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Blackout at Cherry Estates:  Part V

They moved like kindergarteners, all linked hand-to-hand, Pat in the lead, Michael in the rear, Ashley and Catherine squeezed in the middle.  Pat held his flashlight out before them, cutting into the darkness like Moses parting the red sea.  Ashley still had her can of pepper spray on hand, but she kept that to herself.  The incident with Mrs. Watts had left her cautious.  Ashley had no way of telling how the darkness, the bizarre warping in physics, the sheer ominous presence was affecting the minds of her companions.  She felt certain it was responsible for her headache though Pat had dismissed her worries as stress-induced paranoia.  As they crept their way along the corridor to the basement, Ashley's head throbbed painfully in a warning signal.  Danger ahead, danger ahead, danger...

Still, this seemed like the only logical course of action.  The sooner they got help from outside, the better.

From the back of their little column, Ashley felt a sharp tug.  Michael had stopped walking, and had his head cocked to the side, as if straining to hear a distant sound.  Pat half-turned and held his flashlight up to the young man's face.  "What's up?"  He asked.

Michael didn't answer at first, but twitched his hand to his lips in a universal gesture of silence.  The others all flicked their heads about like nervous gophers.  "What did you hear?"  Ashley whispered in the silence.

Michael shook his head.  "Don't know.  Sounded like..." he trailed off vaguely.  "Never mind.  Let's keep going."

Ashley frowned in concern, but nodded to Pat, and they trundled onward.  They reached the basement door without incident, but the pain in Ashley's head was intense now.  She ground her teeth and focused on finding the key on her ring that opened the door.  She was determined not to show any signs of weakness to the others.  Catherine and Michael were both terrified, of that much she was certain.  They needed an anchor.  Pat seemed much more unflappable, but he didn't seem altogether prepared to lead the others out.  So it came down to her.

The door swung open, revealing the concrete staircase that led down to the furnace room.  Pat looked back at the others and grimaced, then soldiered on.

It was unnaturally silent.  The usual hum of the furnaces was audible from outside the door even on busy days, and yet as they descended the narrow steps, the only sound that they could make out was that of their own footfalls.  Ashley glanced back up the stairs to the doorway, only to discover she could no longer find it.  The darkness had swallowed it up behind them.  The world seemed now to only exist insofar as Pat's flashlight could make it out.

They reached the bottom.  The aging furnaces that heated Cherry Estates were lit and functioning - Ashley could tell that by the heat they were giving off - yet still they could make out no audible noise from the units.  It was as though they existed separate from the group, yet were still leaking into their own reality.  Or perhaps it was the group that was leaking into the reality of the furnaces.

If Pat and the others were feeling the same sensations that Ashley was, they didn't show it.  Pat seemed to relax in the familiar space - this was his domain - and struck out for his locker.  The metal container was located on the far side of the furnace room, away from the staircase, behind a pair of wooden benches.  On top of the benches, someone had left out an open toolbox.  Catherine and Michael followed, more sure of themselves in the warmth.  Ashley lingered behind, squinting into the narrow spaces between the units.  In the heat-shimmering pitch, Ashley could swear she saw a shapeless mass undulating and writhing about.  Ashley stepped back warily and kept her hand on the can of pepper spray in her pocket.  "Guys-" she began, but the rest of her sentence was lost in a clatter of metal on metal as a blurry form shot past Pat, knocking over the toolbox on the bench.

Catherine shrieked reflexively and clung to Michael while Pat fumbled his flashlight, trying to get a look at whoever - or whatever - had just flown by.  Ashley sprang past them and hefted her can of pepper spray as if it were a handgun.  "Come out of there, you bastard!" she screamed.

A quivering human form emerged from the gloom and prostrated itself in front of Ashley.  The man was young, dressed in work overalls.  He cowered in front of them, head held in his hands, refusing to look up.  Pat cautiously moved alongside Ashley.  "Morgan?" he said.

"You know him?"  Catherine asked.

"Yeah.  He helps out part-time here with the electrics.  He must've been down here doing some preventive maintenance."

"I remember," Ashley said.  "Pat, try talking to him, will you?  He looks scared out of his wits."

Pat stepped closer.  "Morgan, you all right man?"

The fellow slowly lifted his head up to stare at the group.  His face was matted with grease and dirt.  His eyes darted all over, taking in the four people in front of him, the furnaces, the room at large.  They seemed to lack focus.  Ashley also couldn't help noting he'd chewed his fingernails down to nubs, and he'd even drawn blood on some of the tips.

"Morgan," Pat repeated.  "You all right?"

Morgan seemed to notice Pat for the first time.  "Pat," he said.  Pat nodded, expecting more, but Morgan just left it at that.

"You all right?"  Pat tried once more.

And just like that, Morgan grabbed Pat by the lapels of his jacket and slammed him into a wall, blabbering "Pat can't you hear it scratching at the walls it's tearing it's biting it's going to get in it's going to get me why won't it leave me alone it talks to me it whispers..."

Ashley considered the pepper spray in her hand, but aside from his initial outburst Morgan didn't seem to be attacking, just raving.  She got hold of him in a full-nelson and hurled him away from Pat.  As soon as he hit the floor, Morgan subsided into a gibbering wreck and curled into a ball, madly trying to nibble on fingernails that were no longer there.

"Jesus," Pat was panting with the shock of the experience.  "What the hell's got into you, Morgan?"

"Should we tie him up or something?"  Michael asked, clearly unnerved.

"No," Ashley said.

"But he might be dangerous, just like that crazy old lady!"  Catherine protested.  "Look at him!  What's wrong with him?"

"He's our friend," Ashley said firmly.  "And you need to back off."

