Purgatech: Aaron's Terrible Realization

Chapter 8

"Whoa, dude. Don't look so scared. Promise I don't bite." She held her hand out. "My name is Jada. I guess you're the guy they want me to sleep with."

I didn't know what to say. My mind was too focused on the fact that a person I'd dreamt of was standing in front of me.

"Hey, my bad. I was just making a joke about us sharing a room. Relax."

But I couldn't relax. How could this be? She looked exactly the same. Well, except for her eyes. This girl, this version of Jada had normal eyes. Green ones.

"So," Jada said awkwardly, "are you going to say anything?"

"Yes." I said, and then stopped. Pretending like nothing is wrong is tough.

"Okay..." she said, drawing the word out with an upswing in the tone at the end, almost making it a question.

"Aaron," I shot my hand out and she reached to shake it. "Sorry, my name is Aaron."

"Why are you so freaked out, Aaron? Maybe you preferred your own room but I don't think that..."

"No, that's not it at all. I've just had a lot on my mind. Sorry, I'm not normally quite so bad at first impressions."

"No worries. I'm a weirdo too." She flopped onto the bed next to me, bouncing and almost throwing me off. "You're kind of cute, actually."

I felt my ears turn red and I ran out of words again. Rather than push me for more conversation, Jada pulled out her phone and started playing some music. It was soft and mellow, ethereal sort of stuff. Bon Iver and Bear's Den would have been proud but the singer was a woman who I'd never heard. I settled back and just listened to the music. It was nice to ride the rhythm and get a few moments away from all of the confusion in my head.

I felt myself drowsing. It seemed slightly strange to me that I would be taking a nap in the presence of someone I'd met only a few minutes before. But, somehow, it didn't seem to matter.

The dreams began. The sorts of dreams that happen in flashes, when you aren't really all the way asleep. I saw Katie's face. She was smiling but there were streaks of eyeliner running down her cheeks.

My dad was sending me across the front yard for a long pass. I looked back as I was running and my dad had changed into Bobby. Bobby jumped up and down, yelling with excitement as I caught the pass and charged into the end zone.

I was sitting at a table with a huge feast laid out in front of me. Seated around the table was all of my family. There was also a very tall man I'd never seen with a woman sitting next to him. Jada sat on one side of me and Katie on the other. I looked to Jada and felt Katie put a hand on my leg, under the table. Her hand was warm and she began sliding it closer to my crotch. Jada smiled and winked as she picked up a forkful of food and put it in her mouth. Katie's hand was beginning to get a bit inappropriate and I turned to tell her to stop. Her face was a mass of writhing snakes. Three black wholes in the tangled mass of scaly bodies stood for her eyes and mouth. She was screaming but no sound came out.

I jerked awake.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"How long was I out?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

Jada turned from where she was by the dresser. "Oh, maybe ten minutes or so? You didn't miss much. Could have caught me changing if you were a little less tired." She laughed at the look on my face. "Ya snooze, ya lose."

"You warm up to people quick." I said.

"Why shouldn't I? You aren't going to kill me, are you?"

"What? Of course not."

"Then why waste time being awkward. Let's just go ahead and be friends." Her logic had a certain simple truth to it.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Okay."

"Great, that will make things much easier. I've never shared a room with a ten minute old friend, have you?"

"Nope, can't say that I have."

"Why did they put you in here, anyway?"

I wasn't really sure how to answer that. I decided to avoid saying too much. "They said that they had to do maintenance work."

"Maintenance work? This whole house needs maintenance work. Why would they be so concerned with one room?"

"Couldn't tell you," I said. In two steps she'd crossed the room and bounced her way onto the bed.

"Yes you could," she said. "You aren't telling me something. What is it?" So much for keeping my mouth shut.

"I heard some weird stuff in there."

"Weird stuff? Like what?"

I was uncomfortably aware of the microphone behind the dresser.

"There was a bunch of tapping on the walls and stuff."

"Well that doesn't seem all that strange," she said. "I mean, this house definitely has spirits living in it. I don't know why it would be such a big deal to hear some."

"Yeah, me neither. I had a really bad dream in there too."

"Oh yeah? I love dreams. Tell me all about yours. My grandmother taught me how to interpret them."

"I'd rather not," I said. That wasn't entirely true, though. I was dying to tell someone about the dream. It was burning a hole in me. But for some reason, I didn't want Turner finding out about it.

"What do you mean you'd rather not?" She looked hurt. "Is it embarrassing?"

"No, it's not that." I didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Is it a s*x thing? Because I've had some really weird s*x dreams. This one time...."

"No, Jada, it's not a s*x thing." I laughed a little bit. Then I realized how I could speak with her privately. "Why don't we go for a walk?" I raised my eyebrows at her, I guess trying to signal that she should follow along with my suggestion.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I don't want to leave, I want you to tell me a story about your dream. Why is it a secret?"

