3

A THIN GREY LINE

CROSSING IT WITH ENTHUSIASM

At this I had to stop and think. "What do I do?" I had been operating on autopilot up to that point. I had been unable to get my brain to do anything but react to what was going on. I just wasn't processing anything till that moment, not that I necessarily think that is a bad thing, I wouldn't be here now if it had, I'd have run screaming from that place a few moments after entering. "I have to assume this is all just a trick of some kind. But, how would it be pulled off?" The beer was the answer. "I hadn't seen anything weird until I took my first drink. That was when things started, it must have been drugged, maybe a hallucinogen, or something else making me susceptible to suggestion.

So I am seeing what I am being told to see, and my subconscious is filling in the details. Like hypnosis. The first defense against hypnosis is to know that you can be hypnotized. So if I know I have been hypnotized, or drugged, I can break it."

I concentrated on things the way I thought they should have been. Then I looked at Tory, "Damn. No change. So what else? Subliminal? But from where? The music? No way to prove it. Hmm…" Yes I was thinking out loud. I didn't see a reason not to. Besides I hoped if it was a trick they'd let me off the hook.

"So what's up cutie? You want something to drink?" from behind me.

"Another beer please," If it was drugged, it wouldn't matter and besides, there might just as easily be gasses in the air.

"Sure thing." she walked off, running the tip of her tail across the back of my neck.

"She likes you Kyle." He was watching her walk away.

"I couldn't tell." Shaking off some of the images of her that had popped into my mind. Not one of them was even remotely decent and I think I heard her giggle as she walked away.

"So what's your verdict?"

Still thinking. "If this is all just an illusion, then there will be minor inconsistencies, and if those are costumes." Poking him in the shoulder. "Then there will be a way to find out they are. I have to study the people of this place and find the mistakes. That or I just walk away now and forget it exists." His shoulder felt like solid steel, no give at all beyond the fur, which felt very real. "In reality I should simply walk out of here and wipe the experience from my brain, with a hammer if necessary. However, I'm too stubborn for my own good." That's still true, if anything, this experience has made it worse.

I was mentally running scared because of that little voice in the back of my mind that was screaming at the top of its lungs. It's all real, oh god, it's all real and... We! Are! Going! To! Die!! So I made my decision and laid all my cards on the table.

"Alright Tory, I am operating on the assumption that this is all just a fake of some sort, and I am going to prove it." Closing my eyes, I turned on the stool to face the rest of the bar, my last chance at finding out this was a hoax, and really, my last chance to just walk away from the whole thing. I had been hoping that what I had been seeing, other then Tory, was just a projection for my benefit. When I opened my eyes I found that it wasn't, and I tell you I felt my heart sink well past the floor.

"Really? Now that is something I have been trying to do for years. I'll help. Having this all proved to be some elaborate fake would make it all so much easier to deal with. Where shall we start?" That response took me off guard, I had been expecting him to try and dissuade me. Then again, if it were a fake, trying to dissuade me from investigating would have been a give away.

That's when an idea hit me, why not have the chief deceiver show me around, where he didn't want me to look is where I needed to. "Well how about you show me around the place. We'll talk to everybody, and see if we find anything wrong with their stories."

He smiled again, actually more of a grin, a wicked, toothy, predatory grin. As sick as it was, he liked the idea. "Sounds good, but you do realize that I could be going along with you simply to keep you away from the weak points you seek."

"That had occurred to me. But, I decided that with the detail and imagination put into this. Like your appearance. You would have little to no effect on the final outcome." How wrong I was.

He pointed over to the table with the cockroach, the werewolf and the squid. "Let's go over there and see Mark and the crew. As good a place to start as any."

Which one was he talking about? I had been expecting some unusual name, but Mark? "Mark?"

"The werewolf with the ‘Jack Daniels.'" He got up and started walking in their direction.

"Oh."

THE ROACH, THE WEREWOLF, AND SOME FLOATING SEAFOOD

Getting up, I followed him over to their table and he introduced me around. Now that I got a good look, the costumes were amazingly detailed. Down to the way you could see the muscles move, just like under the skin of a real person. Oh how I wished at the time that they had been costumes. If it were all just an illusion, it would be so much easier to deal with. "Hello boys. What ya'll yapping about?"

