Volume One: The Road Out
Chapter Two
Verse Three: The Path of Fear
After Amy left, the mood became significantly more awkward. Harley kept trying to obliquely assure Marion than no harm had been done. Marion kept pointing out that Amy's ultimatum was more than no harm. And the two eventually descended into an uncomfortable silence as they sat on the brown microfiber couch watching Horrible Science Fiction movies from the seventies on Harley's old tube Television. Some time after eleven Harley wandered to bed after throwing Marion some sheets and a pillow, leaving Marion alone with the cold white glow of the television talking about the
terrors of the unknown and the evils come to devour mankind from outer space.
Marion wasn't ready to fall asleep and face is probably hallucinogenic nightmares, and continued watching the parade of dark and lurid entertainment on the shimmering screen before him. Bored with dated science fiction plots, Marion began channel surfing and eventually settled on watching the Lovecraftian horror classic "In the Mouth of Madness", about an insurance investigator who finds himself drawn into a web of insanity by an author who seems able to control reality itself by his storytelling.
The story climaxed with the investigator hiding in a mental institution pretending to be insane so that he could hide there. Marion didn't appreciate the parallels, but kept watching until the world ended and the film was over.
As the film ended, a television show began to play, one with which Marion wasn't familiar. Called the 'Unbroken Line', the series opened with a gleaming glass highrise identical to the one from Harley's earlier Firebird hallucination. Dramatic orchestral music and ominous faux latin chanting rose as the camera panned around the tower before using a wipe cut to transition to an interior shot of an austere white and grey office occupied by a man standing with his back to the camera looking out at the skyline.
Three government agent looking men entered from off camera, dark glasses and ear pieces visible. They stood in a line behind the man, who ignored them. The agent in the centre raised his right hand and touched his index finger to his ear piece.
"Bring her in."
The man remained motionless with his back to the agents.
"We've discussed your debts, you are aware how much you owe if our agreement is to continue." The centre agent said.
The man at the window said nothing. The agent on the left spoke.
"You have yet to meet the quotas. The quotas are not negotiable. If you wish us to provide continued assistance, you must provide us with the agreed quotas."
The man at the window spoke, "Feast with me and starve tomorrow. Fight against me and die today. That's the deal, right?"
The centre agent spoke again, "The feast can only be maintained by meeting the quota. Your success has resulted in growth. Growth means a larger empire to sustain. A larger empire requires a larger quota to maintain our end of the bargain. This is not negotiable. There are consequences for failing to meet your side of the contract."
The door behind the agents opened and from where he stood Marion could see a four agent had entered the office with Maia, Fitzroy and Mary Salt. Marion turned sharply back to look at the man at the window as he finally turned around.
"They don't need to be here." Darius Salt said quietly.
"They have value, beyond their mere biological worth, beyond their labour value. They can be used to meet the quotas. All of them have power, value to the story. Any one of them could dramatically improve your progress towards meeting the quota."
As the agents spoke, the walls of the office began to shatter in slow motion and drift away, leaving a vast black and white checkerboard floor extending as far as the eye could see. A grey fog rolled in, wet with steam and soot. And coiling out of the fog came the enormous serpentine figure of Falsenight. The huge oily black Python radiated steam as he moved across the tiles. Marion spun around and realized that he was now standing in a long line of people slowly marching up to be devoured systematically by Falsenight. Looking ahead, Marion saw Harley standing in line, much closer to Falsenight imposes jaws than Marion.
Darius Salt stood to the side of the whole spectacle with the agents and his family.
"I will not offer my son for the quota. My line will remain unbroken. I cannot continue the line without an heir."
"Then offer one or both of the females, with them added to the quota you might still succeed in reaching the current quota."
"One of the females. You mean my wife and daughter! You're asking me to be a cannibal! You may as well ask me to gnaw my own leg off!"
Falsenight paused in his meal and hissed at Darius, "It may come to that, but not yet. And why this pretence of honour now? You repeatedly strike your mate, and verbally abuse both of them. Any loyalty to them is overshadowed by your treatment of them. This veneer of morality in unconvincing and comes much too late. I hunger and I will be fed. You know this Darius." The last syllable hissed across the room.
"Don't you make me the villain!" Darius roared, "I didn't do this alone, you helped me. You tempted me and encouraged me."
"Yes, we did. And that is what we do. We tempt. And you accepted our bargain. We did not deceive you. Now you must meet the quota or pay the price of not doing so. What is your choice Darius?"
Marion broke from the line and ran to Harley. He grabbed Harley by the wrist and dragged his friend out of the line The agents turned as one, "The Dreamer is here. The Walker is here. We are exposed. But they have not awakened. They are vulnerable. Pursue and apprehend the targets."
Marion dragged Harley along as the footsteps of the men of Black and White echoed on the checkerboard floor. Marion could feel them getting closer and closer until he suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder and he jolt up from the couch flailing wildly and knocked Harley backwards in surprise. Harley's arms pinwheeled and he regained his balance and looked and Marion with a slight but noticeable expression of pity.
"Bad dreams?"
"You have no idea." Marion answered, looking around at the early morning light playing across the basement suite walls.
"You had a rough day yesterday, I would have been surprised to hear that you slept well. No offence."
"Yeah, but the hallucinations or dreams or visions or whatever are starting to tie together. I don't know that they're making sense yet. It's kind of like like a Peanut butter Thai hamburger."
"Did I just hear you right?"
"See that's exactly it. If I started pulling out sweet thai sauce and peanut butter and bacon and then starting frying up a hamburger, you'd know I was cooking something, but you wouldn't know what until I started assembling the whole thing. And it tastes so amazing too. You have to use crunchy peanut butter though or it just doesn't work."
"Like your metaphor?"
"But you get the idea right? I'm getting visions of things that seem all different. Government agents and evil Lord of the Ring type Empires and space birds and now Darius Salt and his family are part of it, and it looks like Darius is somehow secretly the Evil King and his Wife is the lady from my visions who wants me to save her kids and its all getting really freaky, because the government agent guys that have been watching me seem to be shaking him down and he doesn't like it, so I don't know what's going on."
"If I've heard you right, the only thing that's actually happened is that you've been seeing things, dreams or hallucinations."
"You think it's a tumour." Marion said flatly.
"Did you hear me say 'tumour'? I'm not assuming any kind of cause here. I'm just listening to what you've actually said you've experienced. All I've heard for sure is that you're seeing things that seem to be hallucinations and sometimes proper dreams. That's not much to make a case for magical empires and such."
Harley's pocket played the first few notes of Thus Spake Zarathustra and Harley looked at his Blackberry in response. Harley's brow furrowed, just slightly.
"What is it?" Marion asked.
"Another five guys just took early retirement packages. Five people in my Department. Five guys senior to me. A lot of people have taken early retirement deals recently. coworkers are starting to worry and starting to gossip, that's what I'm hearing here."
"Is the company in trouble?"
"I don't think so, but the parent company might be. They could be trying to trim expenses from our company to help overall profitability."
"Who's the parent company?"
"Salt and Sons Enterprises Inc."
Marion stood up.
"Might this company have any connection to Darius Salt, the guy who got me fired and about whom I've been having crazy freaking visions? Any chance?"
"He's the CEO, and a shareholder I think."
"And this doesn't seem crazy to you?"
"It sounds coincidental at this point. I'm more concerned about your lack of a job and my suddenly less secure employment status to be honest. If they're offering early retirement now, lay offs may come next. We can't manage if neither of us have a job. So forget your hallucinations for now, or at least try to keep them under control; go look for a job, we may need it more than we thought previously."
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