After Sandra had left the room, I’d drifted off to sleep again. This time with no nightmares. When I awoke for real, I was still not entirely in control of my body, and my mind was nothing but a scrambled up mess. Yet, I felt better, almost all right. The moment I stumbled into the living room, Sandra handed me a memory contraption. To be honest, I didn’t feel a hint of the manipulator’s influence anymore, but she insisted.

“Leaving an incident like this untreated might lead to long-lasting brain damage,” she said.

“Man, this is the first time I’m using this shit for its intended purpose,” I joked as I downed the contents of the vial.

She eyed me suspiciously for a moment, and I instantly regretted my little remark. I hadn’t told her I’d used this stuff as my hangover cure for years, and if I did, I was sure she’d flip. The moment I’d downed it, my head felt warm and fuzzy. It was the strangest sensation. The pain didn’t vanish, and the throbbing didn’t stop. It was just this warm feeling that washed over me. Once it was gone, my mind felt a tad bit clearer and my thoughts sharper.

“Dylan,” Sandra spoke up in a low voice. “I’m sorry for what happened to Julie.”

I stared at her before I realized she was talking about the dream and what I’d been shown. Before I could thank her, though, she continued talking, undeterred. This time, she was all business again.

“While you were out, I took care of things on my own. There were a handful of D-class signatures, but nothing too important. In case you want to have a look at the data, I can transfer it to your phone.”

She stopped for a moment to look at me, but I shook my head. I was sure she’d handled things just fine.

“I also set up a net of surveillance drones around the city to find signatures prior to Headquarters and keep track of any that have already emerged.”

“Surveillance drones? How in the hell are you able to do all those things?”

She gave me a brief smile before she beckoned me to come over to show me how the system worked.

“This is crazy,” I exclaimed in astonishment.

She’d set up a net of scanners and live feeds all over the city. I tinkered with it and ran a few scans when Sandra poked me to get my attention again.

“I ran an analysis of the orb we found. That manipulator might have had a reason to intrude into your mind, a goal, so to speak.”

“Yeah, and what reason would that be other than to drive me insane?”

“To interrogate you and get information.”

“Information on what?”

“On us, Headquarters, and our world, or better, our reality.”

For a moment, I remembered it had been trying to learn the location of our apartment. Then the vision I’d seen returned to my mind. The barren wasteland, the darkness beyond it and my city being destroyed. Dammit, what the hell were we up against here?

“So you’re telling me something’s trying to... I don’t know, start shit around here? Why the fuck here? It’s not like this shithole of a city is important.”

“Are you familiar with ley lines?”

I stared at her. At first I didn’t know what she was talking about before I remembered something about energy or fairy lines. Bullshit, so to speak. When I told her just that, she sighed and explained.

“The ley lines are a net of energy lines between different points on our planet, often historic structures or prominent landmarks. These points are often called centers or clusters. It’s at these points that the fabric of reality is at its weakest, or the connection to others is at its strongest. The archivists at Headquarters believe many ancient structures, Stonehenge for example, have been created as wards against evil or against influences from outside.”

“Sandra, what the hell are you trying to tell me? You know my head’s still not working properly and you’re giving me all this shit about fairy spirit lines and clusters and-“

“It’s because this city has been erected at such a cluster. That’s why incidents happen here. These organisms are drawn to places like this. However, it’s not one of the major European clusters. That’s why the increasing number of incidents had me worried. I ran some tests and noticed distortions. With the right tools, we’re able to see them.”

With that, she opened a map of my city. Two lines were crossing at a point a bit to the side of the city center.

“That’s what it used to be like, but with all these distortions, this is what it looks like now.”

She switched to a new map. On it, I saw more lines, branches growing from the original two that branched off even further. It almost looked like a net had been thrown over the entire city.

“All right, what am I looking at?”

“Like I said, distortions. Something’s changing here, meaning something’s about to happen in this city.”

“And what’s that? And why? Is that why there was a, what did you call it again, a manipulator here?”

“I’m not sure, Dylan. Some of these distortions happen naturally, but…”

“But what?”