"Hey! Big T. How's it going?" from the cockroach.

"Not bad. Though that doesn't say much, I'd like you all to meet Kyle." Putting a hand on my shoulder. Just that hand felt like a huge weight, I could feel it through my shirt, the heat of his body. How would you fake that?

When the cockroach spoke, his voice had a clicking nature to it just as you might expect. Seems Hollywood gets many more of their ideas from Joe's than I thought initially. "Hi Kyle. I'm Kap Klack, that is Mark Meltrost, don't mind him, he's just depressed today," Pointing to the werewolf, who did actually looked rather sullen. "And the floating calamari above your head is Psft-Lagrolast Slaassstgrrraaaagahth." motioning to the squid with an arm.

"Uh, Hi, nice to meet you Kap, you too Mark, and....." Looking up at the squid. Not sure what to call him since I couldn't have pronounced what Kap had said if I had tried. The Squid was about 3 feet long in body size, and had a good 10 feet of tentacles coiled up, only those it was using to hold its drink uncoiled.

"Harrumph." was Mark's reply.

~Just call me Cal. It's easier for everyone. Besides you don't have the ability to reproduce the sound of my true name.~ The squid talked, that in itself sent me for a loop. What's more, I heard the voice in my head as clear as Kap's voice in my ears. This was not a good sign. That would be a really hard thing to explain, especially if it kept up.

So I decided to go for the obvious. I asked. "Hi Cal, how do you talk, if you don't mind me asking."

~No, no, not at all. You see, I am a telepathic transmitter. I can hear just fine. But, I have no way of producing sound below what you would consider the ultrasonic. So I send what I want to say telepathically.~

That scared me. A dozen different horror films popped into mind. "Can you read minds?"

~No. I can only transmit to communicate. Unless a full telepath is talking to me of course, but that is something else entirely.~

This didn't reduce my fears any, if anything it made them worse. I had too many science fiction books running through my head. "I see…" If that was how they were doing this. I was already lost, and there would be no way to prove anything. They could feed me literally anything they wanted.

Tory at this point had sat down and was talking to Mark. Who was finally starting to make a few nearly intelligent noises. So I focused my attention on Cal and Kap, which I find rather amazing as I should have run screaming for my life a long time ago.

I figured my fight or flight reactions must have given up and gone on vacation, as I was having a conversation with a giant cockroach and a floating squid. Maybe I was crazy after all, so I sat down. I learned later that fight or flight does take a vacation of sorts when exposed to situations as far out of our normal experience as Joe's was for me.

Cal's voice in my head made me jump. ~So Kyle. Where you from?~

I answered reflexively. "San Diego."

~No, no. What planet?~ He sounded amused by my response.

I hadn't even thought about that kind of answer. "Oh. Earth. Why? Where are you from?"

~Me. I'm from Trablotas. It's a gas giant orbiting the star you call Betelgeuse. He's an Earth native as well.~ indicating Kap with a tentacle.

"Am not!" exclaimed Kap. He crossed the upper and middle set of legs like arms.

~Don't lie Kap. You're an escapee from a genetics lab.~ I'd swear Cal was laughing, there was this lilting to the voice in my head that gave me that impression.

"Well I can't deny that. But, it wasn't Earth it was Mars." Kap said indignantly.

Cal just floated there. The only reason I knew he was talking was when I heard him. ~Still Earth's system.~

"Details, just details." Kap said, uncrossing his arms, he picked up one of the shot glasses in front of him and slammed it.

"How did you escape?" I asked. Trying to get my attention off Cal, he was making me nervous.

"Well they were trying to create a bug to help with the Terra-forming project. Only they didn't know quite what they were doing so they pushed the artificial evolution a little too much and got me. Not knowing what to do with a cockroach as smart as or smarter than they were, they were going to destroy me and start over." I assumed he was shrugging. His wings fluttered making a rustling sound.

