legs trembling, faces pale with sickness. Nerves absolutely shot. Burned out like bad wiring.
âHoly Mary, Mother of God,â breathed Top. And he crossed himself. I had only ever seen him do that once before.
Bunny wiped pain-tears from his eyes and sniffed in a chestful of air.
The machine sat there, cold and silent and dark. Around us the impossible city loomed, mocking us and everything we believed in. Topâs prayer faded into nothing.
Bunny coughed, cleared his throat. âWhat ⦠whatâ¦?â
âI know,â said Top.
Bunnyâs head snapped around. âTop, did youâ¦? I meanâ¦â
âI donât know, Farm Boy,â said Top, but he was clearly in distress that ran deeper than the physical. âThis is some voodoo shit right here.â
âItâs nuts,â said Bunny, shaking his head, âbut for a moment there Iâ¦â
Once more his words trailed away, and he shot me a very strange look. A suspicious and horrified look.
âWhat?â I asked cautiously. âWhat did you see?â
âNothing. I didnât see nothing.â
âBunny ⦠look, I saw something, too.â
His eyes widened. âWhat?â
âI saw something, too,â I repeated. âFor a couple of seconds after that thing went off I sawâ¦â
And I stopped, too. How exactly do you have that kind of conversation? You need to hear that someone else shared it so that itâs not just you. And youâre afraid that it is just you. But at the same time what if itâs not just you and stuff like this is possible? You see the problem? Thereâs no way to Sudoku your way out of it.
âSay it, Capân,â said Top. âWhatâd you see?â
I wiped sweat out of my eyes and took a moment. âI saw two things and neither of them make any sense,â I began. âI saw meâmy bodyâkneeling a few feet away, looking right at me.â
âYeah,â said Bunny, nodding but not looking anything but scared shitless about it.
âThen for a second I was somewhere else,â I continued. âI was in your cottage, Bunny. Lydia was there andâ¦â
I let it tail off. Bunnyâs face went from a greasy mushroom white to a livid red.
âWhat else did you see?â he asked in a low growl. A frightened dog growl, but definitely a growl.
âThe fuck does it matter what else he saw?â barked Top. âHe saw it.â
Benny wheeled on him. âWhat makes you so sure?â
âBecause I saw my ex-wife,â he snarled. âClear as motherfucking day. Sitting at the kitchen counter drinking that shit mint tea she drinks and reading stock numbers off her damn computer. Want to know where Apple stock is right now? I can still taste that son of a bitching tea.â
He dragged a trembling hand across his mouth, which had become wet with spit. He looked at the moisture, shook his head, then they both looked at Bunny.
âWhat did you see, Farm Boy?â
âWhat,â exclaimed Bunny, âso weâre all just going to accept that this stuff just happened?â
âWhat did you see?â
Bunny cut a look at me and then he looked up at the ceiling far, far above us. âI had a nightmare,â he said.
âWhat do you mean?â
âI didnât see Lydia or your ex, Top. I didnât see anyone I know.â He shook his head. There was a quaver in his voice that made his teeth start to chatter. It wasnât the cold, though, and we all knew it. He was simply that scared. âIt couldnât have been anything but me freaking out. It was this weird place ⦠like the beach, except the ocean was black and oily, and the sky was wrong. Not our sky, you know? The stars were wrong. And ⦠and there were monsters.â He stopped and shook his head, unable or unwilling to continue. âThere arenât words for it, you know?â
They both
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