She shook her head.

“I can’t be sure yet. But if it’s not natural, that would mean something’s causing it.”

“Well, isn’t that just great? So something’s causing more and more of those fuckers to land here and we’ve got no clue why? What the hell can we even do if more and more signatures are popping up everywhere?”

“Well, look at the data of the incidents that happened during the last weeks.”

She pressed another button and a dozen points appeared on the map. All of them were in areas where branches were crossing each other.

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“They all took place at these new, smaller clusters, at places where the fabric is weakening. If we take this into consideration, we might look at new incidents in the following areas.”

With that, she changed to yet another map, which marked several areas in the city by red circles.

“You’re telling me you’re able to pinpoint where shit’s going to go down?”

“Yes, we’ve got survey drones out there, and we can scan the area remotely. I still don’t know how well the system works and how early we can detect changes, though. With so many distortions, I’m worried something might slip through and-“

“You want to go out there and have a look around. Is that what you’re saying?”

She nodded.

“All right, let’s go. I’m sick and tired of lying around all day, anyway.”

“Are you sure, Dylan? You just took that memory contraption and your body’s still-“

“Are you worried about me? You know, that’s kind of cute.”

She groaned and an annoyed look appeared on her face.

“All right, fuck, it was just a joke. Let me get ready.”

We were out a couple minutes later and shouldn’t get back home until late at night. Sandra dragged me along the city for hours. She scanned clusters, did research, adjusted surveillance drones and much, much more. She was diligent, though, I give you that. We also revisited some sites of earlier incidents. Not all of them, though, since you know, my little obsession with grenades. The few places that still existed, though, all showed remnants of the same symbols and cryptic writings. Sandra took some pictures, ran several scans, but those came up with nothing. Still, those writings, those symbols, the orb we’d found and those distortions. It was all connected, and it all hinted at something to come, something bad.

We were on our way to another cluster when Sandra notified me of a new signature. This one wasn’t transferred by Headquarters, but had been caught by her very own surveillance network.

“It’s weak, very weak. It s a D-class or a signature that’s still emerging. We’ve got to be quick!”

As we went on our way, Sandra hit up Headquarters, informed them about the signature, and got permission to take action.

The signature came from a cluster right at an old shopping mall. The place might have once been a pristine example of capitalism, but by now it was half-abandoned and only a few lonely stores were still open. As we hurried past store fronts Sandra told me she’d pinpointed the area. It was below us, down in the basement. Once we’d made it down the stairs, we found ourselves in an underground parking lot. Soon after, we reached an old, rusty metal door.

It didn’t take long to break it down. Behind it was nothing but a dirty old room that might have once been used for maintenance and was now completely empty. No, not completely. It just took me a while to notice them in the dark. It was a group of small, ghoulish figures. They were the size of my hand. They scurried over the floor and walls, leaving behind weird letters and cryptic symbols. My gun was already in my hand, but Sandra stopped me.

“There’s something strange about the data. It’s not these things, it’s... something else,” she whispered to me.

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t have a signature of their own. The actual signature’s coming from what they are doing here.”

“And what are they-?” I started, but my voice trailed off.

In the back of the room, reality began to distort. At first, it was nothing but a horizontal line cutting through the air. Looking at it made my head hurt. It was not a cut, but a change, a twist in reality. Its surroundings seemed to shift, and my vision became blurry when I stared at

“Oh god,” Sandra started, staring at her scanner. “We’ve got to stop this!”

“Yeah, I know, but-“

“Something’s coming through! The signature, it’s huge! It’s C-class. No wait, it’s still getting bigger.”

“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!”

I knew what she was saying. Whatever was coming through here was B-class. Shit, this was going to get ugly, really fucking ugly. Sweat ran down my forehead. The gun felt cold and heavy in my hand. When I couldn’t take the tension anymore, I shot at the strange ghoulish creatures.

“No, Dylan, ignore them!”

With that, she pointed at the line in front of us that was torn asunder. Ghastly bony hands pushed through. First only two, then four, then more than a dozen. Shit.

