Volume 6: Anaphase

Issue 5: Heart of Darkness

Jannette Adrian Churchwell

By Nova

Fortunately, Holly and the two officers were still waiting in the foyer as we walked in. I was glad to see she looked more bored than anything else, though her expression lightened as soon as she saw me. “Ready to go?” she asked.

I glanced at Ramirez, who met my gaze with an unreadable expression. “Yeah,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We can head back to my place,” Holly said, as we turned toward the door. “It’s not far. We can walk if we need to.”

“O-oh, really?” I stammered. “I-I… How far?”

Holly paused. “About a mile-ish,” she said, after a moment’s thought. “Not far.”

I suddenly felt entirely out of my depth. Chasing weird things through hallways? That was just another Tuesday for me by now. Getting invited to a friend’s house though… This late, too—did she want me to stay the night or something?

Or maybe she just didn’t want to be alone right now? I looked at Holly more closely and—while she appeared much calmer than she had a few minutes ago—the idea that the monster was stalking her had shaken her really bad. As she smiled expectantly at me, I wondered if she was putting on a show of strength in front of the cops.

I finally nodded. “Y-yeah, let’s head to your place.”

We left without saying goodbye to Ramirez, who stood with his officers—very pointedly not looking at me. Then Holly and I started the increasingly chilly walk to her place. It really was freezing by now, and—despite Holly’s attempts at small talk—I couldn’t really say much between my teeth chattering and my mind furiously racing. The last time I visited a friend’s house was when Ripple picked me up after that run-in with the Wolfpack, but that was under unique circumstances. She brought me there because I was a bloody mess. But, now, the script had flipped. If anyone should have been a mess at this moment, it should have been Holly. But she seemed… happy, seemingly content to talk about the weather of all things. Maybe she was tougher than I thought…

Or maybe she was just happy she wasn’t alone right now?

“We’re here,” she announced. We had stopped in front of an old apartment building near the interstate. On the other side of the street, I spied a Los Reales tag; swooping green and yellow letters shaped like a crown graffitied onto the side of a building. The stench of urine wafted up from the sidewalk.

“Tough neighborhood?” I asked.

“It’s not too bad,” Holly replied. She led me inside and up a flight of stairs.

While the hallway outside her apartment had clearly seen better days, her unit was actually nice. “Welcome to casa la Holly,” she said. I cautiously paced inside, scanning the room like I was looking for booby traps—though I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find. Three large bookshelves dominated her living room, each absolutely packed with row after row of books. A small coffee table and couch sat in front of a TV, under which were stacks of board games and what I recognized as Icons deck boxes. Beyond the couch lay her kitchen, which was so clean I almost wondered if she had planned to invite me over all along…

“Hey,” Holly said, suddenly laying her hands on my shoulders. “How are you doing?”

“Ah!” I leapt away. “I-I-”

“Sorry,” she said, now backing away.

“N-no, it’s alright, just a little jumpy…” My heart pounded in my chest; I wasn’t quite sure why.

“I get it,” she replied, turning toward her collection of Icons boxes. “How about we play a round of Icons to chill out?”

“Uh…” I thought that was a bit of a weird request after all she’d been through, but maybe a bit of normalcy is exactly what Holly wanted. I slowly nodded. “Yes…” I said carefully. I opened up my purse and pulled out my own deck. I held it awkwardly, not really sure what to do. “You know, it’s funny… I brought this so we could play at the library, back when I thought we weren’t going to have a real ghost hunt.”

Holly shot me a wide smile and sat on the ground at the coffee table. She motioned at the couch. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable,” she said.

I stumbled over and, taking a seat, started shuffling my deck. Holly did the same, her expression warm but somehow… distracted. Before I could ask her how she was doing, she drew her opening hand. “First or second?” she asked.

“Uh… first?” I said. “I’ll need all the help I can get,” I laughed nervously.

Holly nodded. I drew my opening hand. It wasn’t bad. Baozhu for battlefield control, 911 for survivability… I glanced up and saw Holly staring at her hand blankly; I had to wonder if she already had a plan in mind to destroy me.

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I opened with Baozhu. She played Red Guard. I countered with Lockdown. She played… Operation Rolling Thunder?

“Guess you really wanted Baozhu gone?” I asked, moving the card to my standby zone.

“Your base is open now.” Holly smiled.

I thought it was a waste of a turn, spending an instakill like Rolling Thunder on turn two—though I didn’t say anything. I thought maybe she had a plan, but as the match progressed she started to lose. Badly. She wasted a few more good cards, played cautiously when she needed to seize the initiative and aggressively when she needed to be on the defensive. All in all she played like… a beginner.

In other words, exactly how I remembered playing when I was a kid.

“Gunsmoke moves up and, on move, deals 5 damage to an adjacent space… I choose your base…” I trailed off.

Holly smiled at me. “You win,” she said.

I smiled back weakly. “I guess so…” I muttered.