I tried to run with it, taking from my store of watching too much of the Scifi channel on cable. "That's awful, yet you are here, so something happened. One of the researchers take pity on you?"

A new voice from my right spoke. I turned to see who it was. "Nah. Nothing so dramatic. Besides, it would have been no big loss to the intellectual community despite what he'll tell you." It was Mark the werewolf.

"Who asked you Mark?" Kap didn't seem too happy about Mark's statement, which unfortunately for me spoke of truth.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Hey kid. Don't let the overgrown bug lie to you. If it wasn't for me and the fuzz ball here, he'd have been so much genetic compost." pointing to Tory.

"Who you calling fuzzball, hairball?" asks Tory. He seemed to be challenging Mark.

"You, got a problem with that?" returning the challenging tone to Tory.

"No, just making sure." sitting back and smiling.

"Stop that! You know it drives me nuts." exclaimed Kap. He chittered for a moment, both Tory and Mark shared a grin.

"Why do you think I do it." says Mark with an intimidating smile, he was showing as many teeth as Tory was.

~Children. Behave.~ I jumped again. Cal's voice out of nowhere was really getting to me.

"Shut up Cal." from both Kap and Mark. Everybody was smiling accept me.

So as the ball seemed to be in my court. "Where you from Mark?"

He looked at me like he wasn't expecting me to be able to speak. "New York."

That sounded suspicious. So I decided to press my luck. "Really, how did you end up a werewolf?"

Looking at Tory quizzically. "Gutsy for a simple human." Giving me a withering grin.

"He's convinced that this is all just an elaborate illusion." Waving his hands to indicate the entire bar and occupants. "And he's out to prove it."

~Really. That's fascinating. I say we help.~ Again I jumped, snapping my head up to look at Cal. I was going to get whiplash if that kept up.

"What are you talking about Cal?" Said Mark looking up himself.

~I say we help him. It is truly the ultimate philosophical question. Do we exist as we believe we do, or are we just role playing gamers who have lost total touch with reality? Or better still, just the characters in the imagination of some science fiction writer in a higher dimension, or maybe....~

"Enough Cal, we get the point." said Mark, cutting him off.

~Oh. Sorry.~ He actually sounded sorry, I was being totally weirded out by the fact that I could perceive emotion in Cal's speech.

I couldn't tell if he was smiling but Kap's voice sounded like it. "Well Mark, I'm with Cal on this for once. Besides it sounds like fun."

"Harrumph." Was all he would say.

~Come on Mark. It'll be fun.~ Now it sounded like he was begging, there was a discernible whine in his mental voice.

"Don't just sit there and brood for once. Besides we could use your extreme skepticism. It'll keep us in line." said Kap, poking Mark with a leg.

~Come on Mark. Please.~ Cal's voice in my head actually sounded like he was whining.

"Alright!" he barked. "Just don't beg. Gods! You have no idea how disgusting it is when you two start begging."

Leaning over and whispering into my ear, Tory says. "You picked a winner here. These three wannabe philosophers can tear anything apart. Dissecting it until it is nothing but its constituent particles. If this is an illusion, they'll find it."

Looking over at us with a strange sort of eagerness and curiosity, "What are you two whispering about?" asks Mark.

"Nothing, Tory was just telling me that if it can be found, you three will find it." I honestly wasn't sure if I had made the right decision, but there was no turning back now.

"Well ain't that nice." said Kap, rustling his wings again. It sounded a lot like sandpaper on wood.

"Where shall we start?" asked Mark. Looking around the table at all of us.

~First we need a judge. Since Kyle is the one who is unconvinced as to the reality of things. He's elected. Second, I say we start with ourselves.~ Cal's voice coming out of nowhere as usual. But he had floated down into view and I was starting to understand how to tell when he was going to speak.

"Why us?" asked Kap.

"Because Kap, if we are to act as impartial investigators for Kyle. He must first be assured we are what we claim to be." said Mark. Leaning back and taking a swig off his bottle of whiskey. I swear it never went down, even though I saw some liquid go down his throat. Turns out it doesn't, some trick that fills it whenever it drops below a certain volume.

