Level Zero by Dan McDowell (debian ebook reader .txt) 📗

covered the floors and walls of the tunnel near the overflow freezer. Joe studied its aftermath, pacing back and forth in an unfamiliar panic.

Diving to the floor in desperation, he extracted remnants from puddles of wet blood in his brass syringe and jammed it into his arm. The compromised blood merged with elements of the dirty tunnel floor. Chris activated the neighboring microphone, eavesdropping on the conversation as the Shadow appeared. His silhouette resembled a round framed man in a top hat, though no other defining physical features stood out.

“Not as pure, is it?” the Shadow said. “You’re a little impure yourself. Always judging others and enforcing the rules your own way despite your own leanings toward self-gratification.”

“It’s not like that… it’s not like that at all,” Joe replied as his breath remained elevated.

“I think it is, Joe. Your eyes are far off the target. The deal was simple, fifty-four years of isolation, then fifty-four years to play. Lest you forget. The problem is, you haven’t heeded my warnings, and you’ve continued to wreak havoc. I know some of these people defiled the covenant, but so have you. Don’t you remember? I showed the Cardinal Rules to you on the cornerstone in the wellhouse room when you first arrived all those years ago… before you did it… You warped. You manipulated. You even used them to stir up trouble within ‘good’ people.”

“That’s not fair,” Joe said. “I’ve hunted for you. I’ve provided for us. I did everything in my power to keep the Creeper alive.”

“I’m sure you did, but the house rules were simple, and one of them far outweighed the others. ‘Never shed innocent blood.’ Wilkerson may not have been the picture of morality, but he wasn’t one of the fifty-four. You crossed the boundary lines. You know something else? Todd Adams is a different kind of special. Maybe I chose him to teach you a lesson. You better watch yourself… because there will be hell to pay. Make it right, and I’ll stay out of your way. Do it wrong, and I fear for how bad your end will be. Remember, you made yourself the troublemaker and the villain. I never told you to hunt for me. I never needed it.”

Chris deactivated the camera.

I can’t breathe. What’s happening to me?

Standing up from the chair, he moved toward the door, and the room spun in circles.

I need fresh air.

He collapsed on the floor of the basement.

 

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

TODD ADAMS awoke with a massive headache after his manic tear in the freezer the previous evening. Floating orbs encircled him as he came to his senses. His mind raced at an uncontrollable speed as Wasserman’s life flew by in seconds. An unexplainable jolt coursed through his body and he sprung to his feet. His manic phases had always been different.

Maybe this crazy cycle won’t be such a bad thing.

The walls of his mind caved in around him as panic overarched its limits. His mind flashed back to the fated flight.

Lorrie’s eyes were ravishing emeralds, and her hair was gorgeous. Riverton became smaller and smaller as they went higher and higher.

“These medications are messing you up. Let’s get you back on the ground, and we’ll get you some help.”

“I’d rather be in the ground…”

Todd’s inner mania ricocheted back and forth from wild to tame, and he sprinted through the center of the tunnel. His senses intensified as a glowing aura to the other residents materialized. They seemed insignificant in the moment until his mind flashed back to the party in the penthouse of The Oak Hollow Hotel.

Bits and pieces of Wasserman’s missing memory returned. The ballroom was lit in exquisite incandescent fashion as its guests wore only the most elegant dresses and three-piece suits. The room was full of life and joy as its subjects celebrated a momentous occasion. He looked around, attempting to read the celebratory sign draped across a banner at the top of the room. The words remained incomprehensible. In the corner of his eye, Joe Bonsall stood young and full of life. The entire room carried on with the party. Each of the guests scoffed at him as he hobbled. The guests’ inebriated demeanor and high-class sophistication looked to wear on Joe as he clashed with them. His eyes burned red as they teased and hurled insults.

“Look at the fool. Wearing that outfit for this event. What a travesty, Don. What a disgrace,” a woman said.

“I didn’t invite him here,” he lied.

Another woman began chattering away about her husband to another. “It was hard not to make light of the idiot. Such an imbecile… and the worst part is… I’m married to him…” She stirred up trouble in a moment as the other man laughed aloud, “Let’s go up to the room.”

A quiet man stood in the opposite corner of the room, scheming a wicked way to loot the hotel’s cash register.

He made eye contact with Joe’s mother and father. They both looked away.

An immoral man ran across the room, lunging toward a buxom woman as he grabbed at her.

He continued to be a false witness. “The sad pity for the lad was, he was nothing more than a pet project for Sylvia to tease. I led him on like he would be my protégé. Fixed up a little broom closet in the basement and told him it was an executive suite, and ‘hop-a-long’ went for it. Like he was royalty… answering to some kind of higher power…” laughing aloud as he imitated Joe’s limp. The others in his company chuckled loudly.

Joe barricaded the exits with chains he lifted from the basement while the rest remained too busy to notice. His eyes glowed an unfamiliar and inhuman color that changed as his fury intensified. He sprinted toward Don, yanking the dagger from under his shirt…

.     .     .     .     .

Todd gasped for air, coming back to his senses and feeling as if the emotional burden of the memory stole a piece of him. It unfolded