Shadow Play

13

I was relieved when I discovered that I had returned to the apartment before Ashley. Inside and out I was a mess and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share what had happened. Silence would not have been an option if Ash had seen me in my current state. I went straight upstairs, removed my clothes and started a hot shower. Only once the scalding water lashed my body was my mind able to start processing what had happened. This time I was certain that what I had seen had not been a trick of the mind and no one was going to convince me otherwise. However, neither Ash nor anyone else I tried to tell the story to would believe what happened. Maybe they shouldn’t—had someone else described these things to me, I would assume they were a few crayons short of a full box. And maybe I was—all the crazy people out there are probably convinced that what they think they see actually happens. Oh hell. How would I know if I was losing my mind? Maybe I would tell Ash what happened. The only reason not to tell her was because she would think I was crazy and if I was, getting help would be a good idea. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I was going to end up in a facility with soft padded walls and Nurse Ratchet to keep me company. The water did its best to wash away my day but I couldn’t seem to shake the stickiness of fear that clung to me. As much as my rational mind told me that there was no way what I thought I had seen was real, I knew that it had been. At first, she had appeared like any other woman walking down the street, but that had just been an illusion, an image displayed to cover up the monster underneath. Because that’s what she had been—a monster. Was she some kind of demon? Maybe an alien? She looked like a vampire out of a movie, but that was just absurd—there had to be a more reasonable explanation. Okay, now I really sounded crazy. How was a demon more reasonable than a vampire? I was definitely losing touch with my sanity. My fingers had started to prune and the water was losing its heat so I got out of the shower. After I toweled off and put on my heaviest pajamas, I sat on my bed and clenched my pillow to my chest, which was where Ash found me not long after. “Hey you, how was day two of the new job?” She sat next to me with her body angled in my direction, her voice soft, recognizing that something was wrong. “Ash, I’m worried that I’m going crazy.” I held her eyes and let her see my fear so that she would understand that I wasn’t joking. “Did you see the little man again?” “No, it was so much worse this time. I know you won’t believe me, and I understand. If someone told me what I’m about to tell you, I wouldn’t believe them either.” “Okay, hit me with it.” I began speaking in a low steady voice, calmly and rationally explaining the double vision, the horrifying creature, and my miraculous escape. “I know it sounds crazy Ash, but I know what I saw and I swear on everything that I love in this world that it happened.” “Um, okay. You’re right, it is hard to believe, but I know you and I know that you aren’t making it up and I don’t think you are crazy, so I guess that means I believe you. But at the same time, I’m not sure I can totally believe that these creatures are real without having seen them myself. Hopefully you understand that it’s a pretty huge leap of faith.” I threw myself into her arms. “I know Ash, and I totally understand. Thank you for not calling me crazy or denying it happened.” We held each other for some time before Ash pulled back. “Bec, assuming these things are real, and you weren't hallucinating, maybe we need to talk about going home.” Her words made my heart start to race as panic set in. “Ash, this is my dream job, I can’t just leave and go back to waitressing. Two years I wasted in that diner, I can’t do that again. You’ve been at the publishing house getting to work with books, maybe not your favorite books, but at least working in your field. You don’t know what it was like for me. I tried to make the best of where I was, but it was incredibly defeating.” I pleaded with her, hoping she could hear in my voice how much this meant to me. “I know it hasn’t been easy, I may have had a better job but that doesn’t mean I was oblivious. I want this for you as much as you do, but you’re the one saying it’s dangerous here. I just wanted to bring up that if there’s vampires and s**t here, you may need to think about finding a job somewhere else.” While her words were hard to hear, they were spoken respectfully and I appreciated that I had a friend who could have hard conversations with me. “I know that you’re just trying to protect me, and I can’t explain it fully, but I feel like this is where I need to be. I can’t stand the thought of giving this up and leaving.” She sat quietly for some time before she spoke. “Okay, we can see where things go. Just keep in mind that this job is not worth your life.” “Definitely. Thank you, Ash.” “We're just like Elena and Bonnie in Vampire Diaries when they figure out there's vampires everywhere.” I laughed at her reference to one of our favorite shows and she pulled away as her eyes got big. “You think that woman could actually be a vampire?" “You ask me like I have any idea what the hell is going on. While I was in the shower I tried to think of what the options were, outside of me being crazy. I came up with demon, alien, or vampire before I decided I wasn’t making any sense. I feel like an alien is more plausible since I can't imagine we’re alone in the universe, but some kind of X-Men type mutant is also possible and if we go there, really there's no reason to limit ourselves and then the possibilities are endless. There’s any number of mystical creatures, and of course, it could be that we’ve never heard of whatever these things are, there’s just no way to know.”