Alexander Plansky - Arcadia

“Honestly, I think I’m too tired. Sorry, we’ll do more fun stuff tomorrow, I promise.”

“No worries. Are you feeling better?”

He nodded. “Yeah… Much better.”

“I’m just glad we can finally put this whole Arcadia thing behind us,” she said, climbing into bed.

He gazed blankly at the TV, lost in a trance. “Me too.”

Lewis grabbed the remote and turned the screen off, then came around to the other side of the bed, turned on the lamp, and climbed in. He gave Jenna a peck on the cheek, but as he pulled away she drew him in again and their lips met for a long kiss.

After, he said, “Hey, I just really want to thank you for coming out here and going all the way to the middle of the desert. It means a lot to me.”

“It was nothing, really. It was actually pretty cool to go to a place like that.”

“I’m sorry the owner was such a creep.”

Jenna gave a dismissive wave of the hand. “I’ve dealt with worse. Let’s not think about it anymore.”

She kissed him and the next thing he knew she was straddling him and everything moved in a blur. Her shirt came off, then his, then the rest of their clothing, and for the first time all week, Rogue Horizon receded into the depths of his mind.

He stumbled out of the forest again, back onto that same road, falling onto his hands and knees as he did so. Cursing, he got back up and looked toward the wreck of the SUV lying in the middle of the asphalt.

The mother was still there with her son, still looking to the stars, still uttering those same damn words over and over: “Everything’s gonna be alright.” The astronaut-thing stood watching them with its back to him. Slowly, it turned around, shining the blue glow toward him.

“You’re not going to forget me too, are you Desmond?” came Miller’s demonic, synthesized voice from within its helmet. “You’re so good at letting things go.”

There were tears in Lewis’s eyes now. “No, I’m not. You know I’m not. It took forever…”

“You know it’s been there all this time,” the thing said, stepping closer. “It never left. You pushed it into the dark recesses of your mind, locked it up, and threw away the key.”

“What the hell do you want?”

The astronaut walked over and began circling around him, moving past his shoulder. “I want to help remind you whose fault all this was.”

The little boy was crying, looking up past his mother to the twinkling night sky, doing anything to prevent looking back at the wreck he’d just survived.

“You did this, Desmond,” the voice continued from behind him. “You nearly killed them both. Do you remember?”

Softly, he said, “Yes.”

“And to think,” the creature said, coming up beside him, “it was all because you wanted to be an astronaut.”

Lewis could feel the tears rolling down his cheeks, but the rest of his body remained perfectly still. “Yes,” he said again. “Yes, it was all my fault.”

“You run away from everything. But do you really think you can run away from this without knowing the answer?”

Suddenly, the little boy turned toward Lewis and said, “ Arcadia awaits. ”

His eyes flashed open. The digital clock on the nightstand read 10:45PM. He’d been asleep for about half an hour. Very carefully, he looked over his shoulder toward the other side of the bed. Jenna lay naked on her back, breathing in and out in a deep sleep.

Lewis got out of the bed as quietly as he could. Using his phone’s screen as a light source, he rummaged around in his suitcase for some underwear and a pair of black jeans and a black shirt to go with his jacket. He needed the clothing to be as dark as possible. Once dressed, he grabbed a USB flashdrive out of the suitcase’s inside pouch and slipped it into his pocket.

Taking the rental car keys and being careful to make sure his girlfriend was still asleep, he slid out the door and closed it gently behind him. Then he walked down the hallway to the elevator, pressed the button, and patiently waited for the lift to arrive.

This is crazy , he thought. But he knew he had to go. He could feel an unseen force, pulling him, willing him back out into the desert.

Arcadia awaits.

The image of the kid was seared into his mind. He’d stared straight into Lewis’s eyes with a blank look, the words spilling from his lips. That’s what had really gotten him. He wanted more than anything in the world to forget that terrible night long ago, to forget about Arcadia and the game, and to just climb back into bed with Jenna.

The doors in front of him parted and an empty elevator waited for him. He hesitated for a moment, placing his foot in front of the sensor to keep the door open.

“What are you waiting for?” came the astronaut’s voice again. Lewis didn’t dare look behind him.

I don’t think I can really do this.

“You’re afraid of what you’ll find.”

No, it’s just the whole thing is stupid . What if I get caught breaking and entering?

“If these people wanted you dead, you’d be dead already. You said so yourself.”

Lewis stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. The doors closed and he felt the carriage begin its descent. “Good,” the voice echoed. “Maybe you’ll actually resolve something for once in your life.”

His eyes slowly swept around the elevator. He was alone.

The doors opened and he stepped out into the lobby, walking past couples and groups of friends in expensive suits and fancy dresses. He felt underdressed even walking to the parking lot. Strolling beneath the glass dome amidst the botanical garden, everything around him felt like a trance. He scarcely believed he was really going through with it but was powerless to stop.

They hadn’t valeted that afternoon. Lewis finally reached where they’d left the rental car, slowly opening the door and climbing in. He took out his phone once he’d turned the vehicle on and put the address for Arcadia into Google Maps. At this time of night, it would take him an hour and seven minutes.

He drove the car out of the garage, turned onto the Strip, and headed north. Bright lights of all colors swept across his windshield as he passed by the last few casinos before the signs and excitement began to peter out. Lewis turned left onto Sahara before he got to the Stratosphere and took it over to the northbound entrance for the Las Vegas Freeway.

“Remember what you’re doing this for,” the astronaut said as the lights of the city receded behind him.

“Refresh my memory,” Lewis said. At this point, he was genuinely lost.

There was a pause, and he thought he heard the voice cackle softly, but only for a brief moment. Then it spoke again.

“Closure.”

Apair of headlights streaked by him going the opposite direction, then his view returned to the empty dark road before him. His car’s own lights revealed stretch after stretch of asphalt taking him further away from the city into the desolate Mojave. Behind the wheel, Lewis felt fatigued but didn’t lose his focus. The Corolla never swayed in its lane.

Several times over the past hour he had told himself that he was in control, that he could go back to the hotel at any time now, that he didn’t have to do this.

The astronaut hadn’t spoken to him for a while, and that made him feel relieved. The voice made him think of Miller beneath the helmet, with black eyes and bioluminescent skin, his speech distorted into an electronic menace.