He chuckled. “Speaking of survival…I barely lived through that statue attack.”

She winced. “You’re lucky to have lived at all! It takes some very powerful magic to create those. The nearest analog in our world would be a battle tank with a mind of its own.”

“So, artificial intelligence?”

She shook her head. “Completely natural, I’m afraid. Self-aware. Not quite sentient, but awfully close. Imagine if brainwashing was an exact science. The perfect soldier.”

“Any idea why it gave up the chase? I thought we were goners.”

“Its kind can’t exist in our world…at least, not if they want to move. Think about the statues you’ve seen; most of them are posed heroically, but some of them are in really weird positions. Ever notice that?”

“Yeah!” he exulted. “I always thought something was fishy.”

She rocked back and forth slightly. “A lot of them are guardians that got too deep into our realm. Many end up as religious icons for primitive tribes. They don’t know exactly what it is, and the ancient stories of them moving and attacking are long lost and not believed, but they still feel compelled to respect them. That’s no accident.”

Richard put his hand to his heart in relief. “I’m sure grateful for that! It’d be terrible if something like that could move between our worlds.”

“Something can.” She moved to stand up. “Would you like to see one?”

Richard braced himself. “I don’t know…do I?”

She gave him a hurt look. “You’re the first person I’ve met in a long time that seems really interested in the subject,” she pouted. “Don’t quit on me now!”

He laughed. “Fine, as long as it’s safe.”

She smiled before turning away to walk down the dark hallway. “Safest room in all of Tucson, and points south…or whatever direction that is.”

“So there’s no agreement on terms for this fourth dimension?” Richard asked as he followed her. Despite the hallway being dark, he found his eyes adjusted to it quickly. She led him through a warren of passages, descending a staircase in the middle.

“I’ve heard the terms ‘in’ and ‘out’ used, but not everyone does,” she explained. “Especially since there’s rarely a sense of movement when traveling along that axis; there’s usually not a portal. Instead, you stay the same and everything around you changes.” She gave him a wry look. “It’s like explaining ‘up’ to a character drawn on a sheet of paper. There’s just no frame of reference.”

She descended another staircase and arrived at a door. “Now don’t freak out,” she chided. “There’s nothing to worry about.” Opening the door, she shuffled inside; Richard followed confidently, suddenly confronted with…a giant humanoid, at least fifteen feet high and almost as wide, clothed from head to toe in form-fitting black cloth, sporting a freakishly small head under some sort of hood. It stood placidly against the back wall, with no chains or other visible restraints.

“What the hell is that?” Richard guffawed.

“Cluster?” she said sweetly; the humanoid snapped to attention. “Show him.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

With unusually flexible motions, the giant pulled up its shirt and flung it off, revealing his head at the same time. As Richard gawked, it dropped its pants, then resumed standing at attention. Richard stared fearfully as he examined the creature’s skin; it appeared to be made of several human skins, cut to pieces and then sewn back together. On the chest, and wrapped around the legs, he could almost see the outline of the original humans, before being disassembled. Topping the monster was a normal human head – large by human standards, but comically petite for his size. It stared forward, expressionless, its eyes blank and watery.

“Please get dressed,” Richard whispered, heaving involuntarily.

“You heard him!” she ordered. The creature quickly donned its clothing.

She noticed Richard giving her a haunted look. “What’s the matter, hon? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Have I?” he stammered.

She gave him a disapproving look. “Of course not. That was a zombie! The other kind! I told you there were two kinds.”

He pointed at the creature, who continued to wait impassively. “And he was…”

“Formed from the bodies of several people, yes. Kind of labor intensive, but worth it, if you’ve got problems as big as he is.”

“But why was his head so small?”

She put her hands on her hips. “Do you have any idea how much work is involved in crafting a head? I’d have to be a watchmaker or something. I can’t exactly order a giant head from Switzerland or something.”

“And you create these with your magic?”

“Some magic. Mostly surgery. Lots and lots of surgery. Then I raise him to the roof during a lightning storm.”

“Really?” he asked, wide-eyed.

“No. If you hadn’t noticed, we’re in a basement.”

“Yeah, about that,” he said, pointing at the exit, “how does he get out of here? The door’s too small!”

“Not every way out of here is small,” she informed. “He can move through the back wall, when a portal is opened, and move between here and anywhere I’d like to place him…including the other world.”

His brow furrowed. “I thought you said it wasn’t like a portal.”

“I said it’s rarely a portal,” she corrected. “Obviously, sometimes it is.”

Richard suddenly recalled a recent memory. “I saw something strange a few days ago; it looked like two people had been smashed together by a much larger creature. Know anything about that?”

“Oh, yes,” she revealed. “A friend of mine called about two prowlers. I sent him to check it out. They attacked him, and he fought back using his natural abilities.”

“So it was a pedestrian accident, sort of,” Richard jested. “One less mystery. Though I doubt I’ll get paid for that answer.”

He looked over Cluster’s docile pose. “He’s so calm right now. Do you have to keep him doped up, too?”

“No, he was born obedient,” she clarified. “I can build that in during creation.”

He swallowed hard. “Dare I ask who he was before?”

“Let’s just say, there was a bunch of smart-ass thugs that used to harass me. I vowed I’d make something of them one day.” She gestured to the giant. “And I did!”

He chuckled. “Did you ever! So what does he do for you?”

“I hire him out for protection, both here and in the other world,” she explained. “He’s very durable compared to the statue-guardians you saw. And the other world’s methods can’t create something like this.” She gave him a smug smile. “I can charge top dollar for his services.”

“Is that your business there?”

She sighed. “I have a lot of business there. More than I could tell you about in a short time.” She sounded wistful as she stared into the distance. “That would be a whole other, very long, story.”

She turned to look at Richard, her eyes twinkling. “Also, it’s not really in the detective genre.”

Richard threw his hands in the air. “Neither was this entire discussion.”

She shrugged. “Too late now!”