The delicate sound of piano music came from the speakers of a laptop in the corner of David Abernathy’s basement; airy, yet piercing, like a breeze on a winter’s morning.  He stood in front of a large table covered with laboratory equipment and rubbed the back of his neck with a heavy sigh.  He carefully filled ten glass bottles with a pale green crystalline powder he had just scraped from a tray, making sure his hands didn’t shake too much from exhaustion.  The powder had a strong smell to it, like copper mixed with a hint of floral perfume.  Once he finished filling the bottles, he put them in a safe in the corner of the room. This safe already contained many bottles of this powder, as well as several bottles of fluid – some clear, some red.  David straightened his back as he turned back to the table and grabbed a handful of empty test tubes, some of which were streaked with blood, and he took them into the bathroom.  It was a small, ancillary bathroom painted pale yellow-green with an ink painting of a maple tree on the wall and a small plastic tree in the corner.  He set the test tubes down on a beige hand towel on top of the toilet and set to rinsing them out in the sink, two by two.  The residues in the glass tubes reacted with the water from the sink in an unusual way - the residue from the clear tubes turned an uncanny shade of iridescent teal and the residue from the red-stained tubes turned a rich violet-blue.  David watched these colors run down the drain, his vision blurring slightly as he grew more tired by the second.  He gritted his teeth and rubbed his eyes, preparing to head to his bedroom for the night, when the jarring realization struck him that he had neglected to wash his hands.

 

   He clutched the edge of the sink and stared at his eyes in the mirror.  His shoulders trembled and he chewed his lip as he paid close attention to any change in his pupils.  Within a matter of seconds, he became distracted by a tingling, pressing sensation behind his ears.  It seemed the music playing in the other room grew louder.  He took a step back and immediately fell down against the wall, staring up at the ceiling.  His eyes filled with visions of insects biting his face, dissolving the skin with acidic venom until it was left completely raw.  He then saw Meredith standing in front of him, towering, with a bright red eye in the center of her forehead and pearly bluish wings.  A wreath of large, pink flowers adorned her hair.  They tore and scattered when antennae burst through her head with a nauseating sound – the sound of bones cracking and flesh splitting and tearing.  She sat down in front of him, placing her hands on his shoulders, claws rapidly extending from her fingertips.  They sunk into David’s back, and he screamed out in searing pain.  Meredith laughed as she burrowed them further in.  As soon as the claws were situated under David’s skin, his vision snapped into a static of colors and shapes.  When the shapes blurred, he could make out something that almost looked like text, but he could not read it.  He felt a dull tingling in the base of his spine and a sense of heaviness in his head and his stomach – the typical physical reaction to a warning or a reprimand of some kind.

 

All of these images and sensations vanished as quickly as they had appeared.  David slowly stood up, trembling slightly.  He wiped his brow and pushed his hair, which had stuck to his face with sweat, behind his ears.  He removed his shirt and attempted to look at his back in the mirror, and saw no sign of injury.  He took a deep breath and left the bathroom, back into his home laboratory, and ran his finger across the touchpad of the laptop in order to activate the screen.  The clock in the right-hand corner read “9:45 AM.”  He trudged up the stairs and into the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea.  As he waited for the water to boil, he jotted down a few quick notes on what he had just experienced.

 

                Trace amount of pure blood in eye.  Very disturbing hallucination, traditionally Hellish in nature – insects and fire and pain. Quite unlike a small dose of the synthesized material. Perhaps indicates the Conduit’s personal malice towards me. 

 

                The kettle whistled, and he poured the hot water into a mug with a bag of Lapsang Souchong.  He pulled his cell phone from the kitchen counter, scrolled through his contacts until he reached the name “LPM”, and hit the send button as he sat down at the kitchen table.

 

                “Hello?” said the voice on the other line in a raspy, yet sing-song tone.  “Dave? You never call me this early, what’s going on?” they asked, their tone becoming dry, enunciating each word very steadily.

 

                “You know that project I was working on?  The one I told you that I needed your help with when I was done?” David asked, dipping his teabag into the water repeatedly in an attempt to get it to steep quicker.

 

                “Eee-yeah.  Hey, listen, how about I meet you about it later on?  I got a programming class in fifteen.  Nice to hear about your success, though.  You sound tired as shit,” the voice said with a brisk laugh.

 

                “Right, right.  Well, when do your classes let out?” David asked through slightly clenched teeth.

 

                “I can meet you at your place at 4 PM.”

 

                David briefly moved his mouth away from the phone to let out an impatient sigh.  “I’ll see you then,” he replied, hanging up immediately and putting his head down on the kitchen table.