“Up for another or-”

I cut her off, “Maybe some other time.” I studied her closely. “Are you… feeling alright?”

“Yeah, why do you ask?” she said.

“W-why?” I was slightly taken aback by the question—it was like Holly deliberately ignored the elephant in the room.

“Oh, you mean the whole… monster thing? I mean, we lived, right?”

“Y-yeah, we lived,” I said, “but just an hour ago you seemed…”

Holly sighed, yet her face remained neutral. “It was scary, but we’re out of danger now.”

I slowly nodded. “I guess we are,” I muttered. “But, still, I-I’ve never beaten you in Icons, especially when you’re playing that deck. Are you sure you’re alright?”

Holly was silent for a moment. “Well, maybe I am a little off my game…” she finally said, still smiling.

“That’s… understandable, to say the least.”

“Maybe we can do something else then? Watch a movie?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

Holly took a seat next to me on the couch, grabbed the remote and started browsing through her streaming sites. “What do you want to watch?” she asked.

“Uh… Well, what’s your favorite movie?” Maybe watching something familiar would make her feel better.

Holly scanned through her lists for a few moments. “Here, Apocalypse Rising; Coppola’s retelling of Heart of Darkness in the Vietnam War, featuring a hero as the protagonist,” she said. “It’s my favorite movie,” she added so matter-of-factly I thought she was joking. I glanced her direction, grinning—but then my face fell, seeing a quite serious expression on her face.

“A-alright,” I said. “Let’s watch that.”

Holly hit play and we started watching the movie. I’d never seen it before, but the film turned out to be a sort of surreal war movie about the hero “Jupiter”—clearly a Professor Cosmo expy—and his journey into the depths of Vietnam to extract a rogue American officer. It was dark, bizarre, but, honestly, I barely paid attention. Holly lounged beside me, her left arm stretched just above—yet not quite touching—my shoulders. As I sat there, desperately ignoring the subtle data my powers fed me on her body, she would intermittently glance toward me with an unreadable look in her eyes.

I shifted awkwardly, increasingly uncertain of what I was actually doing here… Everything felt off. The situation had changed, slightly, from even when we were joking in the library earlier. I had the distinct impression Holly wanted something but… what? I tore my gaze away from the screen—where Jupiter currently fought some spear-wielding warriors—and studied Holly’s face. She moved a stray lock of hair away from her mouth, revealing the faint, matte gloss of her lips. I found myself entranced by them; staring at her lips, searching for the faintest twitch or smile. Any hint of what she wanted. Were we just watching the movie? Or did she want something else?

Acutely aware of her arm still hovering on the back of the couch behind me, my thoughts continued to wander. Did she want… to be closer? Or maybe, she wanted me to…

My head spun. This was all so sudden. But the way she touched my shoulders earlier, or pulled me into that hug at the library… It was so physical, so new to our relationship… Did she want that? For us to be…

While I panicked—cursing my own lack of experience with friends of any sort—the movie moved onto a scene where Jupiter and some soldiers had just burned down a village. A local girl, covered in blood and mud, approached Jupiter and gave him a slow, meaningful kiss. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, the point of the scene entirely lost on me. Holly, however, turned towards me and—in one deliberate, graceful move—brought her face close to mine. As she closed the gap between us, I could see the faint dimples nestled in her cheeks, and the way her chest rose and fell with each breath…

I looked to her eyes, which had an indecipherable glint to them. I felt her warm breath on my cheek as she leaned in, and I trembled out of… panic? Or anticipation? She brought her hand to my hip, and I felt a thrill roll through my body like electricity. Her lips met mine.

She kissed me.

I kissed her back.

My fingers intertwined with hers. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted this. Our lips met again and the effort I had put into holding back my powers completely dissolved. They coursed through her body, and I felt her every neuron, every muscle, and every cell. I could feel her… surprisingly steady heartbeat, feel her tongue just before it met mine. With hers, I felt my own heart racing, the blood rushing through my body… And I could feel…

Something foreign, alien, and unexplainable nestled deep in her abdomen. I instantly stopped, and pulled myself back from her. My eyes widened in shock. The… organ was small—no larger than a golf ball—and I realized it had subtle fibers extending from it that touched every cell in Holly’s body. It was entirely unfamiliar—even down to its DNA which was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

Worse still, when I had hugged Holly in the library just a few hours ago, it definitely wasn’t there. It was new, alien, and—as I looked back at Holly—something clicked.

The strange behavior, the way she suddenly came on to me, the fact that I had beaten her in Icons…

“Jan?” Holly asked, as she smiled at me. “What’s wrong?”

That unreadable expression was still in her eyes, but suddenly it was very readable. I felt like a mouse staring into the eyes of a stalking cat: prey looking at the predator.

This wasn’t Holly. It was something using her voice and wearing her skin, but it wasn’t her.

And, whatever it was, it was hunting.