"Curiosity killed the cat." It didn't sound very funny once it was out of my mouth. "Come on, let's go walk." I stood up and grabbed my jacket. I saw what must have been her sweater laying on the dresser and tossed it to her.

Jada grabbed it before it hit her in the face and stood up. "Fine." She was sulking. It was endearing.

We walked down the steps and across the small lawn in front of the house. When we got to the sidewalk, we turned to the right and began to make our way down the quiet road.

Once we were well out of earshot, I apologized to Jada.

"What for?" she asked.

"For being sketchy about my dream and stuff back inside. Truth is, the room is bugged."

"Bugged? You mean like CIA s**t?"

"Yeah," I said, grinning, "like CIA shit."

"Well of course it's bugged, dummy!"

"What?"

"We work for a rich weirdo who has us doing experiment for him in his creepy old mansion. Probably illegal experiments. Of course the house is bugged. He's going to want to know everything." She had a point.

"Okay, fair. But I just don’t want him to know about the dream for some reason. It feels important somehow."

"Important?"

"Well, for one thing, you were..." The words "in it" had been on the tip of my tongue before I bit them back. No reason to freak her out with that part.

"I was what?" she asked.

"Um, you were apparently right down the hall when all of it was going on. Did you hear the banging?"

"No," she said quietly. "I guess that is kind of weird."

"Really weird. It was loud enough that you couldn't have missed it."

"Okay, so start at the beginning and tell me the whole thing."

So I did. Most of it anyway. I told her how I heard the noise when I was in the shower and then Omri convinced me not to worry about it. I told her how later I'd thought I was awake even though I was dreaming and how the noise drew me to the closet. I told her about going into the closet and finding the girl in the back. I decided to leave out the fact that the girl was actually her. It seemed like a bit much.

"What a minute, she had red eyes?" Jada was absolutely fascinated.

"Yep. It was really freaky."

"Did you talk to Sparks?" Jada asked.

"Yeah. She gave me the phone app."

"I didn't get an app but she said that red was bad. She was really adamant about that."

"I heard the same thing from her. Part of why I didn't want to talk about it where they could hear us."

"Okay, that's fair. I mean, it was obviously just a dream so it's not like you really need to be worried about anything." Her tone wasn't quite as confident as her words.

"Don't you think it's weird that they moved me out of the room right after that, though?"

"It's odd, for sure, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. None of this stuff can actually hurt us."

We walked on for a bit in silence, digesting the strange conversation. I was relieved to have finally had the chance to talk about it. I hardly knew Jada but she had a calming air about her and I was glad for her company.

As we meandered throughout the small town on our walk, we stumbled upon a park. It was bordered on one side by the road and on the other by a lazy river. There was a large statue of a man in the middle of it and a plaque fixed to the dais.

"Oh, I love these historical monuments," Jada said and ran over to the base of the statue. I walked up behind her and was surprised that I recognized the face of the statue. It was the same man from the painting in the living room.

Jada began to read the plaque out loud. "John H. Slade. 1802-1874. Slade is responsible for building a mill, here on the Sawtoe River. The mill provided jobs for former Civil War soldiers and they flocked from the surrounding counties. For the hundreds of families moving to the area, Slade built homes, stores, and restaurants. Within three years of the mill’s construction, an entire town had been built to house its employees. Slade named the town after his wife, calling it "Mary's Rest". The mill has since shut down but Mary's Rest remains a quaint place for those seeking solitude to raise a family away from loud, bustling cities. Slade is remembered as the founder of one of the most peaceful towns in the region."

"And a good looking fellah, too," Jada said, looking up at the statue. "I wonder why they don't have his wife with him?"

"No idea. Do you recognize him?"

"What do you mean?" she asked. I told her about the painting in the sitting room. "Oh, wow! Do you think that Purgatech's office space is his old house?"

"Probably," I said. "It's definitely the biggest one I've seen here. Would make sense."

"Maybe we'll be able to talk with him. I bet he’s a fascinating guy."

"Maybe," I said. The look on his face didn't necessarily make me want to sit down for a chat. "Come on, it's probably about time to head back. We don't want them to start looking for us."

We made our way back to the headquarters a little faster than we'd wandered away from it. Sure enough, Turner was just walking down the front steps when we arrived.

"There you are," he said. "We were looking all over for you two."

"We just went for a walk," I told him.

"Well. I'm glad you two are getting acquainted but next time you decide to wander off, you need to let one of us know."

"Okay, I'm sorry," I said.

"We didn't realize we needed permission." Jada's voice was far from apologetic.

"I imagine there are many things you do not realize, little one." I didn't like the way that Turner was looking at Jada as he said it. She grew quiet.

"No matter," Turner said, smiling again. "Let's travel to the back yard. It is time for your first hunt." He clapped and turned on his heals.

Jada looked at me and took a deep breath. She looped her arm through mine and we followed Turner together.