of her head.

  “What was that?” Joey asked.

  I knew Joey had heard me. It was more of a stunned realization. He got up slowly and approached my cell with his head hung low, gun twitching in his already shaky hand. I didn’t move.

  “Eve. She, disappeared about four days ago. Though it was just… just… I don’t know. Did she turn?” Joey asked.

  He wasn’t asking me. He was asking himself, as if trying to figure it out, trying to understand things I’d known for nearly two weeks. He seemed to fall short of understanding.

  “Her birthday…” I wondered. Four days ago, did she tell anyone? It had come and gone without so much as a whisper. After I’d left her standing, watching me leave, breaking our weird connection. She must have known she didn’t have that long. That’s why she spent her night with me. I looked over the disfigured corpse, and thought of what we had, for at least one moment in time.

  “Is that what happens to us?” Joey asked, again not questioning me. He was struggling, but not quite grasping any of it.

  I contemplated what I knew. What happened when we turned? Did we somehow, for some reason, morph into this? Eve looked more human than monster, or sounded closer to being a human than my first experience with these things. Maybe because she turned only a short while ago? But why were they coming out now?

  “The timer,” I blurted on accident.

  Joey looked like he was going to fall apart. He had seen far too much in the short amount of time to comprehend what I was saying. Confusion set in when he tried to piece it to what he was staring at.

  “The sphere, let me see it,” I said. I needed to know.

  Joey backed away from my cage and lifted the gun, not at me, but down the hallway from where they’d come. Without noticing what he was doing, a pair of keys hit me in the chest and fell to the ground near my feet.

  “Halfway down the hall. A door. It’s marked ‘evidence.’ The larger key will get you in. Get your things and go,” Joey said and looked at me with fear. I knew he wasn’t one to run from a fight, but he was beyond confused at this point.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because you didn’t kill those people. Never believed it for a second.” Joey swung the flashlight towards the keyhole while keeping his sidearm pointed down the hallway. I scrambled for the keys, and struggled to find the right one that fit. “You know, everyone has a tell. You have a tell. Something that lets me know you’re lying. But you never lied to me about what happened.”

  “Why keep me here then!” I whispered with absolute rage. This could have been over a long time ago.

  “Because you needed this!” Joey hissed. “If I let you go, then that was it, it was over.” Joey squinted down the hallway. “But things have changed, haven’t they?”

  “What does that mean?” I opened the door to my cage.

  “It means you have focus now. You need to figure this out. No one should be locked in to this fate, not you, not me, not anyone,” Joey said and pointed at the mutilated body.

  “What makes you think I could do anything? Are you even seeing this? She was...”

  “Exactly. She was. She. Human. Not this. Whatever Eve became, this shouldn’t be the way she’s remembered.” Joey kneeled down, twisting Eve’s face toward the floor her hair falling and concealing her features. “You want to understand this, don’t you?”

  “Well…” I stumbled.

  “Of course you do,” Joey answered for me. “Look, I know it hurts. We remember Olivia too. But listen, we never found a body. She might still be out there.”

  “Stop.” I didn’t need to be reminded. I didn’t need hope.

  “Fine. But there are more still out there worth saving. Trust me; these people need this.”

  “These people chased after me just weeks ago. Why should I try to fix their broken lives?” I hated all of them. Hated all of this.

  “Because you want to, always wanted to.”

  Joey’s words stung.

  “That shouldn’t matter,” I said and moved around the fallen body.

  “But it does, Jackson. And even if you don’t believe in it anymore, or in yourself, others do. No one wants to die in a cage, even those who still call you those names. They deserve attention, deserve a life better than this. Especially for those who are still innocent in all of this.”

  Another scream erupted from down the hallway. Joey’s gun swung up instinctively. He flashed the light down, but nothing stalked the hallways just yet.

  “Get moving,” Joey said and pushed forward, rushing into the twilight halls without a look back.

  I just stood there, consumed with my own rage, anger, and sadness. I hated the way I was being pulled where I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to end this miserable life. But Joey had made an unbreakable point, one that tugged at my heartstrings. There were people who still deserved to be saved.

  Glasses believed in me. Eve was nice to me, with the limited time given her. Joey wanted to protect me from myself, and all he ever wanted was to shield others from harm. These people needed hope. And if Olivia was here she would say the same thing.

  So be it.

  I progressed down the hallway in the opposite direction Joey had gone, the flickering candlelight casting shadows of my passing. The light twisted. I waited for creatures to pop out at me around every corner. Soon I reached a door that was wedged slightly open, ‘EVIDENCE’ stenciled on the glass. I paused and listened. When nothing stirred from within, I slowly entered the room.

  It was empty. A candle’s light came from the corner near the opposite side of the door. But something else flickered inside with a dull blue roar.

  Slowly and sil
ently, I closed the door behind me and moved further towards the blue, pulsating light. The familiar sphere was very much alive and glowing, somehow functioning even on this side of the barrier. I picked up the device. It felt no different than before. The blue light escaped from the etched surface, and it was warm to the touch. I didn’t have time to figure out this new twist, and instead started looking for a weapon or anything that might help. There didn’t appear to be a stash in here, or an ammo cabinet.

  Click clicckkkkkk click click click… the sound came from down the hallway, only a short distance away. I blew out the candle and put the sphere underneath my shirt, trying to hide the light. Squatting down, I scuttled close to the door, hiding along the wall.

  Claws dragged along the concrete outside the door. A soft, slurping drew in from outside, and a high-pitched scream lingered in the silence, echoing down the tight hallway. The illumination from the candles out in the hall signaled that something was passing by. The glass of the door wasn’t exactly see-through, more rippled, so it contorted the monster’s form.

  It was scouring the hallways, looking for who knows what. The creature passed without a notion of entering this room. Trailing off into another corridor down the prison, the clicking faded away until I could no longer hear it.

  I waited.

  Slowly, I touched the doorknob and turned it. The door swung open with a small squeak that sounded like thunder in the stillness. Sinking back into the room, I gritted my teeth, stopping to listen. I heard nothing, so I hesitantly passed through the opening.

  Squatting in the middle of the hallway made me feel like I was alone in the center of the city again. The dank illumination was not nearly enough to ease my torn concentration. Bringing the sphere forward, it at least gave off a blue glow. I stood up slowly and tip-toed down the concrete, wishing I had a gun.

  The prison was rather small, if I remembered correctly; only ten cells and a few sparse rooms. Nothing could really hide in such small quarters, so when I reached the exit in a few seconds I made sure to open it slowly and look out into the world before taking the leap. Outside the prison, everything was calm. It was late after all, and the world should be asleep, though I doubted it was. Monsters were running amuck in the city.