 

                By the time David woke up, his tea was over-steeped and cold.  He took a sniff at the mug and it smelled something like burnt wood that had been rained on.  He took his cell phone out of sleep mode and looked at the clock – 3:40 PM.  With a huff, he forced himself to choke down the ruined tea and went to the sink to wash his face, using a dishtowel to dry his hair.  He noticed a sweatshirt lying on the sofa in the living room across from the kitchen – he quickly took the opportunity to change into it from the sweat-soaked shirt he had on.  Shortly after he switched shirts, he heard a knock at the door, which he answered promptly.

 

                A long-legged, slender young woman with wavy, blonde hair down to her prominent collarbone stood in the doorway with a crooked and apathetic posture.  She wore a blue sundress and carried a large, white bag over her shoulder.  “Hey,” she deadpanned as her over-glossed lips twisted into an accidental smirk.

 

                “Hi, Lucy, come in,” David muttered.

 

                Lucy strutted awkwardly into David’s house, removing her large, round sunglasses and sliding them into her bag.  “So, show me what you’ve done,” she droned, her eyelids hanging heavily over her soft blue eyes.

 

                David clasped his hands.  “Right.  Come down this way,” he urged, leading the young woman down into the basement.  “Look at this,” he said as he opened up the safe and pulled out one of the vials containing the green powder.  “Synthesized from the chemicals I found in Meredith’s blood and spinal fluids, the ones that had no match on Earth, like I’ve been telling you.  I think I have just enough of it now for distribution to be worth our time.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art by S. Holloway

 

 

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Shit, and it’s actually fit for human consumption? Good going,” Lucy said, examining the bottle with a wide-eyed yet unenthusiastic stare.

 

                “Well, it’s no party drug, but it won’t kill you. You’re welcome to sample it,” David offered and turned his face toward the stairway.  “I let that one idiot classmate of yours try some.  He wanted to sell it for me, but I don’t trust him like I trust you.”

 

                The blonde put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes. “What’s it do?”

 

                “It shatters the barriers our minds place between worlds.  It allows the user to, albeit temporarily, communicate with the Zelishem without harm through absorbing their consciousness into their own.  A state that takes decades to achieve for most.  The best part is that it works whether the user is aware of the Zelishem before dosing or not,” David explained.  “Your friend had no idea what they were.  And now he does!”

 

                Lucy breathed a laugh through her nose as she put the vial back into the safe. “I’ve told you before, I’m not into this sort of thing.  The psychedelics and all that dipshit seeing-into-infinity crap.  I’ll sell it for you, though.  Couldn’t turn down the cut you offered me.”  She sat down on a couch across from David’s work table.

 

               David furrowed his brow and sat down beside her.  “And you’ll keep an eye on those websites where people post reports of their drug experiences?  Arrowhead or whatever it was?”

 

                “Of course I will.  Should be a pretty good time.”  Lucy chuckled and ran a finger across her chin.  “So, tell me, how are things going with the Silvas?” 

 

“I left Meredith with Alina yesterday morning,” David droned as he cast his eyes down at the floor.

 

“I see.  Did Alina take my laptop?”  Lucy leaned her cheek against her hand.

 

“She did.”

 

“Good,” Lucy said, nodding. “Just hope it’ll be able to consistently hook up to the ‘net out in Bumblefuck. Otherwise ‘s useless to us.”  She paused.  “I still wish Rick had put you in charge of this whole transformation thing.  Thought you were really pushing for that.  Then you wouldn’t even have to worry about Internet connections. And I wouldn’t have to worry about running outta product.”  She cocked her head to the side and laughed under her breath.

 

   “I was,” David snapped.  “But you know Richard.  He wouldn’t budge.  And, good God, that Alina…! I just met the woman the other day and she’s a filthy, weak-willed idiot!  It’ll be nothing but trouble.  Meredith’s become extremely aggressive, bull-headed as her father, and Alina will be cowed by her inside of a week.  And, there you go, that’s it! Everything’s ruined!” He yelped with a flourish of his hand.

 

                “So, like, does he have any rationale for not pawning his magical delinquent off on you, when he knows Alina’s too soft for that kind of a time-bomb?” Lucy asked impassively.