After thinking for a moment, I realized I couldn't let them do that. "Sorry, that won't work."

This time I saw his beak move like he was speaking. So I didn't jump when he spoke. This time. ~Why not Kyle?~

"If you prove yourselves, then you prove everything, and thus invalidating the whole idea. Besides, you three are the most outrageous looking I have seen yet with the exception of Tory and Kate, so, I would expect your stories to be the most detailed and least likely to have discernible holes. As well as your costumes, assuming that you are wearing such things, will be the most detailed." I said smiling at them all, feeling rather proud of myself for that leap of logic.

"Good point Kyle. So now what Cal?" Mark said sitting up and looking up at the squid.

I saw it again. His beak moved before he spoke. I was starting to get used to these freaks, and that in itself bothered me. ~Well I'm not certain. I was hoping to keep it simple.~

I was starting to enjoy this. If this whole thing was a fake, I had just blown their best hope of convincing me. "That wouldn't be any fun though, how about you Kap? Tory? Any ideas?" asked Mark.

"Well, why don't we all start from the same position that Kyle is in. Assume that it is all an elaborate hoax that we are each the victim of. Assume that everyone else is part of the illusion and you are its victim." Offered Tory.

Sounded good for a starter. "Alright, then what?"

"Then we lure in a victim and tear them apart until we are all satisfied they are what they claim to be. Once we have finished with everyone we can get our claws on, we work on each other in turn. We compare notes and Kyle makes the final decision. Illusion or Reality. He goes home and sleeps on it, comes back and gives us his decision." Tory said with that knowing smile.

I was beginning to think this was a bad idea. That voice in the back of my head was getting louder, almost deafening, but I wasn't going to give up now. "Sounds like a viable idea to me. Anyone have a better idea? Cal? Kap? Mark? No. Then let the games begin. So who should we destroy first?" looking at Tory.

~

So it went, we would capture somebody. Drink, talk, and tear them open, examine their insides from five different angles, and then compare notes after each new victim. At least our victims didn't have to pay for their drinks that night, and more than a few needed it.

There was this one creature that looked like a predator from the movie, it ran off screaming something about demon's in its head. Poor Little Joe wound up hiding under a table. We had to call his wife Carrie to get him out, as hard to believe as it is, the little guy is well over one and a half million years old.

Now his wife Carrie, I could never have imagined a woman like her. 6 foot 2 inches tall, long flame red hair. It looked like it was actually on fire. A perfectly proportioned athletic body, and a personality to match the frozen flames of her hair. I mean WOW!!! Joe was a lucky little man, or Dragon, but then she is a 400,000 year old red dragon herself.

After they left, and I recovered, we went back to work. I'm told that my reaction to Carrie is fairly standard for a first meeting, she seems to have that effect on people. We let in on Kate after she got off work. Shortly thereafter, while we were comparing notes on a Devosis Trampona, a large lizard crossed with a rabbit, and somebody started massaging my shoulders. Looking back I saw that it was Kate and she had a mischievous grin on her face, and considering the feline anatomy, it looked amazingly charming, but at this point I am rather biased. After a short time working my shoulders, she just sat next to me and watched.

We destroyed the minds of a good 30 people, including a human who claimed to be Einstein, turned out he was an escaped psychiatric patient. In the process of tearing him apart we cured him, at least I think we did. How it happened I am uncertain, but it did happen. We found the real Albert Einstein later in the night, don't ask how that is possible, I still don't know, apparently the reports of his death are exaggerated. Which makes me wonder who's brain it actually is that they have slices of.

FIGHT! FIGHT!

HEY! DON'T BRING A GUN TO A FIST FIGHT

I think... No. I was convinced after the fight.

Joe's is not a place you expect to see violence anywhere but on the Television or Vid as they call it, and it truly is a rare occurrence. But on those rare occasions, they know how to react. Helps that most of them have extensive combat training and experience.

It was near the end of the night for me. Somebody got mad and threw a punch at somebody else, that somebody pulled a gun. Yes they let people bring their personal weapons into the bar, it's like an honor system, and the consequences can be quite devastating if you don't follow the rules.