“I’ll try to counter whatever they did here. I might be able to disrupt this portal, but you’ve got to give me some time!”

“Isn’t that just fucking great?”

In front of me, the hands had already pushed through the portal and were tearing at it to spread it out. Spidery legs followed, dozens of them. It was a freaking swarm of thin, bone-white legs which were scratching and skittering over the concrete floor. I rushed forward in an instant, shooting haphazardly at the mass of limbs, but it didn’t do a damn thing. Whatever this creature was, it didn’t react at all.

Then long, dangling arms pushed themselves from the portal. They clutched onto anything they could find or dug into the floor and walls. Then they dragged something forward. I instantly switched targets to the arms and blasted them apart, but there were already too many of them and too many new ones were still appearing. For a moment, a thundering growl erupted from within the portal that shook the entire room.

“Sandra, tell me you can keep this thing out. Please tell me!”

“I’m trying, but I need more time!”

“Fuck!”

I shot again, but the thing didn’t care or even feel it. I lowered the gun and pulled out a flamer. No clue if this would work or if it would do anything, but I activated it and threw it right through the portal. It vanished, and I saw the arms and legs of the creature twitch, shake, and convulse before fire burst from the portal’s opening.

“Take that you-“

I was cut off when the arms calmed down. A second later, they continued their effort at widening the portal. Then one of them shot forward, swept me off my feet and got a hold of my leg. I crashed to the floor hard and all the air was pushed from my lungs. The gun clattered away. I kicked at the spidery hand with my free leg, but it was restrained moments later. I screamed in pain as the creature twisted it and began pulling me towards the portal. My hand closed around a grenade, but I was too close. If I’d throw it now, then... shit!

Then I got a glimpse of the horror hidden inside the portal. It was still distorted, but fear washed over me. I saw a giant, upside down skull, a gaping maw and below it an uncountable number of alien eyes. A giggle reached my ears as the creature yanked me further towards the portal. I panicked, twisted myself against the grip, screamed, hit at it with my hands, but I could do nothing. The fucker was too strong, and too big, way too fucking big. Hands and legs skittered forward in droves. For a moment, the creature’s ghastly face pushed through and it opened its maw in anticipation. Another bellowing growl erupted from it. I was about to throw the grenade when the air around me crackled. A shock-wave pushed past me and exploded against the portal and the creature behind it.

The writings and symbols on the walls were gone, and a moment later, the portal collapsed. The creature screamed in anger. I was released when the arms retreated. I watched as they pushed against the collapsing portal, but it was futile. Now free, I retreated, crawled back and a moment later, the portal was gone. All that was left now were a dozen skittering legs and arms. One of those arms still dangled from my legs and I kicked it away before I fought myself to my feet.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Sandra, what the hell was that thing?”

Sandra didn’t say a word. Instead, she picked up one of the small ghoulish creatures that was now still. I was about to walk up to her when I saw that the arms and legs were still moving, skittering, and scrambling all over the area. I picked up my gun and shot them one by one. Sure, they might rot away or vanish in time, but you never know. Not with those fuckers in B-class and above. For all I know, they might find a way out of here and turn into something else, something nasty. I pushed Sandra towards the door, then out of it and dropped a flamer behind us. In an instant, I threw the door shut and pulled her aside.

“What are you-?” Sandra started, but I cut her off.

“Those fucking limbs are still alive and god knows what they might turn into. You saw that thing, didn’t you? You fucking saw it, right?”

She was about to protest, but then nodded.

Her eyes wandered from me to the tiny creature she was holding.

“What are you going to do with it? Keep it as a pet?”

“No. It’s empty now. There’s nothing to it anymore.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s a doll, or better, a puppet. Something created it to make this room… this portal. If they did it here, though…”

Her voice trailed off, but I knew what she meant.

“Isn’t that great, so you’re telling me those things might be all over the city, doing the same thing they did here?”

“At the ley lines, yes. At all those new clusters on the map. I believe this isn’t the only creature they are trying to get to cross over.”

“Fucking hell!” I cursed.

Fuck monsters and fuck ley lines.