 

                “He says the discipline involved in assisting in a Zelishem metamorphosis doesn’t exactly come naturally to me.  According to him, I’m too calculated for it.  I can resist Meredith’s energy to an extent, but to guide the transformation of a being as powerful as Meredith, well, that takes a certain temperament that I just don’t have,” he explained.  “According to Richard, anyway.  Between you and me, he doesn’t know what he is doing.  After all he’s seen, after all that’s happened, he still thinks humans and Zelishem can be forced to live in harmony under the Conduit’s guidance – eventually reproducing and creating a new race of demigod hybrids.  This, of course, is preposterous and naïve.  He’s playing with fire and has been since the very beginning - he’s seen what’s happened to his followers, and even to his own wife!  The best we can do is to find a safe way to harness their essence for ourselves, and then do away with them.  Otherwise, they’ll eventually kill us all once the merge transpires no matter how prepared we are.  The prophecies were flawed – we were never meant to coexist under any circumstances!  We exist in different dimensions for a reason.  This merge that is approaching is simply an expansion of their empire, and whatever resistance we build will erode over time, even for folks like Ms. Galenko.  That is simply the way it is.” He leaned back into the couch with his shoulders squared and stiff.

 

                “I see,” Lucy acknowledged, raising an eyebrow.

 

                “I’m sorry.  This all must sound strange to you.  I forget you are no longer one of us sometimes,” David remarked.

 

                The blonde waved her hand.  “Nah. I’m used to it.  Seen psychic stuff in action, even, during rituals and those evangelical demonstrations.  You know, before they started ending in just a few too many random medical emergencies for you guys to cover up?” A wry, languid smile spread across her narrow face.  “I thought it’d move me somehow once I was old enough to understand.  But, really?  All it showed me was that the world was a weirder place than I assumed,” she mused, running her bubblegum pink nails across her palm.

 

                “So, you are aware that the option of attaining a higher level of consciousness is available to you, and you are not leaping at the opportunity? Not even in light of the fact that it most likely means certain death if you don’t?” David asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

 

                “Not really,” Lucy mumbled with a jerk of a shrug.  “I’d rather live it up and die free than submerge my brain in alien ectoplasm or whatever just so I can live out my days on some fluffy cloud of higher consciousness, learning things I don’t even think I really want to know.”

 

            “All the more reason for you to sample the product, then!” David blurted out.  “You’ll see what you could have, and you will want it! With every fiber of your being, you will want it,” he insisted as he leaned forward towards Lucy, who only blinked in response.  “Before your classmate…Derek, that’s his name, right? Well, before Derek sampled it, all he cared about was sex and video games and maybe a little bit of that whole doing better than his family nonsense.  Not enough to keep him from wanting to sell it for me, but I digress.  Now, he is actively seeking the enlightenment the Zelishem have to offer, and-"

 

         Lucy laughed and ruffled David’s hair.  David sneered at the touch and clenched his jaw.  “Hey.  Dave.  Hey.  I’ve been aware of, like, all of this Zelishem stuff since I was, like, eight.  My dad’s the one who financed Rick’s trek around Eastern Europe, for Chrissakes.  I’m a lost cause.  Give up.  But, hopefully I’ll make up for my absence from the flock with those I bring in selling this first batch of, ah… what do you want to call it?”

 

                “Proteus,” David stated with a glare.

 

                “All right then.  Sounds cool, I’m sure it’ll be a hit with the psychonauts.  They like things with weird, geeky names like that.”

 

                “Right, okay,” David grunted as he got up from the couch.  He walked over to the safe, removed four bottles of the powder, and gave them to Lucy who put them into her bag one by one.  “Let me know when you need more,” he instructed as he locked the safe back up.

 

                Lucy nodded.  “Will do.”  She paused as she stared at David.  “Are you, uh… feeling okay?  You look, like, sweaty and pale.”

 

David cleared his throat and crossed his arms as he walked towards the staircase and leaned against the wall beside it.  “I’m fine.  It has just been a very stressful time.”

 

Lucy rose from the couch and took a few tentative steps towards David.  “Well, then, would you maybe wanna get a drink somewhere with me?”

 

“Probably not the best idea,” he replied firmly. 

 

“Why not?  I think it’s a worse idea to spend all your time either cooped up in here or dealing with religious nuts, I mean, come on,” she urged.

 

“Lucy Markman.  You need to get to work.  Go get on the train, head back to campus, and get to work,” David ordered, looking the young woman sternly in the eyes and emphasizing each word with a tension she found humorous.  She forced herself to choke back her laughter and nodded, averting her eyes and lightly covering her mouth with one hand to conceal her smile.

 

“I’ll call you,” she stammered through her fingers.

 

“I do not want to hear from you unless you are giving me news about the Proteus, or about Meredith and Alina,” David asserted.  “I know how you like to call me just to talk, but I don’t have the time for it.  And neither do you.”

 

Lucy swallowed and closed her eyes.  “All right, then.  Later.”  She waved casually and walked up the stairs with a sigh.

 

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