Getting thrown out of the bar is no big deal, not being allowed back in for a minimum of 20 years an irritation at best for most. The fact of where you land when you are thrown out, that is where your problems arise. You see, the door to to Joe's is much more than just a door, and as you go flying out of it, it is usually the worst possible place for who you are to just, appear. Like the capitol steps of a world that you are wanted for some capital crime.

Tory started moving and I felt time slow down, I have heard it talked about, but it is really an amazing thing to experience, in hindsight anyway. He was just suddenly standing in front of Kate and I.

The first shot picked Tory up off his feet and embedded him in the far wall a good 20 feet away. With him out of the way, I saw Big Joe in mid-air. He was heading straight for the guy with the gun, I assume that he had vaulted the bar. Then I noticed the gunman, or gun lizard I should say, he looked a great deal like a Velociraptor, and he/it was taking aim on our group for a second shot. Big Joe hit him at about waist level and his gun arm went up. I grabbed Kate and went down, I could just tell that he wouldn't have missed us, had we not been on the floor.

The second shot went through where we had been. Cal had made himself as flat to the ceiling as his soft body would allow. Kap and Mark had both jumped clear. I saw the shot slam into Tory, driving him even deeper into the wall, if that was possible. He looked dead. His body was smoking and looked charred. That was when time sped up again.

That was also when I noticed that I was laying on top of Kate, I looked into her eyes and she looked scared. Looking toward the gunman, I saw Big Joe pick him up and throw him toward the door with a, "And don't come back!" Following close behind. I couldn't tell if he made it all the way to the door, but with the amount of air he had as he left Joe's hands. I hazard to guess he made it clean through the door and beyond before touching down.

I went to get off Kate and stand, which is when I noticed the hot feeling in my back, and the 10 sharp knives embedded in it. I admit, it hurt, and I yelped. Kate realized why and withdrew her claws, then started apologizing profusely.

She really was scared. I've since learned that it is a very rare thing for someone to violates the rules. I guess this one got lucky because it was slow at the time, not as many people. Seems the majority of the regular patrons will intervene before Joe and crew get a chance to step in more often than not. Actually keeps things pretty calm most of the time.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry. I was so scared. That kind of thing doesn't happen normally, not where someone actually gets off more than one shot."

"It's alright Kate. I'm still alive." as I stood stiffly. My back was on fire from her claws.

"Oh my god Tory! He was shot!" she exclaimed, turning to face him.

"Twice actually." I said. I was still suffering from the unreality of the whole situation. I'd have sworn it was a particle weapon the guy had used, though at the time I didn't know how I would recognize such a thing.

We were all looking towards where the charred and smoking form of Tory, who was still embedded in the wall, when he swore. "Shit! That hurt!."

"He's alive?!?" From a half dozen people. Strange thing was, other than Kate, none of the others I was familiar with at that point seemed phased in the least by the fact that he was still alive.

Running over I was the first one there. So I saw what everyone else missed. His body was covered in tiny iridescent black scales, but by the time anyone else got close, only a second or so, the fur had re-grown and he was pulling himself out of the wall.

He was running a string of curses that I refuse to even try to repeat. Let's just say that he ran through at least 10 languages, most present flinched, and it was all directed towards the gunman. He did apologize after he was done.

"Hey Kyle, you look a little pale there my friend. We didn't spook you too much with that little fracas did we?" The genuine smile surprised me.

Shaking my head, though I did feel a little light headed. "No. It's my back. Kate dug in a little, that's all. She's the one you scared."

"Oh. Well, you should sit down so we can get a good look at you. Don't need you keeling over on us now. Bad for business." Smiling as he brushed the last pieces of the wall off of himself. I don't remember seeing his clothes reform, but they had.

Confused by his concern for me. "Right. What about you. You're the one who got shot and embedded in the wall."

"True. But I'm a little hardier than you are." Winking at me.

Then from behind me. "Geez, look at all the blood on his back." It sounded like Mark