"Hey," Michael interjected.  "Don't tell us to-"

"The radio," Ashley cut him off.  "Focus on that.  Find the radio.  We'll deal with this."

The young couple glanced at each other, then set about to do as she'd asked.  Michael, Ashley noticed, did so with much greater reluctance and snuck dark looks over his shoulder occasionally.  She ignored him and knelt down besides the rocking figure of Morgan.  She carefully reached a soothing hand out and placed it on his shoulder.  He shuddered at her touch.

"Be careful," Pat whispered.  He stepped back to find one of the fallen tools Morgan had knocked over, and came up with a crescent wrench.

"It's all right," Ashley whispered back.  "He's more scared of us than we are of him."  She bent her head over Morgan and softly said "Right?  You're afraid.  But it's ok.  You're ok.  We won't hurt you.  You know us, remember?"

Morgan peered up at her with tears in his eyes.  "How did you get down?"  he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Down, down!"  Morgan hissed.  Nearby, Pat's grip tightened on his wrench.  "How'd you get down?  I couldn't get out, no matter what I tried.  No way out.  Wouldn't let me leave.  Tearing at the walls.  Whispering, so many voices, all one."

"Morgan," Ashley said firmly.  "There's no one else here.  All right?  We came down the stairs.  We can all go out together, if you want."

Morgan laughed, a guttural, harsh, choking sound that shook Ashley to her core.  "Won't matter.  Here, there, everywhere.  And nowhere.  Third.  Three.  That's where it all began."

"What the hell is he talking about?"  Pat said.

"Morgan," Ashley said.  "What happened to you?  You can tell me, it's all right."

Morgan's eyes took on a terrified look.  "Wouldn't stop talking.  Taunting.  Calling me names.  Had to shut it up.  Smashed it to pieces, just to get some piece and quiet.  Didn't matter.  I was wrong.  It wasn't there, it was here."

"I don't get any of this," Pat shook his head.

"Um, guys," Catherine called.

"Not now," Ashley yelled back.

"Guys, this is urgent."

Ashley sighed and pulled away from Morgan.  He remained where he was, his hands tracing patterns on the concrete under him as if he were child in a sandbox.  Ashley made her way over to Catherine and Michael.  "What is it?"

Catherine just pointed.

"Oh," Ashley said aptly.  "Oh no."

"What?"  Pat brushed past the others.  "You've got to be kidding."

The emergency radio was in front of them.  And beside them.  And possibly behind them.  A hundred, maybe a thousand tiny pieces, all over.  There was a terrible silence, punctuated by the odd bizarre exclamation from Morgan.  Pat's face twisted into a horrific grimace of rage.  He turned on his heel and raised his wrench.  Ashley was on him in a moment, tugging the tool out of his hand.  She passed it to Catherine smoothly.

"He destroyed the radio!"  Pat roared.

"It's not his fault!"  Ashley snapped back.

"Screw that," Pat snarled.  "I don't need a wrench to pulverize this punk."  He put a boot into Morgan's back.  Morgan whimpered and withdrew even further into himself.  Pat slammed his foot down again.

"Pat!"  Ashley tried to restrain him again.  "Pat, for crissakes, stop it!"

"Let go of me!"  Pat spun and backhanded her across the face.  He grabbed Morgan by his shirt and looked set on tearing him apart.

Ashley stumbled back, her head swimming.  She shrieked in fury and slapped Pat on the jaw.

Pat reeled and rubbed his face, eyes wide with shock and surprise.  "Ashley," he got out.

"Now you listen to me, Patrick Thatcher," Ashley's voice quivered with determination.  "It's this darkness, it's done something to him.  To all of us.  Even to you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Look at yourself, Pat," Ashley's tone softened.  "You're ready to kill Morgan.  He's your friend, remember?  I get that you're angry, I really do, but this isn't you.  It's just not.  Can't you see that?"

Pat's face seemed to shift back from a grim, unpleasant place.  He slumped visibly.  "Ashley, I..." he muttered.

"Please, Pat," Ashley pressed on.  "I need your help.  I need you to be you.  Don't hurt him."

Pat relaxed his grip on Morgan, and let him drop to the floor.  "I'm sorry," he said, sincerely.  He looked to Michael and Catherine.  Michael was standing slack-jawed.  He'd barely moved a muscle throughout the entire altercation.  Catherine had the wrench in both hands, ready to strike.  Pat nodded to her, and she nodded back, relaxing about a hair.

"So," Pat said.  "What do we do now?"

Ashley managed a smile in thanks.  She leaned back against the wall and considered her companions, the broken radio, and Morgan.  "The roof," she said at length.  "We try for the roof next.  See if maybe there's a way for us to get a signal out there.  Or at the very least, a way out.  Okay?"

Pat nodded.  Michael, after a nudge from Catherine, nodded as well.  Catherine let out a breath she'd been holding for minutes.  "What about him?"  She indicated the prostrate Morgan.

Ashley exhaled resignedly.  "We can't take him with us," she said.  "He's in no condition to go anywhere."

"So we leave him alone in the dark?"  Michael protested.

Ashley snorted cynically.  "We're all alone in the dark right now."  She bent over Morgan and gently touched him once more.  "I'm sorry, hon.  We'll be back soon.  I promise.  Please don't hurt yourself, all right?"

Morgan didn't seem to hear a word she said.  He spat out obscenities and nonsense words.  Ashley patted him on the arm and signaled the others to move on.  Pat turned his flashlight away, up the stairs, and Morgan was immediately lost in the pitch black.  As they began their ascent, Ashley could hear him still holding a one-sided conversation:

"Going, going, going, why won't you leave me alone they've all gone now so why won't you leave me alone too I just want to get some sleep some rest please won't you leave me alone..."

The basement door slammed shut behind Ashley.

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