Andrew Klavan - Nightmare City

“Who are you?” Tom said.

“I told you: I’m your friend. My name doesn’t matter.”

“Well, how can you control those things? The malevolents? How did you make them go away?”

“It doesn’t matter how.”

“It matters to me. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes, you hate that, don’t you? When things don’t make sense. You always want to figure them out. But you know, just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean it can’t be understood.”

Tom had to acknowledge the truth of that. He didn’t really understand calculus either, but he assumed it made sense to somebody.

“Do you know why they’re here? These malevolents,” he asked now. “Do you know how they got here?”

“I know,” said the man quietly.

“Well, tell me!” Tom nearly cried out. “What’s going on? Please!”

The man gave a low hum of sympathy. He said, “Yes. You want answers. That’s your nature. You don’t like lies. You don’t like secrets. You never met a mystery you didn’t want to solve.”

“So help me, then,” said Tom.

“I’m trying, Tom. But some mysteries are very deep. Why is there evil at all, for instance? Why did Burt have to die? What’s happening to you now? If you want the solutions to puzzles like those, you have to go the extra mile.”

Tom shook his head, trying to work through his confusion. “What’s it got to do with Burt? And what extra mile? What do you mean? What do I have to do to find out what’s happening?”

“You have to do what Marie told you to do,” said the man in his gentle, almost hypnotizing tone. “You have to go to the monastery. The answers are there.”

“The monastery…” Tom gripped the baseball bat harder in his frustration. “Look, if you know so much, how about you just tell me the answers?”

“Because that’s not the way it works,” said the man gently. “You have to find the answers yourself. You have to face them yourself. The truth is not always easy, Tom. Sometimes it’s even horrific. It’s not enough to be told. You have to grasp it with your whole mind. You have to accept it with your whole heart. No one can do that for you.”

Tom gave another hesitant nod. He had to acknowledge this, too. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“It is true. You know it is.”

Lightning flickered at the window again and Tom turned to watch it. He kept watching until the lightning was gone and the low growl of thunder followed. He didn’t admit it to himself, but the truth was he didn’t want to see the computer screen light up again. He didn’t want to see the man’s face again so clearly. Something about the dude creeped him out.

The lightning faded. Tom looked at the computer. It was dark. Silent.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

The man’s voice answered from the speaker, reassuringly calm and mellow. “Go to the monastery. The path is clear for now, but you have to hurry. I can’t keep the beasts away forever.”

Tom tried one more time to get something out of this guy. “At least tell me what I’m looking for. Tell me where my mom is. Is she all right?”

“The monastery, Tom,” said the man quietly. “All the answers are at the monastery.”

Tom cast a wary glance at the door. “And if I go out, I’ll be safe? The monsters are gone? I can get where I’m going?”

“The monsters are gone. Everything will be fine,” said the man. “It’s perfectly safe for you now.”

Tom kept eyeing the door. He turned his body to face it, still holding the Louisville Slugger in his two hands.

“Go on,” said the man. “Go back to the monastery.”

Tom glanced at him. “What do you mean, ‘back’?”

“Just go,” the man insisted. “Time is running out. You’ll see. It will be all right.”

The thunder rolled outside again. Tom let the head of the bat slip from his fingers. He lowered the barrel to the floor, still holding on to the handle. He felt deep misgivings about this—and about the man. Who was he? Why wouldn’t he tell him his name? Why did the sight of him make Tom feel afraid? And yet, what choice did he have but to trust him, to do what he said? He couldn’t fight the creatures off forever. Maybe the answers really were at the monastery. Marie said so. Why would she lie?

“That’s right,” said the man on the computer soothingly, as if he were reading Tom’s thoughts, answering his silent questions. “That’s right. You want this to be over, don’t you? You want the answers. I know you do.”

He so did! He wanted to solve this puzzle and end this nightmare. He wanted that as much as he’d ever wanted anything in his life. This was like being trapped inside a horror movie. He needed to get out.

He made up his mind. He leaned the Warrior against the wall. He took hold of the dresser. With a grunt of effort, he shoved it back across the floor, removing the blockade from the doorway.

“That’s right. Just have courage,” said the man in the computer. “Isn’t that what your brother would’ve told you? Have courage.”

Tom thought he heard a faint tone of mockery in the man’s voice, but he told himself he must be mistaken. He picked up the bat again. He reached out slowly. He unlocked the door. He opened it.

The hall was in shadow. There was a faint mist trailing across the doorway. But there were no monsters—not as far as he could see, at any rate.

Slowly, cautiously, he stepped over the threshold, leaving the bedroom behind him. He stepped out into the hall and stood in the darkness.

Just then there was another lightning flash. The silver-white light shot through the hall—and Tom saw the creatures. The malevolents were waiting for him, a crowd of them in the darkness to his right and his left. Drool was dripping from their eager mouths. Their eyes were bright with hunger.

The man had lied to him—but then Tom had already known that, hadn’t he? Deep down, he had known the man was lying all along. He had been so desperate to believe him he had pushed down the knowledge, but it was always there. Now he saw the truth—but it was too late.

The thunder crashed and the beasts rushed at him, swarmed over him, their claws tearing at him, their teeth ripping into his flesh.

The last thing Tom heard in his agony was the voice of the man on the computer. The man was laughing.

Tom cried out in pain and terror—and he opened his eyes.

Immediately, relief flooded through him. The nightmare was over. The monsters were gone.

He was in heaven again, just as before.

Just as before, he was standing on the brink of the vast and peaceful parkland with its stunningly green grass and its blindingly white Greek temples. The sky was a cloudless blue again. The light was golden, and the flower beds planted here and there were more colorful than any he had ever seen.

He looked around him in wonder. What a beautiful place it was! It was as if he had dreamed about it and now he had come here for real. Those monsters in the hallway—the malevolents—they must have killed him. He must be dead now—dead and gone to heaven. That was the only way he could make sense of it.

Some things were different here this time, he noticed. There weren’t as many people as there had been before. There were only a few now, a few men and women standing here and there. He particularly noticed this one guy again—the lanky young guy with long dirty blond hair. He was exactly where he’d been the last time. He hadn’t moved from his spot in front of one of the temples. His thin, hungry face with its sunken cheeks and darkly ringed eyes was still turning this way and that nervously, as if he were lost and wanted to ask directions but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.